From: wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org [mailto:wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of John Lee
Unfortunately, cool heads rarely prevail in wheel/edit wars. This is why I proposed on [[Wikipedia talk:Bureaucrats]] that 'crats be given the authority to desysop/block in a wheel/edit war to defuse it and get discussion flowing again. This doesn't have to indicate that the warriors' initial actions were wrong -- all it indicates is that their warring was wrong. No need for legalism when the existing rules are already being disobeyed. Just give the rules teeth -- I can think of so many loopholes in Phil Welch's proposal that it just wouldn't be workable -- it'd basically make mistakes close to unpardonable.
It would inevitably add to the workload of the ArbCom. Your suggestion has a lot of merit, because having Jimbo step in to stomp on fingers should be a last resort (and as you point out, he could be doing something else at the time), and if a problem has reached wheel-warring stage, then admins aren't going to be able to fix it decisively in the heat of battle.
While I don't like the legalese and penalty clauses, I do like the basic thrust of Phil Welch's proposal - that an admin action may be reversed ONCE by another admin and after that discussion is mandatory. Make it a guideline.
Peter (Skyring)