The Cheshire WikiProject Newsletter | ||||
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In an effort to assess the progress of Wikiproject Cheshire, it has been decided to send a questionnaire to members. To answer, please copy this questionnaire and paste your answers on the answer page. While participation is, of course, not compulsory, thoughtful answers will help the project to develop and improve. Thank you.
You are receiving this message because you have previously posted at a Ireland naming related discussion. Per Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Ireland article names#Back-up procedure, a procedure has been developed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Ireland Collaboration, and the project is now taking statements. Before creating or replying to a statement please consider the statement process, the problems and current statements. GnevinAWB ( talk) 17:56, 5 March 2009 (UTC)
Isn't unblocking without discussion a violation of WP:WHEEL? Who then was a gentleman? ( talk) 00:41, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
Please reconsider this. We are all human, and there is nothing in WP:ADMIN that says admins need to be perfect. Risker ( talk) 02:16, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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The Resilient Barnstar | |
For your edit here, issuing an excellent mea culpa for your error. Wonderfully done. // roux 06:33, 7 March 2009 (UTC) |
Please remove me as an administrator. My reasons for asking this may be obvious if anyone knows me well, but I will give a brief outline of some of them here, not because I think they will have any impact in any way, but merely to be a matter of public record.
First, I should disabuse anyone that this resignation is because I made a mistake in unblocking User:Malleus Fatuorum recently: far from it, although I made a mistake which I quickly apologised for, and which did not negate my unblocking of Malleus, I still consider the major mistake was in the administrator who blocked with dubious justification, to the apparent satisfaction of people who had axes to grind against Malleus, and the very dubious manner in which my unblocking was reverted. So, the reason is not a mistake I made, but mistakes that administrators made which, with a few notable (and noble) exceptions by others, went by uncommented on. The distaste I find in this was merely increased by the baiting that subsequently went on on his talk page that led to his talk page being protected. A case of uncommented on administrator abuse. Remaining silent when knowing about this is tantamount to collusion in what I honestly consider is an abuse of administrator abilities.
Second, the more general inconsistent and abusive manner in which some administrators conduct themselves means I no longer wish to associate myself with the administration of wikipedia. Whether or not that changes in the future depends on whether real and lasting changes are made to address the matter of real accountability on their part, not the weak token methods that seem to in operation and which are heavily biased in favour of the administrators at the moment: if having the tools is "no big deal" as it so often trotted out as some kind of means of attempting to silent criticisms, then why do people fight tooth and nail and resist all sensible attempts to remove these "no big deal" tools when they are clearly being abused? In this respect, I wish User:Tony1's attempts with AdminWatch well, but I do not see it succeeding at all. There is too great an inbuilt inertia for any real change happening, because power in reality in this matter rests with those whose behaviour makes such regulatory mechanisms necessary. It would also help if largely silent administrators who seem to do little once their status has been grahted, would actually try to do well what they had been expected to do when they were made administrators.
Third, I have found myself slipping into the kind of mindset and actions which I consider, on reflection, bad. This is almost like a result of being tainted by association with the kinds of behaviour in administrators which I have mentioned above. Clearly, I need to go to stop me sinking more into such bad practices, and I apologise unreservedly to any ordinary editors for any poor decisions using the administrators tools that I have made.
Fourth, although the notion of wikipedia still seems good, its actual state now seems to me to be almost fatally flawed because of its large, unwieldy structure that makes real effective change impossible. This is largely because there appears to be no one at a high enough level who is willing to make the tough decisions necessary to improve it, perhaps because of a too-sentimental clinging on to principles that are now counter-productive. So, we have the curse of nationalism that causes endless disputes that should simply be stamped on (see the whole swathe of problems brought by problems to do with Ireland-related issues as one example), small highly vocal pressure groups that cause disruption (like the ongoing Arbcom case to do with Ayn Rand), and a failure to take a principled stand in matters of Fringe Science and other areas when advocates of fringe views use arguments that one might call "argumentuum ad attrition" (to mangle poor Latin) to wear the opposition down. A similar war is carried out on UK articles when advocates of pressure group positions try to add highly misleading information regarding "traditional" or "historic" counties to articles that ends up sometimes being bolstered by poorly thought-out administrator action (I am thinking of one specific occasion where legitimate action taken against an editor for telling a new editor that they should go against established guidelines and policies should be done, which would have resulted in clearly incorrect information being added to one or more articles: an administrator who took action against this clear disruption had the actions reversed and was criticised for taking the action.)
So, I can continue no longer. I have no illusions: the above points will merely disappear and be forgotten. Or else they will be labelled as biased (as a convenient way of not really considering them carefully), perhaps even conveniently using my comment about my slipping into bad behaviour as an apparent (and in this case, phony) justification for dismissing my points, and the careless slip-shod way of behaving by others will carry on regardless after a few minutes. However, for those of you who understand, I hope you can see why I consider it a matter of personal integrity why I cannot continue. Change in these circumstances needs to happen and probably can only happen if it comes from the top, and for a variety of reasons, the top seems either unwilling or unable to have the courage to do it.
My deepest apologies to members of the Cheshire Wikiproject, which I have greatly enjoyed working on: there was much I wanted to do, and some remains incomplete in my various sandboxes, if you feel able to continue, it would be good if this work could be carried forwards in some way.
Farewell. DDStretch (talk) 09:58, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
The above-linked Arbitration case has been closed and the final decision published.
In the event that any user mentioned by name in this decision engages in further disruptive editing on Ayn Rand or any related article or page (one year from the date of this decision or one year from the expiration of any topic ban applied to the user in this decision, whichever is later), the user may be banned from that page or from the entire topic of Ayn Rand for an appropriate length of time by any uninvolved administrator or have any other remedy reasonably tailored to the circumstances imposed, such as a revert limitation. Similarly, an uninvolved administrator may impose a topic ban, revert limitation, or other appropriate sanction against any other editor who edits Ayn Rand or related articles or pages disruptively, provided that a warning has first been given with a link to this decision.
Both experienced and new editors on articles related to Ayn Rand are cautioned that this topic has previously been the subject of disruptive editing by both admirers and critics of Rand's writings and philosophy. Editors are reminded that when working on highly contentious topics like this one, it is all the more important that all editors adhere to fundamental Wikipedia policies. They are encouraged to make use of the dispute resolution process, including mediation assistance from Mediation Cabal or the Mediation Committee, in connection with any ongoing disputes or when serious disputes arise that cannot be resolved through the ordinary editing process.
For the Arbitration Committee, Mailer Diablo 03:35, 15 March 2009 (UTC)
Out of interest I read the resignation letter above and have to say I am amazed at the injustices that are taking place right under our noses. It, sadly, does not suprise me that those with power choose to abuse it. Yet, they will probably never be named and shamed for many people out of fear, for Ddstretch out of modesty. I feel almost mislead by the Wikipedia Administrators and their biased groups although I suspect it is only a minority, it is none the less wrong. Anyway, I thought I should show you that there will be people out there who, like me, will understand you. When I decided to reply, at first I thought I should make it anonymous but now I believe I should be proud to respond named and uncowardly! 95jb14 ( talk) 19:31, 28 March 2009 (UTC)