Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2010/Candidates/Xeno/Questions

General questions

1. Skills/interests: Which of the following tasks will you be prepared and qualified to perform regularly as an arbitrator? Your responses should indicate how your professional/educational background makes you suitable to the tasks.
   • (a) reviewing cases, carefully weighing up the evidence, and voting and commenting on proposed decisions;
   • (b) drafting proposed decisions for consideration by other arbitrators;
   • (c) voting on new requests for arbitration (on the requests page) and motions for the clarification or modification of prior decisions;
   • (d) considering appeals from banned or long-term-blocked users, such as by serving on the Ban Appeals Subcommittee or considering the Subcommittee's recommendations;
   • (e) overseeing the allocation and use of checkuser and oversight permissions, including the vetting and community consultation of candidates for them, and/or serving on the Audit Subcommittee or reviewing its recommendations;
   • (f) running checkuser checks (arbitrators generally are given access to CU if they request it) in connection with arbitration cases or other appropriate requests;
   • (g) carrying out oversight or edit suppression requests (arbitrators are generally also given OS privileges);
   • (h) drafting responses to inquiries and concerns forwarded to the Committee by editors;
   • (i) interacting with the community on public pages such as arbitration and other talk pages;
   • (j) performing internal tasks such as coordinating the sometimes-overwhelming arbcom-l mailing list traffic.

   A: I'm university-educated and employed in a position that involves resolving disputes on a constant basis. I am prepared and qualified to perform all of the above roles, though admit that available time may be a factor.

2. Stress: How will you be able to cope with the stress of being an arbitrator, potentially including on- and off-wiki threats and abuse, and attempts to embarrass you by the public "outing" of personal information?

   A: Stress from threats and abuse is no stranger to me. Will deal with it as it comes by keeping a level head and seeking outside advice when necessary.

3. Principles: Assume the four principles linked to below are directly relevant to the facts of a new case. Would you support or oppose each should it be proposed in a case you are deciding, and why? A one- or two-sentence answer is sufficient for each. Please regard them in isolation rather than in the context of their original cases.
   • (a) "Private correspondence"

     A: Notwithstanding the copyright issue, the integrity of information sent in confidence should be maintained. Should there be need for administrative review of the private correspondence, it should be forwarded to the committee as opposed to being posted in public.

   • (b) "Responsibility"

     A: Editors, and administrators especially, should be willing to justify their actions and the ultimate responsibility for those action lies with them. I'm not so sure about the final sentence - it's a bit dated and would need to be tweaked.

   • (c) "Perceived legal threats"

     A: I might tweak the wording of this somewhat (as editors should not be restricted from using precise language simply because it might be misunderstood), but it's good advice to use language that won't be construed as a legal threat if that is not the intent of the message.

   • (d) "Outing"

     A: An editor can still harass another editor using their personal information (even if it was voluntarily supplied), so this should be tweaked to reflect that.

4. Strict versus lenient: Although every case is different and must be evaluated on its own merits, would you side more with those who tend to believe in second chances and lighter sanctions, or with those who support a greater number of bans and desysoppings? What factors might generally influence you? Under what circumstances would you consider desysopping an admin without a prior ArbCom case?

   A: I generally lean towards the side of second chances, but I also think that at times negative behaviour remains unchecked for too long. Many users regard the dispute resolution process as futile and ineffective, so do not engage the processes. I would be influenced by how willing users are to explain and, if necessary, moderate their behaviour to resolve the dispute and avoid disputes in the future. If an administrator has lost the confidence of the community, a prior case is not be necessary for desysopping; cases of gross or persistent performance below the standards expected of administrators and violation of the community's trust may be enough.

5. ArbCom and policies: Do you agree or disagree with this statement: "ArbCom should not be in the position of forming new policies, or otherwise creating, abolishing or amending policy. ArbCom should rule on the underlying principles of the rules. If there is an area of the rules that leaves something confused, overly vague, or seemingly contrary to common good practice, then the issue should be pointed out to the community". Please give reasons.

   A: The committee derives its authority from the community and should not legislate from the bench.

