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The arbitrators will judge cases according to the following guidelines, which they will apply with common sense and discretion, and an eye to the expectations of the community:
1. Established Wikipedia customs and common practices 2. Wikipedia's "laws": terms of use, submission standards, byelaws, general
Perhaps this is the best one could do, but I'd like to point out what I see as an amibuity and/or potential pitfall. It's not clear what is "custom" and what is one of the longstanding undesirable phenomena that the arbitration committee has been created to alleviate. For example, "tolerance." I think the Wikipedia concept of equal collaboration and NPOV toward articles is thoroughly entangled with how Wikipedia tries to govern and police itself. It's fair to say tolerance is an established custom. One might say that the arbitration committee would not exist if there were not some kind of will to in someway diminish the role of tolerance as an aspect of Wikipedia custom. Perhaps this is where the "common sense and discretion" come in. I wonder though if it would be worthwhile to articulate succinctly the particular principles that, for the moment at least, you all are trying to uphold. 168... 19:35, 1 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Have the arbitrators discussed whether there will be any stare decisis? - Emsworth 21:20, Feb 1, 2004 (UTC)
stare decisis "The legal principle of determining points in litigation according to precedent" (OED)
Would you guys get a move on? We're having witch trials out there. Or more like popularity contests instead of real hearings of evidence. I know, because I'm on trial for abuse of admin power and I see how others who have similar accusations against them, but greater community standing, are treated differently by "the mob." Naturally, everybody feels entitled to express an opinion, but nobody is required to do the onerous work of reading the proceedings of a long drawn out argument on the talk pages; let alone the proceedings of a dozen talk pages, as in the case of the accusations against Lir, which allege a pattern of behavior. In fact, because people intercalate posts out of chronological order and even sometimes remove or edit them, even when I've participated in a discussion it can be hard to reconstruct from the record how it evolved through time. Nobody who has not committed to being an arbitrator is going to take such trouble (and frankly I pity you guys). It's no different from the problem of voting, but as I'm sure you realize, the stakes are higher when people are being blamed and at risk of being blocked or stripped dishonorably of sysop status. Not to mention it's an endless ordeal for the accused and collosal waste of time and energy for tons of people. As I'm sure you can tell. But anyway, get a move on, pulleeze. 168... 03:52, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC)
168, Rick, we're doing our best, and going as fast as we can. Genuinely. Martin 18:42, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC)
These statements about arbitration policy so far are good, except the reference to certioari which I personally think is inappropriate as arbitration is ultimately a contract right, not a judicial discretion, but you guys can call things anything you wish to, there is a similarity with that ancient writ.
I would like to ask the committee if there are any plans to deal with the question of representation by a member advocate. I originally declined to be on the arbitration committeee so I could be available for members who had a problem but felt that they might benefit from someone presenting their case to the committee for them. This could expand to an Office of Members' Advocates to help members faced with arbitration in variety of ways. Will the committee recognize the right of members to have representation before the committee? — Alex756 [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Alex756 talk] 23:38, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)
My thought on this is that if one party is represented the other must also be by an equally competant and zealous advocate. One advantage of representation is that more evidence in an accessible form might come to light. The litigants tend to kind of wave in the general direction of the other party and say "bad" and if they do quote anything give no link to it that anyone can easily use. In the Mr-Natural-Health case almost all evidence entered into the record was gathered by one arbitrator who will likely get tired of doing the investigating. Fred Bauder
Thank you for the suggestion. I will draw the attention of the arbitration committee to it when we discuss these issues. Martin 19:09, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Result: Certification of Arbitration Process
I'm going to paste something here that I posted long ago to Jimbo's page and never got any comment about:
At "conflicts between users" I just posted this in the context of the (redundant I now see) discussion I started about banning Lir.
I have never nominated anyone for banning before, and now that I am going through the motions for Lir, I'm getting the impression that I'm thinking about banning differently than the norm, at least differently than the norm that is suggested by the posted arguments and proposals I read. What do you think about the way I am framing the issue above, and about the way I suggest shifting the burden of proof to advocates against the ban, after ample grounds for distrust has been demonstrated? I don't think it should be such a big deal to ban. Yes, we don't want to ban people on the basis of bad evidence, and I suppose reliable evidence takes a while or is hard to obtain, but I don't think the evidence should have to show a capital offence, just that somebody is a drag and doesn't add anything positive to the project. 168... 19:21, 10 Jan 2004 (UTC)
Here's something I tried for Lir, but didn't attract votes, perhaps because Mav called this inappropriate. But I imagined this as a good kind of poll to do before banning someone.
