doc wrote
charles.r.matthews(a)ntlworld.com wrote:
Remember, we don't meet at all in real life, and yet are sometimes "in
session" on the list 24 hours a day (100 mails in a day is not uncommon).
I have every sympathy with arbcom - however, I think the paranoia at the
moment is incredibly damaging. Arbcom works because we trust you - we
have to - I do. But if that goes, for legitimate or illegitimate,
reasons wikipedia is screwed.
If the arbcom mailing list is essentially simply an essential
conversation, like IRC or real life, then that's fine. We elected you
and trust you to have that conversation - and in private *where
necessary*. (Although actually, there's a bit in RfArbss for arbiter
discussion that's underused!)
But in that case, it should not have a longlife archive. Conversations
don't generally get archived and then made available to non-parties in
the future. When you've got that type of information on file, you've
moved from a necessary conversation to a dossier - which essentially
contains a permanent record of people you've discussed.
Well, I disagree. The workload increases, the cases not necessarily being more numerous
but rising in complexity (as the simpler cases of problem users are taken on in other
ways). The "dossier" issue is of a certain sensitivity, but it comes down to
this: no one can in fact remember even a fraction of things that the AC has to remember.
And it is all very well people saying we should work faster. The newly-elected Arbitrators
- how are they to get up to speed? In an earlier part of my life, I joined a typical
committee with meetings having an agenda of 40 items. I remember well how hard it was to
register enough "and who is he?" and "where is that?" and "what
is this other organisation?" and if "it's been tried before", when was
that and what actually was the outcome.
Pah. If all the AC did was judicial work, you'd have some sort of point. We do have to
vet CheckUsers, for example, and it is better to have a record saying "allegations
made" against a vettee, which is specific and means that matters can be put
privately. And so on and on. enWP has to have some sort of space where this toxic stuff is
handled.
Charles
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