[WikiEN-l] Arbcom

[Thatcher131 Wikipedia]

On 10/16/07, Christiano Moreschi <moreschiwikiman at hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Oh, and this is another problem: three-year terms are far too long. No one can reasonably be expected to last three whole years at the really pointy end of Wikipedia. Life doesn't work that way: people get bored, get a new job, new life, new woman, new kids, whatever. Things change. I seem to recall a rule of thumb on Meatball, which stated that the average maximum length of participation in online communities was 3 years. We expect our arbitrators do have been around for well over a year before we elect them. Using Meatball's rule, we're only going to get another year and a half out of them, at best. Not good.
>
> Moreschi
>

I think what is needed is for Arbitrators to reevaluate their own
participation each year. An Arbitrator who finds the workload more
than they bargained for should probably step down when the next
election cycle rolls around to free up a spot for someone fresh.
Institutional memory is a good thing, but replacing 8 or 9 Arbitrators
out of 15 should not be a hugely more disruptive situation than
replacing 5.

Thatcher