Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Arbitration Committee Elections December 2020

2020 Arbitration Committee Elections

Status as of 05:09 (UTC), Sunday, 3 November 2024 (Purge)

  • Thank you for participating in the 2020 Arbitration Committee Elections. The certified results have been posted.
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The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.
After having looked at this RfC, I have made the following determinations regarding this year's elections.
  1. There is strong consensus that any editor may write a voter guide, regardless of if they're a candidate or not.
    • In the event of any dispute about the content of said election guide, the electoral commissioners are empowered to make binding decisions for the purposes of ensuring a fair election and compliance with acceptable uses of election guides. Within that purview the electoral commissioners can:
      1. Remove content from guides, including (partially) blanking a guide
      2. Add official commentary to guides
      3. Remove a guide from the official templates and/or categories
    • Candidates do not have an explicit right of reply to comments about them made in election guides.
    • The content of election guides must comply with all relevant Wikipedia policies and guidelines, including but not limited to Wikipedia:No personal attacks and Wikipedia:Civility.
    • Any editor may add guides to official templates or categories for guides.
    • Editors are allowed to have an online guide to candidates in their userspace.
    • User guides to the candidates will be advertised on the ACE banner.
  2. There is consensus that, unless the candidate pages can be deleted under WP:G7, that all withdrawn or disqualified candidates will be listed as such on the candidates page.
  3. There is consensus to enforce the nomination deadline, and only consider an application as complete if both the nomination page has been created, and the page has been properly transcluded to the candidates page prior to the cut-off time as recorded by the server, regardless of technical problems. Candidate directions should suggest not attempting to perform this activity very close to the cut-off time, so there will be time to recover should any user or technical errors occur.
  4. Vanished or renamed users carrying the name "Vanished" or "Renamed" are excluded from the eligibility to vote.
  5. Voter eligibility requirements must be met from the same named account by the eligibility deadlines.
    • A voter must have made 10 live edits in any namespace within 1 year of November 1, as well as meet all remaining suffrage requirements, to be consider eligible to vote.
  6. The requirement of the elected Electoral Commissioners to be confirmed by the Arbitration Committee is repealed.
  7. The process to elect electoral commissioners will happen in two phases. The first phase will be a one week RfC drafting period where candidates may nominate themselves. Comments/endorsements will not be allowed during this phase. After the draft/nomination period ends, the RfC will be opened and the voters may comment/endorse the candidate.
  8. Any editor may only ask a limited number of questions to the candidate, and may ask a reasonable number of follow-up questions. In the event of a dispute about what constitutes a reasonable follow-up question, Electoral Commissioners have final say in resolving the dispute. There is consensus to impose the same limit as on RfA, the limit on questions will be set at 2.
  9. The Electoral Commissions decisions on content disputes is final. Content explicitly permitted on questions to candidates page is:
    • Questions to the individual candidate
    • Responses to questions by that candidate (including answers, requests for clarification, etc)
    • Reasonable follow-up questions
    • Responses to requests for clarification
    • Short responses to answers by the person asking the question (e.g. thanks)
  10. Content explicitly prohibited from questions to candidate pages is:
    • Statements of policy, philosophy, opinions or other general comments
    • Analysis of candidates, questions or answers
    • Endorsements or disendorsments of candidates
    • Reference to other candidates, except as necessary context for a question, answer or clarification request.
    • Personal attacks or aspersions
    • Adverts for voter guides or similar pages.
  11. If inappropriate questions, questions in excess of any limit, any content prohibited by above and/or other disputed content is added to the questions to candidates page it may be removed by Election Commissioners, and nobody else, with the exception of the author of said material.
  12. ArbCom candidates will be listed in a random order, and that order will be made static once a given user loads the candidates page for said given user.
  13. The poll will continue to feature Support, Neutral, and Oppose options for each candidate.
  14. In the event of technical issues beyond the control of the coordinators, editors, or the electoral commission, the electoral commission has the authority to adjust the elections timeline accordingly to ensure a smooth elections process.
  15. The sentence "To avoid any potential conflicts of interest, current arbitrators may not serve as members of either the Ombuds Commission or the WMF Case Review Committee while serving as arbitrators." will be added to the instructions for candidates page.

