Arbcom Elections 2008 Options

[Rootology]

There is a huge difference between the interests (Pokemon, hogtie, Harry Potter, etc.) and outward "I'm here to be me, not to conform to any boring standards of Western civilization" attitudes that pervade Wikipedia, and the traditional professional interests (13th century philosophy, the Congress of Vienna, quasars, General Cable Corporation, etc.), meticulousness, and conformist attitudes that would pervade any PUBLISHED general encyclopedia.

I'm just sayin'...

From what I know of professors etc these days, they're very liberal and get upto all sorts in their spare time. They might not always flaunt it, but nowadays I doubt anyone's sexual or subcultural proclivities would get them kicked out of academia, unless they're illegal.

And some of my knowledge is of a Classics department

Exactly. How people dress and what they do in their "extracurriculars" is utterly irrelevant to life and business in 99% of the cases out there. I'm sure if you're director level or higher at some multinational or plain large corporations, it may play a role, but 99% of the world is not that. Bucking the trends of society and being contrary to society is always that should be lauded, not lambasted. Nearly all the great thinkers, leaders, and people that worked to change society for the better were "different" and "contrary".

Let's see.... Jesus, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Elvis, the American Revolutionaries, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Warhol...

What do people think of Jehochman as an arb?

I don't know him that well but he comes from some sort of legal background, and contributes under his real name.

He doesn't sound very legally-oriented to me at all.

I was just going on what he mentioned in passing on his talk page to someone.

diff
"Observers will draw their own conclusions. (Note: I did attend law school, (wikilink:Columbia_Law_School) and am familiar with the concepts."

Jon is an extremely multi-talented individual who I would also support in a moment's notice. He came off as a cabalist at first, a bit, but when push came to shove so far from what I've seen he's consistently tried it looks to do the right things, and doesn't appear to be afraid to stick a big middle finger of dissent up when it needs to be done. Yes, he was on the wrong side in some things (bits of that Durova/!! mess), but let's be honest: even Durova in some areas has mellowed out and started to be a bold one.

This post has been edited by Rootology: Fri 29th August 2008, 3:13pm

[wikiwhistle]

Bish in any format of grammar has infinitely more clue than half the Arbitration Committee and it's founder COMBINED. Sadly, since she's also prone to speaking her mind clearly, I'm sure some/most useless trolls will see her as 1) an uppity woman; 2) an uppity editor; 3) clearly incompatible with being an Arb because she's willing to do the right things.

I'd vote for her in a heartbeat.

Me too. Ironically in the circumstances, I think she is human. Arbs in recent times have not appeared human. If she were to win, the arbcom would be being honest about the fact that some of them are illuminati reptilian humanoids.

This post has been edited by wikiwhistle: Fri 29th August 2008, 3:17pm

[Ryan Postlethwaite]

Ryan Postlethwaite will be running, I believe.

Particularly after his RFB failed, Ryan has been getting more involved in the Mediation Committee, ramped up his attempts to be involved in making community proposals (such as the latest Betacommand one), and has been advocating various changes to how candidates are selected on the 2008 elections discussion page.

Actually Neil, I'm not even considering running. I don't think I'd be that good at it, and I don't think I'd be able to give it the time it requires. I haven't stepped up my participation in MedCom - I've been active in it since I joined last September.

Yes, that's what I said. More involved in MedCom. I thought you were a cert to run. That's too bad.

I also find this particularly surprising. Ryan's actions have all suggested he would do such a thing.

God knows why, but I enjoy getting involved with community proposals. I don't think I'm that far off the mark with the proposals I make, but if anyone expressed concern about them I'd happily step away from it. I also enjoy being part of MedCom - it can be quite fulfilling sitting down with a bunch of users who obviously have issues about each other and leading the discussion so they agree on a suitable compromise.

I don't really thing that activity in mediation is a good marker for someone wanting to be on ArbCom. Arbitrators and mediators need very different skills and whilst some are transferable, the key ones (arbitrators rule on conduct, mediatiors take neutral side throughout) are very much different. Some have made the change successfully, but I don't think it's easy for everyone.

In my opinion, the best arbitrators are the ones that have stayed out of the politics completely, and have instead shown good judgement in their article editing and background discussion work.

