Wikipedia:Arbitration/Index/Cases/2009

This is an archive of the results of all cases completed by the Arbitration Committee in 2009.


 * More recently-closed cases on top

=2009= 30 cases.

December

 * Arbitration/Requests/Case/Asmahan Decided 13 December 2009 (AN notice)


 * User:Arab Cowboy is prohibited from making changes to any article about a person with respect to their ethnicity or nationality for one year and is placed on a 1 revert per week restriction for one year.
 * User:Supreme Deliciousness is prohibited from making changes to any article about a person with respect to their ethnicity or nationality for one year and is placed on a 1 revert per week restriction for one year.
 * Asmahan is placed under article probation for six months.
 * Any article within the scope of this case, where an extended dispute related to the national or ethnic identity of an individual is occuring may be placed under article probation by an uninvolved administrator for up to six months.


 * Arbitration/Requests/Case/Socionics Decided 12 December 2009 (AN Notice)
 * Editors of articles related to the topic of socionics are reminded to be civil and seek consensus whenever possible. Editors are encouraged to seek dispute resolution assistance as needed.
 * and are indefinitely topic banned from all Socionics-related topics, pages, and discussions, broadly construed.
 * is banned from Wikipedia for a period of six months.
 * is banned from Wikipedia for a period of twelve months.
 * Users not previously involved in Socionics and Socionics-related articles are asked to give attention to any remaining issues with the articles, including the reliability of sources used. Users should carefully review the articles for adherence to Wikipedia policies and address any perceived or discovered deficiencies. This is not a finding that the articles are or are not satisfactory in their present form, but an urging that independent members of the community examine the matter in light of the case. Participation from uninvolved editors fluent in the Russian language would be especially helpful.


 * Arbitration/Requests/Case/Ottava Rima restrictions Decided 20 December, 2009 (AN notice)


 * User:Ottava Rima is banned from Wikipedia for a period of 1 year.
 * User:Moreschi is admonished for posting editor-specific information that directly leads to the private identity of pseudonymous editors.
 * The community is strongly encouraged to review and document standing good practice for the imposition of discretionary sanctions, paroles, and related remedies. The community is encouraged to review and document common good practice for administrators imposing editing restrictions as a condition of an unblock and in lieu of blocks.


 * Arbitration/Requests/Case/Eastern European mailing list Decided 22 December, 2009 (AN notice)


 * User:Piotrus resigned the administrator tools during the case proceedings and may only seek to regain adminship by a new request for adminship or by request to the Arbitration Committee.
 * User:Piotrus is banned for three months. At the conclusion of his ban, a one year topic ban on articles about Eastern Europe, their talk pages, and any related process discussion, widely construed, shall take effect.
 * User:Digwuren is banned for one year. He is directed to edit Wikipedia from only a single user account, and advise the Arbitration Committee of the name of the account that he will use. Should he not advise the committee by the end of the one year ban, he will remain indefinitely banned until a single account is chosen.
 * User:Digwuren is placed on a one year topic ban on articles about Eastern Europe, their talk pages, and any related process discussion, widely construed. This shall take effect following the expiration of both above mentioned bans.
 * The following users are topic banned from articles about Eastern Europe, their associated talk pages, and any process discussion about same, widely construed, for one year:
 * User:Biruitorul, User:Dc76, User:Martintg, User:Miacek, User:Radeksz, User:Vecrumba, User:Tymek
 * User:Jacurek is topic banned from articles about Eastern Europe, their associated talk pages, and any process discussion about same, widely construed, for six months.
 * User:Tymek is strongly admonished for having shared his account password. He is directed to keep his account for his own exclusive use, and not to allow any other person to use it under any circumstance.
 * The editors sanctioned above (Piotrus, Digwuren, Martintg, Tymek, Jacurek, Radeksz, Dc76, Vecrumba, Biruitorul, Miacek) are prohibited from commenting on or unnecessarily interacting with Russavia on any page of Wikipedia, except for purposes of legitimate and necessary dispute resolution.
 * All the participants to the mailing list are strongly admonished against coordinating on-wiki behavior off-wiki and directed to keep discussion of editing and dispute resolution strictly on wiki and in public. All editors are reminded that the editorial process and dispute resolution must take place on Wikipedia itself, using the article talk pages and project space for this purpose. No discussion held off-wiki can lead to a valid consensus, the basis of our editorial process. Off-wiki coordination is likely to lead to echo chambers where there is a false appearance of neutrality and consensus.

