I'd just like to note a few more things on arbitration, keeping it short, if I can. I completely agree with Mark's (Delirium's) comments. It is a ridiculously difficult thing to settle these disputes. Especially when people seem to have infinite free time to dredge up everything a user has ever done since their arrival at WP 2 years prior. The claims and counterclaims go on for ages. Often-times this evidence is not in a very user-friendly format. It takes ages to go through it all, and as a result I often end up with poor impressions of a case because I've had to read it piecemeal over several days. I have no idea how to solve that. The fact that this task is mind-numbingly boring is not much relieved by the general grumbling in the community (regardless of how a case is decided, someone hates me, often publically...and usually there are dozens more who post to the mailing list that we're either inconsistent or punitive or soft on trolls or trolls ourselves or just too damn slow). That, I think we can solve in part. But it will take a restoration of trust, which is always difficult.
Ambi's comments are very generous to me -- the fact is that I don't do the heavy lifting, so cut me from your list, if you would. I do what I can to offer the occasional proposal, but I'd say that 95-98% of all proposal making is the work of Fred, James F., and Martin. I try hard to keep up with cases and vote on proposals once made (and occasionally offer a counter-proposal), but the work of actually deciding a reasonable consequence to propose is too great for me. I'll do my best to do more in this arena in the coming weeks, but frankly it's a very tough task, and I don't want the credit for it -- in the last 2-3 months, it's been the three people I mention above, and my hat is off to all of them (Fred especially). And I say this with no disrespect intended to my fellow non-proposers -- I know all too well the position we're in.
I won't comment on the rest of the AC proposals....all of them have their advantages and drawbacks. I do want to clarify my remakrs about IRC, though. I have no problem with arbitrators using an IRC channel to deliberate in simple ways (perhaps it would help in the formulation of proposals). I thought the proposal had been to have the arbitration, complete with agreed punishments, happening in real time on IRC. That is the possibility I cannot abide. If the AC used IRC merely as an official way of opening deliberations (while still making proposals and leaving comments in the open and public wiki, holding all voting there), I could live with that more reasonably (though I would still have issues with the speed of my connection, I think -- but I'm not tech-savvy enough to be sure).
Thanks for reading yet another lengthy rambling -- I am hopeful that the AC is getting onto the right track, and I wish us all well in getting there.
James R. (Jwrosenzweig)
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