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Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-12-19/ArbCom election

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ArbCom election

Straw poll closes

Related articles
ArbCom election

A chat with the elected Arbitrators
6 February 2006

Jimbo Wales appoints 11 arbitrators, increases committee size
23 January 2006

Arbitration Committee elections continue; ArbCom member resigns
16 January 2006

ArbCom candidates (part two)
9 January 2006

ArbCom candidates
2 January 2006

Straw poll closes
19 December 2005

Jimbo starts new poll regarding election
5 December 2005

Last chance to run for ArbCom
28 November 2005

ArbCom voting process
14 November 2005

ArbCom duties and requirements
7 November 2005

A closer look: the calls for reform of the ArbCom
31 October 2005

A look back: the 2004 ArbCom elections
24 October 2005

Current ArbCom members
17 October 2005

Criticism of the ArbCom
10 October 2005

About the Arbitration process
3 October 2005

The history of the Arbitration Committee
26 September 2005

Introduction to a special series: A look at the upcoming Arbitration Committee elections
19 September 2005


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This week, Jimbo Wales closed the straw poll he had set up to "gauge community input and feedback about the selection process." Citing the result of the poll as a 19-3-25-5 final count with the majority favoring his second proposal, Wales announced that the second proposal, a hybrid approach that requires a Requests for Adminship-like vote by the community, would be used. "The community can and should begin a community approval process immediately, patterned as closely as is reasonable after the RfA process," Wales wrote. "The point of the process should be to generate a pool of acceptable candidates from whom I can make appointments." Wales also stated that his "role in putting forward candidates is essentially just a way for me to communicate pre-approval to the community. I don't plan to do that in this term unless it appears that we are overlooking someone particularly noteworthy."

However, no process has been started following Wales's announcement. Community feedback was mixed. "I think deciding the election procedure based on a straw poll... is [an] inherently bad idea. It's not like there was a significant majority in favour of any one of the proposals, either," commented Talrias. "The result of a straw poll is not to use the procedure with the most support, it is to find out why other people didn't like that proposal, and work on improving it so that people who didn't support the original idea will support an improved version (or at least, not oppose as much)." Wales responded to these comments by citing the need to advance the elections: "Yes, but we need to move forward. We do have the luxury of ongoing investigations as we move forward, and flexibility to analyze what works well and doesn't, for next time around."

In addition, some users also questioned the use of the 50 percent requirement. "Would it not make sense to hold ArbCom polls on the principle of consensus rather than simple majority?" questioned Radiant!. "I realize that RFA's criterion (~75%) would be rather difficult to achieve, but 60%-65% sounds workable." Wales responded by saying, "We'll see how well it all goes" and saying that the percent could be adjusted depending on the average percent.

Finally, this week Edivorce (statement), Rowlan (statement), Maywither (statement), Trilemma (statement), and Aranda56 (statement) announced their candidacies. In addition, Talrias withdrew from the race.