[Cz-editcouncil] Resignation

[Brian Long]

First off, as Larry suggests, I call for a vote to suspend the normal rules of the Editorial Council mailing list. At some level it would be preferable to have this discussion on the forums where any Citizens could participate, but, in general, it seems that we have a much narrower group of participants on the forums.

Secondly, I think that given our current situation it is the time to bring up an old idea-- the Judicial Board. Our current situation has highlighted the problems we have when we attempt to determine whether something is or is not in line with our policies, and just whose interpretation of policy is the right one. If we had a Judicial Board when this mess arose, Martin and Larry could have made their cases to the Judicial Board, and we would be able to have an evaluation of the situation which does not rely exclusively on the opinions and feelings of the two main participants in the argument. (This is in addition to all of the other nice functions a Judicial Board might provide, such as hearing appeals to the decisions of the Constabulary. And so on.) 

Though the timing of this brouhaha is not convenient for me, I can write this up into a resolution in the next week or so. Before I did so, I wanted to make sure that the Editorial Council has the standing to pass such a resolution (this is normally the sort of thing you would ask Martin about). I also wanted to check with you, Larry, to see if you would be in favor of a Judicial Board, and to hear your thoughts on the precise jurisdiction of such a Judicial Board. What exactly would be the relationship between the rulings of the Judicial Board and the ex cathedra pronouncements of the Editor in Chief? 

Other thoughts?

Best,
Brian Long

--- On Tue, 11/4/08, Larry Sanger <sanger at citizendium.org> wrote:

> From: Larry Sanger <sanger at citizendium.org>
> Subject: Re: [Cz-editcouncil] Resignation
> To: "'The Citizendium Editorial Council'" <cz-editcouncil at mail.citizendium.org>
> Date: Tuesday, November 4, 2008, 12:30 PM
> All,
>  
> If the Council wants to review any aspect of this matter, I
> would be willing
> to participate and make my views known fully.  I will
> abstain from replying
> to Martin's latest comments for now--not to say, of
> course, that I cannot
> reply to them, but only that I would prefer not to drag out
> a probably
> pointless exchange.
>  
> An ongoing free-for-all discussion on this list is actually
> out of order.
> As you probably recall, this list was set up as a special
> sort of forum,
> following parliamentary rules.  If we wish to continue in
> the vein we have
> been, I see two options.  One is that the Council actually
> votes to set
> aside the rules, temporarily, for the use of this list, and
> proceed with the
> discussion.  The second would be that someone (anyone)
> recommend that
> interested members go elsewhere for the discussion, either
> by using a forum
> page (http://forum.citizendium.org) or else a proposals
> system page
> (http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Proposals).  I guess a
> third option would
> be for a member to make any sort of resolution related to
> this matter, which
> we would then discuss through the usual channels.
>  
> I do think that anyone who wants to make a resolution or an
> invitation to
> debate should think carefully about what the topic of
> discussion is, and
> what the Council (as distinguished from the CZ community at
> large, or
> whatever) can hope to accomplish by having the discussion.
>  
> --Larry
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