November
No cases were closed in November.

October

 * Three cases, one dismissed without action.


 * Arbitration/Requests/Case/Speed of light Decided 20 October 2009 (AN Notice)
 * All editors are reminded to be civil at all times and seek consensus where possible, and encouraged pursue dispute resolution when necessary.
 * is warned for his conduct in this dispute, and placed under a general probation for one year, under which any uninvolved administrator may impose sanctions if Brews ohare fails to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia or general editing and behavioral guidelines, policies, and expectations, despite warnings.
 * is also warned for his conduct in this dispute and during the course of the arbitration case, and is placed under the same general probation but for an indefinite duration. David Tombe may not appeal his probation for one year, and is limited to one appeal every six months thereafter.
 * Both Brews ohare and David Tombe are banned from all physics-related pages and topics, broadly construed, for twelve months.
 * Violations of the topic bans or general sanctions may be enforced by blocks of up to a week in length for repeated violations, to increase to one year after the third block. All blocks and other sanctions applied should be logged on the case page here.


 * Arbitration/Requests/Case/Lapsed_Pacifist_2 Decided 12 October 2009 (AN notice)
 * strongly admonished for edit warring and topic-banned from articles related to the Corrib gas project, broadly defined. He is also subject to an editing restriction for one year, namely 1RR and requirement to discuss content reversions.
 * While is admonished for vandalising BLPs and sockpuppetry, he is also commended for desisting from early problematic behaviours and encouraged to pursue appropriate dispute resolution methods, and seek administrator intervention when required.
 * All articles related to Corrib gas controversy and the Shell to Sea campaign are placed under probation. All fall under 1RR, and a stricter rather than laxer interpretation of addition of and removal unsourced content.


 * Arbitration/Requests/Case/Noloop Decided 4 October 2009 (AN notice)
 * The case is dismissed due to the absence of and the indefinite block of . If future problems arise a new user conduct request for comment on the editor concerned should be opened. Requests for the Arbitration Committee to reopen this case would also be considered.

September

 * Two cases
 * Arbitration/Requests/Case/Abd-William M. Connolley Decided 13 September 2009
 * The cold fusion article, and parts of any other articles substantially about cold fusion, are placed under discretionary sanctions.
 * is banned for a period of three months from Wikipedia, and for a period of one year from the cold fusion article. These bans are to run concurrently. Additionally, Abd is prohibited from participating in discussions about disputes in which he is not one of the originating parties, including but not limited to article talk pages, user talk pages, administrator noticeboards, and any formal or informal dispute resolution, however not including votes or comments at polls. Abd is also admonished for edit-warring on Arbitration case pages, engaging in personal attacks, and failing to support allegations of misconduct.
 * 's administrator rights are revoked. He may apply for their reinstatement at any time via Requests for Adminship or appeal to the Committee. William M. Connolley is also admonished for edit warring on Arbitration case pages.
 * is reminded not to edit war and to avoid personal attacks.
 * The community is urged to engage in a policy discussion and clarify under what circumstances, if any, an administrator may issue topic or page bans without seeking consensus for them, and how such bans may be appealed. This discussion should come to a consensus within one month of this notice.


 * Arbitration/Requests/Case/194x144x90x118 Decided 10 September 2009
 * is banned from Wikipedia for a period of one year.
 * All editors of the DreamHost article are reminded to abide by Wikipedia's policies of neutral point of view, using reliable and verifiable sources; to engage in civil discussion on the talk page to resolve editorial disputes; and to use the relevant noticeboards and dispute resolution processes to seek external opinions on coverage of matters where the current editors may lack objectivity.

