Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Climate change dispute 2/Workshop

This is a page for working on Arbitration decisions. It provides for suggestions by Arbitrators and other users and for comment by arbitrators, the parties and others. After the analysis of /Evidence here and development of proposed principles, findings of fact, and remedies. Anyone who edits should sign all suggestions and comments. Arbitrators will place proposed items they have confidence in on /Proposed decision.

Motions and requests by the parties

Motion for procedural fairness dismissal

1) This Request for arbitration should be dismissed due to the charges, or topic for arbitration, not being defined. I have been named a party to this case with only the descriptions "I'd like to see SEW's recent behaviour examined: he has been malicious." and "We should include SEWilco's actions". (original RFAr) The doctrine of Natural justice and procedural due process require adequate notice of any charges. (SEWilco 06:35, 1 December 2005 (UTC))

Comment by Arbitrators:

1. And yes, "the doctrine of natural justice and procedural due process" are not being followed here. Welcome to reality. Stop trying to wikilawyer your way out of the situation, and instead talk about what you did, why you did it, and how you feel justified in what you did. Or don't. Your choice. James F. (talk) 13:34, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

Comment by parties:

1. It is rather difficult to proceed or participate without knowing the topic, and starting a case with an undefined topic seems like at a minimum an awkward procedure. "Behavior" and "actions" seem overly vague, leaving a claim of "been malicious"; is that adequate notice? Omitted RFAr template info was inserted [1] but not filled in, and Arbitrators have not supplied answers to questions in the Talk page (Talk:#Problems with initial RFAr page) (SEWilco 06:35, 1 December 2005 (UTC))
   1. Jdforrester: Without specific charges, do we just chat about Bermuda, or do I describe my edits on Canadian Shield or Wikipedia:WikiProject Flag Template? I think the topic is related to User:William M. Connolley but does this RFAr really meet the standards of the ArbComm? The ArbComm does recognize a need for specific requests, and does this request meet their standards? That further explanation has not been supplied suggests that others are also having trouble determining what the specific request is, and is this an example of the standards for acceptable RFAr requests? "The Arbitration Committee will tend to reject requests where: * there is no specific request, or the Arbitration Committee is unable to determine what the specific request is" [2]
   2. User:William M. Connolley refers to an RFA (probably RFAr based on context) in a citation discussion. (Global cooling diff) This RFAr includes citations topics also? (SEWilco 14:53, 1 December 2005 (UTC))
2. Usability of evidence presented in arbitration cases requires that evidence be "focusing on the principle issues involved with adequate references to examples of the behavior complained of." How can any evidence be submitted which is focused on undefined principle issues? Or principal issues. (SEWilco 05:50, 2 December 2005 (UTC))
3. I suspect I started these proceedings by asking to reopen the case. As far as my original intend is concerned, this is not a new case, but rather a reconsideration of the old one. The old one was apparently specific enough, so this one should be, too. In particular, I presented the evidence about SEWilco's behavior not primarily to implicate him, but rather to point out how William M. Connolley's parole is not useful, but rather being misused. On the other hand, by now I do think that SEWilco deserves censure, for violation of WP:Point, for intentional obtuseness during the discussion, and for being, in general, as unhelpful as possible. The evidence I presented also illustrates these points (although it would be easy to find more - as mentioned above, my primary goal is to make it possible to work constructively again, and to stop the useless distraction of SEWilco's campaign).--Stephan Schulz 13:14, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
   • There are plenty of unhelpful people involved. The charges in the old case did not include me. Can you provide a summary of Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Climate change dispute? (SEWilco 16:40, 4 December 2005 (UTC))

I think you are already well acquainted with the old case. Moreover, it's not that long a read.--Stephan Schulz 17:12, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Comment by others:

Motion for speedy partial resolution

This case now seems to involve two different and quite independent topics. One is William's revert parole (which I suggest should be lifted) and SEWilco's harrasment/enforcement/holy war, the other the revert war over the footnote format (a topic which, honestly, leaves me rather cool). While SEWilco keeps heaping more and more stuff into this case, I think much of it is irrelevant. In fact, despite trying to assume good faith, this very much looks like an attempt to uselessly complicate and delay matters. The success of Wiki's is due to their informality, speedy information exchange, and low entry barriers. I think we should honour these strengths here as well. Since the parole will end in less than 3 weeks anyways, further delay would make this point moot. So I move to decide at least this point as soon as possible. I would be happiest if the parole is lifted now. Alternatively, it would be acceptable if it is clarified that it is to be interpreted with reasonable discretion and that "violation spamming" of ancient, irrelevant and uncontroversial edits will not be tolerated.

