The Report On Lengthy Litigation
Due to the resignations of several members of the Arbitration Committee, the Wikipedia arbitration process ground nearly to a halt last week. No existing cases were decided, nor did any new cases get opened. Several new requests for arbitration did come in during the week, but were still awaiting some kind of resolution. Instead, concern began to focus on how to replace the resigning arbitrators.
As early as 3 June, Delirium had indicated that he was planning to resign as an arbitrator (see archived story). Since then, Ambi stated on 29 June that she was "resigning effective immediately". In updating the committee roster, former arbitrator Jdforrester noted that Grunt, who had taken an indefinite leave of absence from the committee on 20 June, would also be resigning once a replacement was found. This leaves only six out of twelve arbitrators currently listed as "Active".
Discussion then turned to the question of what would be done about the situation. -Ril- asked whether the next three vote-getters from last December's elections would step up as and serve as replacements (in this case, Fennec, Mirv, and Cecropia, respectively). However, Dbiv said, "I would be totally against just pulling the highest losers into position", and suggested a new election instead.
Arbitrator Raul654 indicated that the committee had been discussing the matter already with Jimbo Wales for several weeks, and that an announcement on the issue would be forthcoming. When this would happen is uncertain, but several people suggested that it should be taken care of as soon as possible. However, avoiding overlap with the Board of Trustees election, which concludes today, may also be a consideration.
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