If the accepted wisdom now is that there is a functional equivalence between the outcome of a "Do we trust this Admin" style ArbCom case and a hypothetical reconfirmarion RfA, then let's take that to its logical conclusion.The pattern I see, is that Scottywong goes looking for fights and then his level of discourse targets the individual personally, something that is made worse through his position of power.
This leads me back to something that Floquenbeam said in the preliminary statements. Would Scottywong pass an RfA today, I believe almost certainly not. That's not our threshold for removal though, many administrators may not pass an RfA today, myself included. However, more interestingly, Floquenbeam said "If there were a functioning community desysop/reconfirmation process, I do not think his adminship would survive intact." Well, there is a community desysop process - and it is Arbcom. We don't only desysop for abuse of the tools, we desysop based on loss of trust of the community. We desysop if we believe there is a likelihood of recurrence of issues that would bring the project into disrepute. On these points, I do support a removal of Scottywong's admin rights. WormTT(talk) 09:59, 6 July 2023
Out of all the current edge case Admins, many of whom have either one of two incidents of glaringly bad judgement or long records of questionable temperament, which ones would fail under the scrutiny of an Arb Com case, but would actually quite easily pass an RfA?
I say all of them.
Floquenbeam is perhaps the most obvious example. His reconfirmation RfA had ABSOLUTELY FUCK ALL to do with examining his overall record, it was all about the reason why ArbCom was forced by policy to dessyop him for one extraordinary incident. It is the very fact Floquenbeam knew EXACTLY that this is how the community works, is what shows he is the very last person you can trust with Admin tools. He did not announce his intent to break policy in an egregious way before he did it, in an effort to gauge support for his my judgement. He did It first, confident as he always is that his judgement is always sound and his decisions are always in the best interest of Wikipedia.
Was it though? His decision that day is the exact reason why Vested Contributors are still a thing. It is the exact reason Wikipedia has a resident court jester, EEng, entirely untouchable by policy. Even though if taken to ArbCom, he would be banned for failing to meet the standard required of an ordinary editor.
It is ironic too that this very Arb case I quoted from, showed Drmies had a very long history of doing battle with Scottywong. He has lots of other episodes of seriously poor judgement in his record. i laughed my ass off seeing so-called "legacy" Admin AlisonW castigated for not adhering to the strict definition of WP:VANDALISM, because this is one of many things an Arbitration Case into Drmies would uncover as his day to day level of do as I say not as I do style of Adminship, and inevitably fuck him off. And yet he would pass RfA all day every day.
The most obvious case of course is Bishonen. Her long record of INVOLVED actions to the backdrop of disgusting vitriol regarding Jimmy Wales and the "civility police" (three unilateral unblocks of EEng and counting) would see her beheaded instantly at Arbitration. The fact you would never get such a case accepted is an obvious flaw of the system if it purports to be a desysop mechanism. But there can be no doubt, even as a corrupt doesn't give a shit about anyone and blatantly uses her tools to protect her friends and abuse her power over mere editors type Admin, Bishonen passes any future RfA with flying colours.
The community, as represented at RfA, is very forgiving and sometimes enthusiastically supportive of behaviours that Arbitration is beholden to view with a very dim light.
Scottywong may or may not pass an RfA. I'd be very interested to see how many others with his allegedly poor record of judgement, would fare any better at ArbCom, if this is the "higher standard".
The most hilarious part? That Arbitrator openly admits they are one of the many who would not pass RfA!?!!?!
Rank hypocrisy lies at the heart of Wikipedia's current systems of governance.
There are always consequences for such things, a general backdrop of toxicity in the so called "community" is but one. Nobody with any sense sees Drmies or Bishonen or Floquenbeam arrive at an issue waving their Admin credentials without assuming there is a personal motive. It is often pretty damn obvious what it is. You can do nothing about it though, not legitimately, because they're the ones with all the power.
There are lots of corrupt bullies hiding in plain sight in the Admin ranks. The fact a "functioning community desysop/reconfirmation process", if it worked the way Floqunbeam would wish it to work, would be of absolutely no threat to them, is the whole entire point everyone has been trying to make.
It is as obvious as the stench from a pig pen.
Oink! Oink!