All right y’all! So it’s arbCom election season again. Obviously, I said it during the election last year that ‘pedia was at a crossroad. We were heading either toward success or failure. A year passed and not much has changed. Cliques, factions, and personality clashes are still rampant with familiar faces. The major power brokers are still mostly the same people. What exactly does the future hold?
I realize that as we spend more and more time on this site, the virtual political reality begins to blur with our own reality in real life. We start to take shit on here a lot more seriously than we should. Getting into wiki-fights, passionate edit-warring, name-calling, finger-pointing, and other mudslinging are all common occurrences of the average wikipedians. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that we are here to build a comprehensive encyclopedia PERIOD. This is not lavalife, facebook, or some internet chatroom. As time passes, the effervescence, the excitement, and the hype are all gone. Wikipedia becomes an obligation more than a hobby, a source of pain more than a source of knowledge, a fetish rather than… you get the idea. I’m running not only to reform arbCom, but to bring the spirit, love, and passion back to wikipedia. Obviously, we are all in ‘pedia for a more than selfless reason. We are volunteers after all. But keep in mind that all of us, no matter how we behaved in the past, all want to be part of a successful, comprehensive, and neutral encyclopedia. I’ve been in ‘pedia since February, 2006, which kinda makes me a vet. Overall it has been a fun ride and a bit of a love-hate relationship. A bumpy start that includes every newbie mistakes possible turns out to be a blessing in disguise. I learned a lot from several well-respected editors, which gave me an inside look of the intricacy of the wikipedia power structure. I commented a various high-profile arbCom case and regularly in AN/I and other policy making venues. ArbCom is the driving force of wikipedia. The problem of ‘pedia nowadays is that admin abuse. The rogue admins far exceed the good ones. ArbCom rarely desysop any admins, which is a complete paradox given that we have so many new qualified editors who are not admins.
The arbCom also needs to address the unfinished IRC case that has dragged on for almost a year. ArbCom should be open. Mailing list and other means should be make public. Okay, there’s a lot more than that. Most of my reforms are fairly obvious ones. If a change makes wikipeida better, then change it. Simple as that. What’s the hold up?
I consider myself a maverick in this election. (I know y'all are seek of hearing J-Mac saying it.) I have little ties to the establishment. I am not an admin, not in any particular clique, and not one of the behind-the-scene power broker. In many ways, I am still the newbie who first discovered this site. I am still the average guy who is passionate about making this site a more relialbe, informative, and comprehensive encyclopedia.
Wikipedia needs a revolution. Otherwise, there is no hope. Make the right choice, vote the right people. Appreciate y’all for taking the time to read this lil rant aka candidate statement. Peace, NWA.Rep--NWA.Rep (talk) 18:58, 14 November 2008 (UTC)