Comment by Arbitrators:

1. SEWilco's error is a newbie mistake, thinking that we would strictly enforce the parole in circumstances different from those on which it was based. My thought is to forgive and forget. He quits making a big fuss and so do we. Fred Bauder 18:26, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Comment by parties:

Comment by others:

Reminder of request for acceptance rationale

1) Arbitrators have been requested to provide a rationale for their votes for acceptance of arbitrations, following the requirement in Wikipedia:Arbitration_policy#Requests. You opened this can of worms and I want to know which worms you were aware of. (SEWilco 16:53, 6 December 2005 (UTC))

Comment by Arbitrators:

1. I have answered this, but as I am getting into the case I can see that the actual issues are quite different. This is not unusual. That is why we can't decide cases in the 15 minutes that may be necessary to decide to accept a case. Fred Bauder 17:43, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Comment by parties:

1. This is only a request for the rationale behind the acceptance votes. (SEWilco 18:41, 6 December 2005 (UTC))

Comment by others:

Proposed Principles and Facts by SEWilco

Arbitrary and poorly defined cases are acceptable

This principle is in opposition to previously existing policy and precedent. ("Decisions on case acceptance", "Usability of evidence presented in arbitration cases")

The Arbitration Committee may accept requests where:

• there is no specific request, or the Arbitration Committee is unable to determine what the specific request is
• earlier steps in dispute resolution have not been tried, and the Arbitration Committee feels they will help
• one or more of the major disputants cease contributing to Wikipedia (although this does not necessarily have to occur); the case is subject to reactivation if the disputant returns
• the major disputants fail to present evidence within a reasonable amount of time of the case opening
• evidence may be used in cases where the principal issues have not been defined

Supported by

1. #Fact: Arbitration Policy not followed in this case
2. #Fact: This is a poorly defined case

Comment by Arbitrators:

Comment by parties:

Comment by others:

Fact: Arbitration Policy not followed in this case

1. Arbitrators voting to accept this case have not been able to provide a rationale for their acceptance votes, as required by the Arbitration Policy.
   • Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Climate change dispute 2#Arbitrator.27s rationale for votes
   • Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Climate change dispute 2/Workshop#Arbitrator.27s rationale for votes

Comment by Arbitrators:

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Comment by others:

Fact: This is a poorly defined case

• The Arbitration Committee members are unable to explain their votes for acceptance of this case.
• Earlier steps in dispute resolution have not been tried.
• One or more of the major disputants have ceased contributing to Wikipedia.
• Major disputants have failed to present evidence.
• The principal issues have not been defined, so proper evidence can not be expected to be provided.

Evidence

1. Discussion and a poll was still under way at Talk:Global_cooling#SEWilco.2C_disruptive_reverts.2C_and_citations when this case was re-opened.
2. Wikipedia:Requests for comment/SEWilco created 22:48, 24 November 2005 by William M. Connolley (diff) while this case was re-opened 27 November 2005, only 3 days later.
3. Arbitrators have been unable to define the specific request and topics for arbitration. Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Climate change dispute 2/Workshop#Motion for procedural fairness dismissal
4. This case is a re-opening of a previous case but two parties have not yet participated in this case, and they have not yet presented evidence in this case.
   • Cortonin (talk · contribs)
   • JonGwynne (talk · contribs)

Comment by Arbitrators:

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Comment by others:

Fact: Arbitration Committee has not clarified parole enforcement

• SEWilco requested clarification of enforcement of the case's parole requirements. [3]
• Clarification has not been supplied. The request has been removed from the prescribed location on Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration and moved to the Talk page of this case. [4]

Comment by Arbitrators:

Comment by parties:

Comment by others:

Arbitration rulings and policies are applied equally

This is a new principle.

