QUOTE(Shalom @ Thu 29th May 2008, 10:30pm)
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To Dogbiscuit: I don't really care about closure. I care about fairness. For now, I think fairness dictates that WordBomb stays banned, but that could change with a few months of good behavior or even no behavior at all. As a practical matter, it's in ArbCom's hands, and I'm not going to join ArbCom anytime soon.
Well, what is fair? A lot of people made mistakes. Is it fair to drag up all the dirt and pour over the ashes of an unpleasant business. It seems to me that to be fair by your definition might mean working back through all the evidence, all the cause and effect to come to a logical conclusion. A unpleasant public spectacle, I'd suggest.
My definition of fair is different. Mine is recognising that people are fallible on all sides and if we look to apportion blame and punish accordingly then we will not forgive.
You seem to see a ticking clock against a last infraction, but give no credit that for a very long time it has been a given on Wikipedia that WordBomb is an evil, lying scumbag and that anyone could say that with impunity. Credit for time served seems fair to me.
What I am suggesting is a get out of jail free for all those on Wikipedia who campaigned thoughtlessly against WordBomb in a fantasy world of invented rules, where real life was not relevant, yet those goings on impacted people in the real world, not just in arguments on blogs, but potentially hindering a campaign against fraud affecting the fortunes of real people, as the players should have known. This was not a game of editing articles, this was about disinformation and fraud, and Wikipedia policy should come as a very low priority in that scheme of things.
There is a way to rapidly draw this to an end, in a way that reflects well on those who put it behind them. The worst thing for Wikipedia would be to suggest that this is left festering for any longer than it has to. People know that something went wrong without it being acted through and argued over. Those who know that they were in the wrong will be humbled and may be more circumspect in the future, those who deny their wrongdoing will be recognised by others.
It would be the fair thing to do to close this now. The unfair thing to do would be to gloat on the future pain that can be inflicted on SlimVirgin, Guy, and the many players of the ArbCom case who have a public record of their denial in the face of the obvious. If you want to play into the hands of those who want to humiliate Wikipedia, carry on with your version of fairness.