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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.



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.

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

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

dark horse guesses?

<edit>
Damn, Wikipedia is awsome

Horrible article.


I think I would vote for thatcher and possibly jehochman, out of those mentioned so far. IMO, swatjester on arbcom would massively damage WP.

Don't forget all the time spent egregiously trolling my Wikipedia Talk page!

Gut feeling.



English is fun.

I've see how he acted on 'simple' wikipedia He was somewhat heavy handed in his approach.



I've missed something- has MBianz said he won't stand?

Yeah (thank God), earlier in this thread. A page or two back.

Wow. If Root's proposed candidate list was the final candidate list (minus those who've definitely said they're not running as I type this), I'd be willing to support... three people there.

I could support maybe one.

There is one I can think of.

Thatcher is not the best pick in my opinion. He seemed ok at first, but then I've noticed some decisions he made that were off, which made situations worse. He lacks in critical thinking. Other than that, I have nothing against him.

I could support two people on that list, probably. Maybe. I'll probably be opposing most people.

Thatcher got mad at me for revealing the RickK/Zoe coherence on WR and then got madder at me for refusing to tell him the common password. He doesn't get that people you treat like shit are not going to bend over backwards to help you. As far as I can tell he's still addicted to the kool-aid.

Swatjester is a gung-ho fascist with an over-inflated opinion of his own competence. He has even less capacity for finesse or subtlety than I do, and would be even more of a disaster as an arbitrator than he has been as an admin and OTRS volunteer.

Yes
Jehochman
AGK

Probably Yes
Thatcher
Bishzilla
Giano

Not sure
WJB

Not in a million years
Swatjester

And he's a law student but doesn't even understand the definition of the word 'hypocrite', even when it's explained to him. So much for lawyers using language as thier tool. Oh well, it doesn't matter, his family is rich, he'll never have to worry about anything.

Hey I should run! That'll be a laugh and a half.



*Edit: added an emoticon in case anyone actually takes this seriously.

Shell Kinney might run again; if so this would make two inveterate Elonka meatpuppets running for ArbCom, as if the current crop weren't biased enough.

There are a good few people a lot worse than Thatcher. (I hope that's not damning with faint praise.)

It may be fair to say that Thatcher has swallowed the kool-aid, however, since the Mantanmoreland case, it seems that he's started at least to question some of its ingredients. I'm aware that he regularly reads the Wikipedia Review, for example. Thatcher is not corrupt and, I believe, tries to be fair, which is more than one can say for many or most current Arbitrators. Ideally, the Committee would be abolished, the sooner, the bettter, but supposing it's still around, I'm inclined to support him.

He could be (I'm not saying he is, just a hypothetical here) the very best candidate that WP could ever hope to field; fearless, fair, polite and astute... but there is no way I could ever put a tick in a box next to the name "Thatcher". An instance of a real life bias effecting a WP decision, and I am unable to overcome it.

I completely disagree. My experience of Thatcher has been less than pleasant. Plus he barely edits the encyclopedia, and appears to exists on Wikipedia simply to fight sockpuppets and make smart-ass comments on the admin noticeboards. My vote will be "Hell no".

I think Thatcher is the best name listed so far. He'd be a good sock puppet sniffer, I think. He would be interested in the sockpuppet evidence against FeloniousMonk, for example.

Some people here probably dislike him because his name comes up so often when trying to use Tor, but I count that as a virtue. The extension should be tweaked for en.wp, so that Tor is hard blocked by default. Until then, Thatcher's getting it covered one IP at a time.

He's been gaming to get on to Arbcom since near the day he joined. Now he's got the checkuser toy, and spends his existence on Wikipedia playing with that, no doubt he's won a few friends. No doubt he'll run, and pass, but I think he's a bad choice.

What is it that makes you unable to tick?

Personally, I found Thatcher conceded too much to the "fringe" side of a debate I was in, he also doesn't seem very friendly but that's just what I personally like in people.

I agree that he's very unfriendly.

I think LHVU is referring to him sharing the name with a famous British politician, who was big in the 1980s.

Yes, I have a similar problem as LHvU, actually.

Lol true! Well numerologists do say one's name effects what one is like. Margaret Thatcher has dementia now of course.

But Lessie, does this mean you wouldn't drink scrumptious Thatcher's cider?

I didn't understand it when LHvU said it either. Is this a conflict of interest thing (which would make you a saint among Wikipedians for abstaining), or is it a symbolic protest of ArbCom itself?

I think they just mean they would find it hard to tick a box and vote for "Thatcher" (i.e. Margaret Thatcher )

It would be like if there was an admin called Regan or Clinton, or whatever, and those political figures were your particular figures of hatred for years. But I thing LessH was joking about being unable to vote for that reason.

No, it's just that they can't bring themselves to vote for someone called Thatcher because they detest Margaret Thatcher.

I'm still nominating Allison, Lar, and SlimVirgin.

I would love Alison to run but I don't thing she'd be up for it. If SV wanted to be an Arb I think she would've tried by now.

If SV doesn't run, then Allison and Lar need not apply either. It would only be worthwhile if all of them go for it.

And all got in. That would be a laugh.

WJBscribe and Rlevse will be elected if they run. I'm not confident about anyone else, though I personally would support a whole bunch of others.

Edit: Thatcher will probably make it too.

Probably. I would probably vote for WJBscribe and Rlevse.

I am hoping people are not putting too much hope into the next round of elections. Many of Arbcom's problems come about from its vary nature and not because of who is elected.

Then lets hope someone exciting goes in to change it. I know one person I've talked to has said he's think about putting his name in; if he does, it will cause more panic among the kabal than an affectionate porcupine in a nudist colony.

With three year terms, regardless of who gets elected there is a high degree of probability he will eventually "go native", go along with the majority, and enjoy his new unanswerable power. Absolute power corrupts.

Trust me; not this guy. If there was a god of individuality, it would be him. Heck, he does believe he's a god.

If there is any project which is in need of a messiah to lead the project to the promised land it is Wikipedia. And, in a project such as Wikipedia it may actually be possible for a messianic person to reform Wikipedia.

...That is if Jimbo does not have him crucified first.

I've come to see that Thatcher is fair in his own way, but he goes along with traditional ArbCom thinking, which is precisely the opposite of what is needed.