The question is: Does anybody here value what Lir contributes to articles and discussion?
Why not cast your vote in a poll?
I appreciate your comments, 168. You seem to be suggesting that one of the "Rules" we apply to contributors (under wikipedia:arbitration policy) is whether the user in question makes valuable contributions. That's not something we've currently decided to do, but when we review that issue (having got a proper policy for the remaining completely undecided issues first!), that's certainly a suggestion we'll consider.
We've not made any formal decisions about the balance of proof, so this will initially be something arbitrators decide for themselves on a case by case basis.
We've also not chosen to have any formal use of polling in our deliberations. We will naturally listen to the feelings of the community. Equally, we'll listen to the reasons behind those feelings. Again, the arbitrators will decide individually how much weight to give in their own mind to any unofficial polls such as the one above. Martin 13:57, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I request a reconsideration of the term "certiorari" for the grant of permission to appeal. The grounds are that the term is really specific to the US Supreme Court and other courts, at least when it is used to refer to permission to appeal. In other English law, according to certiorari, "certiorari is a public law relief... An order of certiorari is given by a senior court to reverse the actions of a lower court or other (quasi)-governmental organisation which has made a decision." In order to avoid any confusion, and in order to conform to principles beyond the US only, I propose that the term "leave to appeal" be used instead. This term has another advantage, in that it is not too technical a term for the average Wikipedian, and can be easily understood. -- Emsworth 01:29, Feb 6, 2004 (UTC)
Because of the arbitration committee's decision to make their deliberations non-transparent (and therefore secret), I am removing myself from continued involvement with Wikipedia until such time as decision-making processes are made transparent (i.e., the discussion leading to decisions made by committee is make available for all members to read and consider). This lack of transparency sets an extremely poor precendent for Wikipedia's openness and (more importantly for me) constitutes a secret organization, something I will have *absolutely* no part of. A fuller explanation is posted on my user page. --
Seth Ilys 20:36, 16 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Instead of unilaterally withdrawing from Wikipedia, I had a productive conversation with several members of the arbitration committee on IRC; although it didn't alleviate my concerns completely, I am a little more confident in the direction that the committee is headed with regards to disclosure. However, the failure of the committee to adhere to its own rules (to publish justification for decisions) in the Mr. Natural Health case is discomforting. Therefore, until I see improvement in the conduct of the committee with regards to disclosure, I'm taking a principled sabbatical from contributing to Wikipedia. - Seth Ilys 23:52, 16 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I think one of the key tasks for an arbitrator is to figure out "what happened," and I think figuring that out can be a very difficult given the existing ways the Wikipedia site has for presenting data. But the data is there, so I think with a little hacking, it might not be too hard to produce three new features that would make the task much easier. All three features would be manually advancing "slide shows," in which each slide presents exactly the view you see when you click "last" on a page history to see what changes a user made. The first slide show I propose is a "Page slide show," which would show each new comment that appeared on a page in chronological order and show who made the comment. This would solve the problems of intercalation and revision, including retroactive censoring. In using this feature, the arbitrator just specifies the page and the start date. The second feature I propose would be a "User slide show." This would be based on "User contributions," but instead of showing a table or history, it would be a manually advancing slide show displaying all the changes the user made to whatever pages he or she made them anywhere on Wikipedia in chronological order. The arbitrator just specifies the user and the date. The last feature I propose is a "Multi-user slide show." This would be just like the user slide show, but it would show the changes made by several users in the order they were made. This could be useful in cases where two or more users are at odds with one another, and an arbitrator wants to be clear about who did what when and to whom, in particular for the sake of understanding who was being offensive and who was being defensive. To use this feature, the arbitrator would specify the user names and the start date. It's a little 1984, but I think it's vital information for the job we're giving arbitrators. My impression is that all the data is already provided so that anybody, with enough patience, could obtain the same information. It's just too impractical to do right now with the current software. If people are squeamish about the 1984 aspect, I suggest the feature be available just to arbitrators. 168...| ...Talk 17:44, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)
where is the wikipage for mediation? Kingturtle 23:34, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Does the committee plan to solicit and accept Amicus curiae letters? Seems like it would be a good idea. 168...| ...Talk 23:37, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I second the proposal. -- Emsworth 23:47, Feb 19, 2004 (UTC)
I am user X, in terms of the various "cult" articles this week.
