I even witnessed first-hand a user trying the ArbCom route and failing because he/she could not get a second user involved in the dispute to back him/her up. Which wasn't very strange because there really only was he/she and the admin involved..
I strongly doubt that, since that's not part of the Arbitration Committee procedure. Which case are you referring to?
Ok. It was a Request for Comments. But it is the route you are supposed to go if you have been threatened badly by an admin. Taking the matter directly to the ArbCom doesn't work. And I was mistaken about the deadline too, it is 48 hours. The case I am referring to is between a user whos username starts with O and an admin whos username starts with R. I'm not interested in bringing up the specific case to the mailing list (it happened many months ago) because nothing good can come out of it. I'm just, hesistantly, mentioning the usernames by their initials so that readers themselves can do their research and see that the situation actually is as atrocious as I have described.