[WikiEN-l] An awfully big adventure (was ArbCom - too attached to 'equal treatment'?)

Thu Mar 3 22:11:24 UTC 2005

JAY JG said:
>>From: "Tony Sidaway" <minorityreport at bluebottle.com>
>>
>>Someone who is scared to take a complaint to the
>>arbitration committee because he may then be held accountable for his
>>own actions is, it seems to me, missing the point.
>
> Missing the point indeed; the point being that few people come out
> looking  completely spotless under the kind of forensic examination
> that sometimes  happens in the inevitable counter-suits, combined with
> the fear that ArbCom  will feel it needs to sanction both parties, so
> that it appears "fair".   Again, I'm not saying this is actually
> happening, but that there is a  perception that this is happening,
> which discourages people from getting  involved.

Of course the would-be petitioner could always get someone relatively
spotless to bring the complaint.  But then I think that Arbcom would
suddenly realise that it has to expand its attentions to all involved in a
Wikipedia fuck-up, not just those who put their names to a complaint on
WP:RFAR.  Which I think would be reasonable.  Arbitration is supposed to
be a way of keeping Wikipedia functioning well, so of course it isn't
going to accept the preconceptions of one or another party to a behavior
dispute.
Look, we're just talking about editing privileges on a Wiki.  Should I be
told by English Wikipedia's arbitrators to wipe my nose and stop spitting
on the floor, it would not reflect adversely on my career.  Nor would it
subtract points from my driver's license, and it would not really bother
me in the least.
Suppose I bring a case and the worst happens: I'm banned for a year or more.

Banned from en.wikipedia?  Well my French is passable, my Spanish too, and
I need to brush up on my German and my Portuguese.  There's Simple
English, Anglo Saxon and Latin.  If English Arbcom has jurisdiction over
these Wikis, it's news to me.  To paraphrase Peter Pan, for any competent
English Wikipedian, being banned would be an awfully big adventure.  This
is not a monoglot project.
And then I could always get on with the things I *should* be doing instead
of Wikipedying. ;)