On Sat, Sep 26, 2009 at 3:22 AM, Charles Matthews
<charles.r.matthews(a)ntlworld.com> wrote:
George Herbert wrote:
<snip>
It's not so much that it's impossible to do and make stick, as doing
it and making it stick requires the right people, timing, attention,
and focus, and those are all in perpetual short supply.
Well, of course I respect your hands-on experience. I was coming at the
civility issue from the direction it arose (Arbcom) in what is now a
rambling, vertiginous thread. I just want to add my theoretical
analysis: a recent academic study has spoken in terms of our arbitration
process as conditioned by an idea of "weeding in" (rather than "weeding
out" of troublesome individuals). This says something about the
traditional approach of drawing boundaries and making it clear what
crosses them. My view is that this concept has been tried on civility
and (despite what is a goodish record with other issues) has not shown
itself as well adapted as for other vexing matters.
I agree, the experience for Arbcom trying to constructively grapple
with the problem is clearly as frustrating as for admins trying to
grapple with it, but obviously different as you have pointed out.
The internal perspective there is appreciated.
--
-george william herbert
george.herbert(a)gmail.com