Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-04-09/Arbitration report

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Wikipedia Signpost


The Report on Lengthy Litigation

By Ral315, 9 April 2007

The Arbitration Committee opened three cases this week, and closed three cases.

Closed cases

  • Darwinek: A case involving the actions of an administrator, Darwinek. The initiator of the case, Thatcher131, alleged that Darwinek had improperly blocked other users, misused the administrator rollback tool, edit-warred, and made uncivil comments. Darwinek promised not to misuse his powers again in the future. As a result of the case, Darwinek was desysopped, with the right to seek adminship in the future either through a new RfA or by appeal to the Arbitration Committee. He was also placed on civility parole for one year.
  • Lukas19-LSLM: A case involving the conduct of Lukas19 and LSLM. Each party alleged incivility by the other. As a result of the case, Lukas19 and LSLM were each found to have engaged in tendentious disruptive editing and banned from Wikipedia for one year.
  • InShaneee: A case involving the actions of administrator Inshaneee. 81.179.115.188 (formerly Worldtraveller) alleged that InShaneee inappropriately blocked him in a dispute in which InShaneee was involved, in violation of the blocking policy, and that InShaneee responded aggressively to criticism. InShaneee in his statement pointed to an apology admitting the block was premature, and denied any aggressive response. As a result of the case, InShaneee was admonished and his administrator privileges were suspended for 10 days. Worldtraveller was urged to resume contributing to Wikipedia.

New cases

  • Billy Ego-Sandstein: A case involving the actions of Billy Ego and administrator Sandstein. Billy Ego alleged that Sandstein misused his administrator powers by removing disputed material from Billy Ego's userpage and blocking him when it was restored. Much of the evidence presented, however, has focused on Billy Ego's own behavior, and a remedy banning Billy Ego from Wikipedia for one year for disruptive and provocative editing currently has the support of four arbitrators.
  • E104421-Tajik: A case involving the actions of E104421 and Tajik. The case was opened, but a motion to suspend the case pending a referral to community-based mediation has the support of five arbitrators.

Evidence phase

  • Betacommand: A case involving the actions of Betacommand. Some of Betacommand's blocks have been questioned, and his bot-related actions have led to his removal from the bot approvals group. Betacommand has noted that he makes numerous username-related blocks, and that most of his blocks were appropriate. Whether Betacommand used his administrative account for bot-related activity, whether he is unique in doing so, and whether such an action should be allowed or not, have also been questioned.

Voting phase

  • Freedom skies: A case involving the actions of Freedom skies. JFD and others allege that he has edit warred to push his point of view. He denies the allegations. A remedy to place Freedom skies on revert parole has the support of two arbitrators.
  • Falun Gong: A case regarding the conduct of various editors on the Falun Gong article. Olaf Stephanos and Asdfg12345 allege that Samuel Luo has edit-warred in removing pro-Falun Gong material from the article, while Luo, Tomananda and others allege that Stephanos, Asdfg and others have edit-warred (including page blanking) in removing anti-Falun Gong material. A remedy placing Falun Gong on article probation has the support of Kirill Lokshin and Fred Bauder; a series of other remedies placing various users on revert parole and/or banning them from Falun Gong and related articles and talk pages have been proposed.

Motion to close


Also this week: Danny re-adminnedElection leaksAMA debateWikiWorldNews and notesPress coverageFeatures and adminsTechnologyArbitration