senior editors and baseline quality

Yes, elections is where it is likely going to end up. But it probably also is one of the worst possible scenarios (number of edits would be worse), leading to more-of-the-same. In that case what already is going well will keep going well; what is going badly will get worse; and where there is great controversy things will remain deadlocked. Popularity is not much of a way to establish the degree of commitment to core values (I have seen an editor who lived and breathed an excentric PoV, to whom NOR-violations were as common as pie, etc, etc make admin by a landslide). I don't believe elected senior editors will do much good. - Brya 05:21, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Brya05:21, 28 January 2010

Fine, but what other options do we have? Appointment by arbcom would be fine, but takes too much effort, this is not what arbcom has been elected for. I agree that counting # of edits is even worse.

Yaroslav Blanter12:09, 28 January 2010
 

I think the best we can do is to have a system like this:

  • A fast track for volunteers who have met some objective criteria that actually shows an understanding of quality
  • An election for volunteers who meet that objective criteria, but have been blocked (e.g.: they qualify, but need to explain themselves)
  • An election for volunteers who haven't met that objective criteria, but feel they have done enough other good work to skip it

The fast track is key. It avoids the popularity contest and the politics. I don't think we can eliminate the need to have the community double-check certain editors, but maybe we can use it for specific cases.

Randomran14:43, 28 January 2010

That looks like a way to combine all the weak points? I am not sure what these "objective criteria that actually shows an understanding of quality" could be. Anything that can establish a commitment-to-core-values will by definition be subjective. What would be possible is to include some of the existing (subjective) tests such as the FA-procedure.

I guess that a workable process to guarantee a minimum of what is wanted would be to require an editor to have written an FA-article and start the vetting procedure from there. - Brya 06:02, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Brya06:02, 29 January 2010

Well, in my opinion, if we want to avoid the popularity contest, we should just PROHIBIT these stupid votes "Support" without any explanations. Only the vote "Support for the following reason: " (for instance, the editor, did not participate in edit warring, has not been blocked for disruptive behavior etc). And then make a suffrage of 500? edits in the main space (I believe a FA is too much).

Yaroslav Blanter13:19, 29 January 2010
 

Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. FA's focus on the editor's contributions, rather than the editor's personality. And we'd reserve the vote to include exceptionally good editors without FAs, or bad editors who have FAs but have been blocked in the past for being jerks.

Randomran23:49, 29 January 2010

A number of edits is meaningless. I have seen editors put in 10.000 edits without adding a iota of content. Writing a FA is not meaningless, thus it is a usable criterium. It is less than ideal, somebody could be very suitable without having written an FA, and not everybody who wrote one will have all the desired qualities. Still, it does not look like too much to ask, that any candidate wrote at least a FA. - Brya 05:28, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Brya05:28, 31 January 2010

How would you define "wrote"? Our articles are written by many people. That criteria is subjective and open to being gamed.

~Philippe (WMF)05:36, 31 January 2010

I would not define "wrote". Firstly a strict definition is likely impossible, as probably no FA is 100% the work of a single editor, but most FA's are mainly the result of a single editor's effort.

Secondly, it is mostly irrelevant as in my view writing a FA is by itself not sufficient to qualify for senior editor. It is sort of a minimum to be up for consideration: I would like to see extra requirements added. - Brya 04:59, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Brya04:59, 1 February 2010
 

There would still need to be some sort of approval process, managed by bureaucrats. And part of that approval process would be showing that you've been a major contributor to however many FAs. Maybe by having someone who worked on the article nominate you, or maybe by providing some "diffs".

And then there would be a recall process for anyone who was deceitful, and became a senior editor by lying about their contributions to a FA.

All that would make it very unlikely that someone could game the FA standard.

Randomran15:13, 31 January 2010