User:Tony Sidaway/Sandbox

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia

Lightbreather case exposes Wikimedia's lack of progress in taking responsibility for ending harassment

The Lightbreather arbitration has told us little we didn't already know about the Arbitration process's limitations. By concentrating on the wellbeing of the encyclopedia the process often reaches a workable conclusion but leaves larger issues hanging. It's no court. But Wikipedia has a wider responsibility within the internet community, as other cases have demonstrated over the years. The recent "Sock puppet investigation block" case (see Signpost report June 17, 2015) has ongoing ramifications as a British Member of Parliament probes for a satisfactory explanation of how and why a Wikimedia UK employee accused him of being behind a sock puppet on Wikipedia (see In the media, July 15, 2015). Now a Wikipedia editor who was harassed brutally on and off wiki has been cast adrift.

The Arbitration Committee heard evidence that Lightbreather had been attacked both on and off wiki. Nevertheless only Lightbreather was the subject of any remedies. And as for the remedies, they threw the book at her. She faces a one year site ban, coupled with a topic ban, interaction bans and a "reverse topic ban" which limits her access to normal dispute resolution mechanisms which editors are actively urged to use. This is one of the most breathtakingly savage collection of arbitration remedies this writer (TS) has seen in ten years.