senior editors and baseline quality

About exclusiveness, I am not all that pessimistic. After all, the ArbCom is also quite exclusive, as is the WMF board. There is a correlation between exclusivity and effectiveness.

What we want requires some fairly exclusive traits (commitment to core values, proven ability). In addition the senior editor must be willing to put in the time and effort to use those traits for the common goal. It looks to me that exclusivity is what is needed. If it is not exclusive then it won't work.

What is to be prevented is a closed-off, stale structure. There should always be the possibility for new blood. If that is a concern it would be possible to build in a term-of-office or an inactivity rule (the latter would likely be more effective).

Exclusivity may not be palatable, but it is pretty much inescapable. Otherwise, it becomes just another userbox to add to a userpage. - Brya 04:59, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Brya04:59, 25 January 2010