[WikiEN-l] RfA reform

[Sam Blacketer]

Having looked at some debates on this mailing list from before when I
joined it about how RfA is broken as a process, read tonight's
'Request for Arbitration' read the almost surreal RfA for Danny, and
(most importantly) read Mackensen's statement in his Request for
Bureaucratship, I have a half-formed idea for a replacement system
might be organised. Thought it best to try here rather than by putting
up a proposal because the audience is more select and thoughtful
(flattery will get you everywhere).

The key problem with RfA that too many people have identified is that
although it is formally 'not a vote', it is a vote in effect and in
practice. The second problem is that oppose notvotes are cast for
reasons which have little importance on  Any replacement needs to move
away from a system of pure votes. However, it does need to offer an
opportunity for editors at large to evaluate a candidate's editing to
assess whether they are likely to fall into any of the problem areas
for admins.

The system I have in mind would involve an expanded list of questions
to ask the candidate in more detail about their contributions and how
they see themselves fitting in. Then, instead of asking editors to
support or oppose, editors would be asked to assess the candidate's
contributions in several different aspects. That might fall into these
divisions (this is just an example):

* Article writing
* Interactions with other Wikipedians
* Contributions to Wikipedia internal debates
* Vandal-fighting and cleanup
* Miscellaneous

Instead of 'support' or 'oppose', editors judging the candidate would
comment on whether the candidate's contributions in each area were
worthy of commendation or indicated unsuitability. They could add, if
they wanted, a recommendation to the closing bureaucrat that the
candidate had such serious problems that they should not be promoted.

At the end of the debate, the bureaucrat would ascertain whether any
problems with the candidate taken overall made them unsuitable, not by
counting numbers but by qualitative assessment. The way this might
work is that the candidate who registered an account last week and has
10 edits would fail almost immediately, as now. The candidate who has
no involvement with copyright checking but has good experience in
everything else would pass because they can pick that experience up
later if they need to. The candidate who edits controversial articles
and is inevitably accused of bias and targeted by trolls, will pass if
it is clear they react calmly.

I recognise this proposal vastly increases the discretion of the corps
of bureaucrats but that would probably be inevitable in any change. I
am not suggesting that RfB procedure should be changed. Also, I think
I should declare an interest in that I'm rather hoping to go through
RfA myself sometime in the future.

-- 
Sam Blacketer
London E15