I suppose we could ask for users to serve as "prosecutors, a few do now on their own. We don't seem in mind in such cases that the offended parties are not bringing the case but a third party who has marshalled all the offenses together and made a case.
Fred
From: Tim Starling t.starling@physics.unimelb.edu.au Reply-To: English Wikipedia wikien-l@Wikipedia.org Date: Sun, 07 Nov 2004 02:10:25 +1100 To: wikien-l@wikipedia.org Subject: [WikiEN-l] Re: Broken dispute resolution mechanisms (was Reithy is a problem)
May I suggest that when a serious matter arises that any user disturbed by it engage in the dispute resolution procedure. Our failures to act in cases which are not before us are to be expected. We do not initiate cases.
All I'm asking for is that every once in a while, we re-evaluate our dogma. You say "we do not initiate cases" as if that settles the matter. I don't know if your rule about not initiating cases is good or bad, I just wish we'd think about it critically every once in a while.
Let me take the negative position. Why not act on cases that are not brought before you? Is this a serious balance to your power? If the 9 of you wanted to abuse your power and bend editorial direction to suit your philosophy, would you have trouble finding a single non-member to bring cases that you secretly ask to be brought? If you are aware of failures, trolls bringing stress and anger to honest contributors and damaging the quality of the encyclopedia, how can you sit by and do nothing in good conscience?
-- Tim Starling