[WikiEN-l] Arbitration Commitee Seeking Comment

Mon Jun 6 22:22:18 UTC 2005

Mark Pellegrini:
> The Arbitration Committee is seeking public commentary and suggestions
> pertaining to an ongoing problem:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/RFC

I will state here for the record that I'm strongly opposed to any 
content arbitration committee. Decisions like this should be made by the 
community, not by elected or appointed representatives. The solution to 
dealing with prolonged disputes is to establish clear community 
procedures to make decisions, such as binding votes under clear 
conditions (e.g. a discussion has been going on for X weeks, all 
arguments have been summarized, all options of the vote have been agreed 
upon in consensus ..). Wikipedia does not need an editorial staff.

As I've often stated, if you absolutely rule out voting as a last 
resort, you end up with clubs and cabals which make decisions instead. 
This is exactly what a content committee would eventually become. Don't 
destroy the village in order to save it.

Erik