Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-02-27/Arbitration report
Final decision in TimidGuy ban appeal, one case remains open
The Arbitration Committee opened no new cases this week but closed one case, leaving one open.
Closed cases
TimidGuy ban appeal (Week 11)
- Jimmy Wales' ban of TimidGuy is vacated.
- Will Beback is desysopped for conduct unbecoming an administrator.
- Will Beback is indefinitely topic banned from pages related to new religious movements.
- Will Beback is indefinitely banned from the English Wikipedia
This case was brought to the Committee by TimidGuy to appeal a ban that was imposed on him by Jimbo Wales. The case was closed today after a week of voting by arbitrators. Passing principles include a statement of the jurisdiction of the Arbitration Committee, which includes a broad ability to hear the "appeals [of] blocked, banned, or otherwise restricted users". Additionally, the decision states that there is no opportunity for a further appeal to Jimbo Wales if the Committee is reviewing a ban originally imposed by Jimbo Wales.
Along with the principles discussed in the case, a long series of findings of fact are listed regarding the circumstances of the ban of TimidGuy, and the nature of his appeal. After finding that the basis for the original ban was likely invalid, the decision vacated Jimbo Wales' ban of TimidGuy. The administrator who originally sought the ban for TimidGuy, Will Beback, was desysopped and indefinitely banned as a result of his "disruptive conduct". This site ban proposal divided the Committee, passing by a vote of 8–4.
Open cases
Article titles and capitalization (Week 5)
This case was opened to review alleged disruptive editing on the Manual of Style and other pages pertaining to article naming. The workshop phase was extended by arbitrator AGK to 26 February. AGK stated on the workshop talk page that an outline of the proposed decision would be posted early this week with the final draft of the proposals to be posted by 4 March.
Other requests and committee action
- A Request for Arbitration concerning a dispute over Croatia-related articles has been declined.
- The structured community discussion that was mandated in the Abortion case has commenced. The discussion, which is to take place at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Abortion article titles, is to be closed by administrators HJ Mitchell, Black Kite and EyeSerene.
Discuss this story
2.4) Will Beback is indefinitely banned from English Wikipedia. After six months, he may appeal his ban to the Arbitration Committee, provided he is able to demonstrate to the Arbitration Committee that his history of disruptive conduct will not continue seems like a heavy handed approach towards Will Beback. How can he demonstrate that he will behave like a good boy, when he is kicked off Wikipedia? It looks like an impossible condition! In my opinion, a ban of 1 or 2 years would have been better. This ruling also shows that is should be easier for the Community and the ArbCom, to desysop an admin after two admonishments. Reading it from the sideline, I get the idea that the case was not escalated that far when he was desysopped after the second admonishment and subsequent ban. Night of the Big Wind talk 04:40, 28 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]