This is something courts do when they are faced with fact situations they
aren't competent to deal with. Sometimes such a fact finder is called a
special master. This will become much easier to do as more experts become
aware of and interested in Wikipedia.
Fred
From: Daniel Mayer <maveric149(a)yahoo.com>
Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 15:42:13 -0800 (PST)
To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Rules, expertise, and encyclopedic standards
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.