Alex R. wrote:
At least half the members of any artibration committee
should be
people who are anti-banning so that they keep the other half of
the committee honest. I think that allowing people just to volunteer
who are just pro-banning is a bad idea for this reason (there has also
been some discussion on talk pages about this that I agree with).
I'm a little confused by what you're saying here. I have said that I
am going to try to appoint people who are anti-banning and people who
are pro-banning. I expect them _not_ to just 'vote the party line',
of course, but to consider the merits of each case, but it's also
reasonable to assume that some people are much less likely to approve
of a ban than others.
So, to be clear, I too am opposed to "allowing people just to
volunteer who are just pro-banning".
We are talking about transformative justice here (that
is the
civil version of restorative justice) not retributive justice.
I personally do not beleive in retribution. Justice is a process
that should enlighten and help people live together, it is not
intended to punish except in the most severe cases where
no other redistribution is useful and even then such punative
action is not preferred if there is another solution.
Very well said.
One of the problems that we've had is that mediation and arbitration
and executive clemency have all been wrapped up together. I see the
mediation->arbitration process as being partly about getting me out of
the business of having to deal with every single problem that comes up
(which is a bottleneck and also risks a loss of legitimacy if I'm not
perceived as cautious, wise, fair, etc.) AND also about separating
mediation from arbitration.
The mediators will not have the power to ban, will not be in the
business of recommending bans, but will instead be in the business of
trying to work helpfully with people, without a direct threat, to try
to resolve conflict. I think that's going to be very good.
I think, obviously, that my own banning decisions have been very very
good. So I want the committee to accurately reflect the internal
struggle that I feel about banning. Sometimes I feel like going
through with a chainsaw. Other times I feel like not banning anyone
ever for anything. The right policy is somewhere in the middle, to
ban only reluctantly and as a last sad resort.
--Jimbo