August
No cases were closed in August.

July

 * Three cases
 * Arbitration/Requests/Case/ADHD Decided 14 July 2009
 * and are placed on 1RR with regard to ADHD articles for a period of six months
 * is placed under mentorship for a period of one year.
 * is advised to refrain from edit warring.
 * All involved editors are reminded to be civil and seek assistance in resolving editoral disagreements.


 * Arbitration/Requests/Case/A Man In Black Decided 1 July 2009 (AN notice).
 * 's (AMiB) administrative privileges are revoked. AMiB is topic-banned from the Article Rescue Squadron. AMiB is placed on a standard editing restriction for one year. is warned.


 * Arbitration/Requests/Case/Mattisse Decided 1 July 2009 (AN notice)
 * Within 15 days of this decision, Mattisse shall, in conjunction with one or more mentors or advisers, submit to this Committee for approval a plan to govern and guide her future editing with the continued assistance of those mentors or advisers. The plan shall seek to preserve Mattisse's valuable and rewarding contributions to Wikipedia while avoiding future disputes and the types of interactions that have been hurtful for herself and others. As a starting point in developing the plan, Mattisse and her mentors or advisors should consider the suggestions made by various users on the workshop page of this case, including but not limited to Mattisse's taking wikibreaks at times of stress, avoiding or limiting Mattisse's participation on certain pages, Mattisse's refraining from making any comments regarding the motivations or good faith of other users, and Mattisse's disengaging from interactions that become stressful or negative. The plan should also address how any lapses by Mattisse from the standards of behavior described in the plan shall be addressed. (Note: As reflected in the findings, Mattisse prepared a plan as required by this paragraph while the proposed decision was pending. See next paragraph.)
 * User:Mattisse/Plan (version as of 24 June) is enacted as a baseline. Amendments to the plan may occur by consensus of the mentors, whereby the changes become provisional.  At the discretion of the mentors, or if there are significant objections by the community, the provisional changes will be reviewed by the Arbitration Committee at Arbitration/Requests/Amendment.
 * Should Mattisse fail to submit a satisfactory plan under remedy 1 within 15 days of this decision, she shall not edit Wikipedia until she does so, except with permission of this Committee. (Note: As reflected in the findings, Mattisse prepared a plan, as required by remedy 1, while the proposed decision was pending. See preceding paragraphs.)

June

 * Five cases
 * Arbitration/Requests/Case/Seeyou Decided 26 June 2009 (AN notice)
 * banned from editing Wikipedia for one year.


 * Requests for arbitration/Obama articles Decided 21 June 2009 (AN notice)
 * ,, , and  are admonished for their edit-warring. Furthermore, they shall be subject to an editing restriction for one year. They are limited to one revert per page per week (except for undisputable vandalism and BLP violations), and are required to discuss any content reversions on the page's talk page.
 * and are topic-banned from Obama-related articles for six months, including talk pages.
 * and are not to interact with each other, including replying or reverting of each other’s actions.  and  are not to interact with each other, including replying or reverting of each other’s actions.
 * admonished for his part in the edit warring.
 * and reminded to be civil when dealing with hot-button and controversial situations.
 * reminded to be more civil when dealing with users and to not use talk pages as a forum.
 * The probation on articles relating to Barack Obama will be reviewed by a group of involved and non-involved editors and administrators to see how effective it has been. The process will last two weeks. After the two weeks elapse, the working group will provide their findings to us and the community, and will outline how the article probation will run in the future.
 * The Arbitration Committee, in recognizing the traffic and difficulty of handling the Barack Obama talk page, as well as per talk page guidelines, finds the removal of soapboxing and off-topic discussion acceptable and encourages its continuation.
 * All involved editors in the Obama articles, parties or not, are encouraged to try to collaborate and work constructively instead of accusing others of misconduct.
 * All editor and administrators are reminded that lengthy and liberal use of semi-protection for managing all articles relating directly to Barack Obama and their talk pages is within policy. The use of page protection is subject to review and discretion by administrators based on comments from the Community.