Closed by: —CYBERPOWER (Chat) 14:50, 30 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The purpose of this request for comment is to provide an opportunity to amend the structure, rules, and procedures of the December 2020 English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee election and resolve any issues not covered by existing rules. 03:02, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

Background: In the case of proposals that change existing rules, or that seek to establish new ones, lack of consensus for a change will result in the rules from the 2019 election remaining in force. Some issues are not covered by the existing rules but will need to be decided one way or another for the operation of the election, in those cases it will be up to the closer to figure out a result, even if there is no clear consensus, as they have had to in the past.

ACERFC decisions to date [prior to this 2020 request for comment]
  • Election: There will be 15 arbitrators, seven seats on "Tranche Alpha" and eight seats on "Tranche Beta" from the 2019 elections.[1] A maximum eight 2-years term are up for elections each year,[2] with the eight seat switching tranche if necessary.[3] Any additional vacancies which open before voting begins[4] will be filled by a 1-year term.[2] A minimum 50% support is required to be elected for a 1-year term, with a minimum 60% support is required for a 2-years term.[5] Successful candidates with the lowest support percentages are given the 1-year term if any.[6] If there are more vacancies than candidates with the required minimum, the extra seats will remain unfilled until a special or the next regular election.[1] Vacancies arising between elections will remain unfilled until a special or the next regular election.[7]
  • Special Election: An interim special election which is called by the Arbitration Committee in accordance with the Arbitration Policy shall be conducted on an abbreviated timeline.[8]
    • Electoral Commission: The previous Election Commission shall be reappointed unless they are unable or unwilling to perform the job, in which case members of the current functionaries team who are not arbitrators or WMF staff will be asked to volunteer without the need for confirmation. The Election Commission is empowered to resolve by majority vote situations unforeseen in the previous election RfC that may prevent emergency or interim elections from being held.
    • Nominations period: One week.
    • Voting period: As soon as possible after the close of nominations.
    • Terms of office: To the end of the year.
    • Number of vacancies: Up to the size of the committee authorized in the previous election RfC.
  • Candidates: Registered account with 500 mainspace edits,[α] editor in good standing "that is"/"and is"[β] not under block or ban, meets Foundation's Access to nonpublic personal data policy,[γ] and has disclosed alternate accounts (or disclosed legitimate accounts to Arbcom).[9][10] Withdrawn or disqualified candidates will be listed in their own section on the candidates page.[11]
  • Electoral Commission: A RFC to appoint 3 Electoral Commission officials who will solve disputes and problems during the election.[12] Open to anyone who is over 18, meets Foundation's Access to nonpublic personal data policy,[γ] and otherwise be eligible to vote.[13] Appointments to the Commission should be confirmed by the Arbitration Committee per the CheckUser policy.[γ][δ][13] Officials will not be allowed to assess private matters and/or have access to voter data, and/or related permissions, and will instead defer private matters to the current ArbCom and/or the WMF as needed.[ε][14]
  • Timeline:
    • ACE RFC: (30 days of September)
    • Electoral Commission RFC: 7 days nominations, 7 days evaluation, selection by 7 days after close of evaluation.[ζ][13] (October)
    • Nominations: 2nd Sunday of November (10 days)[15]
      • Nomination is hard deadline for creation and transclusion of nomination statement. How to handle any site-wide disruption is at the discretion of the Electoral Commission[16]
    • Fallow period: (5 days)[15]
    • Voting period: (14 days)[15]
    • Scrutineering: No deadline for releasing or announcing the results.[17]
  • Guides: Allowed but with some strong suggestions.[18] Must be allowed reasonable visibility.[19]
  • General Guide: Wikipedia:5 Minute guide to ArbCom Elections created and advertised.[20]
  • Voter Suffrage: A voter needs 150 mainspace edits by 1 November, 10 live edits (in any namespace) within one year of 1 November, and to have registered an account before 1 October,[21] not currently blocked at the time of voting.[22][23]
  • Voting System: Voting system of (Support/Abstain/Oppose) will be used[24] with percentages calculated via Support/(Support + Oppose).[25] Secret ballots[26] via SecurePoll will be used.[η]
  • Scrutineering: 3 functionaries[θ] from outside en.wiki as scrutineers.[27]
  • Ordering: The order of candidates are software randomised on the candidate page, and on the ballot.[28]
  • Warning: Potential candidates are warned of risks from standing for election with message similar to that on WP:CUOS2015 to be incorporated into the candidate instructions page.[29]
  • Questions: No standard questions for every candidates.[30] No limits on the number of questions, but candidates are not obligated to answer every questions.[31] Electoral Commission (as a group not individually) have the discretion to remove offensive (eg. WP:POLEMIC-style statements) or off-topic questions from question pages, following discussion among the Electoral Commission members,[32] but has no authority to reword questions to the candidate.[33] Any candidate that feels a question should be removed/reviewed should contact the electoral commission to review the question, and not take action themselves.[34] While other editors can obviously remove clear vandalism, egregious personal attacks, etc., the determination of what is inappropriate or off-topic is clearly to be left to the Commission.[32]
  • Advertising: Traditional notices posted to various community noticeboards,[35] watchlist notice and/or central notice banner[36][37] for election in general (not individual candidates),[36] Mass Message - eligible voters, have edited last 12 months before nominations,[38] but excluding blocked users where the block duration extends past the the elections, globally b/locked accounts, bots, and accounts in Category:All Wikipedia bots, Category:Wikipedia alternative accounts, Category:Wikipedia doppelganger accounts, and Category:Deceased Wikipedians.[39] Extra care should be taken in wordings of advertising to make sure it's neutral.[40]
  • Blocking: Blocking policy applies normally, but a candidate shouldn't be disqualified for being blocked (except for sockpuppetry) after nominating him/herself.[41]
  1. ^ Transcription error from 2011 to 2012 election. De facto since. Consensus against proposed changes in 2016.
  2. ^ Changes during transcription from 2010 to 2011 elections.
  3. ^ a b c WMF's requirement.
  4. ^ Not in practice.
  5. ^ WMF's policy
  6. ^ De facto community evaluation from start of nominations.
  7. ^ De facto since 2009.
  8. ^ Stewards de facto since pre-2012