[JoseClutch]

In my opinion, the best arbitrators are the ones that have stayed out of the politics completely, and have instead shown good judgement in their article editing and background discussion work.

Surprisingly enough, I think this is more or less correct.

Of course, those who are wise enough to stay out of politics are probably wise enough not to run for Arbcom.

[Kelly Martin]

Of course, those who are wise enough to stay out of politics are probably wise enough not to run for Arbcom.

Or at least lack the requisite interest in being a social director to run for ArbCom. This is actually part of the motivation behind my jury proposal from however long back; there are a good supply of people who have the necessary intellect and skills to make good decisions on such disputes, but are not asked to make them because they simply don't show an interest in doing. I suspect many of them would, if asked to do so from time to time, be quite competent at rendering beneficial decisions -- but if you asked them to do it all the time would run screaming for the hills.

[Cedric]

Ryan Postlethwaite will be running, I believe.

Particularly after his RFB failed, Ryan has been getting more involved in the Mediation Committee, ramped up his attempts to be involved in making community proposals (such as the latest Betacommand one), and has been advocating various changes to how candidates are selected on the 2008 elections discussion page.

Actually Neil, I'm not even considering running. I don't think I'd be that good at it, and I don't think I'd be able to give it the time it requires. I haven't stepped up my participation in MedCom - I've been active in it since I joined last September.

Time? What time? How much time does it take to make a non-decision decision? Not much, surely. Besides, you should have any number of "clerks" (i.e., wiki-slaves) to help you out with the details.

Or maybe it isn't an issue of time. Maybe more of an issue of seeming "humble" or "reluctant", a la Octavian. The gods prosper you, O Wiki-Caesar!

[Cla68]

The ArbCom elections shouldn't be as important as they seem to be currently. The ArbCom should be only one of several committees involved in governing Wikipedia, along with a policy committee and a final content-decision body.

I think a jury system for user conduct issues, as Kelly suggests, could work. I've suggested using the same kind of system for RfA's so that they can't be tainted by cabalism, but I think I got that idea from Kelly's blog.

[thekohser]

Who cares what people look like?

About 95% of employers, for one.

Look, your appendix is inflamed, it will rupture in the next 4 minutes, but at least you're in the Emergency Room. Two doctors walk in your room. One looks like me. The other looks like Alana Brown. They say, in unison, "Rootology, you must choose which of us two shall perform your appendectomy."

Who do you choose?

[Rootology]

Who cares what people look like?

About 95% of employers, for one.

Look, your appendix is inflamed, it will rupture in the next 4 minutes, but at least you're in the Emergency Room. Two doctors walk in your room. One looks like me. The other looks like Alana Brown. They say, in unison, "Rootology, you must choose which of us two shall perform your appendectomy."

Who do you choose?

95% of employers in what area? Back down to that city vs. country bit, again, that you and I keep poking each other about. But that's apples and oranges and won't get settled.

Assuming they're both doctors, I'd go with Alana (I have no idea who this is but I assume she's punk rock based on a few searches) based on the fact that she would be more likely to be daring enough to take a risk to save my life if things went south. I'd generally prefer to bet on the creative driven types, if I had to choose. But that's me.

[LessHorrid vanU]

Who cares what people look like?

About 95% of employers, for one.

Look, your appendix is inflamed, it will rupture in the next 4 minutes, but at least you're in the Emergency Room. Two doctors walk in your room. One looks like me. The other looks like Alana Brown. They say, in unison, "Rootology, you must choose which of us two shall perform your appendectomy."

Who do you choose?

Yeah, it is the same when you have to chose between a man and a women for the same job - it is the only time you have consider that hiring the one with the biggest tits might not be the best method.

[theseoldshades]

Official link: Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2008

List or arbiters whose terms expire:
1. Blnguyen
2. Charles Matthews
3. James F.
4. Morven
5. Thebainer

Expiring arbiters who have said they will not seek re-election:
(Please reply with others who have said as much, I'll update this top level post)
1. Morven (here)

Expiring arbiters who have previously won re-election:
(Please reply with others who have pulled this off, I'll update this top level post)
1. ?

