Christiano Moreschi wrote:
Oh, and this is another problem: three-year terms are far too long. No one can reasonably be expected to last three whole years at the really pointy end of Wikipedia. Life doesn't work that way: people get bored, get a new job, new life, new woman, new kids, whatever. Things change. I seem to recall a rule of thumb on Meatball, which stated that the average maximum length of participation in online communities was 3 years. We expect our arbitrators do have been around for well over a year before we elect them. Using Meatball's rule, we're only going to get another year and a half out of them, at best. Not good.
Might I suggest one-year terms with two automatic one-year renewals if the person is still around and interested. The question here is not whether we trust them for three years, but whether they can last when they find out how much work is really involved.
Ec