The Arbitration Committee uses hundreds of volunteer hours per year, generates pages of admin, and funnels disputes into a process that many treat like an adversarial one. It is important that we monitor the system closely, be on guard for arbitration becoming a bureaucracy for its own sake, and look for ways to economise.
In addition to 15 volunteers per year, the committee takes up some time of: paid WMF employees; several clerks; a core of several hundred observers; and the parties to proceedings. We can also be sure that it (and any ostensible hierarchy) ferments in some people an "us and them" outlook.
Decisions issued
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The most influential form of arbitration is in the full case process. Disputes are accepted into arbitration as a "case" and undergo formal phases. The phases are named Evidence (diffs and opinion are filed by any user), Workshop (solutions are discussed and drafted), and Proposed Decision (the committee votes). In its early years the committee handled many problems that, these days, would barely cause a ripple at ANI. For this reason over a hundred decisions in 2005 (year 2) fell to just 12 in 2010 (year 6).
- All time
- Last 6 years
Source: Wikipedia:Arbitration/Index/Cases
Motions passed
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