On 28/11/2007, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
It's the way things have run for a while now. Your use of "power grab" doesn't make sense here - the ArbCom is a scaling of Jimbo, who used to deal with difficult cases all on his own.
Not really. Historically I doubt someone refusing to explain their actions to anyone below Jimbo would have got very far. Admins were expected to explain their actions to the community if anyone cared enough to ask. Stating that it is acceptable for someone to refuse to justify themselves to anyone other than arbcom is a power grap since it neatly removes the reviewing role from the community. Of course such systems are fairly popular in meatspace although I doubt that arbcom would be prepared to accept the normal requirements in the western world for hearing evidence in secret.