[WikiEN-l] Temporary appointments to the Arbitration Committee

[Skyring]

On 7/22/05, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:

> This is an absolutely horrible job, guaranteed to earn you general
> condemnation for being both a wimp and a tyrant, and I most sincerely
> apologize to the poor victims I am pulling into our service here.

It isn't wimp/tyrant from where I sit. It's that stressed people don't
perform well. Good editors don't necessarily make good arbitrators and
if you force people to do what they aren't good at and put a lot of
pressure on them, you are asking for trouble.

An ArbCom decision should be the result of understanding the issues
and reaching a fair decision. Not finding an easy way out and rushing
off to the next case.

The system needs changing. Who'd want to be an ArbCom member if the
certain result is a LOT of hard work and stress?

Here's a thought. Draft a random bunch of admins to investigate a
case. Give them temporary IDs so they can be anonymous if they want.
They can do all the hard work and come up with a summary of evidence,
consensus view on points of difference and agreement, possible
solutions. The ArbCom can then review the case once it's prepared in a
reasonably professional manner.

This would shift a lot of the work to editors willing and able to do
it, and the ArbCom can then function in a role more suited to
management and arbitration, rather than wading through a morass of
claims and counterclaims, diffs and so on.

-- 
Peter in Canberra