Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-01-02/ArbCom update

This week, the community adapted guidelines to the Arbitration Committee elections after weeks of discussion. With tacit approval from Jimbo Wales, the elections will start in one week.

The election will run from 9 January until the end of 22 January, with the winners taking office on 1 February. During the two-week voting period, voters will use each candidate's subpage to either vote for or against the candidate. The subpages are currently used for statement and questions; once the voting begins, a requests for adminship-like vote will be added to each page. Anyone who created an account on or prior to 30 September, 2005 will be enfranchised. Also, in an effort to prevent antagonistic feelings created by the "disendorsements" used last year, voters are requested to keep all comments on the voting page as brief as possible.

After the closure of the election, anyone with more support votes than oppose votes will be eligible for the Arbitration Committee; Jimbo Wales will make the final appointments. However, Wales also noted that he had a "general intention to appoint candidates mostly in the order of the percentage of approval in the community." If there are more qualified candidates than open seats, then either the ArbCom will be expanded, or a pool of reserve Arbitrators will be created.

Wales also expressed his approval of the process tacitly by editing the elections page, indicating that he was aware of the community's decision and choices.

In addition, the elections page was also moved from Arbitration Committee Elections December 2005 to Arbitration Committee Elections January 2006 this week, indicating that the elections will be held in January instead of December 2005.

Finally, several more candidates joined the race this week: Ultraexactzz (statement), Ajwebb (statement), AntonioMartin (statement), and Kylehamilton (statement).