Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-31/Arbitration report

The Arbitration Committee did not open or close any cases this week, leaving four cases open.

Requests for arbitration
An arbitration request concerning the deletion of the "Ra (channeled entity)" article was filed by Logos5557 and quickly rejected by the Committee as both premature and essentially a content dispute.

Open cases
The Noloop case entered its second week of deliberations. The case involves mutual allegations of disruptive conduct by several parties, and is expected to address the conduct of all the editors involved. Evidence has been presented by several editors, and one of the parties, Noloop, has posted a statement that he does not intend to participate in the proceeding. A draft decision, to be written by arbitrator Carcharoth, is expected by 6 September.

The Lapsed Pacifist 2 case also entered its second week of deliberations. The filing editor, Steve Crossin, alleges that Lapsed Pacifist has engaged in advocacy, original research, and edit warring, as well as various other improprieties, over a wide range of articles. Lapsed Pacifist has so far refused to enter a statement or respond to the allegations, and a temporary injunction prohibits him from editing articles related to the Corrib gas project for the duration of the case. No arbitrators have commented on the evidence or workshop proposals at this time; a draft decision, to be written by arbitrator Wizardman, is expected by 1 September.

The 194x144x90x118 case entered its third week of deliberations and its first week of formal voting. The filing editor, Erik9, alleges that 194x144x90x118 has engaged in a variety of disruptive conduct, despite an RFC on the matter; 194x144x90x118 has refused to respond to the allegations, calling the proceedings a "sham".

The proposed decision, prepared by arbitrator Wizardman, would condemn 194x144x90x118 for "soapboxing on talk pages, personal attacks, edit warring, and a lack of a desire to abide by policy" and ban him for one year; the proposals have, at this point, unanimous support from all voting arbitrators.

The Abd-William M. Connolley case entered its seventh week of deliberations and its second week of formal voting. The case was filed by Abd, who alleged that William M. Connolley had improperly banned him from the cold fusion article; William M. Connolley denied these allegations, and stated that Abd's conduct had been inappropriate.

The proposed decision, prepared by arbitrator Stephen Bain, would place the cold fusion article under discretionary sanctions, remove William M. Connolley's administrator status, place Abd under mentorship, and issue several admonishments and reminders. Alternative proposals have been presented by arbitrator FloNight, who would only remove William M. Connolley's administrator status for three months, but also impose several restrictions on his use of administrative tools following their restoration; by arbitrator Coren, who would place William M. Connolley under administrative probation; and by arbitrator Casliber, who would replace Abd's mentorship with a series of editing restrictions and ban him for a period of four weeks. Voting on most remedy proposals remains deeply split.

Clarifications, amendments, and motions
Arbitrator Risker has proposed a motion to rescind the six-month ban levied against Locke Cole as part of the Date delinking decision; the motion provides for a reinstatement of the ban should Locke Cole be blocked for edit-warring. The motion currently stands at six arbitrators supporting, one opposing, and two recused; the majority necessary for adoption has not been announced.

The Committee has enacted a motion in response to Wikidemon's request to amend the Obama articles decision. The motion extends ChildofMidnight's topic ban to include related discussions in all namespaces. Considerable heated discussion has followed the motion's announcement.