Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Noticeboard

Arbitration​Committee

This noticeboard is for announcements and statements made by the Arbitration Committee. Only members of the Arbitration Committee or the Committee's Clerks may post on this page, but all editors are encouraged to comment on the talk page.

Announcement archives: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7

Announcements

Arbitration Committee 2010

FloNight has retired from the Arbitration Committee with effect from 23:59 31 December 2009 (UTC) on the completion of her three-year term as an arbitrator. Our thanks go to her for her careful and devoted work during her incumbency.

Stephen Bain also formally ends his term on 31 December 2009 but, per usual custom and practice, will remain on the committee until all cases in which he has participated close.

Kirill Lokshin and Coren return to the committee following re-election.

The committee also welcomes seven newly-seated arbitrators: Fritzpoll, Mailer diablo, Steve Smith, SirFozzie, Hersfold, KnightLago and Shell Kinney.

A full list of arbitrators may be found here.

For the Arbitration Committee,  Roger Davies ^talk 01:05, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

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User:GlassCobra

ArbCom decision to desysop

GlassCobra's administrator privileges are restored, effective 11 January 2010. He/She is reminded to abide by all policies and guidelines governing the conduct of administrators.

• Support: Carcharoth, Coren, Fritzpoll, Mailer Diablo, Newyorkbrad, Rlevse, Roger Davies, Shell Kinney, SirFozzie, Vassyana, Wizardman
• Oppose: FayssalF, KnightLago, Steve Smith
• Abstain: None
• Recuse: Cool Hand Luke, Kirill, Risker
• Not voting: Hersfold, Stephen Bain.

For the Arbitration Committee,  Roger Davies ^talk 06:43, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

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Ban Appeal Subcommittee

The Ban Appeal Subcommittee membership for January 2010 comprises: Fritzpoll, Shell Kinney and SirFozzie.

For the Arbitration Committee,  Roger Davies ^talk 06:53, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

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Audit Subcommittee

Three arbitrator members serve staggered six-month terms on the Audit Subcommittee ("AUSC"). One arbitrator vacancy was created by FloNight's retirement from the Arbitration Committee on 31 December 2009 and a second by Newyorkbrad stepping down from the subcommittee with immediate effect. Risker has the third seat. The two vacant seats will be filled by:

• Kirill Lokshin taking a six-month term to replace FloNight and
• Rlevse taking over the unexpired part of Newyorkbrad's term.

The arbitrator members of AUSC (and the end-dates of their respective terms) are therefore: Risker (28 February 2010), Rlevse (30 April 2010) and Kirill Lokshin (30 June 2010). The "at-large" members remain unaffected and are: Dominic, Jredmond, and Tznkai.

For the Arbitration Committee,  Roger Davies ^talk 04:01, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

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Emergency desysop: User:Cool3

Cool3 (talk · contribs) has been temporarily desysopped because the account has been certified by checkusers as a confirmed sockpuppet of a banned user, Thekohser. The desysop was done under emergency procedures and was in turn certified by Arbitrators Rlevse, Mailer diablo and SirFozzie.

For the Arbitration Committee,  Roger Davies ^talk 23:25, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

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Appeals to BASC: Shamir1 & DollyD

The Ban Appeals Subcommittee has allowed the appeals of:

• Shamir1 (talk · contribs)
• DollyD (talk · contribs)

The text of the decisions and associated restrictions have been posted on the applicable user talk pages.

For the Arbitration Committee,  Roger Davies ^talk 21:20, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

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Arbitration clerks

The Arbitration clerks welcome the following users to the clerk team as trainees:

• AlexandrDmitri (talk · contribs)
• Amorymeltzer (talk · contribs)
• DoriSmith (talk · contribs)
• MBK004 (talk · contribs)

The clerk team as well as the committee would also like to congratulate the following clerks who have been confirmed as "full clerks":

• Dougweller (talk · contribs)
• Lankiveil (talk · contribs)
• Seddon (talk · contribs)

On behalf of the Arbitration Committee,

Tiptoety ^talk 04:48, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

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Arbitration motion regarding Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Falun Gong

Per a motion at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Amendment:

Imposition of discretionary sanctions

The Falun Gong decision is modified as follows:

(a) The article probation clause (remedy #1) is rescinded.

