[WikiEN-l] Re: the AC needs people with free time and interest

[James Rosenzweig]

I'd just like to note a few more things on
arbitration, keeping it short, if I can.  I completely
agree with Mark's (Delirium's) comments.  It is a
ridiculously difficult thing to settle these disputes.
 Especially when people seem to have infinite free
time to dredge up everything a user has ever done
since their arrival at WP 2 years prior.  The claims
and counterclaims go on for ages.  Often-times this
evidence is not in a very user-friendly format.  It
takes ages to go through it all, and as a result I
often end up with poor impressions  of a case because
I've had to read it piecemeal over several days.  I
have no idea how to solve that.  The fact that this
task is mind-numbingly boring is not much relieved by
the general grumbling in the community (regardless of
how a case is decided, someone hates me, often
publically...and usually there are dozens more who
post to the mailing list that we're either
inconsistent or punitive or soft on trolls or trolls
ourselves or just too damn slow).  That, I think we
can solve in part.  But it will take a restoration of
trust, which is always difficult.

Ambi's comments are very generous to me -- the fact is
that I don't do the heavy lifting, so cut me from your
list, if you would.  I do what I can to offer the
occasional proposal, but I'd say that 95-98% of all
proposal making is the work of Fred, James F., and
Martin.  I try hard to keep up with cases and vote on
proposals once made (and occasionally offer a
counter-proposal), but the work of actually deciding a
reasonable consequence to propose is too great for me.
 I'll do my best to do more in this arena in the
coming weeks, but frankly it's a very tough task, and
I don't want the credit for it -- in the last 2-3
months, it's been the three people I mention above,
and my hat is off to all of them (Fred especially). 
And I say this with no disrespect intended to my
fellow non-proposers -- I know all too well the
position we're in.

I won't comment on the rest of the AC proposals....all
of them have their advantages and drawbacks.  I do
want to clarify my remakrs about IRC, though.  I have
no problem with arbitrators using an IRC channel to
deliberate in simple ways (perhaps it would help in
the formulation of proposals).  I thought the proposal
had been to have the arbitration, complete with agreed
punishments, happening in real time on IRC.  That is
the possibility I cannot abide.  If the AC used IRC
merely as an official way of opening deliberations
(while still making proposals and leaving comments in
the open and public wiki, holding all voting there), I
could live with that more reasonably (though I would
still have issues with the speed of my connection, I
think -- but I'm not tech-savvy enough to be sure).

Thanks for reading yet another lengthy rambling -- I
am hopeful that the AC is getting onto the right
track, and I wish us all well in getting there.

James R. (Jwrosenzweig)


		
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