Wikipedia participants will apply and enforce rulings and policies equally to all users.

• all rulings will be enforced by Wikipedia participants
• all violations will be regarded seriously
• violations by all users will be enforced equally

Comment by Arbitrators:

Comment by parties:

1. It is not fair to force two participants off Wikipedia while not enforcing the ruling upon another participant. (SEWilco 16:21, 8 December 2005 (UTC))

Comment by others:

Arbitration rulings

• Arbitration rulings are binding on editors; violations will be regarded seriously.
• Arbitration rulings on the English Wikipedia are binding on contributors to the project and violations will be regarded seriously.
• Wikipedia users are expected to abide by rulings made by the Arbitration Committee.

Comment by Arbitrators:

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Comment by others:

Fact: SEWilco and other users supported arbitration rulings

• SEWilco and other users reported violations of arbitration rulings.

Evidence

1. SEWilco attempted to report violations to the Arbitration Committee. As violations are to be treated as 3RR violations, they were reported to WP:AN/3RR. Upon request, also reported to WP:AN/I.
   • Violations were first noticed (diff) by MichaelSirks (talk · contribs) and reported by Lumidek (talk · contribs): 15:51, 28 October 2005 [5]
     • MichaelSirks msg, MichaelSirks notification, Rd232 msg, msg, JonGwynne notification, Cortnonin notification, TDC notification, SEWilco inquiry.
   • Requests for arbitration/Admin enforcement requested&oldid=26792814#William Connolley.27s parole - enforcement (deleted in this edit by Guettarda after SEWilco pointed out this page is reserved for AC members)
   • The preceding discussion was moved to the adjoining Talk page.
   • MichaelSirks again reported in Wikipedia talk:Requests for arbitration#William M. Connolley.27s parole violation at 19:19, 4 November 2005.
2. SEWilco reported violations 12 times to WP:AN/3RR, based on ruling stating that violations were to be treated as 3RR violations. (AN/3RR with reports) 12 reports from 20:31, 15 November 2005 to 16:04, 25 November 2005, a very slow pace compared to most Wikipedia discussion/voting forums.
3. Although WP:AN/3RR seemed like the proper place for violation reports, at SlimVirgin's suggestion [6][ one report was posted to WP:AN/I. [7] SlimVirgin then blocked SEWilco based on report timing assumptions from WP:AN/3RR.[8]
4. SEWilco then asked for clarification on behalf of Administrators. RFAR#Are arbitration decisions to be taken seriously in climate change dispute? (SEWilco had not used that page earlier due to instructions that it is not for discussion, and the parole rules are clear.)

Comment by Arbitrators:

Comment by parties:

Comment by others:

Fact: William M. Connolley did not abide by arbitration rulings

• William M. Connolley violated his parole many times.

Evidence

1. Ignores parole requirements: "… I discuss on the talk pages where this is useful, and use edit summaries where that suffices. Anything more would be unreasonably burdensome.… William M. Connolley 17:02, 2 November 2005 (UTC)." [9]
2. List of some obvious violations: Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Climate_change_dispute_2/Evidence#Table_of_reversions
3. The first violation which has been noticed took place just days after his parole started. [10]

Comment by Arbitrators:

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Comment by others:

Fact: William M. Connolley did enforce arbitration rulings

• William M. Connolley used arbitration rulings upon others.

Evidence

1. Rv and reporting of suspected JonGwynne edit: [11] [12] [13] [14]

Comment by Arbitrators:

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Administrators

• Administrators of Wikipedia are trusted members of the community and are expected to follow Wikipedia policies.
• Administrators are expected to pursue their duties to the best of their abilities.

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Bans and blocks

• All Administrators are expected to abide by rulings and decrees from Jimbo Wales, the Board, and the Arbitration Committee.