(b) Standard discretionary sanctions (Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Discretionary sanctions) are authorized for "Falun Gong" and all closely related articles.

This modification does not affect any actions previously taken under the article probation clause; these actions shall remain in force.

On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, Tiptoety ^talk 07:27, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

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Vassyana

The Arbitration Committee has, with regret, accepted the resignation of Arbitrator Vassyana, due to off-wiki commitments, and wishes to take this opportunity to thank him for his dedicated service. Vassyana will retain his CheckUser permissions and his status as a Functionary.  Roger Davies ^talk 07:28, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

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Motion regarding BLP deletions

The Arbitration Committee has passed a motion in lieu of a full case regarding the BLP deletions request. The text of the motion is as follows:

The Committee has examined this matter. In light of the following considerations:

• That the core principles of the policy on biographies of living people—in particular, neutrality and verifiability—have been set forth by the Wikimedia Foundation as a mandate for all projects;
• That the policy on biographies of living people, and this Committee's ruling in the Badlydrawnjeff case, call for the removal of poorly sourced and controversial content, and places the burden of demonstrating compliance on those who wish to see the content included;
• That unsourced biographies of living people may contain seemingly innocuous statements which are actually damaging, but there is no way to determine whether they do without providing sources;
• That Wikipedia, through the founding principle of "Ignore All Rules", has traditionally given administrators wide discretion to enforce policies and principles using their own best judgment; and
• That administrators have been instructed to aggressively enforce the policy on biographies of living people.

The Committee has determined that:

• The deletions carried out by Rdm2376, Scott MacDonald, and various other administrators are a reasonable exercise of administrative discretion to enforce the policy on biographies of living people.
• The administrators who carried out these actions are commended for their efforts to enforce policy and uphold the quality of the encyclopedia, but are urged to conduct future activities in a less chaotic manner.
• The administrators who interfered with these actions are reminded that the enforcement of the policy on biographies of living people takes precedence over mere procedural concerns.

The Committee hereby proclaims an amnesty for all editors who may have overstepped the bounds of policy in this matter. Everyone is asked to continue working together to improve and uphold the goals of our project. The Committee recommends, in particular, that a request for comments be opened to centralize discussion on the most efficient way to proceed with the effective enforcement of the policy on biographies of living people.

For the Arbitration Committee,

Seddon ^talk|^WikimediaUK 19:05, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

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Audit Subcommittee appointment

Three arbitrator members serve staggered six-month terms on the Audit Subcommittee ("AUSC"). One arbitrator vacancy has been created by Rlevse stepping down from the Subcommittee with immediate effect, because of unanticipated commitments. The vacant seat has been filled by SirFozzie. The arbitrator members of AUSC (and the end-dates of their respective terms) are therefore: Risker (28 February 2010), Kirill Lokshin (30 June 2010), and SirFozzie (31 July 2010). The "at-large" members remain unaffected and are: Dominic, Jredmond, and Tznkai.

For the Arbitration Committee,  Roger Davies ^talk 20:19, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

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Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Tothwolf

This arbitration case has been closed and the final decision is available at the link above.

• User:Tothwolf is subject to an editing restriction for six months. Should Tothwolf make any edits which are judged by an administrator to be uncivil, personal attacks, or assumptions of bad faith, Tothwolf may be blocked for the duration specified in the enforcement ruling below.

• User:JBsupreme is warned to refrain from incivility and personal attacks.

• User:Miami33139 and and User:JBsupreme are reminded to observe deletion best practices when nominating articles for deletion, including the consideration of alternatives to deletion such as merging articles or curing problems through editing.

• The parties in particular, and other editors generally, are reminded to observe at all times Wikipedia's policies and guidelines on dealing with harassed editors and on handling conflicts of interest.

