The arbitration process is currently in a state of fairly major meltdown. COFS sat there for well over 2 months, and it took so long one remedy had to be scrapped as it became irrelevant. Allegations of apartheid is still there, still split, a collective monkey on everyone's backs. Bharatveer, an open-and-shut case if ever there was one, is just sitting there. SevenofDiamonds is split and seems to be going nowhere. Attack sites seems dead in the water. And these are just the ones I know something about. The collective picture is not a good one.
The malaise goes deeper than end-of-year weariness. People have real lives, and we cannot expect 24/7 arbitrators (nor would we really want such types). Moreover, since we have so few arbitrators (down to 7 active? How can 7 men be expected to control enwiki, no matter how dedicated?), they have to do an awful lot of work. This means they can't spend quality time on the ground fighting the daily battles the rest of us face, and so lose touch with reality (no offence to anyone intended).
There are several potential solutions, and something does have to be done, because the current situation is simply not sustainable.
I remember one idea coming from Dmcdevit, who proposed that for really obvious cases the ArbCom would simply hold a vote on the main RFAR page. How often does a chronic revert warrior get put in front of ArbCom, and you think "Revert parole for him, mate", and this is exactly what the ArbCom does - two months later? You could aid this process by requiring people to collect the majority of their evidence before requesting arbitration, as I did in my most recent case. This would significantly streamline the arbitration process without losing effectiveness and or adding bureaucracy.
Other measures? Expanding the committee to a far greater number but limiting the numbers that could participate on a particular case would be one option (or simply establish a rota). I hadn't thought of committees of administrators, who could either advise or whom the ArbCom could delegate easy cases (Artaxerex, Bharatveer) to, but it's not a bad idea. Thoughts?
Moreschi
_________________________________________________________________ Celeb spotting – Play CelebMashup and win cool prizes https://www.celebmashup.com