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Ah, it's that time of year again. Yes, that's right, it's election season, and a menagerie of masochists are standing for election to Wikipedia's supreme court cum governing body cum dumping ground for everything that can't be handled somewhere else (and some things that can). I speak, of course, of the Arbitration Committee.
You won't find any fancy tables or numerical scoring here. Just my thoughts, offered for whatever they're worth. Discussion, deliberation, and dissent are welcome on the talk page.
I've had the privilege to meet several current and former arbitrators over the last few years, and I've got to know some of them quite well, which has given me a different perspective on ArbCom. One thing I always knew from my own dealings with ArbCom but which becomes abundantly clear when you talk to arbs is that what we see on Wikipedia is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of arbs' workload. Over the years, ArbCom has accumulated (and in a few cases grabbed) responsibility for all sorts of things that have little or nothing to do with arbitration. They deal with all manner of things related to privacy, which, by their nature, cannot be talked about outside of ArbCom. They also handle ban appeals, oversee functionaries, and handle all sorts of other things which place demands on their time. And that's before we start thinking about the workload created by case requests, cases, clarification/amendment requests, etc.
My conclusion? I hate to say it, but we do need an ArbCom. Many of its functions should be passed to the WMF, delegated (or returned) to the community, or disposed of by other means. It needs to start focusing on its core functions and allow other bodies to focus on the other functions rather than trying to be all things to all people. That would significantly reduce the workload and make the job saner; it would also mean that we could start focusing on electing people to resolve disputes and worry less about their ability to do other parts of the job. That said, even with just the on-wiki work to keep the committee ticking over (though some of them might actually have time to edit the encyclopaedia!). Without an ultimate authority able to issue binding decisions and, when necessary, ban/desysop/restrict, it becomes too easy for factions and cliques to dominate decision-making, which (in my opinion) is the root cause of many of the problems on Commons.
So I'm looking for sensible candidates who would seek to shrink ArbCom's purview (while ensuring that any responsibilities it sheds are taken up by a competent body). I want arbs who don't jump to conclusions but can patiently weigh complex arguments, who understand the community, and who are willing to change their opinion if presented with a compelling argument. A dogmatic, ban-happy approach rarely solves anything.