• Should any user subject to an editing restriction in this case violate that restriction, that user may be briefly blocked, up to a week in the event of repeated violations. After five blocks, the maximum block shall increase to one month. All blocks are to be logged at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Tothwolf#Log of blocks and bans.

For the Arbitration Committee, Dougweller (talk) 21:29, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

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Appeal to BASC: Green Squares

The Ban Appeals Subcommittee has allowed the appeal of:

• Green Squares (talk · contribs)

The text of the decision and associated restrictions has been posted on the editor's talk page.

For the Arbitration Committee,  Roger Davies ^talk 06:56, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

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Stephen Bain

With the conclusion of the Tothwolf case, which he drafted, Stephen Bain has now retired as an arbitrator. His term formally ended on 31 December 2009 but, by long tradition, he remained on the committee until all matters in which he had participated had concluded. He has relinquished his CheckUser and OverSight permissions but remains on the Functionaries mailing list. The Arbitration Committee thanks Stephen for his hard work over the past two years.

For the Arbitration Committee,  Roger Davies ^talk 16:54, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

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Arbitration motion regarding Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Speed of light

Per a motion at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Amendment:

1) Exception to topic ban

Brews ohare (talk · contribs) is permitted to participate in featured article candidacy discussions for "Speed of light" for the sole purpose of discussing the images used in the article. This shall constitute an exception to the topic ban imposed on him (remedy #4.2).

2) Second exception to topic ban

Brews ohare (talk · contribs) is permitted to edit images used in the "Speed of light" article to address issues regarding the images that arise in connection with the article's featured article candidacies. This shall constitute an exception to the topic ban imposed on him (remedy #4.2).

On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, ~ Amory (u • t • c) 02:21, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

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Arbitration motion regarding Eastern European mailing list (1)

Per a motion at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Amendment:

1) Topic ban narrowed

The topic ban applied to Radeksz (talk · contribs) is amended. Radeksz may edit the articles listed here solely to add references and to make such incidental changes as may be necessary to bring the article into compliance with the sources used. In the event that any such edits become contentious, Radeksz is expected to cease involvement in the relevant article.

2) Tagging and categorizing of unreferenced Poland-related BLPs allowed

The topic ban applied to Radeksz (talk · contribs) is amended. Radeksz may create a category for unreferenced Polish-related biographies of living persons, tag articles for inclusion in that category, and announce the category's existence at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Poland.

On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, -- Александр Дмитрий (Alexandr Dmitri) (talk) 10:41, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

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Arbitration motion regarding Eastern European mailing list (2)

Per a motion at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Amendment:

Malik Shabazz, Xavexgoem, and Durova are authorized to act as proxies for Piotrus by editing, at his direction, the Lech Wałęsa article, its talk page, and any process pages directly related to its nomination for Good Article status.

On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, -- Александр Дмитрий (Alexandr Dmitri) (talk) 10:44, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

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Arbitration motion regarding User:Craigy144

Per a motion at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case:

Summary motion in lieu of a full case:

1. Key principle:

   Administrators are trusted members of the community and are expected to lead by example and follow Wikipedia policies. Occasional mistakes are entirely compatible with this as administrators are not expected to be perfect though they are expected to learn from experience and from justified criticisms of their actions. However, consistently or egregiously poor judgment or sustained disruption of Wikipedia is incompatible with this trusted role and administrators who repeatedly engage in inappropriate activity may be desysopped by the Arbitration Committee.

2. Summary of evidence:

   (i) Craigy144 has repeatedly posted text and images which do not fully comply with the relevant policies.

   (ii) Craigy144's actions have received much comment but he/she has failed to respond to it.

   (iii) Craigy144 has not so far responded to this Request for Arbitration nor provided an explanation for his/her conduct.

3. Remedy:

   Craigy144 is temporarily desysopped until such time as he/she provides the committee with a satisfactory explanation of his/her conduct.

