Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Clerks

Inter-clerk co-ordination: Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee/Clerks.

Clerking procedure guide: /Procedures.

The Arbitration Committee Clerks are editors selected by the Arbitration Committee to assist the committee with procedural aspects of its work. The position of Clerk was created in January 2006 by agreement of the Committee.

List of clerks

The following table contains details of the Arbitration Clerks and of the Trainee Clerks, and then of former clerks.

Active clerks
AGK (talk • message • contribs • count • logs • email • time zone: UTC+0) Penwhale (talk • message • contribs • count • logs • email • time zone: UTC-4/-5) (sparingly UTC+8 when he's on summer/winter vacations) Tiptoety (talk • message • contribs • count • logs • email • time zone: UTC-7/-8) Dougweller (talk • message • contribs • count • logs • email • time zone: UTC+0) Lankiveil (talk • message • contribs • count • logs • email • time zone: UTC+10) Seddon (talk • message • contribs • count • logs • email • time zone: UTC+0) trainee AlexandrDmitri (talk • message • contribs • count • logs • email • time zone: UTC+0) trainee Amorymeltzer (talk • message • contribs • count • logs • email • time zone: UTC-4/-5) trainee DoriSmith (talk • message • contribs • count • logs • email • time zone: UTC-7/-8) trainee MBK004 (talk • message • contribs • count • logs • email • time zone: UTC-7/-8)
Temporarily inactive clerks
Daniel (talk • message • contribs • count • logs • email • time zone: UTC+9:30) MBisanz (talk • message • contribs • count • logs • email • time zone: UTC-4/-5) hmwith (talk • message • contribs • count • logs • email • time zone: UTC-4/-5) Ryan Postlethwaite (talk • message • contribs • count • logs • email • time zone: UTC+0)
Inactive clerks
causa sui (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email) Cbrown1023 (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email) Cowman109 (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email) David.Mestel (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email) Drini (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email) Nishkid64 (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email) Nixeagle (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email) Phil Sandifer (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email) Sam Korn (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email) Srikeit (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email)
Former clerks
Coren (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), became an Arbitrator FloNight (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), became an Arbitrator Gazimoff (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), resigned GlassCobra (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), resigned Hersfold (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), became an Arbitrator Jayvdb (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), resigned and later became an Arbitrator Johnleemk (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), inactive Kelly Martin (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), resigned KnightLago (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), became an Arbitrator MacGyverMagic (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), resigned Mailer diablo (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), became an Arbitrator Manning Bartlett (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), resigned Newyorkbrad (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), became an Arbitrator Picaroon (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), resigned Rlevse (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), became an Arbitrator Tony Sidaway (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), resigned Thatcher (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), resigned, later became an audit subcommittee member Tznkai (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email), resigned, became an audit subcommittee member

"(t)" denotes that the clerk is a "trainee," and not yet fully confirmed. These users may not wish to handle issues that the others would.

Purpose and remit

For a procedural guide, see #Procedures.

On a basic level, the purpose of the Clerk office is to lessen the workload of the Committee by completing tasks that need not be carried out by an arbitrator and yet that must be completed for the process of arbitration to run efficiently. Accordingly, the remit of the Clerks includes routine and administrative tasks: maintaining the Committee's proceedings and documentation; organising and tidying Arbitration cases; and implementing the Committee's decisions and serving notifications as needed.

Common tasks of the Clerks are:

• Opening Arbitration case requests that the Committee has voted to hear;
• Maintaining and organising the Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests subpages, including enforcing Committee guidelines on statements and comments;
• Delisting requests for arbitration that the Committee has declined to hear;
• Closing Arbitration cases that the Committee has passed a Motion to close in relation to, and publishing the final decision (by porting proposals that pass from the "Proposed decision" subpage to the case page)
• Offering procedural and other advice to parties and to those participating in an Arbitration case;
• Maintaining good order and format on Arbitration cases (using, as necessary, their authority to issue formal cautions and bans—enforceable by block—from case pages);

To help carry out their tasks, the Clerks are granted write-only access to the Arbitration Committee's mailing list ("ArbCom-l"), as well as permission to edit proposed and final decision pages for purposes such as making clerical changes and drafting implementation notes. They are not granted any other privileges, such as posting proposals to the Proposed decision page or voting on cases. Former Clerks do not retain Clerk privileges.

