User:Improv

Retired
I have left Wikipedia. I do not see it as acceptable to have advertisements, whether they be for brand identity or for a product, on Wikipedia. It appears that this line has been breached, and those involved, including several on the foundation board and employees, many of whom I respect, see things differently. I understand their position, but cannot accept it as the future of a project that I will continue to contribute my time to. Do not leave notes on my talk page. Email me if you want to keep in touch.

(I am not back, but apparently the mailing list software renumbered those messages some months after I left, and I sometimes get questions about this and prefer to just point them at my userpage, so I'm correcting them below and adding some context...)
 * My resignation message (in the January archives, search for "Pat Gunn")
 * Vibber's message in support of advertisements (in the December archives, search for "This is not an Advertisement" by Brion Vibber)
 * Read the entire thread for context - please don't demonise Brion Vibber, I just have a personal commitment to being noncommercial that precludes me from contributing to Wikipedia anymore.

There were also two other Wikipedia concerns and one private concern I had at the time that made it easier to walk away even if they alone would not lead me to leave, one of which related to User:Eloquence, the second to the reaction to my attempts to remove some types of fancruft (about brands of cookies!) and issues of internal governance relating to that, and the third relating to continuing difficulties in my personal life making it draining for me to keep the standards of behaviour I think people should strive for in intellectual/social discourse.

Licensing
I hereby release all my text contributions to Wikipedia under this and my prior account into the public domain. Alternative-to-given licenses for images I contributed may be available by request (as well as larger versions), but I do not check the talk page of this account, so please contact me through other means.

Timeline

 * 1 Jan 2007 - retired from Wikipedia/WMF projects
 * Sept 2006 - Join OTRS team
 * Sept 2006 - Ran for the Wikimedia Board, did not get the seat (13th of 17 candidates)
 * Aug 2006 - Wikimania 2006
 * Jan 2006 - Ran for a seat on the Arbitration Committee. Came in 13th place with about 70% approval, did not get the seat.
 * May 2005 - Wikipedia Meetup in DC
 * Feb 2005 - Made Administrator on the English Wikipedia
 * Jan 2005 - Elected to Mediation Committee (presently inactive).
 * Dec 2004 - Ran for a seat on the Arbitration Committee. Didn't make it on.
 * Oct 2004 - Made present account as User:Improv
 * Dec 2002 - Made my earlier account on Wikipedia as User:Pgunn (had a few earlier edits, anonymously)

Contact Info
On AIM, I'm dachte000 On ICQ, 97563550 On YIM, pgunn01 My email address is pgunn@dachte.org My webpage is http://www.dachte.org My BLOG is here

Pictures I've taken

 * Abby Wambach
 * Wexner Centre
 * Brecksville Parks
 * Flagstaff Hill
 * I may have taken more, but it's been a long time...