User:MBisanz/Arbcom
This is an essay on the RfC/ArbCom and Wikipedia:Devolution pages. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
Sitting as a party on the sidelines of the recent
Timeline
- Back in December 2007, a admin, at the request of a former arbitrator, who indicated he was acting on behalf of the Arbitration Committee. It was later determined that he was acting on the request of several membersof the committee, and not the entire committee acting as a group.
- In June of this year, an arbitrator blocked a user, who was then unblocked several hours later by another arbitrator, with the reason of The ArbCom is still discussing this matter with both users, he was then reblocked for 1 second by a third arbitrator, with the reason of Noting endorsement of unblock by FayssalF and of his unblock rationale on The undertow's log.. Several days later he was reblocked for 9 months by a former arbitrator with the reason of Per discussion on the arbcom mailing list.
- Also in June of this year, a former arbitrator posted a request at Meta for a Steward to grant an editor stating Confirming Daniel's edit summary - null edit. From the conversation at the page, there does not appear to have been any likelihood of the request being granted by the Stewards around at the time, although it also appears to have generated some degree of confusion as to what the Arbcom's intent was.
- In late June of this year, an arbitrator posted a completed case, along with several pages of major announcements allegedly made by the arbitration committee. Several hours later, another arbitrator posted to AN stating that he considered the decision and announcements to have no authority or binding weight. Several hours subsequent, other arbitrators and Jimbo Wales indicated [1] [2] [3] they did not have a clear understanding of what had occurred. The original arbitrator indicated that he believed he had been correct in posting the decision and several days later, yet another arbitrator posted a statement that the decision was not in effect and had been vacated with another arbitrator indicating the committee is "seized of the matter" and that this was a "collective failure" of the committee's.
Norms
In any society there are certain norms that develop. These
The same theory of societal norms applies to
Taking this a step further, there are certain norms that apply to the Arbitration Committee. One of these norms is that even if an arbitrator disagrees with a decision, they will not attempt to undermine or countermand it publically. For instance, if a user is
Recent events
Given the recent events above, it appears that the societal norms of the Arbitration Committee have become fractured. Individuals, in good faith, are doing things that turn out to be incorrect. These actions are creating a general feeling of confusion, something that cannot exist with the weight of the matters decided by the Arbitration Committee.
How long must an administrator, wait after a decision is posted/closed before enforcing its provisions, to know that it will not be vacated as improper? How can Stewards trust an arbitrator, claiming to be acting on behalf of the committee, when on multiple occasions the committee has made no decision? It paralyzes the effective administration of the committee's decisions, when one cannot be sure of the validity of a particular decision.
Further, when arbitrators openly countermand decisions of the committee, it creates an unseemly appearance of division among the committee, so strong, that it is impeding the administration of affairs. I would strongly urge arbitrators who disagree with an official action taken by another arbitrator, to keep it on the arbcom-l list, taking it to Jimbo and failing, before airing the committee's dirty laundry in a public fashion.
In short, unless the community can rely on the arbitrators to follow the societal norms, it will cease to be an effective body.
Suggestion
In business, there is a saying along the lines of: Don't bring a problem, bring a problem and a solution. In that light, I suggest the following, as a partial solution: that Arbitration committee members be individually tasked with monitoring and tracking certain areas in which the committee operates, to ensure that process is properly followed, and so that outside parties may know who is authorized to speak on behalf of the committee in certain situations.
Much in the style of US Supreme Court Justices being assigned
By assigning individual responsibility, the potential for a well meaning member to see something, think "No one else has acted on this, I'll handle it", and do the wrong action, decreases. Below is a mockup of how I envision this suggestion being implemented.
Arbitrator | Responsibility |
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Arbitrator 1 | Active RFAR 4
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Arbitrator 2 | Active RFAR 5
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Arbitrator 3 | Active RFAR 6
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Arbitrator 4 | Clarification 6
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Arbitrator 5 | Clarification 5
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Arbitrator 6 | Off-wiki appeals of bans
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Arbitrator 7 | Off-wiki appeals of bans
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Arbitrator 8 | Off-wiki Sockpuppet investigations
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Arbitrator 9 | Off-wiki Sockpuppet investigations
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Arbitrator 10 | Monitoring compliance and activities at BLP log
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Arbitrator 11 | Processing Requests for Checkusership and Oversightership and communicating positive results to Bureaucrats, handling complaints over actions of Checkusers and Oversighters, inter-wiki communications with other ArbComs/the Ombudsmen/the Foundation
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Arbitrator 12 | Off-wiki reports of administrator abuse, monitoring registration of non-public alternate accounts
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Arbitrator 13 | Overseeing the Clerks and Trainees, Matters directly referred to the Arbitration Committee by Jimbo Wales, handling routine disputes involving RFCU Clerks, handling issues involving the ArbCom pages ({{ArbComSize}}, {{notyours}}, etc) |
Arbitrator 14 | Assumes some arbitrators will be inactive at any given time. |
Arbitrator 15 | Assumes some arbitrators will be inactive at any given time. |