[WikiEN-l] AC with a small quorum and IRC meetings

Tue Nov 9 08:30:04 UTC 2004

Mav and I had a chat today on IRC about the arbitration committee, and
we came to a somewhat different and more aggressive model to the one
Michael Snow is proposing.

I can take very little credit for this, since our discussion basically
consisted of me putting forward my ideas, Mav saying his were better,
and me agreeing.

The basic problem, as I think we all understand, is that the Arbitration
Committee is slow. It is slow because some of the members don't reply to
emails and don't watch the relevant pages on the wiki. What emails they 
do send are few and far between.

The first and most important measure to improve the speed of the AC is
to reduce the necessary quorum to three members. Decisions are made by a
simple majority. Any member of the arbitration committee may request a 
review of such decisions by the full committee.

The second is that deliberation should be conducted by IRC, not email. 
Cases will still be accepted on the wiki, and findings will still be 
announced on the wiki. But deliberations will be performed by any and 
all AC members present in #arbcom.wikipedia, as long as there is more 
than three of them.

Under this proposal, the size of the arbitration committee can expand to 
meet the ever-increasing demands placed on them. Preliminary judgements 
leading to blocking pending a full review should be possible within 
minutes of a request.

I'll put up this proposal on the wiki some time in the next couple of 
days, unless someone else beats me to it.

-- Tim Starling