Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Party Guide/Final decision and afterwards

Arbitration​Committee

This is part of a series of guides for parties to an Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) case. The guides are:

Introduction to ArbCom for parties	The case request	Introduction to cases	Evidence phase	Workshop and analysis phase	Proposed decision	Final decision and afterwards

Once the voting on the proposed decision has a majority, a clerk will usually leave a comment in the implementation notes section of the proposed decision page, indicating which proposals pass and fail and the interpretation of any conditional votes on alternative proposals.

When the arbitrators are satisfied that the final decision reflects the consensus of the committee, an arbitrator will make a motion to close the case. The motion to close phase allows the arbitrators a final opportunity to review the case and the voting, to make sure that any conditional votes have been interpreted correctly and that the outcome of the case reflects their intent. Arbitrators may object to closing a case if they feel the decision is not clear, the interpretation is not correct, or to allow time for other arbitrators to cast their votes.

Cases will be closed by the clerks after the fourth net vote to close is made, but no sooner than 24 hours after the motion to close is made.

The decision will be published to the talk pages of the participants, to the Administrators' noticeboard, and to the Arbitration noticeboard. Any remedies (blocks, bans, article or editorial restrictions) will take effect at that time.

Enforcement

Most cases will result in some form of decision in the form of remedies and enforcement measures to be enacted. These may be enforced in many ways, with the most common being administrative action.

If the problem behaviors continue after the case, then enforcement of restrictions imposed by the Committee can be requested by any user at the arbitration enforcement noticeboard, citing the arbitration case and evidence of the problem, or for other issues at the administrators' incidents noticeboard (for example, if a suspected sockpuppet began undertaking the same pattern of editing, or if a user under sanctions engaged in new and significant egregious behavior requiring consideration of additional community-imposed restrictions).

If the remedy or enforcement regime itself proves insufficient or needs expanding or extending, or is not as helpful as anticipated, then the Arbitration Committee will hear a request for amendment (or extension) of remedies. This is useful when the remedy does not anticipate some development taking place after the case, such as the user editing other articles on a restricted topic, or gaming the system in other ways.

Appealing and clarifying a decision

Requests for clarifications and most appeals are made at appeals and clarifications noticeboard. Editors can also request amendments to cases at that noticeboard, such as a request to add or remove an area as a contentious topic. As with other parts of the arbitration process, other editors may offer opinions and evidence about the request.

Appeals

Editing restrictions or sanctions are intended to prevent certain forms of conduct, and these preventative measures may last a long time. Appeals can be made for their reconsideration, but usually a track record is required, and recidivism is taken very seriously. Appeals of site bans must be made via email, while other appeals are done onwiki. The committee will sometimes seek feedback onwiki for site ban appeals.

Successful appeals demonstrate to the committee that the behavior which led to the restriction or sanction is unlikely to repeat. In the appeal, editors should demonstrate an understanding of what conduct led to the restriction or sanction and offer credible evidence about why it will not happen in the future. One way some editors do this This is by showing other productive editing on Wikipedia or a sister project.

Clarifications

Sometimes an element of a decision can be unclear. In this case editors can ask ArbCom to clarify the meaning or interpretation of a rule. This is normally closed by an arbitrator or clerk with a summary of the discussion. Most of the time no vote is required for clarifications, however at times ArbCom will decide to amend something if there is consensus it is unclear or otherwise faulty.

Glossary

Below are a list of words used during ArbCom cases which have a specific meaning or intent that might not be obvious to the average reader. It is not intended to be a complete list of words used.

Admonish

The most severe reprimand of the remind, warn, admonish triplet. Used when ArbCom wishes to criticize and firmly caution someone against repeating certain behavior/actions.

Assume

To take over responsibility (Used interchangeably with take over)

Contentious topic

Specially designated topics that have attracted more persistent disruptive editing than the rest of the project. Administrators are allowed to impose editing restrictions on editors who do not follow project expectations within contentious topics. Administrators are also allowed to set special rules on pages within a contentious topic to prevent inappropriate editing. See the contentious topic page for a full explanation.

Drafting arbs

See Overview of Cases

Implementation notes

A table that summarizes the voting on a proposed decision, allowing arbitrators, clerks, and editors to see which proposals are passing, which are failing, and how many more votes are needed for a proposal to pass if there is no majority.

Net four

The number of votes to support or accept (or oppose or decline) is at least four greater than the number of votes to oppose or decline (or support or accept). For example if there are 2 declines, there must be at least 6 accepts for there to be net four.

Party

An editor who the Arbitration Committee has identified as having an important role in the dispute the committee is examining. A party may or may not be sanctioned, while non-parties are not eligible to be sanctioned.

Remind

1)The least severe reprimand of the remind, warn, admonish triplet. Used when ArbCom wishes an editor to not repeat certain behavior/actions.

2) Also is the most frequently used of the three words when addressing a group (e.g. the community or administrators). When addressing a group it is often be used to bring an option to that group's attention rather than as a reprimand (e.g. administrators are reminded that partial blocks may be used).

Take over

To assume responsibility (Used interchangeably with assume)

Warn

The middle reprimand option of the remind, warn, admonish triplet. Used when ArbCom wants to caution an editor to not repeat certain behavior/actions.