The Clerks are also often very familiar with Arbitration matters, and frequently are consulted on ongoing cases—whether they are officially assigned to them or not. Some Clerks have indeed gone on to be elected Arbitrators: FloNight (elected 2006), Newyorkbrad (elected 2007), Rlevse (elected 2008), Coren (elected 2008), and Jayvdb (elected 2008). However, the Clerks are most definitely not "Arbitrators" in any sense; likewise, Clerkship should not be sought—nor viewed—as a springboard to being elected to the Committee.

Recusal

As may all members of the community, Clerks may participate in Arbitration cases (including by making proposals on the workshop and by commenting on the talk, Evidence talk, Workshop and Workshop talk, and Proposed decision talk pages). Comments made by Clerks on the merits of a case are submitted in their individual capacity, and not as Clerks of the Committee, and have no priority over comments by any other editors.

A Clerk should not add evidence to the Evidence page of a case that he or she is clerking; if a Clerk does so, he or she would be expected to recuse from clerking duties on that case. Clerks also should not perform Clerk duties in cases in which they have been involved in the dispute being considered, or if they have had significant prior negative interactions with any of the parties. Clerks can request feedback from other Clerks and request reassignment of cases where necessary on the Clerks' noticeboard or in the Clerks' IRC channel.

If an editor is concerned that a Clerk is acting in a manner that would require him to recuse, that editor should open communications with the clerk to relay his concerns. If the matter is not resolved satisfactorily as a result of those discussions, then the editor is free to contact the clerk body (privately, via clerks-l, or publicly, via Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee/Clerks). (The Arbitration Committee is the final authority on matters of clerk recusal, but the Clerk office usually handles such internal matters without the need for formal Committee involvement or direction.)

Co-ordination

Clerks are appointed by the Arbitration Committee. There is no head clerk position. Their activities are coordinated on the clerks' mailing list ("clerks-l"); further details on the list are provided below.

The clerks' on-wiki discussion page is Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee/Clerks (previously the "clerks' noticeboard"), which primarily exists to allow non-clerks to solicit clerk assistance. An IRC channel, #wikipedia-en-arbcom-clerks, also exists, for informal coordination and discussion of routine business (and for monitoring the feed of changes to Committee pages from the clerks' IRC bot, arbcombot).

clerks-l

The clerks-l mailing list is the primary venue for:

• coordination of clerking matters
• direction of the clerks by the committee
• internal clerk discussion (including clerk appointments)

Previously, most clerk coordination was done on-wiki (as described above), but e-mail is used almost exclusively as the clerk office has grown larger, as a number of bot tools have been implemented that use the list for notifications, and as the subscribers to the list have come to prefer it for its speed.

The subscribers to the clerks-l mailing list, as of 03 December 2009, are:

Clerks

AGK*, Cbrown1023*, Daniel*, David.Mestel, Dougweller*, hmwith, Lankiveil*, MBisanz*, Nishkid64*, Nixeagle, Penwhale*, Ryan Postlethwaite, Sam Korn*, Seddon, Srikeit, Tiptoety*, Tznkai.

Arbitrators

Carcharoth, Cool Hand Luke, Coren, FayssalF, Fritzpoll, Hersfold, KnightLago, Kirill Lokshin, Mailer diablo*, Newyorkbrad, Risker, Rlevse, Roger Davies, Shell Kinney, Steve Smith, SirFozzie, Vassyana, Wizardman.

Former arbitrators

Jdforrester, Dominic, FloNight, Paul August, Stephen Bain.

