With the Arbitration Committee elections for 2021 currently underway, it seems unfitting that the Signpost hasn't had a full arbitration report all year. A lot has happened in the last year: twelve motions were made, twenty-two cases were declined, one was dismissed, one was suspended, and six were closed. Three admins were desysopped, and one seemingly-nascent RfA candidate was indefinitely blocked as a sockpuppet of a Foundation-banned user. Additionally, the most active area of discretionary sanctions ( American politics 2) had its scope redefined significantly. All in all, a total of 809 arbitration enforcement actions were logged, including in relatively new enforcement areas like COVID-19.
Without further ado, let's go over it!
Eleven candidates stood for the December 2020 Arbitration Committee Elections (with twelve nominations, of whom one withdrew prior to the start of voting). Among them were two non-administrators, two current arbitration clerks, and two sitting arbitrators from the December 2019 term.
In order of nomination, the candidates were:
The seven candidates elected included five new arbitrators (Barkeep49, BDD, CaptainEek, L235, and Primefac), as well as the reelection of both sitting arbitrators (Bradv and Maxim).
In January, Tranche Beta arbitrator Xeno resigned, saying:
Since then, the Arbitration Committee has consisted of fourteen members (the above-mentioned Tranche Alpha, in addition to Casliber, Beeblebrox, David Fuchs, KrakatoaKatie, Newyorkbrad, SoWhy, and Worm That Turned).
In February, a formal structure for case workflow (initiated by Beeblebrox) was passed 8–0 with one abstention. The motion formally instituted a workflow structure for the Committee's internal handling of accepted cases (including an evidence phase, workshop phase, and proposed decision phase). The drafting arbitrator can add, remove, or extend phases according to their discretion; they can also choose to take actions like enforce threaded discussions or institute word limits on parties to a case. These parties can petition for changes to the rules in their case.
In March, a community consultation was opened regarding the practice of discretionary sanctions. This discussion concluded in May, reaching "a consensus that Discretionary Sanctions serves a purpose and remains effective in creating conditions for high quality information to be presented to our readers". Also in March, a majority of the Arbitration Committee signed an Open Letter from Arbcoms to the Board of Trustees, drafted over several months by many Committees across a variety of Wikimedia projects. The letter was included in the previous (March 2021) Signpost arbitration report, as well as a more detailed explanation of its intent and purpose.
In April, two actions were taken in the interest of increasing transparency. First, an appeals report page was created, at which arbitrators now publish periodic reports on private ban/block appeals. Later, a motion was passed regarding the Committee's retention policy on personally identifying information: an annual "examination" of the ArbCom wiki (to take place every April) was established, in which information would be "considered no longer necessary if the user has not edited under any account for a significant number of years or if the reason for the private information to be held has passed".
In September, a motion passed to amend certain Arbitration Committee "500/30" remedies, which required that editors have 500 edits and 30 days on their account prior to editing in certain areas. The amendment changed the language of the remedies to instead say " extended confirmed restrictions" were in place (which, at the time of the motion, was identical to 500/30).
New trainee clerks appointed the year 2021 include CodeLyoko, Firefly, MJL, and GeneralNotability (the latter of whom was promoted to full clerk in October).
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Motions | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 12 | ||||
Declined | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 22 |
Dismissed | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Closed | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||||||
Suspended | 1 | 1 |
Sanction area | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Article titles and capitalisation | 0 | ||||||||||||
Catflap08 and Hijiri88 | 0 | ||||||||||||
Civility in infobox discussions | 0 | ||||||||||||
Climate change | 0 | ||||||||||||
Electronic Cigarettes | 0 | ||||||||||||
Genetically modified organisms | 0 | ||||||||||||
German war effort | 0 | ||||||||||||
Gun control | 0 | ||||||||||||
Medicine | 0 | ||||||||||||
September 11 conspiracy theories | 0 | ||||||||||||
Abortion | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Falun Gong 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Infoboxes | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Pseudoscience | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Scientology | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
BLP issues on British politics articles | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
Macedonia | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
Shakespeare authorship question | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
The Troubles | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||
Race and intelligence | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||
Acupuncture | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||||||||
Iranian politics | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 6 | ||||||||
Antisemitism in Poland | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 11 | ||||
Motorsports | 10 | 1 | 11 | ||||||||||
Horn of Africa | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 16 | ||||
COVID-19 (individual sanctions) | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 22 | |||||
Kurds and Kurdistan | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 25 | ||
Armenia-Azerbaijan 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 34 | ||
Gender and sexuality | 8 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 57 | ||
Eastern Europe | 7 | 14 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 63 | ||
COVID-19 (page-level restrictions) | 6 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 73 | |
India-Pakistan-Afghanistan | 5 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 21 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 77 | |
Palestine-Israel articles | 12 | 6 | 17 | 7 | 21 | 13 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 104 | |
American politics 2 | 23 | 20 | 17 | 18 | 7 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 143 | |
Biographies of Living Persons | 28 | 20 | 17 | 18 | 7 | 12 | 5 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 143 | |
Total | 97 | 113 | 96 | 81 | 48 | 83 | 59 | 82 | 66 | 61 | 23 | 0 | 809 |
So far, a total of 809 enforcement actions have been logged in 2021. These include a few in rarely-seen areas like Falun Gong, Scientology and Macedonia; the bulk of enforcement, however, occurred in traditionally contentious areas like Israel- Palestine and American politics 2. The most active category, however, was Biographies of Living Persons, at 143 logged actions.
