The Signpost

Arbitration report

Manipulation of BLPs case opened; one case comes to a close

The Arbitration Committee closed one case, and opened a new case this week. There are now two open cases.

Closed case

MickMacNee (Week 8)

The case was opened to examine allegations of incivility, unnecessary aggression, battleground behavior, and disruptive editing, as well as inappropriate and unnecessary use of the blocking tool. A few days after the case was opened, arbitrator Risker blocked the filer of the case, Chester Markel (talk · contribs), as a sockpuppet of a banned user. To mitigate the potential influence on the end result of the case, the sockpuppet-filer's proposals and evidence were collapsed/archived. 13 users, including the blocked sockpuppet-filer, submitted on-wiki evidence in this case, while arbitrators, parties and others submitted various comments in the workshop. Drafter Kirill Lokshin submitted proposed principles for comment, but did not propose editor-specific rulings in the workshop. During the week, these principles and the remainder of the proposed decision were submitted for arbitrators to vote on, before the case came to a close.

What is the effect of this decision and what does it tell us?

Open cases

Following a request for arbitration, the Committee passed a motion to accept two separate cases (which are currently open). No other cases are currently open.

This case, the first of a pair of cases, was opened a fortnight ago, to examine the conduct of Cirt (talk · contribs) and Jayen466 (talk · contribs) – including articles about new religious movements (broadly construed) and BLPs, as well as interpersonal conduct issues arising between Cirt and Jayen466. The Committee determined that for this case, those two users will be the only parties and that evidence in relation to broader issues or other editors is not permitted – instead, such evidence will be allowed in the second of the two cases ("Manipulation of BLPs", below). During the week, several editors submitted on-wiki evidence. Arbitrators have extended the evidence phase of this case by one week; this means that the evidence phase is now expected to close on 15 August 2011.

This case, the second of a pair of cases, was opened this week, to examine meta-behavioural issues and to reconcile relevant principles. During the week, several editors submitted on-wiki evidence.



















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