Matt wrote in part:
Creating another special class of users is not IMO required; keeping a list of people willing to step in and mediate / arbitrate controversial issues on a basis of no real extra power is probably good enough.
For mediation, I agree. For arbitration, I'm not so sure. See, an arbitrator makes a decision which must be obeyed; this must be agreed to ahead of time, and be enforceable. So an arbitrator ought to have some degree of power-endowed-by-Jimbo.
That said, I'd like the mediator bit to start up before the arbitrator bit. Who knows, maybe it'll be sufficient! So I agree with your broad point, that we don't need to -- hence shouldn't -- unflatten the hierarchy.
I certainly strongly oppose the User:Mediator idea of a solitary, unknown-to-everyone mediator.
Of course, that's a bad idea. I'm not one to reject ideas just because 142 came up with them, but jeez.
There is, as suggested by some, a problem with people not accepting mediation by someone they think has ideological 'baggage', but the fact remains: they might be RIGHT in their rejection of such a person.
True, I think that there are situations where Ed should not mediate, and probably even people that he shouldn't mediate conflicts among; because of Ed's few passionate positions and the few users that dislike him. This is /despite/ the fact that I HEREBY NOMINATE ED POOR FOR MEDIATOR, since he seems to be good at this sort of thing, almost all of the time.
But we should have more than simply a list of volunteer mediators. The mediators, in volunteering, should make a study of mediation; and Wikipedia (or the English Wikipedia) should have some ideas about how mediation ought to be done, discussed and written down. Ed recently wrote that he has a lot to learn about mediation; and this does not surprise me, but I believe that he can learn it.
It may take a certain kind of personality to understand well the kind of detachment that a mediator should take; a mediator can't try to get /their/ opinion chosen, but has to focus on resolving the /disputants'/ positions. Accordingly, I HEREBY NOMINATE MAVERIC FOR MEDIATOR, since this sort of thing is right up his INTJ alley.
-- Toby