Elections, redirections, and a resignation from the Committee

Election season begins again

On 8 November, the nomination period has begun for this year's Arbitration Committee Elections. Nominations will be accepted until 23:59 UTC, 17 November.

By the end of the year, the two-year terms of seven arbitrators will end: GorillaWarfare, Seraphimblade, Roger Davies, AGK, NativeForeigner, and LFaraone, while Thryduulf's one-year term will end. But in an unexpected announcement, Yunshui, another one-year arbitrator, has resigned from the committee and retired from Wikipedia. Posted on their talk page:

“

A combination of real-life events have put me out of Wikipedia-action for several weeks now. I don't see my activity going back up any time soon, and in any case, this time off has made me realise that, frankly, I just find this place depressing at the moment. Probably just burnout from being exposed to ArbCom and its attendant dramas over the last year, but whatever the reason, right now Wikipedia isn't something I feel very motivated by. I'm therefore hanging up my Edit tab and bowing out. Maybe six months down the line I'll start to remember the good times a bit more and re-appear; that doesn't seem likely right now, however.

Thanks to all the wonderful folk I've encountered and collaborated with over the years; despite my current attitude, it has most definitely been fun. I shall always be proud to have been a part of this project, and to have met and worked with you all. May your names never be mentioned at ANI, and may all of your articles become Featured!

I hereby resign my role with ArbCom; conveniently there's an election coming up so my seat won't be vacant for too long.

Happy editing.

”

— Yunshui

This is not the only arbitrator to be leaving their seat early. Euryalus posted on their talk page back in September their plans to retire a year early. Because of the shakeups, this means there will be nine vacant seats in this year's election. If you're interested in putting your hat into the ring, you can go here to become a candidate. Best of luck to anyone running.

Neelix case

While the election for new Arbitrators is going on, a new case has been accepted on 10 November. The Neelix case was opened after a thread titled "Thousands upon thousands of unnecessary redirects" was made at WP:AN/I on 5 November, where an IP address pointed out how Administrator Neelix was creating unnecessary redirects. These redirects have been deleted but they included "Constructed titty", "Constructions of the booby", "Feminine shape", "Feminine build", and hundreds more redirects with the similar motif. The thread closed mentioning that Neelix was blocked back in 2010 for making redirects similar to this incident. He was unblocked four hours later and apologized for what he did. He became an admin the following year. An Arbitration Motion was made to have him desysoped but was decided to be made into a case. Neelix has since given up his administrator status. Because of his resignation, the case was closed on 13 November. Neelix has also been topic banned by the community from making redirects for one year.

Current cases

Editor conduct in e-cigs articles – in proposed decision phase.
Palestine-Israel articles 3 – in proposed decision phase.
Genetically modified organisms – in proposed decision phase.
Catflap08 and Hijiri88 – workshop phase closed and start of proposed decision phase pending.
Arbitration enforcement 2 – in proposed decision phase.

Next "Arbitration report" →

In this issue

11 November 2015 (all comments)

Op-ed

Arbitration report

Discussion report

Discuss this story

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Neelix: It might be useful to say "topic banned by the community". I'm pleased the committee closed the case, it's a remarkable triumph of common sense. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 21:29, 15 November 2015 (UTC).[reply]
- Done per your suggestion. And I agree on the committee's decision. Though if Neelix didn't resign his bit we would've seen this taking the usual course. I do wonder if we're going to see this happen again. GamerPro64 21:33, 15 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
In fairness, a small small (fewer than 1%) of his redirects were reasonable band in a few cases even necessary ones. An effort was made to spot these so hey wouldn't be deleted along with the rest. It's always a question in situations of this sort whether the number is so great we should just delete everything without checking. DGG ( talk ) 00:06, 16 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
If it had been a normal editor they would probably have been indeffed and banned--Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 09:11, 16 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- Sounds like an example of the "Super Mario Problem". GamerPro64 17:41, 16 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  - Please stop referring to the "Super Mario Problem" all the time. Nobody knows what you are talking about. Johnbod (talk) 18:55, 16 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    - That's the first time I've brought that phrase up. GamerPro64 20:53, 16 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    - Wikipedia:Glossary#Super_Mario_Problem Gamaliel (talk) 21:20, 16 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      - In videogames, The Super Mario Effect is as follows: When Mario gets a power up that turns him into Super Mario, a mistake that would normally kill him as ordinary Mario simply turns him from Super Mario to ordinary Mario, then he has to make another mistake to be killed. Likewise when an administrator does something that would get an ordinary editor indefinitely blocked, he is desysopped, turning him into an ordinary editor. Then he has to do something else wrong to be actually blocked. I believe that this applies to the case of Neelix, and that a regular ~~mario~~ editor would have been blocked. --Guy Macon (talk) 21:31, 16 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]