User:Mr. IP

Hi. After nearly 7 years at Wikipedia under various accounts and names, with many thousands of edits, I have found that I prefer to edit under my IP addresses. However, since there are many things which an IP-only user can't do, and since many people will not listen to anything an IP says, I will now be using this account to deal with all such issues, and to agitate for the sake of anonymous users throughout the encyclopedia.

Myself, lately I stick to small-time stuff, such as rescuing AfD-bound articles from Special:Newpages, or identifying and sourcing the setting of films. I like to clean up, rewrite, and source articles, and I take pride in doing it in as few edits as possible. I also look for gaps in the concept-coverage of the encyclopedia, such as the long absence of any kind of article on human footspeed. (You've got sprinting (about the sport), you've got running (ditto, plus some information on jogging and the like), you've got speed (about the concept in physics), but no article on the importance, variability, and basis of human footspeed. That's the sort of conceptual gap I'm talking about.)

I've been blocked for being a pain, which is fair, but I do always edit in good faith, I never edit war, and I have contributed a good amount of content over the years. The general assumption is that an IP-only user is a vandal, criminal, serial killer, or freelance sociopath, but, really, most of us just like to edit Wikipedia.

The Wales claim to the effect that 99.99999999% of all work on Wikipedia is done by .0000000001% of all users (or whatever line he spouts) - who should therefore, by implication, be treated by rights as a special class of unquestionable gods and vaunted scholars - has been shown by deeper research to be nonsense: a small number of users amass huge numbers of edits through caretaker business and busybodyism, but the bulk of actual new content is introduced by anonymous users. This article discusses the subject. IP-only users should be treated with more respect and less mistrust, but of course the trend runs in the opposite direction.

And I'm not gonna lie: that's not my only axe to grind. I think that Wikipedia in general has drifted too far toward oligarchy and misrule, and is now washing up on some strange shore as the world's first self-police state. I intend to do everything I can to turn back that tide.

Shadow ArbCom
I am forming a Shadow Arbitration Committee. It will operate in the manner of a shadow government and consider all cases considered by the actual Arbitration Committee, complete with voting. In situations where the actual Arbitration Committee refuses to act, the shadow ArbCom will "take over" and refer to itself as the Acting Arbitration Committee. Perhaps by an ongoing act of political theater, we can steer the actual ArbCom toward reform.

The Shadow Arbitration Committee is open to all Wikipedians of good standing. It current location is User:Mr. IP/Shadow ArbCom.

Theft, outright
I have stolen the cool "red bubbles" userpage element from —  iride  scent. I will devise something of my own at a later date.

Mr.IP 1.23
App to display your ip address. http://www.verifive.com/MrIP/MrIP.html