Slimvirgin/Felonious Monk/JzG case, ArbCom stalling, or just lazy? Options

[Bob Boy]

Has anyone seen another case which went for so long with no ArbCom activity whatsoever? What's going on here? Have they been actively working other cases besides this one?

[gomi]

In this thread, a number of us speculated on the outcome of this case. In my analysis, Jpgordon, Morven, and Charles Matthews were very unlikely to sanction FelonyMonk or SlimeVirgin. I was uncertain about the rest, but Blacketer seems to have declared his intentions -- that is 4 of the 8 arbs, so there is little hope of a meaningful verdict here. Also, as noted, Blnguyen almost always goes along with the majority. This leaves James Forrester, the only plausibly sane arb, swinging in the wind, with the rather dubious and somewhat psychotic companionship of FT2.

Given all of this I will repeat my prediction from then:

I think that after another month or so, a bunch of non-action decisions will be made, nothing will be done, and there will be hugs all around. Cla68 will go back to editing, but will now be hectored at every turn by Slim's posse, until he leaves WP. Slim will re-surface from the self-imposed semi-exile and start manipulating the system with renewed vigor. The whole thing will take the rest of the year to play out.

[Mr. Mystery]

In this thread, a number of us speculated on the outcome of this case. In my analysis, Jpgordon, Morven, and Charles Matthews were very unlikely to sanction FelonyMonk or SlimeVirgin. I was uncertain about the rest, but Blacketer seems to have declared his intentions -- that is 4 of the 8 arbs, so there is little hope of a meaningful verdict here. Also, as noted, Blnguyen almost always goes along with the majority. This leaves James Forrester, the only plausibly sane arb, swinging in the wind, with the rather dubious and somewhat psychotic companionship of FT2.

Given all of this I will repeat my prediction from then:

I think that after another month or so, a bunch of non-action decisions will be made, nothing will be done, and there will be hugs all around. Cla68 will go back to editing, but will now be hectored at every turn by Slim's posse, until he leaves WP. Slim will re-surface from the self-imposed semi-exile and start manipulating the system with renewed vigor. The whole thing will take the rest of the year to play out.

I do agree that it will take the rest of the year to play out, but I don't think Cla eventually leaving because of Slim resurfacing will be an outcome. Slim seems incapable of manipulating the system for the same reasons the arbcom is incapable of hearing the case... The community has simply gotten too large and unmanageable and the outside world's awareness of their follies has become too acute for them to be able to act effectively.

I for one am not concerned with the committee not hearing the case. When they voted to accept so quickly, I thought that the arbs just intended for a fast and dirty railroading of Cla. But the community was on them, used the opportunity to present incontrovertible evidence against SV and FM, which made it impossible for the arbs to act, as those two, you all know, were part of the tight network that always worked in collusion with the arbs, citing them in policy and such, enforcing arbitration decisions as if they were law, and culling adminship nominations in favor of sycophants dedicated to perpetuating their collective regime. The arbs could never realistically act against SV or JzG; they were all central parts of a corrupt system that essentially worked to enforce ArbCom and Jimbo's grip on authority, but which could only operate effectively while ordinary editors believed that their actions were "for the benefit of the encyclopedia."

Now that its obvious, due to the many public scandals brought upon by their own unchecked hubris, to be otherwise, their formerly loyal support system of thousands is now collectively exasperated. For the ArbCom to redeem themselves would be like cutting off an arm. An arm that was once strong and powerful, but which has developed a severe case of gangrene. To save their body, the Arbs have to issue sanctions to, and thereby sever their relationship with, SV and co., but individually and collectively they are not up to the task, and so with their silence their credibility further drains away, and the lumbering RFC gathers more comments like a rolling stone.

[Rootology]

Now that its obvious, due to the many public scandals brought upon by their own unchecked hubris, to be otherwise, their formerly loyal support system of thousands is now collectively exasperated. For the ArbCom to redeem themselves would be like cutting off an arm. An arm that was once strong and powerful, but which has developed a severe case of gangrene. To save their body, the Arbs have to issue sanctions to, and thereby sever their relationship with, SV and co., but individually and collectively they are not up to the task, and so with their silence their credibility further drains away, and the lumbering RFC gathers more comments like a rolling stone.

Since there has been no (correct me if I'm wrong) legitimate successful re-election ever of an Arbitrator besides Fred Bauder, and the following terms expire December 2008:

1. James F
2. Blnguyen
3. Thebainer
4. Charles Matthews
5. Morven (already said he's not running again)

And the following expire in December 2009:

1. FloNight
2. Kirill
3. Paul August
4. UninvitedCompany
5. Jpgordon

The Arbcom shortly is going to look drastically different. I'd bet that anyone who runs and legitimately pushes through as a "Change" candidate is going to do fantatically well. Any candidate that pushes a platform to give control back away from the old Jimbo model to something more overseen and mandated by the community is going to be a lock. The only way to stop this building avalanche would be if Jimbo personally stepped in to do something to keep it the Old Way, and people would collectively crap their pants and fire him if he did that to short circuit the election. The WMF won't be able to do anything either, to support Jimbo or the AC on that, either, since the WMF can't interfere locally with such things. The Section 230 chain stops them.

The handling of cases like this, IRC, and probably others that I missed are going to wreak havoc long term with the power status quo on Wikipedia, and the old guard are going to be helpless to stop it, since they're always in the end as bound by that little birdy called consensus as everyone else is, no matter how much some protest it (Tony). December 2008/December 2009 are going to be very interesting.

I'm honestly shocked that things are turning out the way that they are, here. It's not exactly rocket science to manipulate crowds and opinions. Politicians have been doing it for thousands of years. But the so called Old Guard isn't even trying anymore this year, like they're resigned to the way this is all turning out, or simply don't care anymore. I wonder if people are getting over the idea of power on the site, since it can't realistically be held without fighting 24x7x365 to hold it?