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Comment by others:

Fact: Administrators did not take violations seriously

Evidence

1. There has been a lack of enforcement of reported violations by administrators. [15]

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Fact: Arbitration Committee did not support arbitration rulings

• The Arbitration Committee did not implement the arbitration rulings.
• The Arbitration Committee has ignored violations of arbitration rulings.

Evidence

1. Remedies were defined in previous case.
2. Details of the remedies were not placed in Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Admin enforcement requested.
   • Details of a previous case against a participant, JonGwynne, had been placed there. [16]
3. A summary of the case was not added to Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Completed requests (history)
4. Wikipedia:Parole is poorly supported.
5. There is no method defined for reporting violations. (there are no links to support or deny this although such have been requested)
6. Those involved in the above were called to the case to explain the above. This was removed by Fred Bauer (diff).
7. SEWilco and others attempted to report violations to the Arbitration Committee.
   • Violations were first noticed (diff) by MichaelSirks (talk · contribs) and reported by Lumidek (talk · contribs): 15:51, 28 October 2005 [17]
   • Requests for arbitration/Admin enforcement requested&oldid=26792814#William Connolley.27s parole - enforcement (deleted in this edit by Guettarda after SEWilco pointed out this page is reserved for AC members)
   • The preceding discussion was moved to the adjoining Talk page.
   • MichaelSirks again reported in Wikipedia talk:Requests for arbitration#William M. Connolley.27s parole violation at 19:19, 4 November 2005.

WP:AN/3RR.[18]

1. SEWilco asked for clarification on behalf of Administrators. RFAR#Are arbitration decisions to be taken seriously in climate change dispute? (SEWilco had not used that page earlier due to instructions that it is not for discussion, and the parole rules are clear.)
2. Clarification has not been provided. There continues to be no defined means for reporting and enforcing Wikipedia:Parole violations.

Comment by Arbitrators:

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Comment by others:

Source citations

• Cite sources.
• It is highly desirable that editors cite the sources of the information in their edits, especially on controversial articles.
• Removal of references from articles is generally considered inappropriate.
• While the content of articles is the province of Wikipedia editors, a number of Wikipedia policies relate to content in peripheral ways; for example, it is desirable to limit reversions and to provide adequate references for material included in articles. See Reversions, Wikipedia:Edit war, Wikipedia:Three revert rule, Wikipedia:Check your facts, Wikipedia:Cite sources and Wikipedia:Verifiability

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Comment by others:

Fact: SEWilco did insert additional citation content

• SEWilco did supply additional content to source citation descriptions, generally at least a document title and date accessed.
• Additional citation content supports Wikipedia:Verifiability policy.
• Title and date are helpful in finding replacement source material.

Evidence

1. SEWilco provided titles for source material and problems were fixed with existing sourcing (such as links to pages which produce a 404 error). (Kyoto Protocol diff) (Global cooling diff) — particularly see the Notes section. Kyoto Protocol talk: [19] Global cooling talk: [20] [21]
2. The existing appearance of source notations was followed, such as by replacing numbered links with numbered links. Kyoto Protocol talk: [22] [23] [24] Global cooling talk: [25]
3. WP:CITET templates were used in various ways to provide citation details. (Kyoto Protocol diff) (Global cooling diff)
4. The Wikipedia best practices in Wikipedia:Footnotes were used. Kyoto Protocol talk: [26] [27] [28] [29] Global cooling talk: [30] [31] [32]
5. Wikipedia:Verifiability prefers more detail about source material over less material. Kyoto Protocol talk: [33] [34] Global cooling talk: [35] [36]

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Consensus

• Although discussion is always encouraged, the Arbitration Committee does not expect users to compromise in all circumstances; doing so would serve only to support cranks and POV pushers.

Comment by Arbitrators:

Comment by parties:

Comment by others:

Fact: Policy overrides any consensus for a bad article

• Consensus on article content may not violate policies such as Wikipedia:Verifiability.

