on 3/6/05 6:18 AM, sannse at sannse(a)tiscali.co.uk
wrote:
A much better analogy is of a school headmaster
sorting out who did what
after a playground fight. We want to know who hit first, who hit most,
and who chucked in a sly boot from the side-lines.
That's quite an insulting example actually and elevates the ArbComm to
headmaster while denigrating the rest of us to the status of children.
School is the closest most of us get to being in a dictatorship - I don't
think that's really a great model to emulate. The difference between the
quasi-judicial model and the "headmaster" model is that the former puts
limits on the ArbComm. While I can see why the ArbComm would prefer to have
no limits and be able to do what they wish, including initiate
investigations, I don't think that would be healthy for Wikipedia.
It also denigrates children, who rarely behave as badly as adults.
(e.g. sports parents shouting obscenities from the stands) A comparison
to a bar fight might have been closer to reality.