Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-12-16/Arbitration report



For this week's Arbitration Report we have the case on GMOs closed with a different case being accepted by the Committee.

Kevin Gorman case
On 11 December, the Arbitration Committee accepted the case on Kevin Gorman. The case was submitted by administrator and former Arbitrator, who called to have fellow administrator and candidate in this year's Arbcom elections, , be de-sysopped. Worm That Turned has claimed that Kevin Gorman abused the revision deletion tool that admins have, using the tool to delete discussions to evade scrutiny during the election. WTT also pointed out how Kevin Gorman unblocked an entire group of checkuser-block accounts without consulting the blocking checkuser or any checkuser at all. , another named party in the case, made a statement saying he was the one who advised Kevin Gorman to unblock the accounts but later realized it was a mistake and apologized.

Kevin Gorman responded by denying wrongdoing in some of WTT's claims, while saying other claims are too stale to have a case. He also points out how everyone makes mistakes, using an example of how WTT accused Gorman of using his health issues to avoid a ban on Wikipedia. The Committee members themselves thought this was a case worth looking into as it was opened in a 10–0 decision. The case is currently in its Evidence phase.

GMO case closed
But as one case begins, another has ended. On 12 December, the case involving Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) articles has been closed. Among the Committee's findings was that users, , and were all involved with edit warring. Individually, Jytdog was also found to have "belittled other editors and has engaged in non-civil conduct", had cast aspersions, added unsourced content, and articulated a clear POV in regards to the locus of the case, and Wuerzele  displayed a battleground mentality and engaged in incivility. Jytdog and DrChrissy were found to "have been engaged in an oft personalized dispute", with DrChrissy also found to have violated existing restrictions, having been "topic banned from alternative medicine, broadly construed. To be clear, this includes alternative medicine for humans and animals, so Veterinary acupuncture does fall under the scope of this ban. Animal biology, behavior, health, and normal veterinary medicine does not fall under the scope of this ban so long as it does not intersect with alternative medicine. DrChrissy is also topic banned from human health and medicine, and WP:MEDRS related discussions, broadly construed."

Remedies of the case include discretionary sanctions covering pages relating to GMOs, agricultural biotechnology, and agricultural chemicals, as well as editors being prohibited to revert pages related to the topic more than once per day. DrChrissy, Jytdog, SageRad, and Wuerzele were all topic banned, with DrChrissy and Jytdog having an interaction ban placed between the two. Jytdog also received an admonishment for their poor civility.


 * Current open cases
 * Catflap08 and Hijiri88: Currently in its Proposed Decision phase.
 * Arbitration enforcement 2: Currently in its Proposed Decision phase.


 * In brief
 * Kharkiv07 appointed as a trainee clerk: On 13 December, the Arbitration Committee approved as a new trainee ArbCom clerk. This is the second trainee clerk approved by the Committee this month.