(This is a repost for Marc since GMail helpfully sent the previous as
HTML and mucked up the formatting)
I think an (elected) council is a better form than a "benevolent
dictator" position, but we still would need to be clear on what their
responsibilities are, and how and when they should intervene.
I would propose that as an election process for a council, we do an
open comment page and secret ballot process for this position, with
the same oversight as the historical Special:Boardvote process.
Election officials would be selected for their neutrality - if we
can't get sufficiently neutral election officials from within our
project, find members of other projects that have minimal to no
involvement in or connection to en.wiki.
I would also propose that this is a good time to adopt a formal
charter for English Wikipedia, as a statement of the core values on
which we are built, and the form of governance with which we protect
those values and steer our project forward. This should be a simple
document - a framework for policy rather than a codification of all
the policies we have, and when and if it's adopted by the community,
it should be submitted to the foundation for their approval. I believe
that they could approve such a document without taking on the
oversight of editorial processes and of content itself, but I am not a
lawyer, so someone else would have to comment on the legal situation.
The argument for of a charter of this form is that certain sensitive
aspects of policy, such as the meaning of consensus, method of
governance, and other crucial issues should not change except through
careful deliberation and consent of the entire community.