Evidence

1. Wikipedia:Verifiability.
2. AC Principle #Source citations.
3. AC Principle #Consensus

Comment by Arbitrators:

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Comment by others:

Wikipedia is not a link repository

• Wikipedia is not a link repository See Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not

Comment by Arbitrators:

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Comment by others:

Fact: Global cooling article is now a collection of links

• The article Global cooling has URL-only links scattered within the text.
• Finding the entry in the article's References section which matches a URL in the text requires comparing it to all URLs in the References section.
• The URLs which must be compared are not visible on many browsers except in a "Status" line, using mouse or cursor movement to do comparison.

Evidence

1. [37]

Comment by Arbitrators:

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Comment by others:

Fact: Connolley and others did delete reference information

• William M. Connolley removed reference information from articles.

Evidence

1. SEWilco had to repeatedly restore source citation information. (see edits below)
2. William M. Connolley removed reference information from articles, generally replacing them only with links. Kyoto Protocol: [38] [39] [40] [41]
3. William M. Connolley removed reference information from Kyoto Protocol citations: [42] [43]
4. Vsmith removed reference information from articles. Kyoto Protocol: [44] Global cooling: [45]
5. Vsmith replaced Wikipedia best practice Wikipedia:Footnotes references with a fragile tangle containing errors which are not possible with WP:FN references. After being informed there were two erroneous links [46] it took 8 days for him to find those two, and another similar error. [47]
6. Nandesuka removed reference information from Global cooling: [48] [49] [50]

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Fact: Kyoto Protocol article is now difficult to maintain

• The reference style in Kyoto Protocol is difficult to maintain.

Evidence

1. Vsmith replaced Wikipedia best practice Wikipedia:Footnotes references with a fragile tangle containing errors which are not possible with WP:FN references. After being informed there were two erroneous links [51] it took 8 days for him to find those two, and another similar error. [52]

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Fact: SEWilco matched the consensus style of references

• The articles Kyoto Protocol and Global cooling contained references to source information in the form of URL-only links, which were displayed as numbered links. SEWilco used Wikipedia:Footnotes references which were displayed as numbered links. (diff) (diff)
• When Vsmith changed the style of references away from old consensus style, SEWilco matched the new style using Wikipedia:Footnotes references. [53]

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Comment by others:

INCOMPLETE

• This section is not yet complete. This is a complex case and more time is required. (SEWilco 16:23, 8 December 2005 (UTC))

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Proposed temporary injunctions

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Proposed final decision

Proposed principles

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Interpretation of policies and guidelines

1) Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines provides "While our policies continue to evolve, many Wikipedians feel that written rules are inherently inadequate to cover every possible variation of disruptive or malevolent behavior. For example, a user who acts against the spirit of our written policies might be reprimanded even if the letter of the rules has not been violated. Those who edit in good faith, show civility, seek consensus, and work towards the goal of creating an impartial encyclopedia, should find a welcoming environment."

Comment by Arbitrators:

1. Seek consensus is most relevant here Fred Bauder 16:06, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Comment by parties:

Comment by others:

Choosing citation format

2) Wikipedia:Cite_sources#How_to_cite_sources, a style guide, provides:

The most important thing is to enter comprehensive reference information — that is, enough information so that a reader can find the original source with relative ease.

There are different ways of accomplishing this. At one extreme, one may place the complete citation in the main text of the article; this makes the specific reference for a specific point immediately available to the reader, but disrupts the text and makes it difficult to read. At the other extreme, one may place all citations at the end of the document, in a bibliography; this leaves the text uninterrupted and easy to read, but makes it harder to find the correct references for specific points. Different professions and academic disciplines have developed different means for finding a balance between these two extremes.

• If available and unquestioned, follow the established practice for the appropriate profession or discipline.
• An article's content contributors usually know the established practice.
• If the established practice is unavailable or disputed, contributors should decide on a style that they believe strikes an appropriate balance between preserving the readability of the text and making citations as precise and accessible as possible.
• If contributors differ as to the appropriate style of citation, they should defer to the article's main content contributors in deciding the most suitable format for the presentation of references. If no agreement can be reached, the style used should be that of the first major contributor.

