User:Carrite/ACE2014

=2014 Arbcom Election Guide=

Personal background
My name is Tim Davenport, I'm 53 years old and live in Corvallis, Oregon (USA) and have been a Wikipedian since December 2008. I am a content writer, not a copy editor, vandal fighter, or site structural worker. My particular area of expertise is late 19th and early 20th Century labor history and radical politics. My page patrolling consists of autopassing 5 day old articles which are clear GNG keeps. I am an active participant at Articles for Deletion and Requests for Administration and chime in regularly during Arbcom proceedings.

I am committed to the cause of Wikipedia reform and am a regular at Wikipediocracy as "Randy from Boise" (Note: WP User "Randy from Boise" is not me). I am a frequent critic of the Wikimedia Foundation and its agenda and in the big scrum between San Francisco professionals and the volunteer community, I am a consistent supporter of the latter over the designs and machinations of the former.

My preferences are thus skewed towards dedicated, committed volunteers with moxy, a commitment toward community decision-making and the rule of law, and an eye towards making Wikipedia work better.


 * —Tim Davenport /// Carrite (talk) 16:53, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

The Guide
We will be electing NINE new members of Arbcom this time around, 8 for two year terms and 1 for a one year term. This will represent a strong majority of the 15 member committee. Of additional concern, the committee will be losing a couple of its best members, including Dave Craven/Worm That Turned and Ira Brad Matetsky/New York Brad, while Salvio giuliano is up for re-election. Elections are always overhyped as being "the most important ever," but I think it can be truly said that this particular Arbcom election is pivotal.

To make things simple, I am going to endorse a set of candidates (not to exceed the 9 seats open) and tell you why I support each.

Closing comments
I am satisfied that this is a good slate of candidates. Every year it seems like there won't be enough until the final rush of self-nominations and lo and behold, there are. To all candidates: thank you for running. To those elected: please, for the love of god, make this process faster by combining the evidence and workshop phases, get the proposed decision out in the community's eye rapidly, and then debate the evidence and outcomes in public on the talk page. Crack the whip on the deadline for final decision. Instead of six weeks PLUS, get the process down to four.

A more radical reform idea would be splitting the committee into two subcommittees and dividing the simple cases among these, with only the two or three "big" cases a year decided by the full committee of 15.

You don't need community approval for any of these things, Arbcom runs itself by its own rules: JUST DO IT. —Tim Davenport //// Carrite (talk) 14:00, 23 November 2014 (UTC)

Personal Messages (responses welcome)

 * @ - The correct answer I was looking for to my first question of you was actually quite simple: "We fucked up, I'm sorry, it won't happen again." Yet you dodged and defended the indefensible. It was a simple error in judgment caused by a committee in a tizzy that snowballed. Greg Kohs is not and never has been the boogeyman... Carrite (talk) 16:05, 22 November 2014 (UTC)


 * @ - Entering the race at the 11th hour and then completely blowing off questions for 3.5 days (or more) of a 5 day due diligence and debate period either indicates a lack of time for the committee or a calculated or callous disregard for the electoral process. It is not as if past Arbcoms have been so spectacularly effective that past association is any sort of a credit. Only a minority of those who served deserve laurels instead of lemons. Carrite (talk) 16:05, 22 November 2014 (UTC)


 * @ - As I said to PhilKnight, blowing off questions during the extremely limited time voters have for candidate assessment would seem to indicate one of two things, neither good: a lack of time for the committee or a contempt for the electoral process.  Carrite (talk) 16:24, 22 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I have answered most of the questions today. This is the first staturday that has happened this election season. -- Guerillero &#124;  My Talk  01:01, 23 November 2014 (UTC)
 * So it's a time thing... Carrite (talk) 13:32, 23 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately, real life commitments meant I wasn't able to have sufficient time to answer the questions. In this context, I'm withdrawing from the election. PhilKnight (talk) 08:01, 26 November 2014 (UTC)