 * Requests for arbitration/Date delinking Decided 14 June 2009.
 * All mass date delinking is restricted for six months
 * Date delinking bots will perform in a manner approved by the Bot Approvals Group.
 * is: banned for 1 year; topic banned indefinitely; prohibited indefinitely from using automation, from using any account but "Lightmouse"
 * indefinitely topic banned, placed on a 12 month editing restriction
 * indefinitely topic banned, placed on a 12 month editing restriction
 * is: topic banned indefinitely; prohibited indefinitely from using automation; prohibited indefinitely from using any account but "Ohconfucius"; placed on a 12 month editing restriction
 * admonished for not pursuing appropriate dispute resolution methods.
 * reminded to pursue appropriate dispute resolution methods, topic banned for 3 months
 * Placed on a 12 month editing restriction:, , , , , , , , and
 * is topic banned for 12 months.
 * is topic banned indefinitely, banned for 6 months, and placed on a 12 month editing restriction
 * is topic banned for 12 months
 * admonished for threatening to use his administrator tools to advance his position in a dispute.


 * Requests for arbitration/Tang Dynasty Decided 11 June 2009 (AN notice)
 * is topic-banned from Inner Asia during the Tang Dynasty for a period of six months. He is permitted to comment on the talkpage, so long as he does so in a civil fashion. He is instructed not to interact with or comment with regard to or  on any page of Wikipedia (except in the course of legitimate dispute resolution initiated by others, if necessary).
 * Tenmei shall be assigned one or more volunteer mentors, who will be asked to assist him in understanding and following policy and community practice to a sufficient level that additional sanctions will not be necessary.
 * Parties are instructed to carefully review the principles and findings contained in this decision. Each of the parties is strongly urged to conform his or her future behavior to the principles set forth in this decision. Each of the parties is warned for engaging in the problematic user conduct described above, and is instructed to avoid any further instances of such conduct.
 * Should the preceding remedies fail to improve the situation described in this decision, after a reasonable time, an application may be made to reopen the case and impose other remedies as may be necessary.


 * Requests for arbitration/Macedonia 2 Decided 11 June 2009 (AN notice)
 * All editors on Macedonia-related articles are directed to get the advice of neutral parties via means such as outside opinions and Geopolitical ethnic and religious conflicts noticeboard (WP:ECCN), especially since there are significant problems in reaching consensus.
 * All articles related to Macedonia (defined as any article that could be reasonably construed as being related to Macedonia, Macedonia nationalism, Greece related articles that mention Macedonia, and other articles in which how Macedonia will be referred to is an issue) fall under 1RR whenever the dispute over naming is concerned. Editors enforcing a case where a binding Stalemate resolution has been found are exempt from 1RR.
 * The following users have been banned from Wikipedia : one year, one year, and six months.
 * The following users have been topic-banned from Macedonia-related articles and their talk pages, as defined in All related articles under 1RR: indefinitely, indefinitely, one year and, one year.
 * The Committee takes note that has resigned his administrator status while this case was pending, but also notes that he is desysopped as a result of the above case. ChrisO may obtain the tools back via the usual means or by request to the Arbitration Committee.
 * is strongly admonished for displaying a long pattern of incivil, rude, offensive, and insulting behavior towards other editors and failure to address the community's concerns in this regard. Because of this Future Perfect at Sunrise is subject to an editing restriction for one year, and is desysopped for three months as a consequence of poor user conduct and misuse of administrative tools. After three months, his administrator access will be automatically restored.
 * Single-purpose accounts are strongly advised to edit in accordance with WP:SPA and other Wikipedia policies. Diversifying one's topics of interest is also encouraged.
 * Abuse filter 119, as currently configured, logs all changes involving the word "Macedonia" but does not block any edits. The community is strongly advised to consider adding a new abuse filter criterion; any instances of changing the word "Macedonia" to "FYROM" (the five-letter acronym, not the full phrase) shall be prevented.
 * Within seven days of the closure of this case, a discussion is to be opened to consider the preferred current and historical names for the four entities known as Macedonia. The discussion will end one month after it is opened.