I am in a slow-motion reversion war with a couple of contributors who insist on slapping the cult label on the Unification Church. They don't seem sufficiently concerned with Accuracy or Neutrality, to suit me. (But it's just barely possible that I'm biased :-) -- Uncle Ed 14:35, 10 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Perhaps it should be clarified whether any action will take place if there is a plurality but no majority among the mediation committee. I assume from the current text that only those actions with majority approval would be taken, even if this means taking no action save a statement that agreement could not be reached... +sj + 16:36, 2004 Apr 4 (UTC)
A couple of times, I've seen Arbitration rulings involving restrictions of indefinite term. What does that mean, exactly? Does it mean "in perpetuity, suckah"? If not, how does one go about getting the restriction lifted? Presumably, having the restriction lifted would mean behaving reasonably well during the period when the restriction is in force; but does having the restriction lifted involve petitioning the Arbitration committee for a review? Or will the arbitration committee do reviews of "indefinite" restrictions without being petitioned? Can I petition the Arbitration committee if I feel a particular restriction that has been applied to someone else ought to be lifted on grounds of good behaviour? ... et cetera, et cetera, et cetera ... -- Cyan 00:59, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I'd like to see indefinite restrictions abandoned completely. This page currently says: "The second option will be to require that a user does not edit Wikipedia for a given time frame: up to thirty days to start with, up to a year in severe cases." I think the same time limits should apply to all restrictions. anthony (see warning) 21:31, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)
On Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Wik2/Decided, one finds that the Committee has agreed upon a set of "principles." Are these intended to serve at least as guides, if not as precedents, in future decision-making of the Committee, or are they merely intended for the readers of the opinion? -- Emsworth 02:25, 30 May 2004 (UTC)
We chatted about this on the mailing list, and we pretty much decided decided we wanted to change the requirement for a majority of arbitrators to be a majority of the active ones (not on holiday, posted on arbcom pages in the last month or so). The idea is to speed things up. Since we always said we might change these guidelines, and since it's largely an internal matter, I've just made the change. Objections, comments? Thanks.
I moved this comment from policy page:
... with respect to the line that reads "Arbitrators with multiple accounts on Wikipedia will disclose the usernames of those accounts to the rest of the committee, and to Jimbo Wales, but are not required to disclose them publicly."
What do others feel?
James F. (talk) 15:36, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Since many, if not most, Wikipedians have edited from more than one account, and since there is no policy prohibiting this in general, that it is unfair to ask arbitrators to follow some higher standard. I believe that the arbitrators should, like all other users, be permitted to have however many sock puppets they wish, and in the unlikely event that this actually creates some sort of problem it can then be addressed. UninvitedCompany 21:11, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I believe I said "many, if not most;" it is conjecture supported by a considerable number of examples. Since we only know of the cases where someone volunteers the connection, or those few cases where the connection became clear because of abuse, I imagine that there are a substantial number of socks we don't know about. The presence of a handful of Wikipedians who have mentioned to me privately that they use socks from time to time reinforces my suspicions. uc 17:29, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I've knocked up a few
proposed alterations - thoughts?
James F.
(talk) 03:21, 10 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I have added another proposed alteration to proposed alterations. It concerns limiting deliberations in arbitration cases to issues included in the complaint, excluding countercharges and other matters which may come up in the course of arbitration. If a person complained against comes up with a scattering of countercharges it is very tedious to go through them and requires a great deal of energy for very little return in most cases. Also the reaction of complaining witnesses when they find themselves in the dock for personal attacks or other infractions thus subject to mild sanctions is quite negative and creates a great deal more heat than light. While some disputes may be one on one, many concern an issue which has passed through the Wikipedia:Requests for comment procedure. In those cases where three or more users have certified the basis for the dispute the focus needs to be on the issues in the Request for comment. Fred Bauder 13:49, Sep 15, 2004 (UTC)
The practice of the Arbitrators has fallen away from this part of the procedure; in fact, most of the cases we have taken were not referred. I think it might be better to follow it, except in unusual cases. Fred Bauder 13:49, Sep 15, 2004 (UTC)
The text says "Arbitrators will recuse themselves immediately that they believe that they have a conflict of interest." Is this grammatically correct? I had changed it to "Arbitrators will recuse themselves immediately if they believe that they have a conflict of interest.", but it was quickly reverted.
When two independent clauses are combined with "that", it is usually short for "so that" or "in order that", as in "I bought you a rose that you might forgive me", but this is obviously not your intended meaning here. Wouldn't "if", or perhaps "in the event that" be a better way of putting it? – Quadell ( talk) ( help)[[]] 23:05, Nov 15, 2004 (UTC)
Has anyone considered creating several arbitration sub-committees each composed of experts in a particular field to resolve disputes on articles within that field?
