Forum:Organizational structure

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No. ಠ_ಠ to be honest I think they should only be chosen by the founders of Orain because this can lead to anyone acting like a trusted person deeply but then stabs people in the back and abuses their powers. --Tyreek (talk) 01:37, 20 October 2013 (UTC)
 * The example was given above, of English Wikipedia's ArbCom. I don't have much experience with Wikipedia myself, but is there evidence of such nefarious behavior as Tyreek is warning about, on ArbCom? If so, is it widespread abuse? If not widespread, how was it mitigated? Could we apply the same solutions here at Orain? Sorry, as per normal I pose more questions than I offer answers to. Augur NZ &#x2710; &#x2315; 16:06, 20 October 2013 (UTC)
 * All I gotta say is bad idea because Wikipedia has a biased administration who no matter how many reports on them, they never get demoted as well as they even use sockpuppets and bots to cause edit wars.--Tyreek (talk) 21:59, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

I like the idea, but I'm not quite sure the community is ready to elect people just yet. While it's still so small, having the wrong people in positions of authority could cause catastrophic damage to the organization as a whole. I think what I'd like to see happen is that the current members of the steward/staff team become the community council because you guys know what you're doing (and obviously are doing it right), and then as the wikifarm grows and becomes more established, bring more people onboard. I think co-project leaders is a good idea because it prevents one person from having total control (even though that's not even what that role is supposed to be, I know). It also allows them to divvy up tasks and better manage the organization based on the skills they have. Anyways, just my two cents. -- Joe G. (Talk) 22:56, 20 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your input, Tyreek and Joe. If you read carefully above, you'll see that I purposely didn't address the question of elections for the two main positions. The reason for this is that, like Joe suggested, I'm planning to appoint the current stewards to the Community Council until the community is mature enough for its votes to accurately reflect the community's needs (law of large numbers). Kudu (talk) 23:29, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

I see no real issue with the proposal to be honest. John (talk) 23:44, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

I just noticed an issue: we're now four stewards, who would occupy four seats on the Community Council. However, the Council should usually have an odd number of members, otherwise there would be ties. I guess that, for now, we could get the (Co-)Leaders to settle ties. Anyway, it should be a consensus-based process and there shouldn't usually be 2-2 splits. Kudu (talk) 23:58, 20 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: I didn't count Addshore because although he's a very helpful staffer and developer, his steward status is mostly honorary at the moment since he doesn't do any steward actions. I'm discussing with Addshore whether he wants to sit on the Council since it will require daily availability. Kudu (talk) 00:19, 21 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Another option is to have the leader (if we so chose to appoint only one) not get a vote? Then you have three voting members and a leader without a vote. That's how the board I currently sit on in the offline world works. The chair only gets to vote in certain situations like a tie (if a member is absent leaving us with an even number of people). Not sure how great of an idea that is, but it is an option. -- Joe G. (Talk) 00:06, 21 October 2013 (UTC)
 * That sounds like a possibility in the future, but for now there's no way we can do that and have a one-person or two-person Council. Kudu (talk) 00:19, 21 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I like the idea, in principle. One of the things that I would suggest, and it was something that was discussed during the creation of Orain, is for there to be an Ombudsman. They wouldn't be on the council per se, however, it's something that I think is worth discussing. I can elaborate further if anyone is interested in the idea. One of the main things that I feel is important is for us to ensure that things don't become overly complicated and to avoid too much of a hierarchy. D u s t i *Let's talk!* 01:19, 21 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I agree that, since the Community Council will be taking care of both policy and dispute resolution, there should also be an Ombudsman who would be able to read the private Community Council and steward mailing lists, without actually sitting on the Council or being a steward. Kudu (talk) 03:03, 22 October 2013 (UTC)