User:Volunteer Marek/Archeology of Discretionary Sanctions

Outline and notes

1. When and under what circumstances did "discretionary sanctions" originate?
 * 1.1 What was their initial stated purpose?
 * 1.2 What was their initial scope?
 * 1.3. Who invented the idea and who supported it? What happened to these editors?
 * 1.4. Past attempts to extend DS wikipedia wide

2. Evolution of "discretionary sanctions" over time
 * 2.1 Has the understanding of what "discretionary sanctions" are and what they allow admins to do changed over time? If they did, what were the "pivotal" moments in this evolution (arb com cases, reports, etc).
 * 2.2 Has there been a "ratchet effect" which has expanded "discretionary sanctions" past their initial stated purpose and scope?
 * 2.3 What has been the influence of specific and influential admins on the evolution of "discretionary sanctions"?
 * 2.4 Has there ever been a proposal to rescind the regime of "discretionary sanctions" once it has been put into place?

3. Efficacy of "discretionary sanctions"
 * 3.1 See 2.4 above. If "discretionary sanctions" had been effective then at some point they would cease to be necessary. Has there been such an instance?
 * 3.2 Has there ever been an independent audit or even a proposal for a rigorous evaluation of "discretionary sanctions" and their effects?
 * 3.3 Bottom line: do discretionary sanctions accomplish what they are suppose to (see 1.1 and 1.2)?
 * 3.3.1 Effect on content quality
 * 3.3.2 Effect on administrative burden
 * 3.3.3 Effect on frequency of disputes and their resolution
 * 3.3.4 Effect on frequency of sanctions in a topic area
 * 3.4 What kind of evidence can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of "discretionary sanctions"?
 * 3.4.1 Quantitative evidence
 * 3.4.1.1 Frequency of "edit warring" as measured by number of reverts in a topic area/article under DS
 * 3.4.1.2 Frequency of WP:AE reports (and related "drama boards")
 * 3.4.1.3 Editor attrition in a topic area
 * 3.4.1.4 Likely sock puppetry in a topic area
 * 3.4.1.5 "Shame tags" on articles in topic area under "discretionary sanctions"
 * 3.4.2 Suitable control group 1 - need controversial topic areas which experienced a good bit of disruption which did NOT come under "discretionary sanctions"
 * 3.4.3 Suitable control group 2 - pre and post imposition of "discretionary sanctions"
 * 3.4.4 Qualitative evidence
 * 3.4.5 Editor surveys
 * 3.4.6 And...? (not my area)