Mediation Committee shutdown proposed

Wikipedia's Mediation Committee (MedCom) has heard five cases in the last three years (see Wikipedia:Requests for mediation/Tasks), leading some users to question its usefulness. Eliminating the function has thus been proposed in a Request for Comment (RfC) at "Village pump (proposals) § Close MedCom?" (permanent link). Reasons cited by the proposer include:

• very few cases are submitted, let alone successful;
• the requirement that the parties go through other methods of dispute resolution first, i.e. mediation is intended to be the last resort for content disputes;
• the voluntary nature of mediation (all parties have to agree to it and decisions are non-binding) further reduces its effectiveness;
• MedCom's sole purpose, content dispute resolution, has been supplanted by other processes; and,
• basically one user (the chairperson) is actively working on the committee.

Supporters of closing MedCom have said that it is largely inactive, ineffective, and inefficient, as well as overly bureaucratic. On the other hand, one of the opposers, TransporterMan (who chairs the committee), argues that MedCom still plays in important part, though less frequently today than in years past, because it is better equipped to deal with complex cases that take a long time. This argument has been cited by other opposers of the proposal. As of publication, there are currently about 33 votes in favor and 11 against with a few neutrals. — P

Proposed deletion of proposed deletions (PROD)

Reforms to proposed deletion (PROD), one of which is the elimination of the process, have been proposed in a five-part RfC on the Village Pump (policy) at "RfC: Proposed deletion policy" (permanent link). Two parts have been closed already while the rest is now overdue for closure. — B, K

In brief

• Also mentioned in this month's columns 'In the media' and 'Op-ed', potential issues of bias regarding the article for Nobel Prize winner Donna Strickland sparked multiple discussions among Wikipedians both on- and off-Wiki. — B
• Notification of pending changes reviewers when the pending changes backlog is high has been proposed at the village pump. Though the original RfC was only about an opt-out solution (oh no... guess I've been doing too much AfC review), an opt-in counterproposal has gained significantly more consensus in the discussion (permanent link). — P
• On the talk page of NCGAL (permanent link): Should articles like United States presidential election, 2012 be moved to 2012 United States presidential election? Users in favor of the change supported its more natural wording, while opposers argued that the current system makes such articles easier to find in the search bar. — P
• Vandalism to the page at Today's featured article has led to a proposal (permanent link) to pending-changes protect such articles. This protection level was chosen over semi-protection to allow IPs to make constructive changes to these articles. — P
• As the US midterm elections approach, users are debating (permanent link) changes to the notability criteria for candidates for elected office (in all countries). — P
• A proposal at the village pump (permanent link) is seeking to redesign the page protection padlock icons to improve accessibility and provide a fresher look. Specifically, the redesigned icons are more visible, satisfy minimum color contrast requirements, and include visual aids in each lock to help with deciphering their meaning at a glance. As of publication, the proposal has been met with general support, just as it received in the idea lab (permanent link). — N