User:L235/Community contentious topics

Certain topic areas are community-designated contentious topics, which means that the community has recognized that those topics attract more persistent disruptive editing than the rest of the project. Therefore, the Arbitration Committee's contentious topics procedure applies to those topics [possibly: in modified form as described below OR ].

Within a contentious topic, whether designated by the community or by the Arbitration Committee, Wikipedia's norms and policies are more strictly enforced and Wikipedia administrators have additional authority to reduce disruption to the project.

Community-designated contentious topics are a type of general sanctions.

Exceptions [or "Details"]

 * Option 1
 * Nothing


 * Option 2
 * The portions of the contentious topics procedure that refer to AE (the arbitration enforcement noticeboard) and ARCA (requests for amendment at the Arbitration Committee) do not apply to community-designated contentious topics. Instead, all of the functions of AE should be exercised by community consensus at AN (the administrators' noticeboard).

= rfc =

Should community-authorized discretionary sanctions be renamed to community-designated contentious topics? Should the specifics of the community-authorized general sanctions be harmonized with the contentious topics procedure? ~~~~~

In December 2022, the Arbitration Committee renamed its "discretionary sanctions" procedure "contentious topics" and made some changes to the procedure. Before that happened, the community imposed its own community-authorized discretionary sanctions (sometimes known as "general sanctions", or GS) on the following topic areas:
 * Background


 * pages related to South Asian social groups, broadly construed (WP:GS/CASTE) (contentious topics/discretionary sanctions)
 * related to the Syrian Civil War or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, broadly construed (WP:GS/SCW&ISIL) (discretionary sanctions plus 1RR)

Discussion

 * Reasons:
 * Current system is confusing especially for the growing set of editors who don't remember discretionary sanctions
 * ...etc.