--- Abe Sokolov <abesokolov(a)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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