Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-01-03/Arbitration report

Since last issue, ten new members of the Committee were appointed, and two resignations came into effect (those of Jpgordon and Deskana), bringing the total of seats on the Committee to eighteen, seventeen of which are occupied. See related story.

The Arbitration Committee closed two cases since last issue, and accepted four new ones, leaving a total of five open.

Evidence phase

 * PHG: A case brought by PHG, in a follow up to a prior case against PHG, Franco-Mongol alliance. This case will review PHG's editing since the prior case, and may impose new sanctions, or repeal current sanctions, as necessary.


 * Scientology: A case regarding behavioral problems in Scientology-related articles; the case is related to the prior case Requests for arbitration/COFS.


 * Fringe science: A case initially filed about the behavior of ScienceApologist, but which was opened to look at editing in the entire area of fringe science, and the behavior of editors who are involved in the area of dispute.


 * G.-M. Cupertino: A case regarding the behavior of G.-M. Cupertino, accepted without significant prior dispute resolution as several arbitrators believed lower levels of dispute resolution would be fruitless.

Motion to close

 * Ireland article names: A case to deal with the disputes about the naming of Ireland-related articles. As of press time, a remedy calling for the community to develop a mechanism to find consensus on naming of Ireland-related articles has eight unanimous support votes. A further remedy will create a three-member panel of uninvolved administrators to develop and oversee such a mechanism, if a suitable one is not created within fourteen days of the closure of the case. Until such a consensus is found, the articles in question are to remain at their current titles, and after a consensus is found, no further discussions about moving the pages may take place for two years.

Closed

 * Piotrus 2: The latest in a series of cases involving alleged edit-warring and other misconduct by numerous editors on articles pertaining to Eastern Europe. The case, which was open for almost four months, passed remedies regarding seven specific editors, and banned Boodlesthecat and Greg park avenue for one year. The committee also, by remedy, stated that they would open a Request for Comment on the Arbitration Enforcement process, start a general community discussion about reforming the dispute resolution process, and publish guides for using the Workshop and Evidence pages. By motion, the entire Request for Arbitration was renamed from Piotrus 2 to Eastern European disputes.


 * Cold fusion: A case involving conduct disputes around the article Cold fusion. In the final decision, Pcarbonn was topic-banned for one year from editing Cold fusion and related articles.