-- selket Dec 9, 2004
I am curious -- User:CheeseDreams has recently made a demand for an arbitrator to declare his religious affiliation, as CD believes that her cases cannot be fairly judged by an arbitrator who has devout religious belief (or at least this is the impression I am left with). I have a couple of questions for the community in general, and for arbitrators in specific. 1) Should an arbitrator be forced to reveal such affiliations (and if so, how far would it extend? Would an arbitrator be forced to reveal political ideology, who they voted for in their country's last election, what their ethnic background is, etc.?) 2) May an user acceptably demand recusal if an arbitrator's personal beliefs (religious or otherwise) may have some bearing on the issues being arbitrated? (I can understand why someone would feel this way, but I don't feel comfortable with forced recusals....why should an atheist or a Buddhist be any more neutral about Jesus than a Christian, for example? If the dispute is political, wouldn't all arbitrators who have a political preference be biased on the issue?). In short, I'm asking what our grounds for recusal are, and how much users may legitimately demand in terms of personal information about an arbitrator in order to determine if they ought to recuse. Jwrosenzweig 22:32, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Suppose we have an arbitration case involving an edit war over the article woman, not a ridiculous notion as it has apparently been protected a time or two recently. Would all the female arbitrators have to recuse themselves because they're biased? (Never mind that we don't have any yet - I'm sure we will acquire some as a result of the current election.) Or maybe we should have all the male arbitrators recuse themselves on a presumption of being chauvinist pigs? How about if we recuse both groups? (Heavens, I think I've just discovered a reason to vote for Lir!)
Repeating a point I tried to get across back when the arbitration policy was adopted, the thing that determines whether recusal is necessary is the conduct of the arbitrator, not the behavior or speculative concerns of the participants in the case. If the arbitrator's conduct with respect to some subject makes it easy to question their impartiality, that calls for a recusal, and the arbitrators have generally been pretty quick to step aside in such cases. Otherwise, I think recusal should be resisted. Based on having been chosen to this position, they should be considered prima facie qualified to consider the matters that come before them. The function of arbitration is not to interrogate the arbitrators. Requests for recusal should be based on concrete reasons, and participants don't have the right to go on a fishing expedition looking for any possible grounds to recuse someone.
I am not an arbitrator nor am I running for the position (my apologies to those who wanted me to), so I don't know that my opinion has any particular weight, but I think it also means my perspective is not open to challenge based on any personal interest in the matter. -- Michael Snow 06:18, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Most of us who have strong beliefs have disclosed them through our editing, although sometimes there is some misunderstanding regarding exactly what they are. If I had a record of POV editing in the Christianity area it would be painfully obvious and more importantly, while editing in that area, I would surely have tangled with CheeseDreams long ago. While the possibility exists that someone may have some covert prejudice which has not, in effect, been disclosed through their editing behavior I don't think that would justify blanket inquiries of every arbitrator with respect to every matter involved in every case. Although should an arbitrator be troubled with his feelings with respect to an area they should recuse himself. I don't think, for example, that anyone who is Jewish should recuse themselves from any matter that involves Christianity. Simply not dealing with something does not constitute prejudice. Fred Bauder 12:19, Dec 17, 2004 (UTC)
I could find no evidence that the proposed ammendment has been accepted. - Rholton 17:04, Mar 10, 2005 (UTC)
Are any non-arbitrators subscribed to the arbitration mailing list? —
Charles
P.
(Mirv) 01:39, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)
I note that the project page is linked prominently from Recent Changes. The reason for this is unclear. Perhaps someone could make the requested community response a little more clear, or perhaps remove the link. The Uninvited Co., Inc. 00:19, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Since it would significantly affect the current policy, I'm noting that I've made a major proposal regarding the upcoming Arbitration Committee elections. -- Michael Snow 04:37, 26 October 2005 (UTC)
After going through the arbitration process I put some thought into the way it would work when I'm the dictator. I know there is some huge page somewhere about proposed reforms, but it's unreadable and I don't care to participate. I'll throw this out for anyone to consider.
My goals would be small and efficient case management. A timeline of two weeks, or less, per case is entirely reasonable with extremely focused charges and evidence.
First, the goal is to write an encyclopedia. Sometimes that means decisions that help the project aren't going to be "fair" to users. Too bad.
Left on my Talk page:
Wikipedia:Arbitration policy was hammered out by the arbitrators during a long process. Please leave it alone. Fred Bauder 20:31, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
What would you like to dictate to us? Fred Bauder 21:08, 31 December 2005 (UTC)