Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2010-11-08/Election report

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Has there ever been an arbitrator that wasn't an admin?--Rockfang (talk) 12:54, 10 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, although I am not sure if any have been elected. All current and former arbitrators appear to have been admins at some point, but at least one, UninvitedCompany, was not an admin when appointed. Skomorokh 13:06, 10 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It may interest you to learn that non-admins have come close to being elected in recent years, most notably Giano in 2007 (with 57% support) and The Fat Man Who Never Came Back in 2008 (with 56%). The best-supported non-admin in last year's election was Cla68, with 46%. Hope this helps, Skomorokh 13:15, 10 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) Interesting question, and Skomorokh has answered more specifically than I was about to. In my private opinion, it is a candidate's skill-base that matters, not whether they are an admin. Non-admins who believe they have this skill-base are, of course, just as welcome as admins to stand. Apparently diversity on the Committee is valued by both the arbs (see the interview linked to in the box top right of this article) and the community as a whole. Tony (talk) 13:18, 10 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Gutza was not an admin while he was an arbitrator; see his RFA. Graham87 13:49, 10 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There's a relevant list of former arbitrators, indicating a few who were not administrators during all or some of their service, here. There has been past discussion of whether non-admins should serve as arbitrators. I appreciate that non-admin arbitrators could bring a different perspective to the committee. However, it would be difficult to decide some cases and other matters that come before the committee without administrator userrights (principally the ability to review deleted revisions). So we would probably have to either have any non-admin arbitrator either go thorugh RfA (which he or she would presumably pass at that point) or confer some sort of temporary adminship for him or her to serve most effectively as an arbitrator. Newyorkbrad (talk) 15:37, 10 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]