References

  1. ^ a b 2019#Number of arbitrators
  2. ^ a b 2013#Length of terms
  3. ^ 2013#Handling of the 8th Vacant Seat
  4. ^ 2012#How should vacancies be handled?
  5. ^ 2018#Percentage support needed for appointment
  6. ^ 2012#How many seats should be 2-year terms, and how many 1-year terms?
  7. ^ 2019#Runners-up to step up to fill vacancies
  8. ^ 2019#Procedures for emergency elections
  9. ^ 2012#What should the requirements be for candidates to run for the election?
  10. ^ 2014#Disclosure of Previous/Alternate Accounts of the candidates
  11. ^ 2019#Withdrawn/disqualified candidates
  12. ^ 2012#How should we deal with unforeseen problems?
  13. ^ a b c 2014#How should the selection of the election commission be conducted?
  14. ^ 2019#Electoral commission's scope of purview/access
  15. ^ a b c 2013#Schedule
  16. ^ 2015#How should nomination deadlines be handled?
  17. ^ 2012#Deadline for releasing the results
  18. ^ 2012#How should voter guides be handled for the election?
  19. ^ 2014#Should voter guides be included in the official template?
  20. ^ 2018#Write a short general guide to voting
  21. ^ 2019#Voter activity requirements
  22. ^ 2012#What should the requirements be to vote in the election?
  23. ^ 2011#What should the requirements be to vote in the election?
  24. ^ 2013#Voting procedure: proposing change "No vote" to "Abstain"
  25. ^ 2012#What should the method of voting be?
  26. ^ 2012#Secret balloting?
  27. ^ 2015#Should adjustments be made to expedite the election results?
  28. ^ 2016#Should the names of candidates appear in randomized order, and if not, how should they be ordered?
  29. ^ 2016#Should we warn the candidates about the risks involved?
  30. ^ 2014#The standard questions
  31. ^ 2014#Should there be a limit to the number of questions posed to candidates?
  32. ^ a b 2017#Should election committee members be allowed to remove questions where appropriate?
  33. ^ 2019#Questions to candidates must be phrased neutrally
  34. ^ 2019#Dealing with possibly inappropriate questions
  35. ^ 2012#Advertising
  36. ^ a b 2015#Should there be a change in the methods of publicity for the election?
  37. ^ 2016#Should we continue or modify the practice of notifying eligible voters by mass message?
  38. ^ 2018#Mass message
  39. ^ 2019#Mass message
  40. ^ 2014#Should the site notice be changed when voting begins?
  41. ^ 2013#Blocking candidates

