On Thu, 2004-01-15 at 18:24, Poor, Edmund W wrote:

I've been asked to be a mediator, by Jack Lynch (seconded by Danny) re: RK.

Brother Edmund; please understand I am writing as a "brother" = "colleague"/whatever mediation committee member.

If you (personally) have been asked to be a mediator, that has yet to have been confirmed by *both sides of the dispute*, If RK has indeed asked you to mediate, I beg your forgiveness, but I hope you understand that explicit acquiescence at the very least, from both sides of the dispute, would be very nice.

This is going to be hard.

First, I might wind up recusing myself early on because my "interest" in Israel might make me biased. I invite those who know me well (and who have earned my trust) to contact me privately /immediately upon/ seeing any signs of bias on my part that may tend to sabotage the mediation.

Second, there haven't been enough specifics presented. I hope people will either post diffs as links, on my user talk page so I can see EXAMPLES of what they're complaining about.

Indeed, may I again ask my brother/colleague to rein in his enthusiasm? The institution of mediation should not bend over backwards to accommodate complaints that are merely of a trolling nature. Maybe you may have a prejudice that makes you take any complaint against RK seriously, but the first order of business should be to determine whether the complaint has any merit whatsoever. After we (the mediation committee) determine there is a reasonable case to be answered, we as a committee should confer, and decide who of us should take the case on (or alternately of course Jimbo can make the determination and appointment).

Third, I am sometimes pretty contentious myself, so I might turn a blind eye to someone else's contentiousness and troublesomeness.

This might be easy.

First, I am aware of a lot of my limitiations, and publicly acknowledging them will help keep me honest.

Second, despite my weaknesses a lot of people trust me -- possibly /because/ I rather freely admit to these weaknesses, rather than trying to hide them.

At least one person on each side of the current conflict (the world vs. RK ;-) has written me some very nice personal e-mail. Without revealing confidences, I can say that the contents of these e-mails inspires me the hope that a quick and lasting resolution is within our grasp.

Ed Poor, aka Uncle Ed A member of the official Mediation Committee

P.S. Gosh, I wear a lot of hats!

Jussi-Ville Heiskanen (aka Cimon Avaro)

P.S. If I am totally offbase here, I hope I can be as free in acknowledging my error as Ed habitually is.