Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-10-05/Arbitration report

The Arbitration Committee did not open any cases this week, and closed one, leaving four cases open.

A number of arbitration requests and motions related to the Law affair took place this week; for details, see the full story.

Requests for arbitration
An arbitration request concerning disputes on the "quantum mysticism" article was filed by Lightbound, who alleges that the article suffers from "a history of edit wars and conflicts". The Committee has not yet determined whether the case will be heard.

An arbitration request concerning the conduct of Tcaudilllg was filed by rmcnew, who alleges that Tcaudilllg has engaged in edit-warring and personal attacks. Tcaudilllg has denied the allegations, calling them "ad hominem attacks on [his] character". The Committee appears to have accepted the case to examine the conduct of all involved editors.

An arbitration request concerning the conduct of several editors, filed by Linas, was rejected, as the Committee determined there was no substantive dispute to arbitrate.

Open cases
The Eastern European mailing list case has entered its third week of deliberations. The case concerns a set of leaked mailing list archives which are alleged to show an extensive history of collusion among numerous editors of Eastern European topics. Standard workshop procedures appear to have been suspended for the case, so normal drafting of proposals by the parties and other editors is not taking place; a draft decision is to be written by arbitrators Coren and Newyorkbrad, but no date for it has been announced.

The Asmahan case has also entered its third week of deliberations. The filing editor, Supreme Deliciousness, alleges that Arab Cowboy has engaged in a variety of disruptive behavior on the "Asmahan" article; Arab Cowboy denies the allegations, and claims that Supreme Deliciousness is pursuing a disruptive agenda of his own. No drafting of proposals has yet taken place; a draft decision is expected from arbitrator FayssalF by 18 October.

The Speed of light case has entered its fifth week of deliberations. The case was filed by Jehochman, who cited concerns about "tendentious editing and disruption" by a large number of editors on the "speed of light" article. Unusually, arbitrator Cool Hand Luke, who is slated to draft the decision in the case, has directly asked the parties "what resolution [they] would like to see from this process, and what (if any) concessions would [they] be willing to give to achieve that end?"; the parties have provided a set of varied responses to this. Workshop proposals have been made by a number of editors, including Cool Hand Luke and fellow arbitrator Vassyana. A draft decision in the case was expected by 30 September.

The Lapsed Pacifist 2 case has entered its seventh week of deliberations, as well as its second week of voting. 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. A temporary injunction prohibits Lapsed Pacifist from editing articles related to the Corrib gas project for the duration of the case. The proposed decision, written by arbitrator Casliber, would place all articles related to the Corrib gas controversy and Shell to Sea under article probation, as well as imposing revert restrictions on Lapsed Pacifist and GainLine and issuing a series of admonishments and reminders. An alternative proposal by arbitrator Rlevse would ban Lapsed Pacifist from the topic area indefinitely.

Closed cases
The Noloop case has been dismissed. The case involved mutual allegations of disruptive conduct by several parties, chiefly Noloop (who had posted a statement that he did not intend to participate in the proceeding) and WebHamster (who was indefinitely blocked on 29 September, over a matter unrelated to the case); with the main parties thus absent, the Committee felt it pointless to continue the case.

Other announcements
The Committee announced that arbitrators Cool Hand Luke, Coren and Roger Davies would comprise the Ban Appeal Subcommittee for the month of October.

The Ban Appeal Subcommittee has requested community comments on appeals by Richard Relucio and Betacommand.