[WikiEN-l] Re: Broken dispute resolution mechanisms (was Reithyisa problem)

[Bryan Derksen]

At 04:28 PM 11/8/2004 +0000, Charles Matthews wrote:

>"Bryan Derksen" wrote
>
> > Kicking off 0.1% of Wikipedia's users isn't going to significantly reduce
> > the pool of editors, and would reduce the stress for a significant portion
> > of the 99.9% who remain. I don't see what these 1-in-1000 antisocials are
> > contributing to Wikipedia that is worth it to endure the bad atmosphere
> > they generate for everyone else.
>
>Well, I think that's the debate really.  If it was uncontroversial who they
>were, and that a surgical removal was possible without splitting the
>community, they would be banned quite quickly.

But there doesn't seem to actually _be_ a way to get a quick resolution of 
even an obvious case. I'm not necessarily talking about bans here, I'd be 
quite satisfied with an official "what you're doing here on this article is 
unacceptable, quit it." If arbitration worked quickly then I suspect "weak" 
rulings wouldn't be a problem because an incorrigible offender would 
rapidly accumulate a lot of them and the need for stronger measures would 
then become obvious too.

Basically, my personal complaint with the system is not what decisions it 
reaches - so far all the ArbCom decisions I've happened to hear about have 
seemed like reasonable ones. It's the speed with which the system comes to 
them.