[WikiEN-l] Arbitration Committee elections, 2005

Tue Oct 25 20:04:17 UTC 2005

Hi all,

I think it's important to get some discussion started on the way the 
arbitrators will be chosen at the end of this year, as Jimbo Wales has 
recently altered the elections page[1], saying that this year there will 
be a new system. As he hasn't decided, it's our responsibility as 
Wikipedians to help pick the best arbitrators with the best possible system.

Currently his idea is on a appointments and confirmation procedure, 
roughly equivalent to the process that judges become United States 
Supreme Court members - i.e., Jimbo Wales picks a number of Wikipedians 
and they go through for a confirmation vote from the community. This 
obviously differs greatly from the previous system, where candidates put 
their name forward and any candidate willing to stand was added to the 
'ballot paper' (similar to an election in most democratic countries).

This idea has already come in for some criticism[2], such as Geni 
suggesting it would be easier to make accusations of an "old boy's 
club", and Michael Snow, Filiocht and jguk mentioning that they would 
prefer the community to be trusted to make the right decision.

Therefore I propose that we remind ourselves of the advantages and 
disadvantages that last year's elections showed, debate the merits of 
the current line of thinking of Jimbo's idea and if possible come up 
with a new system ensures that the English language Wikipedia is 
arbitrated by the best Arbitrators who were chosen by the best possible 
system.

Chris

	1. http://tinyurl.com/c2ph9
	2. http://tinyurl.com/7n88j