On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, Tiptoety ^talk 20:48, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

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Arbitration motion regarding Abd-William M. Connolley

Per a motion at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Clarification:

1) Abd and William M. Connolley prohibited from interacting
Abd (talk · contribs) and William M. Connolley (talk · contribs) shall not interact with each other, nor comment in any way (directly or indirectly) about each other, on any page in Wikipedia. Should either editor do so, he may be blocked by any administrator for a short time, up to one week.

On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, ~ Amory (u • t • c) 23:47, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

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Oversighter retirements

Taxman (talk · contribs) and Sam Korn (talk · contribs) are now withdrawn from the ranks of oversighters, after an extended period of inactivity in this role. The Arbitration Committee extends its thanks to each of them for their diligent efforts as long-serving functionaries.

For the Arbitration Committee,
Risker (talk) 02:45, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

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Appeal to BASC: User Mjgm84

The Ban Appeals Subcommittee has allowed the appeal of:

• Mjgm84 (talk · contribs)

The text of the decision has been posted on the editor's talk page.

For the Arbitration Committee, Shell ^babelfish 03:53, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

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Appeal to BASC: Offliner

The Ban Appeals Subcommittee has allowed the appeal of:

• Offliner (talk · contribs)

The text of the decision has been posted on the editor's talk page.

For the Arbitration Committee, Shell ^babelfish 22:56, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

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Statement on the block of Roux

After being blocked, Roux (talk · contribs) sent the blocking admin an email calling him an obscenity. The block may be reviewed by the community in ordinary fashion. Roux is, of course, free to contact unblock-en-l if he is dissatisfied.

For the Arbitration Committee, Cool Hand Luke 16:53, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

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Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/MZMcBride 2

This arbitration case has been closed and the final decision is available at the link above. The following remedies have been enacted:

• As User:MZMcBride resigned his adminship while a request for arbitration was pending against him, he may regain adminship only through a new request for adminship or by application to this Committee. To the extent MZMcBride requests that he be allowed to regain adminship by simple request to a bureaucrat, his request is denied, in large measure because his conduct would likely have led to a significant sanction against him had he not resigned;

• MZMcBride is admonished for failing to learn from the lessons of the past and for creating avoidable drama;

• MZMcBride is admonished for facilitating vandalism by a banned user.

For the Arbitration Committee, -- Александр Дмитрий (Alexandr Dmitri) (talk) 21:58, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

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Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Chabad movement

This arbitration case has been closed and the final decision is available at the link above. Editors are reminded to keep in mind Wikipedia policies, and seek content-dispute resolution if collaboration between editors breaks down. Editors are also reminded to continue editing in good faith. No enforcement motions are included in the final decision, but a request may be made to reopen the case should the situation deteriorate.

For the Arbitration Committee, Lankiveil ^{(speak to me)} 07:58, 13 February 2010 (UTC).

Arbitration motion regarding Eastern European mailing list (3)

Per a motion at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Amendment:

1) Topic ban narrowed (Radeksz)

The topic ban applied to Radeksz (talk · contribs) is amended. Radeksz may edit articles in Category:Poland related unreferenced BLP as of February 8, 2010, solely to add references and to make such incidental changes as may be necessary to bring the article into compliance with the sources used. In the event that any such edits become contentious, Radeksz is expected to cease involvement in the relevant article.

2) Topic ban narrowed (Martintg)

The topic ban applied to Martintg (talk · contribs) is amended. Martintg may edit the articles listed here solely to add references and to make such incidental changes as may be necessary to bring the article into compliance with the sources used. In the event that any such edits become contentious, Martintg is expected to cease involvement in the relevant article.

On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, ~ Amory (u • t • c) 18:07, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

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Appeal to BASC: WVBluefield

The Ban Appeals Subcommittee has allowed the appeal of:

• WVBluefield (talk · contribs)

The text of the decision has been posted on the editor's talk page.