May

 * Five cases
 * Requests for arbitration/Scientology Decided 28 May 2009 (AN notice)
 * Banned : (Community Ban),
 * Topic-banned :, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
 * To contact the Committee : Arnielerma*, Karin Spaink*, StephenAKent*, Timbowles*, Tory Christman*, Hkhenson*,
 * gave up his status as an administrator in the face of controversy concerning his administrator actions during an arbitration case, he may not be automatically re-granted adminship. However, he is free to seek readminship, should he choose to do so, at any time by a request for adminship at Requests for adminship.
 * is to abide to a binding voluntary restriction that within the Scientology topic (i) he limits his edits to directly improving articles to meet GA and FA criteria, using reliable sources; (ii) he makes no edits of whatever nature to biographies of living people; and (iii) he refrains from sysop action of whatever nature.
 * is topic-banned from articles about Rick Ross, broadly defined.
 * Discretionary topic-ban by any uninvolved administrator is also in place.
 * All IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates, broadly interpreted, are to be blocked as if they were open proxies.
 * Requests for arbitration/Ryulong Decided 24 May 2009 (AN notice)
 * Parties:, , ,
 * For misuse of his administrative tools, failure to address the community's concerns, and inappropriate off-wiki behavior, Ryulong is desysopped.
 * Ryulong is admonished for his behaviour off-wiki and directed to refrain from seeking Mythdon's identity off-wiki, identifying personal information of Wikipedia users, and from disclosing that information to others. In addition, for contacting administrators in private to seek either blocks on users he is in dispute with, or the performance of other administrative actions.
 * Mythdon is restricted and placed under mentorship for a period of 1 year.
 * Mythdon is admonished for their harassing behavior on and off-wiki and directed to refrain from contacting Ryulong off-wiki and seeking Ryulong's identity on and off-wiki.
 * Mythdon is strongly urged to take his concerns about the verifiability of the articles to a wider venue and consult his views with others. He is then advised to report the views of others to WikiProject Tokusatsu for discussions; He is further urged to enhance his level of communication with editors.
 * All participants of WikiProject Tokusatsu are advised to work on producing a genuine guideline for the articles falling under the scope of the WikiProject Tokusatsu. They are urged to work in collaboration with Mythdon while seeking outside advice and help.
 * Requests for arbitration/Abd and JzG Decided 18 May 2009 (AN notice)
 * Parties: ,
 * JzG is admonished not to use his administrative tools in any situation in which he is involved nor to use them to further his position in a dispute.
 * Abd is urged to avoid prolonging disputes by using unproductive methods and advised to clearly and succinctly document previous and current attempts at dispute resolution before escalating to the next stage.
 * Abd is also advised to heed good-faith feedback when handling disputes and to incorporate that feedback.
 * Requests for arbitration/Aitias Decided 18 May 2009 (AN notice]
 * Parties: ,
 * Aitias' adminship suspended from his return to editing until the conclusion of the case. Aitias is admonished for inappropriate and unnecessarily sarcastic comments and is banned from Requests for rollback and its talk page for six months.
 * West Bank - Judea and Samaria Decided 12 May 2009 (AN notice, correction)
 * Parties:, , , , , , ,
 * This arbitration case has been closed and the final decision is available at the link above.
 * Canadian Monkey, G-Dett, Jayjg, MeteorMaker, Nickhh, Nishidani, NoCal100, and Pedrito are banned from editing any Arab-Israeli conflict-related article/talk page or discussing on the dispute anywhere else on the project.
 * Jayjg is also stripped of his status as a functionary and any and all associated privileged access, including the CheckUser and Oversight tools and the checkuser-l, oversight-l, and functionaries-en mailing lists.
 * The editors may request that their restrictions be lifted after 6 months (but no more often than every 6 months).
 * The community is asked to obtain consensus on the preferred current and historical names of the region that is the source of conflict in this case

