[WikiEN-l] Re: The Mediation Committee

[Anthere]

I am glad there is a candidate to follow-up.

Since there was no opposition to you as a candidate, I added you to the 
mediator list.

I opened a paragraph for the chair election and listed you as a candidate.

I advertised this on the pump, and you advertised yourself here, so I 
guess it is enough.

If there is no serious opposition or serious other candidates, just 
consider yourself the chair of the MC and let's move ahead :-)

-------

As for your question : is there another place to discuss all this ?
The answer is no.

After the creation of the MC last year, most of the discussion was done 
by email between members. A lot was said, but since it was private, 
there is no way for you to find it back. Well, as far as I remember, I 
wrote a lot on the topic during two months, and in front of the lack of 
responses from about half of the members, I just basically gave up.

Later, a board website was set. I copied there a lot of the discussions 
we hold privately or I tried to summarize. It took me a lot of time as 
well to do this. Later the board was closed and all discussions were 
thus lost.

If you ask me my opinion on this, several months later, I still have not 
digested this at all. I think the mediation committee was about half of 
my daily activity on Wikipedia for about a full trimester. Most was 
private since mediation is a private activity. The part public has been 
deleted. The results of mediation done through the mediation committee 
were frankly limited. (however, this does not diminish the satisfaction 
of solving daily crisis when made aware of).
All this is still a bit in my throat and my activity as a part of the 
mediation committee is the role which left me sour taste in my mouth for 
  several other reasons that the ones mentionned above as well.

Why do I say this ?

Well, just for you to be aware that mediator is a tough activity. 
Essentially unrecognised one. Lonely. If there is any sign to support 
what I say, it is enough to see the level of implication of each 
mediator, as well as resignations, and very likely the number of 
mediators who left for the AC.

I do not say it is hopeless, far from it, because I *highly believe* in 
mediation, much more than strict arbitration, and I really hope you help 
it. I only wish that as a chair, you also help building up a team.

Note that my own experience is not a criticism of previous chairs, as I 
was mostly active before we had any chair at all.

------

Note that private mails are still sent now and then. And the big mess is 
that we have to put people names in the cc, and likely forget names or 
add names that should not be there. I *highly* suggest you create a 
mediation-l at wikimedia.org (or similar) either public list, or just a 
list of members (redirect to their address), so that one writes to the 
right people. If you do so, just tell the developer you ask the mail 
address that it is okay with me to create such a thing :-) (in case they 
ask)

You have my full support in any cases

Anthere

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James Rosenzweig a écrit:
> I am writing this here because I don't know where else
> to write it -- perhaps [[Wikipedia talk:Mediation
> Committee]] would be preferable, but judging from the
> situation I am about to describe, the page doesn't
> seem to be particularly closely watched at present.
> 
> The MC is currently in an apparent standstill: there
> are several requests for mediation that have evidently
> gone without response from a mediator for weeks, half
> the committee has left for the AC, and the committee's
> chair (Bcorr, a fine contributor and mediator) is
> seemingly on indefinite leave (certainly he's been
> away from mediation for a number of weeks, and I
> haven't seen an anticipated return date).  To remedy
> this situation, which was obviously critical as long
> as a month ago, several users (myself included)
> presented ourselves as candidates in mid- to late
> December.  Several of us have, as yet, received
> nothing but support votes from the MC and outside
> voters.  No action, however, has been taken to promote
> us....I suspect it is because there is no Chair active
> to declare decisions final.
> 
> I am, of course, very hesitant to say anything about
> this for fear of sounding as though I am grasping for
> a role on the MC -- I don't want anyone to have the
> impression I'm desperate for power (frankly, the break
> following the AC elections has been wonderful).  But
> mediation needs to be fixed and soon, especially
> because AC cases have been refused for not following
> dispute resolution steps -- not having an active MC
> makes dispute resolution extremely difficult.
> 
> I am hoping this note sparks someone's attention to
> get the ball rolling.  Obviously, as a candidate, I
> can't really "be bold" and promote a bunch of us, and
> if mediation is alive and well (presumably on a page
> other than Wikipedia:Requests for mediation), I hope
> someone will tell me.  But something needs to be done
> before we have too many users (who are apparently open
> to mediation) who get entrenched in opposition to each
> other because a window of opportunity is lost.  Sorry
> to be alarmist.  Best wishes to all,
> 
> James R.
> en:User:Jwrosenzweig
> 
> 
> 		
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