This is ridiculously late but I am just now, six months later, seeing this thread after ending up here for an unrelated reason. I always forget that the only way to know if people have asked for your input here is for them to message you privately (which hopefully sends an email notification) or for you to search your name (which doesn't). Guess I'm spoiled by Wikipedia's ping functionality these days, or at least the habit of logging in often enough to check my watchlist. Did want to address a few things, now that I'm here.
CrowsNest wrote:The recent Joefromrandb case shows it makes no sense for GW to feel like her work is done, even if she was bored.
I wasn't bored, though I was definitely a bit burnt out. The email volume to the ArbCom is pretty astronomical.
CrowsNest wrote:Keilana was a new entrant in 2015, and is stepping down after just one term, which wasn't exactly a busy one. That's not normal turnover even in busier times, not that I recall anyway. She will definitely have reasons for leaving other than feeling a bit tired.
Regarding Keilana, I think it's important to remember that she is in medical school... I personally was amazed at how much time she did have for the ArbCom.
CrowsNest wrote:No idea why Lokshin rescued there, but would be amazed if he wouldn't have been in agreement with GW. Keilana wasn't around, so that tells me whatever she was doing must have been pretty important to miss out, or she saw the writing on the wall thanks to Opabina's lengthy intervention, and therefore realised the futility of getting involved to echo GW's thoughts. This thus supports the idea she stood down for the same reasons.
It's an interesting view, but I am not diametrically opposed to Opabinia as your posts seem to imply. She and I actually agree quite a lot. I was actually surprised to see this take here; maybe it'll go to show that us women don't always vote alike
Kumioko wrote:Personally I think GorillaWarfare is worthless as an arb. She rarely does anything other than just go with the flow. She frequently recuses herself and most of the work she does for the Arbcom is simple, quick comments. The most useful thing she ever did is give the WMF and the community the excuse that they voted a female into the committee.
https://twitter.com/molly0x57/status/992452524492894211
CrowsNest wrote:Being ready for some time off after years on the bench only really plausibly explains GorillaWarfare's decision, since she had served two back to back terms. But I put it to people that if she was just stepping down because she was tired, she would have simply said so. Her silence on her reasons seems pointed, and while she has always been an outspoken girl, she's probably learned by now that there's no reason to speak her mind on Wikipedia, if it doesn't achieve anything.
Her telling people she was stepping down because, for example, it is a complete joke for ArbCom to be putting people like The Rambling Man on a final warning, only to have the community ignore it, and even threaten and bully anyone who attempts to enforce it, including her, is an utter farce, seems like something the community would happily ignore. And now, the make up of the panel is even more favourable to those who think TRM is an asset to Wikipedia and want him to run free, like a bird.
Both Keilana and Gorilla Warfare would have seen from this year's slate well in advance of their decision to stand down, that at best the number of women was only going to remain static. And yet they still walked. You don't do that if you're just tired.
And I repeat, tired from that? The panel did virtually nothing these last two years. Easiest time for ArbCom since the early 2000s. There's more here to this, way more.
This sounds sort of exciting and political, but I'm afraid it's actually not. I won't speak for Keilana other than to say that she's in med school and it's pretty amazing she managed her previous level of involvement with the ArbCom.
As for me, I definitely had my frustrations with the ArbCom; I think every arbitrator (current and past) would say the same. But if you want the real reason I chose not to run again, it's because I was promoted at work to lead a team of software engineers (previously I was a software engineer working as an individual contributor). This left me with considerably less time to work on ArbCom issues, especially as I was getting acquainted with the role. My silence is not "pointed", I just haven't been asked about it onwiki or elsewhere (until I saw this).
I joined the ArbCom when I was in college and had a fair amount of spare time. When I graduated and began working full-time as a software engineer I was able to maintain my activity. Once I found myself leading a team of engineers, the time split simply wasn't possible—it wasn't that I was spending considerably more time working, I just was spending much more time at work on the sort of emotional labor that the ArbCom required, and I didn't have the capacity for both. I was paid and acknowledged for the one, so ArbCom fell by the wayside. Maybe someday I'll become such a masterful tech lead that I have the capacity to be an arbitrator in addition to my professional life and my personal life, but the professional and personal will always take priority, and right now I'm happy with my balance of those two lives. Plus editing Wikipedia is much more fun when you're not an arbitrator.
Tangentially, I think I've written before (have I? or maybe it was just venting privately) about how I worry about the ArbCom, because the volunteer workload is only feasible for those with an abundance of free time: its seats are often more available to young people, students, the unemployed, those who don't need to work, and retirees, not to mention additional factors like geography. This constrains the demographics of arbitrators quite dramatically, and to the detriment of the project.