[WikiEN-l] a preliminary idea on resolution of immediate disputes

Fri May 7 22:07:30 UTC 2004

This idea isn't fully fleshed out yet, but a suggestion to see what 
people think---how about we empower unilateral sysop action on the short 
term, but of only a few sysops at a time in a rotating group?

As motivation, the basic problems seems to be that some things need to 
be done right away, but due process takes time.  We can avoid due 
process in really clear-cut cases of pure vandalism, but that's not 
enough, and there are a lot of other cases left that cause significant 
trouble for days or weeks on end until it's decided what to do.  To fill 
this gap, some sysops have gone out on a limb and just unilaterally 
banned users, sometimes with a backlash and sometimes with people 
approving (and sometimes with people grudgingly approving, disliking the 
principle of unilateral action but agreeing that something needed to be 
done).

One proposal to fix this is quickpolls.  I like that idea, and think we 
should pursue it, so perhaps my suggestion (if fleshed out) could be 
integrated somehow as a complementary component.

I think there should be a schedule such that on any given day, there's a 
designated three sysops who are empowered to take short-term unilateral 
action, on the order of 24-hour bans.  Any one of them could take 
action, and agreement of the other two could overrule any action (to 
allow for quick overruling as well as quick action).  Scheduling in 
advance would ensure that the three can actually be present for a good 
portion of the day monitoring Wikipedia, so can serve as a contact point 
for resolving disputes.  Consensus and committee stuff simply doesn't 
get the job done on the short term, although quickpolls could 
conceivably be made to work for some cases (ideas on that?).  Although 
it has a top-down feel, I think having a rotating group would prevent 
power from accumulating in anyone's hands---at any given time there 
would be only 3 people who can do this, not the entire cabal of sysops, 
and each sysop would have only one day at a time in which they'd have 
such unilateral power.  I envision dealing with these things as very 
quickly becoming more of a chore than some sort of privilege, so I hope 
people won't be making power-hungry jumps at the chance to be the person 
responsible for solving short-term disputes for a day.

Anyway, thoughts?

-Mark