April

 * Two cases
 * Prem Rawat 2 Decided 20 April 2009 (AN notice)
 * Parties: *,, , , ,
 * This arbitration case has been closed and the final decision is available at the link above.  and  are banned from editing Prem Rawat or any related article (including talk pages) for one year.  The Prem Rawat article and all related articles are subject to revert limitations for one year.  Several users are admonished for their conduct in the case and all parties and other interested editors are encouraged to restart mediation in relation to Prem Rawat. Also, should  return to Wikipedia to edit Prem Rawat articles, he is required to contact the Arbitration Committee beforehand.  These remedies are in addition to, and do not replace, the remedies passed in RFAR/Prem Rawat.


 * MZMcBride Decided 08 April 2009 (AN notice)
 * Parties: *, ,
 * resigned his status as an administrator on April 6, 2009, while the above arbitration case was pending. Should MZMcBride request restoration of adminship privileges, he will be required to submit a request for adminship or request approval of the Committee.
 * MZMcBride is directed to consult with and obtain approval from the Bot Approvals Group before using any bot to edit Wikipedia and particularly before using any bot to undertake administrator actions.
 * MZMcBride and those working with him are commended for developing an innovative method to identify articles with potential BLP issues, but are strongly urged to consult and carefully consider whether the current location and nature of the listing of the output of the script represents the most appropriate means of addressing the issues raised.
 * MZMcBride is directed to create user accounts distinct from his own, clearly identified as bots and clearly associated to his primary account, from which to execute any automated or semi automated task that can make edits or administrative actions.
 * MZMcBride is restricted from making edits or actions from his primary account that are either (a) automated, or (b) at a rate higher than twelve actions per minute. Edits or actions made from authorized bot accounts are not so restricted.

March

 * Two cases
 * Ayn Rand Decided 15 March 2009 (AN notice)
 * Parties: *,, , , , , , , ,, , , , ,, ,
 * TheJazzFan banned for one year, and various topic bans. See main case for full list.
 * SemBubenny Decided 04 March 2009 (AN notice)
 * Parties: ,
 * SemBubenny is admonished and warned to speedy-delete only articles that fall within the criteria for speedy deletion, discuss his actions, and not to take administrator action regarding any matter where he would be unable or unwilling to reasonably discuss any questions or concerns that may arise regarding that action.

February

 * Two cases
 * PHG, Decided 03 February 2009 (AN notice)
 * Parties:, , , , , , , , , , / , , , , , , , , ,
 * PHG's original mentorship and sourcing arrangement is revised and extended for one year. PHG's topic ban is narrowed and extended, with an invitation clause whereby the mentor can grant article-specific exemptions to the topic ban, to be clearly logged. PHG encouraged to continue contributing and to develop trust within the Wikimedia community.


 * Fringe science, Decided 25 February 2009 (AN notice)
 * Parties:, , ,
 * ScienceApologist is banned from editing any article relating to fringe science topics, broadly construed, for a period of six months. ScienceApologist is free to edit the talk pages of such articles. Pcarbonn is admonished for needlessly stoking the fires of disputes in the area of fringe science, and is encouraged to direct his efforts elsewhere.

January

 * Two cases.
 * G.-M. Cupertino, Decided 16 January 2009 (AN notice).
 * Parties:, , ,
 * G.-M. Cupertino is banned for a period of one year, and is limited indefinitely to using one account to edit following his ban.


 * Ireland article names, Decided 04 January 2009 (AN notice).
 * Parties:, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
 * Community asked to obtain consensus on the appropriate names for Ireland and related articles.