Structure: This RfC is divided into portions, each of which contains a discussion point for the community. The standard RfC structure will be used, in which any user may make a general statement that other users may endorse if they so agree. The points will be listed in the table of contents below, along with the users who have made statements. Anyone is free to raise any new topics that they feel need to be addressed by filling out the format template below or using {{subst:ACERFC statement}}.

Duration: In order to preserve the timeline of the election (see above), we should aim to close this RfC as soon as 30 days have passed, i.e. on or after September 30, 2020. The results will determine the structure, rules, and procedures for the election.

Timeline: Per the consensus developed in previous requests for comment, the electoral commission timetable is as follows:

  • Nominations: Saturday 00:00, 3 October – Friday 23:59, 9 October (7 days)
  • Evaluation period: Saturday 00:00, 10 October – Friday 23:59, 16 October (7 days)
  • Commission selection: completed by Friday 00:00, 23 October

Per the consensus developed in previous request for comments, the arbitration committee election timetable is as follows:

  • Nominations: Sunday 00:00, 8 November – Tuesday 23:59, 17 November (10 days)
  • Setup period: Wednesday 00:00, 18 November to Sunday 23:59, 22 November (5 days)
  • Voting period: Tuesday 00:00, 23 November to Monday 23:59, 6 December (14 days)
  • Scrutineering: Begins Tuesday 0:00, 3 December

Use the following format below; post a new statement at the BOTTOM of the section in which you want to make a statement. New statements must also have an opposing statement, or the option to oppose the statement. Endorse by adding a hash symbol (#) and your signature. 

===Statement #N by [[User:USERNAME|USERNAME]]===
Comment ~~~~

==== Users who endorse statement #N: ====

#~~~~

Users should only edit one summary or view, other than to endorse.

