User talk:Kurtis/ArbCom Elections 2012

On my activity
I should probably point you to the the brief message I've made on Wizardman's Guide's talk page's first section (heh – I had to actively resist adding another possessive there). It may not alleviate your concerns, but it would go a long way explaining my inactivity. The short of it, you are very much correct in guessing a burn-out (though, in honestly, I could only see it in hindsight myself).

The RH&E thing, however, isn't attributable to that. There's much of that context we can never discuss, of course, but some of it has seeped during the leaks and perhaps my reaction there is a little more understandable with it. In a nutshell, the community at that time insisted with very high amounts of bile and venom on a course of action that would have forced us to actively harm someone for reasons that – in most cases – were far from charitable (they where much more eager to villify the committee of malfeasance than any genuine concern for RH&E). I was frustrated beyond my normal bounds by such a display of callousness and I was considerably shorter than I normally am. Combine to that the fact that the very editor we had tried to protect jumped in the fray and lied through his teeth in order to stir shit up knowing full well that we could not expose his dishonesty without disclosing private information... and I'm actually surprised I lasted without breaking down until the mess with the stolen email archives. (In fact, and now that I've written it down, I realize that this incident probably caused the burnout (or, at least, was a major factor in it – there is something that hurt deeply to have stuck one's neck and reputation out to protect someone who then turns around and stabs you in the back. Tales of thorns in lion's paws and of swimming scorpions come to mind).

Can this occur again? I'd be lying if I promised it could not. The job is hard, and we can't even dream what next catastrophe will hit us. Was my break sufficient to recover? I wouldn't have run if I didn't know it was. If I'm elected, you can expect to see from me the same performance you had seen and appreciated before that incident. &mdash; Coren (talk) 03:37, 24 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your response. Admittedly I'm still not 100% clear on what exactly happened with Rodhullandemu (or why he was desysopped and subsequently banned), but it's good to see you clarifying your points here. I'm still not fully confident in whether or not your activity levels will increase over the next year, but I will say this &mdash; I do think that as an arb, you were pretty effective most of the time. If you get re-elected, I'm sure you'll do just fine. =) Kurtis (talk) 03:42, 24 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Perhaps this closing remark by Jimmy can explain a bit better what happened. He also isn't very explicit, but you can read between the lines.  &mdash; Coren (talk) 03:47, 24 November 2012 (UTC)
 * I've read Jimbo's note before. It is very tangential in describing the situation. Rod's still banned from editing Wikipedia for reasons I cannot fathom, and now you're telling me that he has lied to the committee and the community as a whole? I take it the whole case is of a very sensitive nature and it wouldn't be appropriate to discuss these matters on-wiki, but is there anywhere else I could look for a basic synopsis of what happened? Kurtis (talk) 04:19, 24 November 2012 (UTC)