User:Tryptofish/ACE2014

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Go away! Don't read this!
You really should not care what I say here. I'm not a reliable source, and everything that follows is nothing more than original research. The entire voter guide system is flawed. Many of the guide writers have axes to grind. I do hope that you will vote in the election, and that you will think carefully about your vote. But voter guides should not be taken too seriously. And if you are here just for the lulz, you are going to be disappointed by how boring my opinions are.

I don't do "neutral" or "abstain", so I'm going to offer an opinion on every candidate, for better or for worse. I'm not going to qualify my supports or opposes as being "strong" or "weak", but you can get a feel for those nuances if you read my comments. There are nine seats to be filled in this election. I don't try to support exactly nine candidates and oppose the rest (so called "strategic voting"), but I do try to align my level of support approximately with the level of need. (This year, I am supporting more candidates than there are open positions.) Consequently, you will see that I oppose some candidates, not because I think that they would do a bad job, but because I think that other candidates would do better.

I don't have any litmus tests, but I look for candidates whom I trust. I consider how well a candidate's views match up with where I think the community is at, and how I think the particular candidate will fit in as one member of a committee. I also care about being open to improving how the Committee works. Although I posed a question to the candidates about that, I'm not basing my decisions on how they replied, partly because there really are not right or wrong answers, and partly because some of them responded in terms of copyediting rather than import, so, whatever.

New this year: Per the discussion at Requests for comment/Arbitration Committee Elections December 2014, I want to offer candidates the opportunity to rebut anything that I say here. Please feel free to do so at User talk:Tryptofish/ACE2014, and if you do, I will make a notation in the table below so that anyone looking here will be directed to it.

And finally...
Being on ArbCom is a difficult and largely thankless task, but if it is done right, it makes Wikipedia a better place for the rest of us. Thank you to everyone who is a candidate in this election!

This year, six sitting members of the Committee – Beeblebrox, Carcharoth, David Fuchs, Newyorkbrad, Timotheus Canens, and Worm That Turned – have completed their terms and are not seeking reelection. The entire community owes them the very deepest of thanks for their outstanding service.

And, although nobody asked me, there are quite a few Wikipedians who I think would make excellent Arbs in the future, and I wish that they would run. They include: 28bytes, Dennis Brown, Drmies, Fluffernutter, Hobit, JamesBWatson, Kudpung, MastCell, Mr. Stradivarius, NE Ent, Ponyo, Someguy1221, and WereSpielChequers.