Overview of statements
No. Statement summary Author
Voter guides
1a Candidates in the election are not allowed to write voter guides. Rschen7754
1b Any editor may write a voter guide. Thryduulf
1c A candidate who writes a guide must declare that they are a candidate in that guide. Izno
2a In the case of dispute about the content of an election guide, the election commissioners are empowered to make a binding decision for the purpose of ensuring a fair election Thryduulf
2b There should not be any specific rules regarding disputed content in election guides. idem
3 How may election commissioners enforce their decisions? idem
4a Candidates have the right of reply to comments about them made in election guides. idem
4b Candidates do not have an explicit right of reply to comments about them made in election guides. idem
5a The content of election guides must comply with all relevant Wikipedia policies and guidelines, including but not limited to Wikipedia:No personal attacks and Wikipedia:Casting aspersions. idem
5b There should be no explicit requirement for election guides to comply with policies and guidelines. idem
6a Only guide authors may add guides to official templates or categories for guides. idem
6b Only election commissioners may add guides to official templates or categories for guides. idem
6c Any editor may add guides to official templates or categories for guides. idem
7a Completely deprecate guides to candidates SchroCat
7b Editors are allowed to have an online guide to candidates in their userspace idem
8a User guides to the candidates will not be advertised on the ACE banner. idem
8b User guides to the candidates will be advertised on the ACE banner. idem
Withdrawn candidates
1 Show withdrawn or disqualified candidates on the candidates page. Wugapodes
2 Show withdrawn or disqualified candidates on the candidates page unless their questions page can be or has been deleted under WP:G7. idem
3 Do not show withdrawn or disqualified candidates on the candidates page. idem
4 Do not show withdrawn or disqualified candidates on the candidates page if they withdrew/were disqualified before the start of voting. Ivanvector
Nomination timing
1 The self-nomination will only be considered completed if both the nomination page has been created, and the page has been properly transcluded to the candidates page prior to the cut-off time as recorded by the server. xaosflux
2 A self-nomination may be considered completed if the candidate makes any effort to complete the process prior to the cut off time. idem
3 Same as #1 but Election Commissioners may make an exception if they confirm a technical issue on the side of Wikipedia. Nosebagbear
Voter suffrage
1a Exclude users with usernames beginning with Vanished user... or Renamed user... from eligibility to vote. xaosflux
1b Allow users with usernames beginning with Vanished user... or Renamed user... eligibility to vote. idem
2a For purposes of determining voter eligibility factors related to tenure, edits, or edit timing all required factors must be met using the same named user account. idem
2b An editor may combine tenure, edits, or edit timing from any number of named user accounts to meet eligibility requirements. idem
3a Regarding the ten edits within one year of November 1 requirement, drop the requirement that those edits remain live. Altamel
3b Besides the other suffrage requirements, a voter must have made 10 live edits (in any namespace) within one year of 1 November to be eligible to vote. idem
Electoral commission
1a Repeal the "Appointments to the Commission should be confirmed by the Arbitration Committee per the CheckUser policy." requirement. xaosflux
1b Require the Arbitration Committee to confirm members of the election commission. idem
2a During the RfC to select the Election Commissioners, editors may express their endorsement of a commissioner at any time. idem
2b During the RfC to select the Election Commissioners, endorsement of a commissioner will not be accepted until the second week of the RfC. idem
3 Commissioner nominations will be accepted during a drafting period before the RfC is publicized. Endorsements of candidates may only be made during the public RfC phase. SMcCandlish
Questions to candidates
1a Impose a limit to the number of questions any editor may ask of a single candidate. This limit includes follow-up questions. Thryduulf
1b The same as 1a except the limit excludes follow-up questions idem
2 Do not limit the number of questions any editor may ask of a single candidate. xaosflux
3a Establish criteria for acceptable posts on a candidate question page. Thryduulf
3b There should be no specific rules about what is and is not acceptable on questions to candidates pages idem
4 Who may remove inappropriate questions to candidate question pages? idem
Candidate listing order
1a Candidates should be listed in a static order Floquenbeam
1b Candidates should be listed randomly on the candidates page and randomly reshuffled each time the page is refreshed. idem
1c Candidate order should be randomized by viewer but not change between refreshes. SMcCandlish
1d Candidates should be listed in a sortable table. idem
2a The preferred static ordering should be alphabetical order. Floquenbeam
2b The preferred static ordering should be chronological by order of transclusion of their statement. idem
2c The preferred static ordering should be something besides that described in #2a or #2b. idem
3a The order of candidates on the voting page (i.e. the ballot) should be the same as the order of the candidates on the WP pages. idem
3b The order of candidates on the voting page (i.e. the ballot) should still be randomized idem
Voting process
1a Editors will vote for candidates they support; the ability to vote against candidates will be removed. SMcCandlish
1b The voting instructions page should clearly explain the implications of the double-voting mechanics. idem
1c It should be made very clear to voters that neutral votes do not count. PJvanMill
1d It should be made clear to voters that an oppose vote on one candidate benefits all other candidates, and a support vote on one candidate makes it more difficult for all other candidates. idem
2 Voters will be able to select "Support", "Oppose", or "Neutral" for each candidate. L235
3 Voters will be able to select "Support", "Oppose", or "Neutral" for each candidate. However, only "Support" votes will determine the election. SMcCandlish
4 Voters will be able to select either "Support" or "Oppose". Wugapodes
5 Voters will be able to rank candidates in order of preference using the Schulze method. EllenCT
Deadlines
1a In the event of significant technical or other issues affecting the election, the election commissioners may adjust affected deadlines. Thryduulf
1b Once deadlines are set they may not be altered. idem
Metaproposals
1a At least 15 editors need to support any statement at the Arbitration Committee Election Request for Comment for it to be closed with consensus. Implement this decision for this year. Barkeep49
1b Same as 1a, except implemented next year. idem
1c There will be no set minimum number of people who must support a proposal for there to be consensus. idem
2 Starting in 2021, users are strongly encouraged (but not required) to limit the amount of RFC proposals they make. MJL
Notifying candidates of new prohibition against multiple roles
1 A sentence advising that sitting arbitrators may not also serve on the Ombuds Commission or the WMF Case Review Committee will be added to the candidate information page. Newyorkbrad