Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-05-28/Arbitration report

The Arbitration Committee did not accept any new cases this week, and closed two cases. Acceptance of the controversial Badlydrawnjeff case regarding WP:BLP and related issues currently stands at 6/3/1/0.

The committee is also considering whether to lift Dmcdevit's ban on, and instead to impose probation and a revert parole, without a full hearing. Currently, voting stands at 5/0/0/1, but some editors have expressed concerns over whether it is appropriate to deal with the case by summary motion.

Closed cases

 * Tobias Conradi: A case involving the actions of who, while acknowledged as a productive contributor, had been called incivil on various occasions. As a result of the case, he was placed on civility parole and revert parole.


 * Henrygb: A case filed by David Gerard alleging that administrator had used sockpuppets disruptively.  As a result of the case, Henrygb was desysopped, limited to one account, and banned from Wikipedia until he addresses the committee's concerns.

Evidence phase

 * PalestineRemembered: A case involving the actions of, referred from the Community sanction noticeboard.


 * Miskin: A case involving the actions of, who was controversially blocked by for one month (later reduced to one week) for revert warring.


 * Abu badali: A case alleging that has disruptively tagged non-free images for deletion, even when a valid fair-use justification exists, and has harassed editors who have complained about this behavior. Abu badali denies the allegations.


 * NYScholar: A case involving the actions of a number of users, including and, in relation to the Lewis Libby article.


 * Piotrus: A case involving administrator and other editors on Central and Eastern Europe-related articles. Multiple parties accuse others of edit warring, incivility, unethical behavior and biased editing. (An earlier arbitration case, Piotrus-Ghirla, was dismissed without prejudice  in part due to inactivity of, who was listed as a party in the new case.)


 * Paranormal: A case involving the actions of various users, especially as regards bias and attribution, on "articles on paranormal and pseudoscientific topics", such as parapsychology and Electronic voice phenomenon.

Voting phase

 * Hkelkar 2: A case involving the actions of, , and , Rama's Arrow alleges that the others acted as meatpuppets of banned user Hkelkar, and blocked them for six months.  They deny the allegations, and allege that Rama's Arrow acted improperly in blocking them, and in posting private e-mails to the incidents noticeboard.  Kirill Lokshin has proposed remedies imposing no sanctions but calling on the parties to enter into mediation, as well as a finding of fact noting the lack of reliable evidence in the case, all of which have the support of four arbitrators.  However, voting on principles regarding the posting of private e-mails is split.


 * TingMing: A case involving the actions of .  alleges that he has engaged in "controversial edits", edit warring, incivility, and possibly sockpuppetry.  TingMing denies the allegations, and alleges incivility on the part of Ideogram.  Kirill Lokshin has proposed a remedy banning TingMing for one year, which has the support of three arbitrators, but is opposed by Blnguyen.


 * E104421-Tajik: A case involving the actions of E104421 and Tajik. The case had been suspended to allow a referral to Community enforceable mediation, but the mediation broke down after Tajik was alleged to have edited through sockpuppets while claiming to be away and unavailable for the mediation. Remedies have been proposed banning Tajik either indefinitely or for one year (which have the support of four arbitrators), and placing E104221 on revert parole (with the support of one arbitrator).


 * Transnistria: A case involving the actions of and  on Transnistria-related articles.  MariusM alleges that Mauco (who has not made a statement because he is blocked) has engaged in sockpuppetry, edit warring and other misconduct.  Fred Bauder has proposed remedies, with the support of four arbitrators, banning, ,  and  indefinitely from any editing related to Transnistria.  Alternative proposals indefinitely banning them from the project have the support of two arbitrators, plus one "second choice".


 * Zeq-Zero0000: A case involving the actions of and .  Zero alleges that Zeq has engaged in POV-pushing, while Zeq alleges that Zero has misused administrative tools in blocking him, the case in particular involving the question of whether probations, article bans, etc. can be enforced by involved admins.  The arbitrators have considered several different versions of a principle covering to what degree involved administrators may enforce probation; none yet has majority support. A majority (between nine and eleven) of the arbitrators have voted to advise Zero0000 not to take further administrative actions against Zeq, including enforcement of probation, and to admonish Zero0000 that editors who are not restricted in their editing of a page or area are entitled to be accorded good faith and be treated with respect and courtesy. Arbitrator Fred Bauder proposed banning Zeq from editing articles related to the Israel-Palestine conflict, but no other arbitrator has voted in support, and four have opposed.