6. Conduct/content: ArbCom has historically not made direct content rulings, e.g., how a disputed article should read. To what extent can ArbCom aid in content disputes? Can, and should, the Committee establish procedures by which the community can achieve binding content dispute resolution in the event of long-term content disputes that the community has been unable to resolve?

   A: To directly rule on content would be to abandon impartiality with respect to the dispute participants (there is a reason arbitrators recuse when they have strong views about the subject). The community would be better advised to create a separate body to examine cases of content (who would conversely need to ignore the behaviour of participants and focus strictly on the content).

7. Success in handling cases: Nominate the cases from 2010 you think ArbCom handled more successfully, and those you think it handled less successfully? Please give your reasons.

   A:

   I haven't followed any cases in detail.

8. Proposals for change? What changes, if any, in how ArbCom works would you propose as an arbitrator, and how would you work within the Committee towards bringing these changes about?

   A: I would have to become more familiar with the internal proceedings before proposing changes. I think it's important that the committee remain accountable to the community and address disputes brought before them in an expedient manner.

Individual questions

This section is for individual questions asked to this specific candidate. Each eligible voter may ask a limit of one "individual" question by posting it below. The question should:

• be clearly worded and brief, with a limit of 75 words in display mode;
• be specific to this candidate (the same individual question should not be posted en masse onto candidates' pages);
• not duplicate other questions (editors are encouraged to discuss the merging of similar questions);

Election coordinators will either remove questions that are inconsistent with the guidelines or will contact the editor to ask for an amendment. Editors are, of course, welcome to post questions to candidates' user talk pages at any time.

Please add the question under the line below using the following format:

1. Question:

   A:

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1. Question: Is your questions talk page open for additional questions? NW (Talk) 12:36, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

   A: Sure, within reason.

2. Question: You have had prior dealings with the user known as "Giano" (currently editing under the account GiacomoReturned (talk · contribs)), examples User:Prodego/archive/72#Giano block Wikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard/Archive 15. Can you explain the incident involving why you are mentioned in this block log? With respect to the cited prior involvement, why did you promote this user to userrights of "Rollback"? If elected to ArbCom, will you recuse yourself from future admin and ArbCom involvement with this user? -- Cirt (talk) 13:13, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

   A: The incident is ancient history, water under the bridge. It was regarding some edits I made to an article that Giano did not welcome, and he expressed his displeasure at my talk page. Another administrator decided to place a block of their own accord. The unblock was the appropriate course of action as I was largely at fault.
   I didn't promote the user, I simply transferred the right that already existed on their prior account to their new account.
   I will recuse any time that I feel I cannot act in an impartial manner or if acting would produce the appearance of impropriety from the perspective of a reasonable observer.

3. Question: You suggested a separate body to deal with content disputes. I know it's outside the purview of ArbCom... but... For behavioral issues that stem from hotly disputed topic areas (and topic areas that are hard to resolve because of behavioral issues), would an ArbCom remedy ever include creating a (temporary) mediation body for that topic? If yes, how would you empower the community to resolve that topic where other attempts at dispute resolution have failed? Shooterwalker (talk) 17:56, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

   A: By the time a content issue gets to arbitration, MedCom/MedCab should have been tried. The problem with these processes are that if even a single user refuses to engage in mediation, the process does not proceed. So a body to making binding decisions on content would need to be higher level. But I'm not so sure about a remedy creating a temporary body (since this would just be an endrun around the principle that "ArbCom doesn't rule on content") - it would be preferable if such a body were created by the community (consent of the governed, and so forth).

   Very clear. Thanks and good luck! Shooterwalker (talk) 18:27, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

4. Question: This is a multi-facet question split into sub-questions; feel free to combine/reorder/choose from them any way you want. How well do you think arbcom has been handling bot-related disputes? Is it getting better at them? Given your BAG experience, what kind of influence (if any) would you try to exert on bot drama as an arbitrator? What is your opinion of this comment by AKAF from the date delinking case? At a more general level, do you think Wikipedia currently has too many bots, too few, or about the right number? Do you think arbcom has enough contact with the server developers, and if it needs more, would you be able to assist with that? 69.111.192.233 (talk) 22:04, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

   A: