[WikiEN-l] ArbCom - too attached to 'equal treatment'?

Wed Mar 2 20:19:41 UTC 2005

Karl A. Krueger wrote:

>It would be unfortunate if people became afraid to report real abuses
>because they did not want to be forced to defend themselves from unfair
>or untrue accusations by the abuser.
>  
>
I agree it's a concern, but to really investigate a dispute between two 
users, such as an alleged flame war or edit war, you have to examine all 
sides in the dispute.  There's no need to look through the accusing 
editor's entire edit history, but it does make sense to look through 
both sides' posts and edits in the relevant discussions and articles.  
There have been a few cases where the complaintant has really turned out 
to be the one mostly at fault, trying to goad his/her opponent into 
doing one thing technically against the rules and then filing a 
complaint based on it (one user in particular was notorious for filing 
dozens of complaints within a few weeks).

That said, I personally have voted against a few of the "equal 
treatment" measures.  I tend to vote "yes" on the findings of fact that 
say "this user also did the following, which is bad", but then vote "no" 
on the "therefore this user is also banned for [x] weeks".  Of course, 
it does vary a lot from case to case.

-Mark