If you are unclear as to which system or style to use, remember: the most important thing is to provide all the information one would need to identify and find the source. If necessary, put this information in the talk page, or in a comment on the main page, and ask others how to format it correctly for that article

Comment by Arbitrators:

1. I'll check into that, appreciate some diffs if you have them. Fred Bauder 19:57, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
2. The language has changed but the language requiring discussion and respect for consensus was in earlier versions, see [54]

Comment by parties:

Comment by others:

1. Cite sources has been deliberately changed during this dispute; in part to deliberately contradict the things that SEW has done. Further those changes were done with little consensus and in apparent contradiction of other attempts at consensus building. If it is to be used, versions before the dispute should be considered with equal, or in fact greater weight than current versions. Mozzerati 18:11, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

   manual of style before recent changes "URLs as numbered links [...] should be converted to have a link text". Attempt at consensus building by SEW; later deleted from the talk page archive. Or a specific example SEWilco is in a slow edit war trying to add citations to Global cooling. The citations are being deleted by others. At this point, the "first major contributor" rule is added in an apparent contradiction of previous consensus which was that direct links should be replaced with citations. Mozzerati 21:56, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

   BTW. I should point out that it's quite likely that the "deliberate contradiction" is done in good faith. It may be more a matter of others trying to clarify their own understanding of the policies for SEW to see. I personally view it as an unsupported policy change. Mozzerati 21:56, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

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Proposed findings of fact

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Prior case

1) As they relate to William M. Connolley some of the matters considered here were considered in Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Climate change dispute.

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Results of prior case

2) The decision in Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Climate_change_dispute#William_M._Connolley:_Six-month_revert_parole_on_certain_articles provided that William M. Connolley could only revert an article once in 24 hours and must provide an explanation of his revert. This restriction is due to expire on December 26, 2005.

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Wikipedia:Footnotes

3) Wikipedia:Footnotes, a guideline, explains "wikipedia's current best practice regarding linked footnotes, implemented with a set of wikipedia templates"

Comment by Arbitrators:

1. A nightmare, but that is just my personal opinion. Fred Bauder 15:33, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

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SEWilco's use of Wikipedia:Footnotes

4) SEWilco has converted articles in the area of climate change to the Wikipedia:Footnotes format [55].

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Conflict over footnote format

5) William M. Connolley and others disagreed with this change to the formatting of footnotes and have reverted, see [56] where WMC reverts with the comment, "rv to consensus version". An RfC was filed Wikipedia:Requests for comment/SEWilco which addresses this conflict.

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Comment by others:

1. • There are various edit wars involved here. In some cases, such as this WMC edit reverts actually removed citation information from articles. In this case SEWilco directly reverts In other cases like this Vsmith edit the citations have not been removed. SEWilco's edits in the latter case have not yet involved reverting, but rather improving the citations in the other format.
   • There are many other citation formats (such as inote) which do different visual things. This means that even if you don't like the look of citations, there is no need to remove the information. If it helps I can make a template which allows a full reference in edit mode, but only shows a direct URL in normal viewing mode. This would help most difficulties with recovering from broken links and changed content.
   • discussion on the RFC had barely started when this RFA began. In particular, I was planning to put an "other party" comment based on what I was learning from the talk, but since the RFA started I decided not to. Mozzerati 21:49, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Requests for comment/SEWilco

6) Wikipedia:Requests for comment/SEWilco show substantial opinion, mostly from regular editors of the articles affected, rejecting use of the footnote format favored by SEWilco and condemning SEWilco's complaints about reverts which trade on the revert parole imposed William M. Connolley.

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Comment by parties:

1. Am I a party? If not, please move it mentally down one item. There are actually two different topics covered at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/SEWilco. On the topic of the footnote format, the above comment is correct. On the topic of parole harrasment, many of the people commenting are not regular editors of the climate change pages, but came in after observing the events on Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/3RR. --Stephan Schulz 20:40, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Comment by others:

SEWilco reminded of policy

7) The administrator SlimVirgin contacted SEWilco on 24 November and requested compliance with Wikipedia policy [57], see [[58]].

