User talk:Fæ/2013

So long, and thanks for all the fish
I would like to thank those that welcomed me back after my appeal back in February this year. I apologise for not contacting you earlier.

I have been free to edit this project for the last three and a half months, and I have been emotionally steeling myself to start contributing again. However, I think I should be fair on myself and recognize the reason that I keep on deferring a re-start is how seriously I have been affected by the hounding, off-wiki threats and continued campaign of harassment, defamation and cyberbullying.

An email today from WormTT, has encouraged me to recognize the truth that I am likely to continue to find the English Wikipedia a hostile environment. I have found WormTT a positive presence on Arbcom and I thank him for his balanced comments in the past. Last year, another Arbcom member gave the sensible advice: ''There are people who have an issue with homosexuality. Being an openly gay man, you are going to encounter people who have difficulties dealing with both your homosexuality, and your openness about it. It's sad that people have these problems - same as people have problems with race, religion, gender, class and nationality. But it is their problem, not ours. Those of us who are liberal and tolerant will keep on spreading the message that there is nothing to fear, and that openness and tolerance is the better way forward.

Until I feel I have grown the required "thick skin" to edit this project without fearing the unpleasant off-wiki abuse that contributions of any kind here will generate, I have decided to mark my account as retired. I do not do this lightly, this was where my interest in open knowledge began, and I have thought of myself as a Wikipedian for the past seven years, being an administrator here for two of those, welcoming users, handling large volumes of vandalism, creating and improving processes such as WP:3, and was committed enough to help establish the Wikmedia UK charity to support this good work.

I plan to put my volunteer time into contributing on other open knowledge projects. I have a keen interest in the general Wikimedia movement and Wikimedia projects outside of the English Wikipedia, such as Wikimedia LGBT and Commons where I have made over 2,000,000 edits and uploaded over 90,000 images, in comparison to the 76,000 edits I made on the English Wikipedia. I look forward to working with you in the future, and I hope that my retirement will be a temporary and unnecessary measure, lasting perhaps a couple of months. Thanks --Fæ (talk) 15:36, 25 June 2013 (UTC)

sad
So Wikipedians - if you are reading this and you don't feel sad that we have made someone feel this way then you should be ashamed. Victuallers (talk) 15:54, 25 June 2013 (UTC)