Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-12-04/Arbitration report

The Arbitration Committee opened two case this week, and closed three cases.

Closed cases

 * Pseudoscience: A case involving the actions of ScienceApologist, Ian Tresman and others, involving the insertion and removal of so-called "pseudoscience" on various articles. As a result of the case, Tommysun was banned from science- and pseudoscience-related articles, Elerner was banned from articles relating to his real-life work, Iantresman was placed on probation, and ScienceApologist was "cautioned".


 * Non-Notability: A case regarding actions on Non-notability (not to be confused with Notability).  As a result of the case, a remedy was enacted, allowing Fresheneesz to be placed on probation if he "continues to disrupt policy pages".


 * Rachel Marsden: A case involving the actions of Arthur Ellis, Rachel Marsden, Bucketsofg and others on the Rachel Marsden page.  The arbitration committee has adopted several proposals guiding editing of articles about living persons, and directs that Rachel Marsden may be stubbed if it does not conform to WP:BLP.  Bearcat and Bucketsofg are expected to conform to Biographies of living persons rather than the liberal interpretation they have applied. Arthur Ellis is banned for one month for violating a previous article ban.

New cases

 * Seabhcan: Various parties, principally MONGO, allege that Seabhcan has engaged in repeated incivility, but he claims that the incidents occurred such a long time ago as to be moot, and that MONGO and others have acted aggressively in the course of the dispute, alleging that "what they want is blood".


 * Sex Tourism: A case involving a revert war on the Sex tourism article.

Evidence phase

 * Waldorf education: A case on Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf education and related pages.


 * RPJ: Various users allege that RPJ edits disruptively (although in good faith) on various articles related to conspiracy theories, such as John F. Kennedy Assassination. In response, he denies the allegations, and raised some "practical concerns about arbitration", which seem to regard the legitimacy of the Arbitration Committee bindingly to resolve disputes.


 * Iran-Iraq War: A case referred by the mediation committee regarding a dispute on the Iran-Iraq War page.

Voting phase

 * ScienceApologist: A case brought by User:Asmodeus alleging that User:ScienceApologist and others are harassing him in regards to Asmodeus' real life identity, as well as biased editing of Christopher Michael Langan and related articles. Several editors have alleged that Asmodeus is an aggressive editor and that Asmodeus and User:DrL have conflicts of interest regarding Christopher Michael Langan and related articles.  Proposed remedies, currently supported by four arbitrators, include banning Asmodeus and DrL from editing articles related to Christopher Michael Langan and his ideas and placing Asmodeus and DrL on probation, banning User:Haldane Fisher indefinitely as an attack account, and "counseling" ScienceApologist and FeloniusMonk.


 * Konstable: A case involving the actions of Konstable, an administrator who left the project, but then returned and created an alternative account, which some allege was used for disruption. This was then blocked, and he used his sysop tools to unblock it, causing some to call for his desysopping.  Fred Bauder has proposed remedies banning Konstable for one month, but allowing him to return under a new name if he wishes, but these have been opposed by Dmcdevit, who has proposed a conter-remedy formally desysopping Konstable.  A motion has been proposed to recuse Dmcdevit, supported by Fred Bauder, but opposed by Charles Matthews, who feels that recusal should be a personal decision.


 * Hkelkar: A case involving the actions of Hkelkar, a probable sockpuppet of Subhash bose, on various articles. The case has expanded to consider the behavior of a number of other editors including User:BhaiSaab, User:TerryJ-Ho and User:Bakasuprman. Remedies have been proposed banning Hkelkar, BhaiSaab and TerryJ-Ho for one year, and placing them on probation.

Motion to close

 * Elvis: A case involving the actions of Lochdale and Onefortyone on the Elvis Presley article.  If closed, Lochdale would be banned from the article indefinitely, and Onefortyone kept on probation.


 * Protecting children's privacy: A case involving a policy proposal on the Protecting children's privacy page. The committee was asked to determine whether the proposed policy has consensus and should be adopted, but they have declined to rule on this issue.  Instead, by a 5-0 vote, they have encouraged the community to continue working on the proposal with the goal of achieving consensus, and have voted to affirm the practice of counseling children not to disclose personal information and to delete such information in appropriate cases.