Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-05-14/Arbitration report

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< Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost | 2007-05-14

The Report on Lengthy Litigation

By Thatcher131, 14 May 2007

The Arbitration Committee opened two cases this week, and closed one case. The committee is also voting on whether to lift Dmcdevit's ban on Koavf (talk · contribs) without a full hearing.

Closed cases

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. In the final decision, Falun Gong is placed on article probation, Mcconn is placed on revert parole, and Samual Luo and Tomananda are banned from editing articles related to Falun Gong or their talk pages.

New cases

Abu badali: A case alleging that Abu badali (talk · contribs) has disruptively tagged non-free images for deletion, even when a valid fair-use justification exists, and has harassed editors who have complained about this behavior.

Henrygb: A case filed by David Gerard alleging that administrator Henrygb (talk · contribs) has used sockpuppets disruptively.

Evidence phase

NYScholar: A case involving the actions of a number of users, including NYScholar (talk · contribs) and Notmyrealname (talk · contribs), in relation to the Lewis Libby article.

Hkelkar 2: A case involving the actions of Rama's Arrow (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights), Bakasuprman (talk · contribs), Dangerous-Boy (talk · contribs) and Sbhushan (talk · contribs), Rama's Arrow alleges that the others acted as meatpuppets of banned user Hkelkar, and blocked them for six months. They deny the allegations, and allege that Rama's Arrow acted improperly in blocking them, and in posting private e-mails to WP:AN/I

Piotrus: A case involving administrator Piotrus (talk · contribs) and other editors on Eastern Europe related articles. Multiple parties accuse others of edit warring, incivility, unethical behavior and biased editing. (An earlier arbitration case, Piotrus-Ghirla, was dismissed without prejudice in part due to inactivity of Ghirlandajo (talk · contribs), who was listed a party in the new case.)

TingMing: A case involving the actions of TingMing (talk · contribs). Ideogram (talk · contribs) alleges that he has engaged in "controversial edits", edit warring, incivility, and possibly sockpuppetry. TinMing denies the allegations, and alleges incivility on the part of Ideogram.

Paranormal: A case involving the actions of various users, especially as regards WP:NPOV and WP:ATT, on "articles on paranormal and pseudoscientific topics", such as parapsychology and Electronic voice phenomenon.

Transnistria: A case involving the actions of MariusM (talk · contribs) and William Mauco (talk · contribs) on Transnistria-related articles. MariusM alleges that Mauco (who has not made a statement because he is blocked) has engaged in sockpuppetry, edit warring and other misconduct.

Tobias Conradi: A case involving the actions of Tobias Conradi (talk · contribs) who, while acknowledged as a productive contributor, has been called incivil on various occasions.

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 enforceable mediation was passed.

Voting

Zeq-Zero0000: A case involving the actions of Zeq (talk · contribs) and Zero0000 (talk · contribs). Zero alleges that Zeq has engaged in POV-pushing, while Zeq alleges that Zero has misused administrative tools in blocking him, the case in particular involving the question of whether probations, article bans, etc. can be enforced by involved admins. The arbitrators have considered several different versions of a principle covering to what degree involved administrators may enforce probation; none yet has majority support. A majority of the arbitrators have voted to advise Zero0000 not to take further administrative actions against Zeq, including enforcement of probation, and to admonish Zero0000 that editors who are not restricted in their editing of a page or area are entitled to be accorded good faith and be treated with respect and courtesy. Arbitrator Fred Bauder proposed banning Zeq from editing articles related to the Israel-Palestine conflict, but no other arbitrator has voted in support.

Motion for unblock of Koavf

Koavf (talk · contribs) was blocked indefinitely on November 10, 2006 by administrator Dmcdevit (talk · contribs) for editing warring, disruptive editing and exhausting the community's patience, following a discussion on the administrators' noticeboard. Koavf contacted the arbitration committee by e-mail, and after a discussion on the closed ArbCom mailing list, arbitrator Flcelloguy (talk · contribs) made a motion on the main Requests for arbitration page to unblock Koavf and place him on revert parole, without opening and considering a full arbitration case. The motion currently has the support of four arbitrators (out of 6 needed for a majority).