[WikiEN-l] Arbcom

[Marc Riddell]

> On 14 Oct 2007 at 19:44:42 +0100, "Thomas Dalton"
> <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I think most real courts have one judge per case. It's only when you
>> reach the highest level that you get tried by the entire bench (or, at
>> least, a selection from it). One judge only works when you have clear
>> laws that have right and wrong answers, and you have a jury to
>> determine points of fact. We could introduce a jury system to
>> Wikipedia, but I don't think it would work - the population is too
>> small, and we have no way to make jury duty compulsory (if you pick 12
>> Wikipedians at random from those active and willing to serve, you
>> stand too great a chance of some of them being involved, or at least
>> knowing the parties).

on 10/14/07 3:45 PM, Daniel R. Tobias at dan at tobias.name wrote:
> 
> Interestingly, I just watched the movie "12 Angry Men"... it's
> interesting to note that, under the prevailing Wikipedia community
> culture at the moment, the guy who, early on, was the one juror who
> voted to acquit when the other 11 were saying "guilty", would
> probably be labeled a "troll".  After all, he was going against
> community consensus, and couldn't even (at first) articulate a good
> reason behind believing the defendant was innocent -- in fact, he
> sounded like he didn't really believe the guy was innocent himself,
> just that fairness required more of a debate than a quick 12-0 vote
> to convict.  Somebody who acted like that in any of the many
> wikidrama debates that go on here would be labeled as disrupting
> things to prove a point, and ignored and dismissed (and maybe labeled
> a sockpuppet of a banned user and summarily removed)... then
> everybody else could go on with their unanimous verdict to fry the
> defendant, and the other juror would make it to the ballgame he had
> tickets to that night.

Beautiful, Dan! Great film! And the comparison to what sometimes goes on
here couldn't be more dead on. But at least as a juror, you can't be
threatened with moderation.

Marc