With the Arbitration Committee elections for 2021 currently underway, it seems unfitting that the Signpost hasn't had a full arbitration report all year. A lot has happened in the last year: twelve motions were made, twenty-two cases were declined, one was dismissed, one was suspended, and six were closed. Three admins were desysopped, and one seemingly-nascent RfA candidate was indefinitely blocked as a sockpuppet of a Foundation-banned user. Additionally, the most active area of discretionary sanctions ( American politics 2) had its scope redefined significantly. All in all, a total of 809 arbitration enforcement actions were logged, including in relatively new enforcement areas like COVID-19.
Without further ado, let's go over it!
Eleven candidates stood for the December 2020 Arbitration Committee Elections (with twelve nominations, of whom one withdrew prior to the start of voting). Among them were two non-administrators, two current arbitration clerks, and two sitting arbitrators from the December 2019 term.
In order of nomination, the candidates were:
The seven candidates elected included five new arbitrators (Barkeep49, BDD, CaptainEek, L235, and Primefac), as well as the reelection of both sitting arbitrators (Bradv and Maxim).
In January, Tranche Beta arbitrator Xeno resigned, saying:
Since then, the Arbitration Committee has consisted of fourteen members (the above-mentioned Tranche Alpha, in addition to Casliber, Beeblebrox, David Fuchs, KrakatoaKatie, Newyorkbrad, SoWhy, and Worm That Turned).
In February, a formal structure for case workflow (initiated by Beeblebrox) was passed 8–0 with one abstention. The motion formally instituted a workflow structure for the Committee's internal handling of accepted cases (including an evidence phase, workshop phase, and proposed decision phase). The drafting arbitrator can add, remove, or extend phases according to their discretion; they can also choose to take actions like enforce threaded discussions or institute word limits on parties to a case. These parties can petition for changes to the rules in their case.
In March, a community consultation was opened regarding the practice of discretionary sanctions. This discussion concluded in May, reaching "a consensus that Discretionary Sanctions serves a purpose and remains effective in creating conditions for high quality information to be presented to our readers". Also in March, a majority of the Arbitration Committee signed an Open Letter from Arbcoms to the Board of Trustees, drafted over several months by many Committees across a variety of Wikimedia projects. The letter was included in the previous (March 2021) Signpost arbitration report, as well as a more detailed explanation of its intent and purpose.
In April, two actions were taken in the interest of increasing transparency. First, an appeals report page was created, at which arbitrators now publish periodic reports on private ban/block appeals. Later, a motion was passed regarding the Committee's retention policy on personally identifying information: an annual "examination" of the ArbCom wiki (to take place every April) was established, in which information would be "considered no longer necessary if the user has not edited under any account for a significant number of years or if the reason for the private information to be held has passed".
In September, a motion passed to amend certain Arbitration Committee "500/30" remedies, which required that editors have 500 edits and 30 days on their account prior to editing in certain areas. The amendment changed the language of the remedies to instead say " extended confirmed restrictions" were in place (which, at the time of the motion, was identical to 500/30).
New trainee clerks appointed the year 2021 include CodeLyoko, Firefly, MJL, and GeneralNotability (the latter of whom was promoted to full clerk in October).
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Motions | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 12 | ||||
Declined | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 22 |
Dismissed | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Closed | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||||||
Suspended | 1 | 1 |
Sanction area | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Article titles and capitalisation | 0 | ||||||||||||
Catflap08 and Hijiri88 | 0 | ||||||||||||
Civility in infobox discussions | 0 | ||||||||||||
Climate change | 0 | ||||||||||||
Electronic Cigarettes | 0 | ||||||||||||
Genetically modified organisms | 0 | ||||||||||||
German war effort | 0 | ||||||||||||
Gun control | 0 | ||||||||||||
Medicine | 0 | ||||||||||||
September 11 conspiracy theories | 0 | ||||||||||||
Abortion | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Falun Gong 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Infoboxes | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Pseudoscience | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Scientology | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
BLP issues on British politics articles | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
Macedonia | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
Shakespeare authorship question | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
The Troubles | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||
Race and intelligence | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||
Acupuncture | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||||||||
Iranian politics | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 6 | ||||||||
Antisemitism in Poland | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 11 | ||||
Motorsports | 10 | 1 | 11 | ||||||||||
Horn of Africa | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 16 | ||||
COVID-19 (individual sanctions) | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 22 | |||||
Kurds and Kurdistan | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 25 | ||
Armenia-Azerbaijan 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 34 | ||
Gender and sexuality | 8 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 57 | ||
Eastern Europe | 7 | 14 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 63 | ||
COVID-19 (page-level restrictions) | 6 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 73 | |
India-Pakistan-Afghanistan | 5 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 21 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 77 | |
Palestine-Israel articles | 12 | 6 | 17 | 7 | 21 | 13 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 104 | |
American politics 2 | 23 | 20 | 17 | 18 | 7 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 143 | |
Biographies of Living Persons | 28 | 20 | 17 | 18 | 7 | 12 | 5 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 143 | |
Total | 97 | 113 | 96 | 81 | 48 | 83 | 59 | 82 | 66 | 61 | 23 | 0 | 809 |
So far, a total of 809 enforcement actions have been logged in 2021. These include a few in rarely-seen areas like Falun Gong, Scientology and Macedonia; the bulk of enforcement, however, occurred in traditionally contentious areas like Israel- Palestine and American politics 2. The most active category, however, was Biographies of Living Persons, at 143 logged actions.
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