Mike R wrote:
On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 1:53 PM, Charles Matthews charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com wrote:
If what the ArbCom says is fundamentally at odds with the policy the community wants, the ArbCom surely has to give way.
That's one opinion. Another opinion is that "ArbCom rulings do in fact hold greater authority than that of mobs, democratic or otherwise." [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&diff=213...
"Mob" is of course a pejorative, as are "pile-on" and other such terms. The difference can be seen in the discussion structure. Threaded discussions can be particularly poor at clarifying matters. Arbitration cases are generally better at clarification than other options, short of wiki editing done by a skilful bunch of people. Which is why policy pages that have been worked over have the standing they do, and it's not just a question of how many people have actually edited them.
Charles