Wikipedia:Odysseus Committee


 * Odysseus was one of the suitors for Helen, daughter of Tyndareus. But Tyndareus, afraid of offending the many famous and powerful suitors, would not choose among them. Odysseus proposed that Tyndareus require all the suitors to swear an oath to defend whomever Helen chose as husband from among the oath-takers. The suitors, including Odysseus, swore and Helen chose Menelaus, the most powerful of them.

This is an optional form of dispute resolution. Sometimes a discussion is deadlocked, and while the participants cannot agree on a decision, they agree that any decision is better than dissent and edit warring. The participants in the discussion may then decide to ask this committee to make a fair decision on the matter.

This form of resolution is voluntary, in that all participants must agree to take the dispute here. It is also binding, in that all participants must agree beforehand that they will abide with the decision in a mature and civil manner, even if it wasn't the decision they were hoping for.

People who don't trust the committee to be fair and impartial are welcome to take their dispute somewhere else, such as RFC or the ArbCom.

To be worked out

 * Name of the committee; it doesn't mediate a compromise (that'd be medcom) but make a decision
 * Some kind of simple mechanism of putting people on the committee, possibly term limits
 * Discuss on talk page please