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Case clerk: MJL ( Talk) Drafting arbitrators: Cabayi ( Talk) & GeneralNotability ( Talk) & SilkTork ( Talk)
Wikipedia Arbitration |
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Behaviour on this page: Arbitration case pages exist to assist the Arbitration Committee in arriving at a fair, well-informed decision. You are required to act with appropriate decorum during this case. While grievances must often be aired during a case, you are expected to air them without being rude or hostile, and to respond calmly to allegations against you. Accusations of misbehaviour posted in this case must be proven with clear evidence (and otherwise not made at all). Editors who conduct themselves inappropriately during a case may be sanctioned by an arbitrator, clerk, or functionary, without further warning, by being banned from further participation in the case, or being blocked altogether. Personal attacks against other users, including arbitrators or the clerks, will be met with sanctions. Behavior during a case may also be considered by the committee in arriving at a final decision.
Not sure where else to put this, but the casenav template is saying the proposed decision will be posted by 11 May 2023 (which is before the case was opened), along with other nonsensical dates such as evidence closing 21 June 201. It seems unlikely that the Arbitration Committee intends to resolve this case prior to when it was opened
Chess (
talk) (please
mention me on reply)
19:32, 7 June 2023 (UTC)
Per the "Casenav" template above on this page, it shows 2 arbitrators as inactive, but that were active in the preliminaries. Will that be updated? - jc37 19:57, 7 June 2023 (UTC)
Pardon me if this is not the correct place for this (If so, please move the section to an appropriate location, thank you).
What is the current standard for recusals from sitting Arbitrators? Based on WP:RECUSAL (which isn't as clear cut as I'd like), I currently believe CaptainEek should have recused from this case.
Specifically, I consider their struck out opinions to be both expressing a direct opinion on the case itself, and also not rooted in current Wikipedia policy. Even after striking out, I think their remaining comments have expressed a significant enough personal opinion on the MalnadachBot/Malnadach that it would be a case for recusal from anything relating to Malnadach-ScottyWong's behavioral history. (Specifically because so many arguments revolve around editors' opinion on MalnadachBot)
It is not clear to me how broad the case intends to be, but at the least I would expect CaptainEek to recuse from anything involved with Malnadach, and request considering a full recusal.
(Full disclosure - I had not seen the other 2 comments about recusal on the Preliminary Statements page until now. After reading them, I still think an explicit recusal request was in order.)
Soni ( talk) 08:14, 9 June 2023 (UTC)
I've been on wiki-break, so I'm coming to this very late from a notification on my talk page. My opinion here is colored by a recent reading of The Coddling of the American Mind which I think would be useful for admins and arbs to read. The book is mainly talking about college students, but its ideas are applicable everywhere, and it helped me identify and put a name to trends I've seen in our discourse on Wikipedia. The book pushes back on things like call-out culture. While discussing the idea of "micro-aggressions", the book encourages people to interpret others' words in the most charitable and reasonable sense possible instead of looking for ways to be offended—similar to our principle of WP:Assume good faith.
Anyway, I take issue with the finding of fact that Scottywong "made reference to ಮಲ್ನಾಡಾಚ್ ಕೊಂಕ್ಣೊ's user name in a manner that has been perceived as racist". First, I'd like to think that intent matters as much or more than perception. Second, with a thin enough skin, almost anything can be perceived as racist. Finally, I feel we've thrown WP:AGF out the window in our interpretation of Scottywong's comment.
I assume that the part of Scotty's post we're calling racist is the following two sentences:
"Hello, user with non-English characters on the English Wikipedia. I don't even know what to call you. In my head, I just think of you as "Mr. Squiggles" because your username just looks like a bunch of squiggly lines to me."
I can definitely see how someone might interpret that comment as, "Your language is inferior because it just looks like a bunch of squiggles." But that's not a very charitable interpretation. If we assume a little good faith it's also possible to read the comment as a criticism of ಮಲ್ನಾಡಾಚ್ ಕೊಂಕ್ಣೊ's choice of using something incomprehensible to most English speakers as their username on the English Wikipedia. And I'll admit that Scotty has a point. Names, in general, are useful when other people can recognize and use them. Choosing a username that is illegible and untypeable is somewhat discourteous to your fellow users, even though it's allowed by policy. (There's certainly a separate discussion about how appropriate it is to criticize someone over something that's allowed by policy.)
I doubt that anything can or will be done at this point. I mostly want to push back against throwing AGF out the window so we can call someone a xenophobe or racist. I think it would have been more productive to interpret Scottywong's comment with a little more good faith and maybe reprimand him for the culturally insensitive way he worded that criticism. ~ Awilley ( talk) 17:57, 18 August 2023 (UTC)