WORST arbitrator ever, Vote! Options Rating

[Shalom]

Everyking wrote in the "UninvitedCompany resigns from Arbcom" thread that UC was one of the worst arbitrators ever. That got me thinking: who is the worst arbitrator ever? Surely you all have opinions...I'm curious what they are. This resembles the annual "most abusive admin" vote, a staple at Wikipedia Review.

I vote for Raul654.

The full list of arbitrators, past and present, is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbcom

[everyking]

Oh God, this is going to be tough. My first thought is Raul as well, but there are also very strong contenders like Jpgordon, Jayjg, Rebecca, and of course UninvitedCompany. I'll have to give it some more thought before voting.

[cyofee]

Oh God, this is going to be tough. My first thought is Raul as well, but there are also very strong contenders like Jpgordon, Jayjg, Rebecca, and of course UninvitedCompany. I'll have to give it some more thought before voting.

I'm thinking something like this as well.

[that one guy]

Raul hands down. Honestly, I'm surprised to see Kirill and Dmc on there, though I didn't see what DMC did on arbcom, so who knows?

[Shalom]

Raul hands down. Honestly, I'm surprised to see Kirill and Dmc on there, though I didn't see what DMC did on arbcom, so who knows?

I just put any name that I thought someone might vote for. I don't think these are all bad arbs.

[Kelly Martin]

I was so tempted to vote for myself, but I didn't.

[Shalom]

I was so tempted to vote for myself, but I didn't.

I'm not surprised.

[Kelly Martin]

I was so tempted to vote for myself, but I didn't.

I'm not surprised.

Well, with Jayjg in that list, I really didn't have much choice.

[Doc glasgow]

I was so tempted to vote for myself, but I didn't.

I'm not surprised.

Well, with Jayjg in that list, I really didn't have much choice.

Kelly was an arbitrator for about 2 weeks IIRC. Now I know she did many controversial things, but can anyone recall any heavily criticised arbcom activity. I can't.

[Kelly Martin]

Kelly was an arbitrator for about 2 weeks IIRC. Now I know she did many controversial things, but can anyone recall any heavily criticised arbcom activity. I can't.

Actually about three months. As Pumpkin Muffins will be glad to tell you, I voted to sustain totally unwarranted sanctions against everyking, and I figure that at least three of the votes above are for that. The only other remotely controversial thing I did as an arbitrator was to recommend that Stevertigo stand for confirmation, which was an unmitigated disaster for all concerned.

I imagine most of the animosity toward me is based on my purported crusade against userboxes, which itself is blown way out of proportion, and which had nothing to do with my activities as an arbitrator, the stupid kerfuffle regarding the NCAA team logos that led to my second RfC, or SlimVirgin's nearly continuous subrosa agitation of dissent against me starting in early 2006.

Wikipedians are easy to troll, something which I realized too late to save my own reputation, which was trashed by people who are simply better at trolling than I am.

[thekohser]

This poll does not conform to the Right and True way of running elections.

All Wikimedia-related elections should be run this way, so that someone getting 125 first-place votes (more than 3 other candidates) can come in dead last.

[GlassBeadGame]

I seldom vote on WR polls, and haven't voted on this one yet. But I think a case can be made that Bauder is the worst because he took the flawed mission of ArbCom seriously early on. Mr. Wales decreed that he must empower a group of members to act on his behalf, as things were beginning to pile up on the God-King desk. They could do the baby-splitting in his absence, although he reserved the right to put the two halves back together if he doesn't like how it comes out.* Clearly this was a fools errand that did not deserve serious effort. But "The Bauder Court" set out to make the dispute resolution world anew, in that classic web 2.0 way, resulting in the most cumbersome klug imaginable. Equal parts star-chamber, the reading of entrails, trial by ordeal, spamish inquisition, public pillory, letters to the editor, and Usenet cracker barrel it became a monument to what The Cult of the Amateur can create and why that might not be such a hot idea.

Without Fred's energy and attention it is likely that AbCom would have withered away as Mr. Wales' influence wained. Now it is likely that ArbCom will linger on long after Mr. Wales becomes a complete embarrassment, it's shear volume displacing what could be used for professional dispute resolution.


*Imagery provided by Warren Zevon: "I know how to saw a woman in two, but you won't want to look in the box when I'm through." ---For My Next Trick I'll Need a Volunteer

[Random832]

This poll does not conform to the Right and True way of running elections.

All Wikimedia-related elections should be run this way, so that someone getting 125 first-place votes (more than 3 other candidates) can come in dead last.

And how many last-place votes did you get? Do you really think you shouldn't have come in dead last? Do you honestly believe that your coming in last place (nevermind that, looking at the results page, they don't seem to have passed judgement on who came in second through last, so you coming in last is your own interpretation) wasn't a fair and honest translation of the will of the electorate?

This post has been edited by Random832: Wed 24th September 2008, 4:58pm

[LaraLove]

I vote for Raul654.

[Alex]

Looking at Raul654's latest antics here, I'm almost wishing I voted for him now. I don't think I've known a bureaucrat abuse their tools (or position) as much as he has (on English Wikipedia at least).

[LaraLove]

Looking at Raul654's latest antics here, I'm almost wishing I voted for him now. I don't think I've known a bureaucrat abuse their tools (or position) as much as he has (on English Wikipedia at least).

It's not even shocking anymore when he ignores conflicts of interest. It's just like "Oh, well... it's Raul."

[Shalom]

Looking at Raul654's latest antics here, I'm almost wishing I voted for him now. I don't think I've known a bureaucrat abuse their tools (or position) as much as he has (on English Wikipedia at least).

It's not even shocking anymore when he ignores conflicts of interest. It's just like "Oh, well... it's Raul."

Yikes, for all the fuss he makes about refusing to do the usurpation, he could just go ahead and do it. The target name has edits, and that's a valid concern, but if I were the bureaucrat I would be willing to rename Prom3th3an to any username he asked for that was available. Heck, even banned users can get renames for RTV, and usurpation is not really such a special form of renaming that it can't be given to a user with a problematic history.

Lest anyone forget, I renamed myself from YechielMan to Shalom in 2007, that was a usurpation, and by Raul's definition I should not have been considered a "user in good standing" (though I never was blocked on my main account).

[KamrynMatika]

Man, this was really hard. I had to go with Raul in the end though; I've not come across anyone else onwiki who is such a blatant assholish bully.

[thekohser]

This poll does not conform to the Right and True way of running elections.

All Wikimedia-related elections should be run this way, so that someone getting 125 first-place votes (more than 3 other candidates) can come in dead last.

And how many last-place votes did you get? Do you really think you shouldn't have come in dead last? Do you honestly believe that your coming in last place (nevermind that, looking at the results page, they don't seem to have passed judgement on who came in second through last, so you coming in last is your own interpretation) wasn't a fair and honest translation of the will of the electorate?

I think the electorate was uninformed and confused, given the factual statistic that 53% of the voters gave me either an identical or higher ranking than the winner, Ting Chen. Furthermore, 36% of the voters failed to even differentiate between the winner and the runner-up candidate.

The election process is a charade that brings together a bunch of people who haven't heard of most of the candidates, who just vote for two or three that they've "heard of" and couldn't care less about the others, or really who wins.

If the election had been held by more traditional run-off methods, I would have come in 12th.

So, is Ting Chen doing a great job on the Board, or what? His innovations and reforms over the past three or four months have been overwhelming!

[Shalom]

So far the tally is

10 votes for Raul654
9 votes for Jayjg
6 votes for Kelly Martin
11 votes for all others combined, with no more than 2 for any one of them.

Why Jayjg?