[WikiEN-l] Rules, expertise, and encyclopedic standards

Mon Mar 7 23:42:13 UTC 2005

--- Abe Sokolov <abesokolov at hotmail.com> wrote:
> It would be great if the arbcom would become more aggressive at enforcing 
> content policies and guidelines. However, there is no evidence that it has 
> the capacity to give equal weight to content and behavioral policies, 
> especially considering the slow (but at least increasingly rapid) pace at 
> which it still handles cases on behavior-- its traditional sphere. A second 
> committee would mean more capacity and more expertise to handle the policies 
> that always been difficult for the arbcom to address (No original research, 
> Cite sources, NPOV, Verifiability, et. al.).

Policy is policy but some policies take more thought to enforce than others.
The arbcom is already ruling on NPOV infractions - something we would not touch
at first due to it being too closely related to content. Expanding into the
other content policies would not be a big deal, if done is a deliberate and
well-measured way (as was the move into enforcing NPOV). The current ArbCom
already has experience in this type of thing. Let's build on that.

Danny and I were playing with the idea of having the ArbCom convene special
panels of non-involved people for certain cases (not necessarily English
Wikipedia users), who could inform the ArbCom on the particulars of content
(whether or not a particular idea is mainstream, alternative but valid to
include in some way, or idiosyncratic/original research). 

Such info could be used in ArbCom proceedings to better inform the arbcom in
cases that involve accusation of breaking content-related policies (just as
developers inform the arbcom on the likelyhood that two or more users are
socks). IMO, such an idea deserves some thought and refinement. 

But having a separate standing committee would be redundant, especially due to
the fact that any one case will likely involve accusations of breaking both
content and behavioral policies and guidelines. 

-- mav

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