David Gerard said:
Michael Snow wrote:
So at most Jimbo would need to come up with four or five people who have good sense at how to handle these things. I don't think this would be terribly difficult for him. We have several experienced former arbitrators whom I at least would happily trust to deal with a case in an emergency. And I could name a number of other people who might be qualified, depending on the particular case that presents itself. This would also be a helpful way to get in some practical observation of people who may be candidates for election to the Arbitration Committee in the future.
Oooh, that's a good idea. I like that one.
There are the former arbitrators, and those whom the arbitrators would co-opt because of their particular skills, as Michael suggests. Possibly those who have already declared their interest by standing in the Arbcom election may also be a useful pool. This is just a wild idea, but how about other Wikipedias? I don't know how well developed the de.wikipedia or fr.wikipedia dispute resolution is, but it may be that potential arbitrators coud be co-opted from those Wikis if they are willing and their skill with English is up to it. At least they'd be less likely to have reason to recuse. It would also be a chance to spread expertise from en.wikipedia to other Wikis.