User:Tamzin/ACE2023 guide

This is a single-issue guide on the topic of admin accountability, intended for voters who generally agree with my view that we need more accountability for admins and functionaries, and more transparency about that accountability. I have asked every ArbCom candidate this question:"Do you think ArbCom should be more transparent about the outcomes of private inquiries, especially regarding admins and functionaries? This question is motivated by the admin meatpuppetry situation in September, but it's up to you whether to discuss that situation in particular."I have also considered responses to other questions about admin accountability.

I am making this guide because ArbCom, sadly, remains the only body with the power to desysop. Arbitrators' willingness to hold admins accountable, and philosophy for doing so, is one of the most important considerations in fitness to serve. I am not comparing candidates answers to a single "right" answer, but more interested in the philosophy of admin accountability that their answers show. That said, this assessment is not written from a neutral point of view. My analysis is based on my experience with ArbCom, as someone who has interacted with the Commitee extensively since becoming an admin in May 2022, and who has been a party to two cases this year. There are no right answers, but there are (in my view) wrong answers, and I have called them out as such.

Because this is a single-issue guide, I consider a positive finding here a mostly-necessary but not sufficient criterion for supporting. That is to say, if I find someone's commitment to admin accountability insufficient, I will (quite likely) either vote neutral or oppose, but if I find it satisfactory, that does not necessarily mean I will support.

Disclaimers
I have a generally positive or neutral view of every candidate in this election, both as human beings and as editors (and administrators where applicable). I do not have a COI or INVOLVEment with any candidate in the policy sense, although Firefly was my RfA-flightmate-to-be (in the end we ran a few months apart due to my tardiness) and I would describe us as friendly. I talked for a bit with Z1720 at WikiConference North America 2023. I've exchanged emails or Discord messages on a few occasions with ToBeFree, Maxim, Cabayi, and I think Wugapodes, generally more "business" than "pleasure". HJ Mitchell indeffed my alt once, but based on an assumption that it was an account made to harass me, so I suppose that could be read as biasing me either for or against him.

I have strived to not let personal views influence me here. The three "insufficient"s I have cast are all for editors I have positive opinions of, and none was fun to write, but I feel some obligation to make something out of what I've learned in my interactions with ArbCom this year.

Assessments
''These are written to be read both by someone reading this page from the top down, or someone reading across all guides candidate-by-candidate. For that reason, some of the wording in each analysis may be a bit repetitive. Skim as needed.''