User:Gatoclass/CTDNdraft

This page describes a process for resolving certain kinds of disputes in contentious topic areas only. A contentious topic area is a topic area covered by Arbcom general or special sanctions. These are areas of the encyclopedia that in many cases have proven chronically resistant to improvement, and that have typically generated a volume of disputation quite out of proportion to their size.

If your dispute does not involve a contentious topic area, it does not belong on this page.

Policies covered by this process
Alleged breaches of the following policies or guidelines can initially be adjudicated at this page:


 * WP:V
 * WP:OR
 * WP:UNDUE

Typical issues handled by this process involving WP:V might include, for example, misrepresentations of source, insertion of demonstrable falsehoods into articles, or of claims unsupported by a source or only supported by dubious sources; and so on.

Concerns involving any of the above policies should as a rule be submitted to this page rather than to AE.

Opening a case
Any user with more than 500 mainspace edits can bring a content dispute related to a contentious topic area to this noticeboard. The user, known as the complainant, will explain how he believes his opponent, known as the respondent, has violated a content policy with a specific edit or group of edits.

Before opening a case over a given issue, the complainant must warn the potential respondent on his talk page that he intends to do so, thus giving the latter an opportunity to self-revert. If the latter refuses to do so, or if he fails to respond to the warning after 24 hours and has since resumed editing, then and only then can a case be opened.

Once a case has been opened, the respondent must be notified of the case on his talk page by the complainant, and the respondent given at least 48 hours after the notification to make a statement of his own. The respondent may request extra time to prepare a case if he feels it necessary, but if he fails to respond altogether within 48 hours, the case can proceed without him.

The complainant must supply one or more diffs, stating precisely how he believes these diffs violate policy, and which policies they violate.

The respondent may not introduce material not directly related to the issue or issues brought forward by the complainant. This is to ensure that cases remain focussed and do not become about the entire history of each user's contributions. For example, the respondent may not bring up edits by the complainant in an attempt to demonstrate the complainant's editing is "just as bad" or worse. He may not bring up his protagonist's past history of sanctions, if any (and neither may the complainant). If the respondent wants to present evidence against the complainant, he must start his own case, subject to all the other conditions outlined on this page. The respondent's evidence, in short, will be limited to defending only the diffs presented as evidence by the complainant. In cases of doubt, an adjudicating admin may decide what evidence is and is not relevant to the current case.

Adjudicating a case
Once both parties have put their side of the dispute, uninvolved administrators will decide upon the merits of the complainant's case. Any number of admins may comment on the case and any number may vote on whether or not to sanction the respondent. A minimum of two admins must vote in order to close a case; a minimum of three if the first two admins vote differently. A 60% majority is necessary to ensure that a case is upheld. A case may not be closed until 24 hours after the latest vote has been cast, to allow other admins a chance to respond to the case before it is closed.

The adjudicating administrators may not decide to sanction both parties. The purpose of this restriction is to remove the temptation on administrators to apply collective punishment.

The burden of proof in this process is solidly upon the shoulders of the party bringing the case. If the adjudicators feel that neither party is at fault, that both parties are equally at fault, or that fault cannot be determined, then the complainant and not the respondent will be sanctioned. This is to discourage frivolous cases and thus ease the burden on adjudicating admins.

At any time before the admins start voting, the case may be closed if both the complainant and respondent come to an agreement about the content under dispute.

Adjudicating administrators may only adjudicate every other dispute involving either the same issue or the same respondent or complainant. That is, if they adjudicate over a case involving a given issue, they should stand aside for the next case involving that issue, and similarly for the next case involving one or more of the named parties to the case.

Sanctions
If the complainant's case is upheld, the respondent will be topic banned for a period of twelve weeks. If the complainant's case is rejected, the complainant will be topic banned for a period of eight weeks.

Users who violate a ban will have their ban reset and be blocked for the original duration of the ban.

In additional to the original complainant and respondent, other users may add statements to the case in support of either the complainant or respondent. However, every user who adds a supporting statement will be subject to a six week topic ban should the party they supported lose the case. This is to ensure that cases do not turn into lengthy exercises in mud-slinging - a common problem on many dispute resolution pages.

The complainant may name more than one party to the dispute if he chooses. However, for every respondent he names, he must prove the case against them or be subject to an additional sanction himself, of eight additional weeks of ban for every additional user against whom he failed to prove his case.

A user who is a respondent in a current case, or who is currently the subject of a ban under these provisions, may not have a second case initiated against him using evidence older than the filing of the current case or the case that resulted in the current ban. Users who are currently topic banned may not initiate new cases.

Preserving neutrality
While the adjudicating administrators are empowered to decide which party is more in the right in any given dispute, their decisions will not be binding in any way upon the content of the article in question. Nor will administrators adjudicating similar cases in future be bound by precedent from past cases, although they may take note of such cases in supporting their decision. In this way, the Wikipedia commitment to NPOV will be maintained. Content can never be "set" in Wikipedia by past decisions, as consensus changes constantly.

Appeals
Any user upon whom a ban is imposed under these provisions has the right to appeal his ban to AE or Arbcom. However, if his appeal is rejected, his sanction will be increased by an additional twelve weeks. If arbcom upholds his appeal, the administrators who voted to sanction him may not participate in adjudicating of disputes under these provisions for a period of 26 weeks. In the same way that adjudicating admins' judgements are not binding on content, judgements rendered by arbitrators in appeals lodged under this process will likewise not be binding on article content.