On 11/1/06, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
This is, of course, precisely backwards. The ArbCom is an embodiment of Jimbo's power, that's where it comes from. Jimbo has power because that's how we do it, i.e. the community lets him. (Note that the community frequently tells Jimbo to get knotted.)
That was the case that isn't the case any more.
he appearance of "community blocks" shows that at least the admin community regards its self as holding powers that were once exclusively Jimbo's and without any obvious link back to Jimbo. Arbcom's power no longer comes from "Jimbo has said that we can do this" but from "the community said we can do this".
That isn't to say that there is no role for Jimbo (I can't at short notice come up with a replacement system for appointing backup arbcom members that doesn't have an unacceptably high bureaucratic overhead) but the election should be the preserve of the community unless the board formally decides to intervene (and if they felt the need to I think we would have a very very serious problem).