Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-02-18/Arbitration report

The Arbitration Committee opened one new case this week, and closed two cases, leaving five currently open.

Closed cases

 * Waterboarding: A case involving a dispute between a large number of editors on Waterboarding, relating to the question as to whether the technique should be described as torture. As a result of the case, the article was placed on article probation and a "general restriction" imposed.


 * Matthew Hoffman: A case involving controversial blocks of MatthewHoffman by Vanished user.  As a result of the case, Vanished user was "provisionally" desysopped for six months, and Matthew Hoffman's block log was annotated to reflect the arbitrators' view that the blocks were unjustified.

New case

 * Mantanmoreland: A case involving alleged sockpuppetry by Mantanmoreland, which he denies.

Evidence phase

 * Franco-Mongol alliance: A case involving alleged misconduct over a dispute on Franco-Mongol alliance and related articles.

Voting phase

 * Episodes and characters 2: A case involving alleged continuing disruption of articles concerning television series episodes and characters, following on from a prior case. An injunction has been enacted halting certain editing activities on these articles until the case is resolved.  Kirill Lokshin has proposed remedies prohibiting TTN from requesting merges, redirections or deletions of these articles, and instructing all parties to "cease engaging in editorial conflict and to work collaboratively to develop a generally accepted and applicable approach to the articles in question".


 * Ehud Lesar: A case involving a dispute involving Ehud Lesar, with alleged sockpuppetry on his part and alleged harassment by Fedayee, Eupator and others. Sam Blacketer has proposed a remedy, with the support of Kirill Lokshin, finding that there is insufficient evidence of sockpuppetry and overturning the block.


 * Highways 2: A case involving editing by NE2 on articles relating to WikiProject U.S. Roads, allegedly against consensus of other editors involved with that wikiproject. A remedy has been proposed counselling editors to consider contributing outside of disputed articles.