Alex R. wrote:
At least half the members of any artibration committee should be people who are anti-banning so that they keep the other half of the committee honest. I think that allowing people just to volunteer who are just pro-banning is a bad idea for this reason (there has also been some discussion on talk pages about this that I agree with).
I'm a little confused by what you're saying here. I have said that I am going to try to appoint people who are anti-banning and people who are pro-banning. I expect them _not_ to just 'vote the party line', of course, but to consider the merits of each case, but it's also reasonable to assume that some people are much less likely to approve of a ban than others.
So, to be clear, I too am opposed to "allowing people just to volunteer who are just pro-banning".
We are talking about transformative justice here (that is the civil version of restorative justice) not retributive justice. I personally do not beleive in retribution. Justice is a process that should enlighten and help people live together, it is not intended to punish except in the most severe cases where no other redistribution is useful and even then such punative action is not preferred if there is another solution.
Very well said.
One of the problems that we've had is that mediation and arbitration and executive clemency have all been wrapped up together. I see the mediation->arbitration process as being partly about getting me out of the business of having to deal with every single problem that comes up (which is a bottleneck and also risks a loss of legitimacy if I'm not perceived as cautious, wise, fair, etc.) AND also about separating mediation from arbitration.
The mediators will not have the power to ban, will not be in the business of recommending bans, but will instead be in the business of trying to work helpfully with people, without a direct threat, to try to resolve conflict. I think that's going to be very good.
I think, obviously, that my own banning decisions have been very very good. So I want the committee to accurately reflect the internal struggle that I feel about banning. Sometimes I feel like going through with a chainsaw. Other times I feel like not banning anyone ever for anything. The right policy is somewhere in the middle, to ban only reluctantly and as a last sad resort.
--Jimbo