Comment by Arbitrators:

1. The question now is whether this was ignored or responded to Fred Bauder 19:57, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Comment by parties:

1. SlimVirgin being an administrator is irrelevant when no Administrator role identification was made; indeed it was a conversation with a fellow editor, as emphasized by phrasing "Another editor". The second link above shows the messages were responded to. [59] (SEWilco 21:55, 6 December 2005 (UTC))

Comment by others:

SEWilco's bot

8) SEWilco has been using a bot which automatically converts external links to the footnote format in Wikipedia:Footnotes, see for an example of it in use, see User talk:70.94.229.160 which redirects to SEWilcoBot (talk · contribs). The bot continued to be in use on 5 December [60].

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Operation of SEWilco's bot

9) SEWilcoBot (talk · contribs) marks its edits as minor. There is no discussion on the talk page of an article prior to its operation. Generally its work is not reverted. In its current configuration, "Robot: converting/fixing footnotes", it began operating on November 15, the first edit being to Kyoto Protocol [61].

Comment by Arbitrators:

1. Generally despite lack of discussion the change is accepted. Fred Bauder 20:40, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Comment by parties:

1. Actually the citation bot was first used 7 July 2005. The account SEWilcoBot is used for various automated tasks, generally using pywikipedia tools. (SEWilco 05:09, 7 December 2005 (UTC))

Comment by others:

Reaction to SWEilco's bot

10) Despite occasional difficulties, SEWilcoBot (talk · contribs) is generally accepted and even praised User_talk:SEWilco#Bot:_thank_you.

Comment by Arbitrators:

1. Even praised Fred Bauder 22:23, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

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William M. Connolley's violations of revert parole

11) William M. Connolley has violated his revert parole a number of times, mostly regarding minor edits, in most instances where no comment was placed on the talk page, a comment was made during the edit, see Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Climate_change_dispute_2/Evidence#Table_of_reversions,

Comment by Arbitrators:

1. Petty stuff Fred Bauder 21:09, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

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SEWilco;s complaints about violation of WMC's revert parole

12) SEWilco has made a number of complaints regarding WMC's violations of his revert parole, but they were often ignored.

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Proposed remedies

Note: All remedies that refer to a period of time, for example to a ban of X months or a revert parole of Y months, are to run concurrently unless otherwise stated.

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Clarification of the revert parole imposed on William M. Connolley

1) Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Climate_change_dispute#William_M._Connolley:_Six-month_revert_parole_on_certain_articles, the 1RR revert parole was intended to apply to disputes over content of the articles, not to questions of formating.

Comment by Arbitrators:

1. Hindsight suggests a Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration#Requests_for_Clarification would have solved this problem, but whether we could have caught on to the significant of the matter is problematical. Fred Bauder 15:41, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
2. Given the history of WMC I assumed the dispute was over content. I never imagined a bot which was changing the footnote format was involved. Fred Bauder 20:27, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

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1. A Request for Clarification was filed but has been hidden on this RFAr's Talk page. This will be pointed out in my Evidence when it is ready. (SEWilco 16:50, 6 December 2005 (UTC))
2. The citation dispute is over the content of citations; details will be in my Evidence when that is ready. The bot is just a manually-run helper. (SEWilco 21:48, 6 December 2005 (UTC))

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SEWilco's use of bot

2) SEWilco may continue to use his bot without first consulting with the editors of an article on its talk page, but may not restore any revert of its edits unless after discussion on the talk page of the article a consensus is reached that the Wikipedia:Footnotes format is preferred.

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SEWilco cautioned

3) SEWilco is reminded that Wikipedia does not operate by strict application of policies or guidelines or decisions of the Arbitration Committee but by consensus. He is advised to be more responsive to the reactions of other users.

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Proposed enforcement

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1) {text of proposed enforcement}

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Enforcement by ban

1) Should SEWilco violate the terms of use of his bot he may be briefly blocked, up to a week in the event of repeat violations. After 5 blocks the maximum block shall be one year.

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Analysis of evidence

Place here items of evidence (with diffs) and detailed analysis

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General discussion

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