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There is a limit of two questions per editor for each candidate. You may also ask a reasonable number of follow-up questions relevant to questions you have already asked.

2. Thank you for standing :) ArbCom makes a lot of tough decisions in user conduct cases, often with potential for community blowback. What's the toughest (or, one of the toughest) decisions you've made with the admin tools? Preferably a situation related to user-conduct, although anything'll do. Talk about the way you approached the situation, the weighed factors, how you came to a decision, any fallout that came as a result, and if you would have done anything differently. theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 00:12, 22 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

   These situations (taking tricky user-conduct decisions) come up reasonably frequently at SPI and in the wider work of a Checkuser. These cases involve making a determination as to whether a user is a sockpuppet of a blocked editor, ranging from simple "playground nonsense" socking to mess about, through to complex long-term abuse involving organised disinformation operations aiming to sway our coverage of political matters. When weighing the evidence in such cases, the stakes are reasonably high - SPI blocks are given a reasonably high deference by convention, and Checkuser blocks are given an extremely high deference by policy. When blocking, I need to be as confident as I can be that I am making the right call, to a higher threshold than when making a block under a different policy (e.g. for vandalism). I need to ensure that if questioned on the reasoning (which may involve a fairly complex logic chain) I can explain it to a fellow admin or CU. The consequences of not blocking and being wrong, while lower, are still potentially significant - I could allow abusive accounts to continue to disrupt the project (although this is an easier case to remedy at a later date than blocking incorrectly).
   In terms of how I make those decisions, it is all about the probative value of evidence - does the evidence we have pass my confidence threshold for "these accounts are related and being used abusively". We can almost never reach certainty, we can only look to become "sure enough". A similar logic can be applied to the types of user conduct cases that come before ArbCom. We need to ensure that the problem has reached the threshold for a case (i.e. the issue cannot be handled by the community); we then need to assess the evidence, and draw conclusions as to the least amount of action that will solve the problem and prevent (further) disruption to the project or harm to contributors. We are never going to be able to make everybody happy, in some cases nobody will be 100% pleased with the outcome - that is the unfortunate reality of dispute resolution - but we can ensure that we find the best outcome for the community as a whole. firefly ( t · c ) 13:43, 22 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

4. This year's committee has had trouble maintaining a healthy quorum of active arbitrators. What experience do you have, particularly on Wikipedia, with doing work you've agreed to do even when that becomes hard? Thanks, Barkeep49 (talk) 00:45, 22 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

   I am keenly aware from chats with current arbs of the increased pressure that having a "below-capacity" committee places on those that are active. I told myself that I would only run at ACE if I believed I would have the time to commit to do the work over the term if elected - and to the best of my knowledge I believe I will have said time. As a more direct answer to your question, there have been multiple occasions where I have been less active than usual but have received a ping about something - perhaps an issue with a Toolforge tool I maintain or an administrative issue I've been involved with. I will always make time to give a timely reply and (if relevant) look into whatever it is. Sometimes doing the actual work takes longer, but I try to keep people informed so they're not left wondering. If others are in some way relying on me to do something I owe it to them, and the community, to try to get it done. firefly ( t · c ) 13:43, 22 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

6. Do you think ArbCom should be more transparent about the outcomes of private inquiries, especially regarding admins and functionaries? This question is motivated by the admin meatpuppetry situation in September, but it's up to you whether to discuss that situation in particular. -- Tamzin^{[cetacean needed]} (they|xe|she) 06:24, 22 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

   In short - "yes". ArbCom is uniquely empowered to handle complex conduct issues involving private evidence, and I believe that this is (a) a reasonable situation (we will always need a body capable of handling such evidence) and (b) something that ArbCom generally handles well on the merits of the situations. However, I do think that the Committee could do more to clarify the results of such cases and empower the community to deal with the aspects that it is capable of handling.
   Perhaps in cases where there is both a private evidence component and a public/on-wiki component, the Committee could handle only the private component, give a suitably redacted summary of its findings, and pass the remainder of the matter back to the community. Naturally, there will be cases where the Committee feels the community is not able or not best placed to resolve the full matter, but I believe it usually owes the community a chance.
   I have opted not to comment on the specific case you mention as I obviously do not have access to all the evidence therein, and feel it would therefore be unwise for me to talk about specifics. firefly ( t · c ) 13:43, 22 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

8. The majority of ArbCom's workload is in handling private matters, not public ones such as cases. Can you please elaborate on how you will handle the large volume of private work the Committee receives? CaptainEek ^{Edits Ho Cap'n!}⚓ 17:51, 22 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

10. In one case this year, ArbCom themselves served as the "filing party", accepting a case that had not immediately been brought to them. What are your thoughts on ArbCom taking actions via full cases when they don't have a request from the community to do so? --Tryptofish (talk) 01:00, 23 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

12. Arbcom seems to limit itself to a very narrow range of responses to admins, with nothing in the gap between admonition and desysopping. What sort of things should it do when admonition isn't enough but a desysop is too much?ϢereSpielChequers 10:12, 23 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

14. There has been tension between the volunteer community and the WMF in the past, and there may be more with the universal code of conduct now in force. Tension on the talkpage of the Elbonian civil war has spilled out into an acrimonious RFA for one of the protagonists, and the press have reported demonstrations about this article in the capital town of Elbonia and in several villages during the current visit of the US president to Elbonia. Cases being filed with Arbcom include: You should desysop the longstanding admin who briefly fully protected the talkpage for the Elbonian civil war, we have already desysopped him on the Elbonian Wikipedia for senility; Your new admin is too young to write about rape in the Elbonian civil war and should stay away from such topics until she is at least a teenager; Many of the voters in that RFA only otherwise vote "Keep" or "delete" in various Elbonian related deletion discussions, they may be admins on the Elbonian Wikipedia but several lack sufficient English to participate here, especially when they write entries on talkpages that consists of nothing more than rows of squares. Which bits of the Universal Code of Conduct have been breached in this kerfuffle and what if anything should Arbcom do about it? ϢereSpielChequers 10:12, 23 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]