[WikiEN-l] Brandt unblocked by Jimbo - community support?

[charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com]

"Jeff Raymond" wrote

> The cooperation may come not from a desire to see him unblocked (which few
> people expressed during the discussion), but more to the typical "What
> Jimbo says, goes" mentality of way too many Wikipedians.

Well, in this case, Jimbo would be much better informed on Brandt than almost all admins. 

> The community ban you speak of came *before* the massive discussion at the
> community noticeboard - no one dared unblock him, thus it was a de facto
> community ban.  Once ArbCom declined the matter (still a mistake, IMO),
> the discussion to unblock him occurred and was soundly and decisively
> rejected.

Jimbo could (if so inclined) have referred the case directly to the ArbCom, and in that case we would naturally have taken it. We (undoubtedly) would not have passed a motion to unblock. 

> I'm willing to give Jimbo the benefit of the doubt that he may not have
> been aware of the discussion, but if he was and did it anyway, that's
> really, really troublesome.  There's certainly nothing to indicate that he
> intended to invalidate the consensually-approved ban, and he's shown some
> approval (perhaps not explicit, I can't be certain at this point) of
> community-based measures for problem users.

Don't follow. A community ban holds only when it is effectively unanimous, not when it has a consensus behind it. That's a huge practical difference.

Charles

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