Wizardman exits Arb-Warts Options

[RDH(Ghost In The Machine)]

Well this has been an exciting week at castle Wikivania.
First Jimbozo is forced to clip his founder's wings, and now Wizardman (who owes his seat to him) has stepped down from the ArbCom.

When I originally ran for the arbitration committee at the end of 2008, I ran under one promising a reversal of arbcom's slowness and inactivity. I like to believe that I accomplished this as an arb in 2009. However, looking back at what I have done as an arb in 2010, I see that I have done very little, instead working in other areas of Wikipedia. Essentially, I've become the very thing I ran against. As a result, I cannot in good conscience remain an arbitrator, and announce my resignation. Wizardman Operation Big Bear 06:06, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Given how much he craves petty-power and enjoys the game, I'm somewhat skeptical about the above. Ex-ArbCons really don't have much influence and no power, unlike under the Fred Bauder court. There has to be more going on here.

Speculation?
(Comicals are always welcome!)

Anyone with inside info?
(Please PM me, if you don't wish to post it here;)

[A Horse With No Name]

Well this has been an exciting week at castle Wikivania.
First Jimbozo is forced to clip his founder's wings, and now Wizardman (who owes his seat to him) has stepped down from the ArbCom.

No great loss.

Given how much he craves petty-power and enjoys the game, I'm somewhat skeptical about the above. Ex-ArbCons really don't have much influence and no power, unlike under the Fred Bauder court. There has to be more going on here.

Speculation?
(Comicals are always welcome!)

Money on the table that he is going to be outed as a sock of a "banned" user.

[GlassBeadGame]

Ahhh yes... the ArbCom. They were big back in the day. What ever happened to those guys?

[EricBarbour]

Money on the table that he is going to be outed as a sock of a "banned" user.

Would not be surprised. He's already been caught violating COI, and trying to cover up the evidence. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/evilgrin.gif)

(And please don't try to tell me he isn't Dan Tylicki, former Baldwin-Wallace College student. Too much proof.
He even wrote the WP article about the college's founder.)

Ahhh yes... the ArbCom. They were big back in the day. What ever happened to those guys?

Don't know, don't care, please don't encourage them to "do something"......

This post has been edited by EricBarbour:

[MZMcBride]

Ahhh yes... the ArbCom. They were big back in the day. What ever happened to those guys?

Don't know, don't care, please don't encourage them to "do something"......

Or what? This site would have something to discuss?

[gomi]

Ahhh yes... the ArbCom. They were big back in the day. What ever happened to those guys?

Don't know, don't care, please don't encourage them to "do something"......

Or what? This site would have something to discuss?

Oh, between Wiki-Porn, Larry Sanger, "malamanteau" words, Jimbo's founder bits, and the like, we've had plenty to discuss lately. Boring old ArbCom would simply be a distraction. Try to keep up, McBride.

[RDH(Ghost In The Machine)]

No great loss.
Money on the table that he is going to be outed as a sock of a "banned" user.

(IMG:http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc358/WRCedric/indeed.png)

(Warned you I'd nick that pic Cedric (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wink.gif)

Or he knowingly covered for someone else's sock.
I place 500 Quatloos on each contingency.

Ahhh yes... the ArbCom. They were big back in the day. What ever happened to those guys?

Don't know, don't care, please don't encourage them to "do something"......

Or what? This site would have something to discuss?

Oh, between Wiki-Porn, Larry Sanger, "malamanteau" words, Jimbo's founder bits, and the like, we've had plenty to discuss lately. Boring old ArbCom would simply be a distraction. Try to keep up, McBride.

True.
But too often in the midst of the big stories the relevant little ones are lost.

[Ottava]

I'm surprised no one mentioned that he was busily approving Theleftorium's blatantly plagiarised GANs to help him get through the WikiCup and, when pointed out that there were major plagiarism concerns he just shrugged his shoulders and continued to pass pages with blatant plagiarism without any care.

This was while sitting on the ArbCom, after all. I could also point out that he started the whole Persian Empire war and I was involved in it mostly to defend his reputation, and then he bailed on me during the ArbCom trial (funny how the major incident leading up to the matter isn't mentioned at all).

[everyking]

Or maybe it's just like he said, maybe he's preoccupied with writing content and doesn't want to hang onto an ArbCom seat when he's not doing any of the work. Maybe?

[everyking]

Interestingly, Hersfold just resigned too. That leaves 11 active arbitrators. Aren't there supposed to be 18? Maybe someday people will listen to the two simple reforms I've been proposing: full annual elections, and filling vacancies by promoting the next ranking candidate from the last election.

[EricBarbour]

Interestingly, Hersfold just resigned too. That leaves 11 active arbitrators. Aren't there supposed to be 18? Maybe someday people will listen to the two simple reforms I've been proposing: full annual elections, and filling vacancies by promoting the next ranking candidate from the last election.