Number of open seats (normal): 5, plus one extra open one since Paul August retired, for 6 total. Paul's spot is only good to December 2009, when he would have expired anyway. The others are currently set to be the normal 3 years.

Geogre says here that JamesF is re-running but not sure where he got that information from.

[LessHorrid vanU]

Bish in any format of grammar has infinitely more clue than half the Arbitration Committee and it's founder COMBINED. Sadly, since she's also prone to speaking her mind clearly, I'm sure some/most useless trolls will see her as 1) an uppity woman; 2) an uppity editor; 3) clearly incompatible with being an Arb because she's willing to do the right things.

I'd vote for her in a heartbeat.

Me too. Ironically in the circumstances, I think she is human. Arbs in recent times have not appeared human. If she were to win, the arbcom would be being honest about the fact that some of them are illuminati reptilian humanoids.

The only candidate other than Giano (can he be bothered to run again? - I doubt he will get the support he did previously; there is something of a whiff of the puritan about him, which is fine by me, but may have eroded some of the liberal wishy washy support) that I would vote for. Every knee jerk oppose would likely recruit two supporters.

Last time, in protest at Jimbo's veto, I only voted the once. This time I will oppose as I feel appropriate.

[thekohser]

Assuming they're both doctors, I'd go with Alana...

I admire your thinking.

But, I assure you, if we took a truly random sample of 1,000 world citizens and presented them with the exact same case study (I'm imagining at least a half-dozen pairwise control photo sorts, with Alana and me as the "ringer" test case), the large majority (dare I say, at least 800?) would not select Alana to perform their emergency, but routine, surgery.

If you have $100,000 lying around, I think we could run this study across n=50 in each of 20 different countries. I'd be willing to wager up to $1,000 with "800" as the over/under, me taking the over.

[JoseClutch]

Bish in any format of grammar has infinitely more clue than half the Arbitration Committee and it's founder COMBINED. Sadly, since she's also prone to speaking her mind clearly, I'm sure some/most useless trolls will see her as 1) an uppity woman; 2) an uppity editor; 3) clearly incompatible with being an Arb because she's willing to do the right things.

I'd vote for her in a heartbeat.

Me too. Ironically in the circumstances, I think she is human. Arbs in recent times have not appeared human. If she were to win, the arbcom would be being honest about the fact that some of them are illuminati reptilian humanoids.

The only candidate other than Giano (can he be bothered to run again? - I doubt he will get the support he did previously; there is something of a whiff of the puritan about him, which is fine by me, but may have eroded some of the liberal wishy washy support) that I would vote for. Every knee jerk oppose would likely recruit two supporters.

Last time, in protest at Jimbo's veto, I only voted the once. This time I will oppose as I feel appropriate.

Giano might run, and do better than before. The "anti-Giano" Cabal is not very powerful these days.

[Giggy]

The only candidate other than Giano (can he be bothered to run again? - I doubt he will get the support he did previously; there is something of a whiff of the puritan about him, which is fine by me, but may have eroded some of the liberal wishy washy support) that I would vote for. Every knee jerk oppose would likely recruit two supporters.

Last time, in protest at Jimbo's veto, I only voted the once. This time I will oppose as I feel appropriate.

If no other really good candidates run, I may end up only voting for Giano and Bish(onen|zilla) alongside you.

[MBisanz]

Ryan Postlethwaite will be running, I believe.

Particularly after his RFB failed, Ryan has been getting more involved in the Mediation Committee, ramped up his attempts to be involved in making community proposals (such as the latest Betacommand one), and has been advocating various changes to how candidates are selected on the 2008 elections discussion page.

Yeah, Postlethwaite will be running. It is impossible to believe otherwise. If there were a public vote on his checkuser application where he got slaughtered he might not, but it is private so he will not know (and if he is approved, then definitely).

I am pretty sure MBisanz will too, he has been pretty clearly powermongering.

I am not sure who else. Kmweber, probably, although Kurt can be a realist, so maybe not.

I would vote for Jehochman. Absolutely. He is not, as far as I can tell, anyone's bitch. But I would probably vote for Durova, so my opinion may not be reflective of anything.

As I think I've said in at least two places now, I will not be running in the Arbcom elections. I have been doing a fair amount of template work and other gnome-like tasks and decided some time ago against running. Thanks for thinking of me though.

[Obesity]

I've been asked to run for ArbCom, but I feel I do my best work as an armchair quarterback, criticizing others while I sit at home and get fat. I'm one of Teddy Roosevelt's "cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."

Plus... no one but a handful of smartasses and groupies would vote for me, so it would be little more than a minor sideshow like Endless Dan's candidacy last year.

What do people think of Jehochman as an arb?

I'd vote for him in a second.

Tough and clear-thinking people are rare but not impossible to find. The real question is... would he show up for work?

That's the chief complaint I have about the current lot of layabouts.

[Rootology]

My predictions for people who will run:

1. James F will run again and lose. The current stigma around sitting arbiters, and especially him for refusing to loosen his iron grip on IRC matters is going to be his downfall, combined with his inactivity in general. If inactivity killed Raul, who is infinitely more popular, active in general and powerful than James, James has zero chance of re-election.

2. Mbisanz. The easy choice, and would likely be a very active arbiter. Flip a coin if he wins. If he doesn't win this year, he will next year or the year after. Keep running, Matt. I have a feeling when it comes down he'd be one of the better arbs, in that he doesn't seem to tolerate bullshit now. Whether that is good or bad will depend on which side of a fight you're on. Seems to be willing to take on politically powerful stuff, so he could be a dark horse white knight.

Matt has corrected me--and I did see his post above! Like I told Swat on Meta a while back, did I mention I'm psychic? No? Maybe? OK, maybe I'm a crap psychic...

3. Jehochman. I think he will win, but it will be close, and he won't be one of the clear run-away winners. Another possible white knight, who seems to be uninterested in the real political power games.

4. Ryan Postlewaite would have a decent to lower chance of winning if he ran (which is way better than most people). He says here he won't run. But we'll see!

5. Moreschi--wouldn't win if he ran, but I can see him tossing his hat in. People would be all "redirect to [[Clown]]" over civility stuff, but he'd be an ass-kicking arbiter. Whether that is good or bad will depend on which side of a fight you're on.

6. WJBscribe. And I think he'll win. Not much to be said. He'll win.

7. Thebainer. Gut feeling he'll run again. Of the current arbs, he's probably the ONLY one with a full shot to win, since he keeps his head down and just works and doesn't visibly (that I've ever noticed) take part in stupid politics.

8. Charles Matthews. I don't know if he's sick of it yet, but I suspect as well Charles will run again, but I think too many people perceive him as a cabalist in the shadow of Mantanmoreland-Gerard-Weiss et al. It will kill his chances.

9. Swatjester. Might be a close win, but I think he'd get it. Too popular, too visible, in too many places, and many people view Swat as a good guy (I do, too, which I'm sure someone will flame him over). I don't think that stupid fight earlier from this earlier on RFAR will matter at all. Especially since the other guy--I can't even remember his name, demonstrating the lack of relevance--is blocked for legal threats.

10. AGK/Anthony: A long standing Clerk, I think he would be a near shoo-in.

11. Thatcher. I think Thatcher would win, if not as insanely overwhelmingly as Brad did, but close to that.

12. Bishonen. She would make a fiery, glorious, Wrath of God Bishzilla arb, who would clean up a lot of bullshit. Sadly, I think the residual fallout from the fall of Sidaway and his endless harassment of her will end up leading to her not winning. Too many people want to get back at Giano, her, and George for having the stones to stand up to the useless middle managers that think they run Wikipedia.

13. Kurt. I mean, c'mon. Kurt is like Nader. He's always in the running!

Incoming Arb class quick guesses today:

1. Thatcher
2. WJBscribe
3. Jehochman
4. Swatjester
5. Anthony
6. Mbisanz

This post has been edited by Rootology: Sat 30th August 2008, 3:23am

[One]

How has SWATjester's status improved since last year? (And yes, I likewise suspect he'll run again).

[Pumpkin Muffins]

Incoming Arb class quick guesses today:

1. Thatcher
2. WJBscribe
3. Jehochman
4. Swatjester
5. Anthony
6. Mbisanz

dark horse guesses?

<edit>
Damn, Wikipedia is awsome

This post has been edited by Pumpkin Muffins: Sat 30th August 2008, 4:06am