*: Denotes subscribers who administer the mailing list's interface.

The mailing list's archives are private because topics not appropriate for public discussion are very occasionally discussed, but mostly the list is simply a useful tool for coordination.

Becoming a Clerk

The process of becoming a Clerk is not as regimented as other comparable processes are (eg. adminship, medcom).
Contact a Clerk if you're interested in joining.

Clerks are appointed by the Arbitration Committee, generally after a period of training and mentorship. Editors interested in becoming a Clerk may contact any current Clerk about a mentorship ("traineeship", apprenticeship); trainees are usually approved by the remainder of the clerk team through general consensus—usually on Clerks-l, the mailing list—although the Committee retains final jurisdiction. Mentor–trainee relationships are not intended to be exclusive, but to establish a first point of contact.

Applicants will be evaluated based on temperament and overall Wikipedia experience, with some priority given to editors who have been informally active on Arbitration case pages or who have listed themselves on the noticeboard. Clerking requires a balanced blend of caution and boldness, and more caution than typically encouraged on Wikipedia, making proper temperament very important. Potential Clerks are expected to be:

• competent ("clueful");
• trustworthy;
• good communicators; and
• neutral & non-controversial.

Those who are interested may contact an existing member of the Clerk team for advice. The general procedure is that that individual Clerk's opinion will be sought; if the (potential) applicant desires, that Clerk can collate feedback from others in the team on an individual basis. Thereafter, the applicant will usually enter an informal period of observation and, if a Clerk is willing, help out on a case opening or closure. Should it hence be desired, a proposal can be made to Clerks-l for the applicant to join as a formal trainee.

After a Clerk trainee has some experience handling complicated cases, and if he or she willing to make a small but steady commitment of time, the Clerks may submit the trainee's name to the Arbitration Committee for consideration of a full appointment.

Helping out

If you're interested in Clerking, chip in around the Clerk pages to "get a feel" for things.
There are some things, however, that should be left to the Clerks.

The active Clerks encourage informal help from interested editors. Those interested should monitor the relevant pages, including the Clerks' Noticeboard, and make their availability known to the Clerks. Many of the currently active official Clerks got their start at performing Clerk tasks in this way.

However, because the official Clerks are the appointed representatives of the Arbitration Committee, and act on behalf of the Committee in some circumstances, there are some things that should be done only by the full-time Clerks, or by trainees. These include:

• Opening and closing cases;
• Make announcements on behalf of the Committee;
• Archiving or removing motions;
• Removing threaded comments from the main requests for arbitration page (but helpers may move comments into the section of the person making the comments);
• Removing or shortening excessively long presentations on the main page or on the evidence page;
• Removing rejected cases from the main page within the 10-day period for consideration (a Clerk or Arbitrator may remove a case that has been listed for less than 10 days if there is a clear majority to reject and no chance of acceptance; helpers should only remove rejected cases after ten days);
• Editing the /Proposed decision subpages, except for correction of obvious typographical or numbering errors;
• Editing the case status templates, or other maintenance templates transcluded from Arbitration requests or case pages;
• Making policy-like statements, such as announcing the procedure for handling the changeover of ArbCom members.^{eg: [1] [2].}

In general, helpers should also avoid dealing with touchy or choleric participants; in all likelihood, you shall know these when you encounter them!

Informal helpers are otherwise encouraged to participate by performing any other needed tasks, including maintaining the main page, fixing formatting errors and broken links, and other maintenance tasks, insofar as it is amicably welcomed by the Clerk team or by the Committee, and so long as it remains helpful for the process at large. For questions and coordination, use the noticeboard.

Interested editors

The Arbitrators privately maintain a list of editors who are interested in becoming a Clerk. Requests to be added to this list (i.e., to be considered for clerkship when trainee appointments are next being made) may be lodged by sending them to clerks-l or to any active Clerk.

Procedures

A procedural guide for clerking operations is at Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Clerks/Procedures.