Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2017/Candidates/BU Rob13/Statement

BU Rob13

 * I've decided to put my name forward as a candidate for the Arbitration Committee. I'm an experienced administrator and recently-appointed CheckUser. If elected to the Committee, there are two major goals I would like to accomplish.


 * First, I'd like the Committee to be more active in all phases of arbitration cases. ArbCom is necessarily an opaque group, as they handle a good deal of private information, but they don't have to be opaque everywhere. Certain recent cases would have run more smoothly if arbitrators had popped in every once-in-a-while and given a status update on how the Committee understood the issues before it. This can help focus cases and resolve them more quickly with less unnecessary drama. We need less courtroom and more conversation.


 * Second, I hope to take an active role in evaluating the Committee's place when it comes to the issue of abusive paid editing. In early 2017, the community made clear that it wished there to be some process for handling private information related to abusive paid editing at this RfC. So far, that process has not emerged. It is the Committee's duty "to resolve matters unsuitable for public discussion for privacy, legal, or similar reasons" according to WP:ARBPOL, so if this consensus is to be enacted, it must be facilitated by the Committee. Ideally, that will involve further input from the community and the Wikimedia Foundation. There are many possibilities that need exploring here, but there has been substantial support for the idea of creating a functionary group to investigate abusive paid editing complaints. I think that idea is promising.


 * Other than a few doppelganger accounts registered to prevent impersonation, my only other account is BU RoBOT, my bot. I've already signed the WMF's access to non-public data agreement due to my role as a functionary.