For the Arbitration Committee, Shell ^babelfish 23:26, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

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Resignation of Fritzpoll

It is with great regret that the Arbitration Committee has accepted the resignation of Fritzpoll (talk · contribs). The Committee extends its thanks to Fritzpoll for all of his work, both with the Arbitration Committee, and as a longtime Wikipedia contributor and administrator. We wish him the best in his future activities.

For the Arbitration Committee,
Risker (talk) 22:58, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

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Ban Appeal Subcommittee membership

Rlevse has replaced Fritzpoll on the Ban Appeal Subcommittee. Its current membership is therefore: Shell Kinney, SirFozzie and Rlevse.

For the Arbitration Committee,  Roger Davies ^talk 07:34, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

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Motions regarding Herostratus and Viridae

Per motions at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Motions:

1) Herostratus strongly admonished

For failing to adhere to the standard of decorum expected of administrators, and for unblocking himself in direct contravention of blocking policy, Herostratus is strongly admonished.

2) Viridae admonished

For blocking another administrator without full knowledge of the situation at hand, and without attempting to contact the administrator to obtain such knowledge, Viridae is admonished for the poor judgment exercised in this incident.

On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, ~ Amory (u • t • c) 15:37, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

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Arbitration motion regarding Ireland article names

Per motions at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Clarification:

1) The Arbitration Committee notes that the conditions put forward by remedies during the Ireland article names arbitration case were fulfilled to the Committee's satisfaction and that, as a consequence, remedy 4 ("[...] no further page moves discussions related to these articles shall be initiated for a period of 2 years.") is in force until September 18, 2011.

2) While the related matter of how to refer to Ireland/Republic of Ireland in other places (such as articles) is not directly covered by the aforementioned remedies, the Committee takes notes of the existence of a de facto consensus on the matter owing to the stability of the Ireland manual of style and enjoins the community to avoid needlessly rehashing the disputes.

On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, ~ Amory (u • t • c) 16:34, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

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Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/ChildofMidnight

This arbitration case has been closed and the final decision is available at the link above.

• User:ChildofMidnight is banned from Wikipedia for one year.

• User:ChildofMidnight is restricted to editing main (article) space, the talk pages of articles he has edited, Template talk:Did you know, and his own talk and user talk pages only. In all cases he is forbidden from discussing the behavior of other editors, real or perceived, outside of his own user talk page. ChildofMidnight may apply to the Committee for exemptions to this restriction for the purposes of good faith dispute resolution on a case-by-case basis. This remedy is concurrent (and cumulative) with any extant topic bans, and consecutive to any editing ban.

On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, ~ Amory (u • t • c) 03:39, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

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Motions regarding Trusilver and Arbitration Enforcement

Per motions at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case:

1) The unblock of User:Brews ohare by User:Trusilver was done without the explicit written consent of the Arbitration Committee, or a full and active community discussion as required. The Arbitration Committee explicitly rejects Trusilver's defense of WP:IAR in this situation. However, since the block has since expired, it will not be reapplied. For misuse of his administrator tools, User:Trusilver's administrator rights are revoked. He may regain them through a new WP:RfA or through a request to the Arbitration Committee.

2) The Arbitration Committee modifies the Restriction on arbitration enforcement activity as follows:

Administrators are prohibited from reversing or overturning (explicitly or in substance) any action taken by another administrator pursuant to the terms of an active arbitration remedy, and explicitly noted as being taken to enforce said remedy, except:

(a) with the written authorization of the Committee, or

(b) following a clear, substantial, and active consensus of uninvolved editors at a community discussion noticeboard (such as WP:AN or WP:ANI). If consensus in such discussions is hard to judge or unclear, the parties should submit a request for clarification on the proper page.

Any administrator that overturns an enforcement action outside of these circumstances shall be subject to appropriate sanctions, up to and including desysopping, at the discretion of the Committee.

Administrators who consistently make questionable enforcement administrative actions, or whose actions are consistently overturned by community or Arbitration Committee discussions may be asked to cease performing such activities or be formally restricted from taking such activities.

On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, ~ Amory (u • t • c) 03:58, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

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