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This is a summary of a ruling by the Arbitration Committee that clarified that certain administrators, who mass-deleted unsourced biographies of living people (BLPs), were to be commended for their efforts and dedication to the Wikipedia project. The committee also advised the administrators to undertake the process of large-scale deletions of unsourced BLPs in a less chaotic manner.

Background

On 20 January 2010, administrator Rdm2376 (talk · contribs) (also known as Kevin) started deleting unsourced biographies of living persons with the log summary "Unwatched and unsourced biography that has not been edited for at least 6 months". His reasoning was that there were too many unsourced BLPs on Wikipedia and it was time the community did something about it. There was visible support to his deletion drive, as well as dissent, which led to a lively discussion on multiple forums.[1] [2]. After an ANI report was made against Rdm2376, administrator Geni (talk · contribs) blocked him for 10 minutes. Once the block expired, Rdm2376 started his deletions again, which led to a three hour block by administrator Geni. This block was lifted subsequently by Coffee (talk · contribs) which led to Rdm2376 continuing more deletions, and another subsequent block by administrator DESiegel (talk · contribs) who blocked Rdm2376 for 12 hours.

Later, on the same day (20 January 2010), this incident was reported to the Arbitration Committee by administrator Juliancolton (talk · contribs), who commented that such a wheel warring behaviour was unnecessary and not required. After statements from many involved and uninvolved administrators and editors, the arbitration committee passed a motion on 21 January 2010.

Arbitration Committee motion

Summary motion in lieu of a full case (click here for the final motion):

The Committee has examined this matter. In light of the following considerations:

That the core principles of the policy on biographies of living people—in particular, neutrality and verifiability—have been set forth by the Wikimedia Foundation as a mandate for all projects;
That the policy on biographies of living people, and this Committee's ruling in the Badlydrawnjeff case, call for the removal of poorly sourced and controversial content, and places the burden of demonstrating compliance on those who wish to see the content included;
That unsourced biographies of living people may contain seemingly innocuous statements which are actually damaging, but there is no way to determine whether they do without providing sources;
That Wikipedia, through the founding principle of "Ignore All Rules", has traditionally given administrators wide discretion to enforce policies and principles using their own best judgment; and
That administrators have been instructed to aggressively enforce the policy on biographies of living people.

The Committee has determined that:

The deletions carried out by Rdm2376, Scott MacDonald, and various other administrators are a reasonable exercise of administrative discretion to enforce the policy on biographies of living people.
The administrators who carried out these actions are commended for their efforts to enforce policy and uphold the quality of the encyclopedia, but are urged to conduct future activities in a less chaotic manner.
The administrators who interfered with these actions are reminded that the enforcement of the policy on biographies of living people takes precedence over mere procedural concerns.

The Committee hereby proclaims an amnesty for all editors who may have overstepped the bounds of policy in this matter. Everyone is asked to continue working together to improve and uphold the goals of our project. The Committee recommends, in particular, that a request for comments be opened to centralize discussion on the most efficient way to proceed with the effective enforcement of the policy on biographies of living people.