Wikipedia:Contentious topics/2013 review

Note from the drafters: Discretionary sanctions were first introduced in 2009, and arrived at their current form in 2011. Since March 2013, individual members of the committee have been reviewing the existing Discretionary sanction process, with a view to (i) simplifying its operation and (ii) updating its core procedures to accommodate various clarifications and amendments. The current draft update is presented for discussion below. All comments are very welcome. Please do not comment here but instead use the relevant sections of the talk page.

Update of Discretionary Sanctions (draft)

This indicates the start of the text for the proposed updated procedures to replace the existing Discretionary Sanctions procedures.

(Nutshell)

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Definitions

For the purposes of discretionary sanctions:

• The area of conflict is the topic or group of topics specified in the motion or case authorising discretionary sanctions for that topic.
• The Committee is the Arbitration Committee.
• An administrator is an uninvolved editor whose access to administrative tools is at all material times enabled.
• An enforcing administrator is the administrator who imposes a discretionary sanction of whatever description. While enforcing administrators are expected to recuse in appeals of their actions, previous routine enforcement interactions and participation in enforcement discussions do not constitute involvement and are not usually grounds for recusal.
• The AE noticeboard is the applicable enforcement noticeboard (currently Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement).

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Authorisation

Discretionary sanctions are authorised for an area of conflict either as part of the final decision of an Arbitration case or as an Arbitration Committee motion. Once authorised, they may only be modified by the Committee and remain in full force until rescinded by a motion of the Committee.

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Behavioural expectations

Editors editing within the area of conflict are expected to:

1. adhere to the purposes of Wikipedia; and
2. comply with any applicable policy and guideline; and
3. follow editorial and behavioural best practice, and
4. comply with any page restrictions in force within the area of conflict.

Failure to meet any behavioural expectation may result in discretionary sanctions.

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Alerts and edit notices

No discretionary sanction may be imposed on an editor unless that editor:

1. has been notified, in the prescribed manner, that discretionary sanctions are in operation for the area of conflict; or
2. has edited a restricted page which was displaying an edit notice at the time of the edit, or
3. has been mentioned by name in the Final Decision of the case in which the applicable discretionary sanctions were authorised; or
4. has participated in a discretionary sanction discussion about the same area of conflict at the AE noticeboard

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Issuing alerts and placing edit notices

Any editor may alert any other editor that discretionary sanctions have been authorised for the area of conflict. These alerts are advisory in nature and cannot be revoked or appealed. The alert links to Committee's authorisation and is issued by placing the standard template message – currently {{ArbCom-Alert}} – on the talk page of the editor being notified. Alerts must be logged.

Enforcing administrators are required to place an edit notice on any page which they have placed restrictions. Failure to place the edit notice will invalidate any subsequent enforcement actions unless the sanctioned editors were notified about the authorisation of discretionary sanctions and the restriction by another means. All page restrictions must be logged.

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Logging

All alerts, edit notices and sanctions must be logged on the page specified for this purpose in the motion authorising discretionary sanctions for the area of conflict. While failure to log an alert, an edit notice or a sanction does not invalidate it, repeated failures to log may result in sanctions for the issuing editor or administrator.

Whenever a sanction is modified or lifted, the administrator who alters the restriction must append a note to the original log entry.

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Role of administrators

Any uninvolved administrator may impose discretionary sanctions upon any duly notified editor for any repeated or serious failure to meet Wikipedia's behavioural expectations.

Individual sanctions

Any uninvolved administrator may impose warnings, admonishments, editing restrictions, interaction bans, topic bans, site bans of up to one year in duration, and/or any other measures which the imposing administrator believes are reasonably necessary to ensure the smooth functioning of the project. Sanctions must be logged.

Page restrictions

Any uninvolved administrator may impose on any page relating to the area of conflict semi-protection, protection, move protection, revert restrictions, prohibitions on the addition or removal of certain content (except where a firm consensus for the edit has been obtained); or any other measures which the imposing administrator believes are reasonably necessary to prevent disruption. Such restrictions are enforceable by uninvolved adminstrators through the use of individual sanctions. Page restrictions must be logged.

Questionable sanctions

Any administrator who, in the opinion of the Arbitration Committee, regularly imposes questionable discretionary sanctions, or whose actions are regularly overturned on appeal, may be prohibited by the Committee from making any further enforcement actions or be subject to any other such remedy that the Committee considers appropriate.

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Reducing or overturning discretionary sanctions

No administrator may reduce or overturn discretionary sanctions without:

1. The explicit affirmative on-wiki prior consent of the enforcing administrator or
2. The clear consensus of participating administrators at either a) the applicable enforcement noticeboard (currently Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement) or (b) the Administrators' noticeboard.

Any administrator who reduces or overturns a discretionary sanction out of process may, at the discretion of the Arbitration Committee, be desysopped or subject to any other such remedy that the Committee consider appropriate.

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Appeals

Also applicable is Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Procedures#Reversal of enforcement actions.

Only an editor under sanction may appeal that sanction. There are three possible stages for appeal.

1. To request that the enforcing administrator reconsider, unless they are no longer an administrator.
2. To appeal to one (but not both) of either (a) the AE Noticeboard or (b) the Administrators' noticeboard using the standardized appeals template {{Arbitration enforcement appeal}}. A clear consensus of participating uninvolved administrators is required to overturn the sanction. If consensus is unclear, the status quo prevails. The administrator who closes the discussion may prohibit any future appeal to a noticeboard for up to six months.
3. To subsequently appeal to the Arbitration Committee, where a majority of active, none-recused arbitrators is required to overturn the decision. If the sanction is of a longer duration than six months, it may be reconsidered again six months after an unsuccessful appeal to the Committee, unless a longer or shorter minimum period has been specified by the Arbitration Committee.

Appeals are governed by the procedures in effect at the time of the appeal.

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Continuity

Nothing in this current version of the Discretionary Sanctions process constitutes grounds for appeal of a remedy or restriction imposed under prior versions of it. All sanctions and restrictions imposed under earlier iterations of this process remain in full force. For the purpose of on-going enforcement, previous warnings are to be treated as alerts/notices.

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This indicates the end of the draft updated Discretionary Sanction procedures.