That would require "reform", silly boy. It won't happen. The whole thing will collapse first.

[everyking]

Interestingly, Hersfold just resigned too. That leaves 11 active arbitrators. Aren't there supposed to be 18? Maybe someday people will listen to the two simple reforms I've been proposing: full annual elections, and filling vacancies by promoting the next ranking candidate from the last election.

That would require "reform", silly boy. It won't happen. The whole thing will collapse first.

Actually, there was an RfC on the process last year, and surprisingly enough the community's preferences were adopted. So it's really not an issue of inertia, corruption, or anything like that: it's just bad decision-making. There was a vote on the full annual election proposal, and it was resoundingly rejected. People want "institutional memory", I suppose. I say if someone has a memory worth preserving, they should be re-elected every year. Personally I think the ArbCom would be better off forgetting absolutely everything it did before 2009 (except perhaps for the purposes of "truth and reconciliation"...), and even for the period since then some selective amnesia would be beneficial.

[A Horse With No Name]

Interestingly, Hersfold just resigned too. That leaves 11 active arbitrators. Aren't there supposed to be 18? Maybe someday people will listen to the two simple reforms I've been proposing: full annual elections, and filling vacancies by promoting the next ranking candidate from the last election.

No great loss, either.

Who do you think is the next to go? (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)

[CharlotteWebb]

No great loss, either.

Who do you think is the next to go? (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)

SirFozzie.

[A Horse With No Name]

No great loss, either.

Who do you think is the next to go? (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)

SirFozzie.

Personally, I can see Mailer Diablo bowing out...in terms of temperament, he doesn't really fit in with the others.

This post has been edited by A Horse With No Name:

[SirFozzie]

No great loss, either.

Who do you think is the next to go? (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)

SirFozzie.

If someone gives you good odds on that, let me know. I could make a fortune. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)

No, seriously, have no reason to, not burned out, still find things a challenge.. and still learning things (Alastair 2 was my first draft decision), for example

[Cla68]

No great loss, either.

Who do you think is the next to go? (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)

SirFozzie.

If someone gives you good odds on that, let me know. I could make a fortune. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)

No, seriously, have no reason to, not burned out, still find things a challenge.. and still learning things (Alastair 2 was my first draft decision), for example

I think you guys may start getting snowed-under without Wizardman, Hersfold, and the others who have left to help share the load. Why not have an out-of-cycle election in a couple of months? You can say that you're doing it because it was suggested on Wikipedia Review.

[everyking]

I think you guys may start getting snowed-under without Wizardman, Hersfold, and the others who have left to help share the load. Why not have an out-of-cycle election in a couple of months? You can say that you're doing it because it was suggested on Wikipedia Review.

Why have an out-of-cycle election? Just go down the list--much simpler.

[EricBarbour]

Why have an out-of-cycle election? Just go down the list--much simpler.

It won't happen. And you know damned well why---it would be "out of process", or
"unauthorized", or whatever flaky term Wikilawyers use to keep anything from changing.

If you like, I'll loan you a dollar. So you can buy yourself a clue.

[SirFozzie]

No great loss, either.

Who do you think is the next to go? (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)

SirFozzie.

If someone gives you good odds on that, let me know. I could make a fortune. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif)

No, seriously, have no reason to, not burned out, still find things a challenge.. and still learning things (Alastair 2 was my first draft decision), for example

I think you guys may start getting snowed-under without Wizardman, Hersfold, and the others who have left to help share the load. Why not have an out-of-cycle election in a couple of months? You can say that you're doing it because it was suggested on Wikipedia Review.

My personal thoughts... The committee has ducked below 11 before, in the past few years.. this is why they bumped the committee up to 18.. to have this bit of a cushion. We'll be back up to 13 shortly (MD is back, and Cool Hand Luke has stated that he will be returning shortly), so I don't really see a need.

Also, other reasons:

1) Elections are a pain in the ass to set up and to administer. Trust me, we're learning that right now with the CU/OS elections.

2) We already have a CU/OS election running till the end of May, I think even trying to have a quick election would be time consuming (quick meaning, what, 2 weeks to nominate, 2 weeks for questions, 2 weeks for voting? That'd take us to Mid July, and then 2 more weeks to get everyone identified to the foundation and up to speed with the various mailing lists and the like.. August.. and then there's another election starting three months from then?

Also, here's something to consider.. the Committee's workload is, quite frankly, not that big right now. We may or may not be opening the A Nobody case that was held in abeyance, but right now, we have no case requests (the first time in a very long time I can remember there isn't at least one request), We have one case already in voting (Transcendental Meditation) and one about to hit voting (Russavia-Biophys).. but.. that's really it.

So as things stand right now, we'd be electing someone for a short term where there's not much to do.

This post has been edited by SirFozzie: