Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-10-22/Arbitration report

There are two requests for clarification and amendment, nine requests for enforcement, and one motion. One clarification request concerns the civility enforcement case – specifically, a question about the interpretation of Malleus Fatuorum's topic ban.

Civility enforcement clarification request
Isarra initiated a clarification request concerning what she perceived as an issue with Malleus Fatuorum's topic ban. Citing numerous diffs, she pointed out that while Malleus had adhered to his topic ban (from all pages beginning with the Wikipedia:Requests for adminship prefix), he had initiated discussions not directly relevant to the given RfA — discussions which would be more suitable on the respective RfA talk page. She stated that when moving these discussions, she was reverted by other editors on the basis that such a move would have required Malleus to violate the terms of his topic ban. In submitting the request, she asked whether the topic ban caused further disruption and whether it should be extended to cover all discussion on RfA.

The first motion proposed called for Malleus to be banned from Wikipedia for six months and the extension of his topic ban to include RfA in its entirety and related discussions elsewhere. The motion failed to reach a consensus, but resulted in significant controversy. Initially, this was from the sudden change from a clarification to a vote to ban a long-term contributor. Many uninvolved parties believed that it was a step too far, and called for smaller measures, including a topic ban from any RfA-related and/or the mutual interaction bans of Malleus Fatuorum and (individually) MONGO, Jc37, and Hersfold.

RegentsPark summed up the ultimate fallout in a non-arbitrator-proposed motion: "This entire affair is doing an incredible amount of damage to the Wikipedia community with battles breaking out all over the place and several prolific content contributors as well as several active administrators indicating their intention to retire." MONGO, on the other hand, believed that the motion [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Clarification_and_Amendment&oldid=518258147#Comment_by_MONGO did not go far enough]: "I suggest Malleus be site banned for not less than 30 days, and any of the usual cadre of aiding and abetting admins that might excessively protest such a ban be emergency desysopped. Think my suggestion is extreme? Do nothing now and that will be where this charade ends anyway, more or less". Adding to the ultimate drama, Malleus Fatuorum was blocked by User:Stephan Schulz for "[p]ersonal attacks or harassment", but it was promptly undone by Boing! said Zebedee, who had already announced his intention to retire over the debacle.

However, the proposed motion was far from the only source of contention. An even greater amount of vitriolic discussion resulted from arbitrator Jclemens' [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Clarification_and_Amendment&oldid=518804376#Motion_on_Malleus_Fatuorum support] of the ban motion:

It is clear that Malleus has never been interested in upholding the fourth pillar, even if you presume that he has a differing interpretation of what constitutes civility. He has had plenty of chances to do so, and has intentionally avoided behaving in a collegial manner despite those chances. It's time to face the fact that Malleus is not now, nor has he ever been, a member of the Wikipedia community. ... it is appropriate to recognize that it is in embracing all the pillars that an editor is truly a community member. Vandals, POV-pushers, self-promoters, and copyright violators are all eventually shown the door if they will not reform ... [Malleus has] failed to self-reform even though he's clearly capable. Thus, Malleus has himself chosen to join those other groups in his self-selected banning; all we do here is acknowledge that Malleus has never been a Wikipedian, no matter how many otherwise constructive edits he has made.

These comments led various editors to call for Jclemens' resignation or recusal, a "no confidence" poll in both the arbitration committee and Jclemens himself, and a short-lived [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=block&user=&page=Jclemens&year=&month=-1&tagfilter= block] of Jclemens by Floquenbeam. Other arbitrators were quick to disassociate themselves from the comments. Risker clarified that Jclemens was speaking for himself, not the committee, while Kirill Lokshin stated:

Malleus is a Wikipedian; he has always been a Wikipedian; and he will continue to be a Wikipedian even if we ban him. We cannot strip away someone's identity by motion, nor declare them an unperson because they no longer follow our party line.

A second motion was proposed, calling for the extension of his topic ban to cover discussion of RfA in its entirety. An exception would be made, however, to allow Malleus to !vote on an RfA and ask questions to the candidate addressing his concerns. An uninvolved admin may remove comments in contravention of this remedy and impose blocks if/when necessary. As of the time of writing, this motion is passing 9–1.

Motion on "net four votes" rule
A motion proposed by arbitrator AGK calling for changes to the opening of proceedings was enacted.

A proceeding may be opened earlier, waiving provisions 2 and 3 above, if a majority of arbitrators support fast-track opening in their acceptance votes.
 * 1) Its acceptance has been supported by at least four net votes;
 * 2) More than 24 hours have elapsed since the request passed the threshold of four net votes; and
 * 3) More than 48 hours have elapsed since the request was filed.

Criterion 1 now requires that there be either four net votes or an absolute majority of active, non-recused arbitrators. Accordingly, the wording of criterion 2 was changed to state "since the request came to satisfy the above provision." No other changes were made.