Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2013/Candidates/Floquenbeam/Questions

Candidates are advised to answer each of these questions completely but concisely. Candidates may refuse to answer any questions that they do not wish to, with the understanding, however, that not answering a question may be perceived negatively by the community.

Note that disclosure of your account history, pursuant to the ArbCom selection and appointment policy, must be made in your opening statement, and is not an optional question.

Individual questions
Please ask your individual questions here. While there is no limit on the number of questions that may be asked, please try to keep questions relevant. Try to be as clear and concise as possible, and avoid duplicating questions that have already been asked.

Add your questions below the line using the following markup:

Questions by Sven Manguard



 * This is, IMHO, an unreasonable number of questions for one user to ask all of the candidates to answer. The number of General Questions was limited for a reason. Are there, say, two of them you find particularly important?  Or any that are specifically directed to me?  If you identify those, I'll take a stab at them. If anyone else really wants a particular one or two of these answered, let me know. --Floquenbeam (talk) 21:57, 14 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I must say that I find this comment disheartening. I subscribe heavily to the "If you can't handle the workload from election questions, you won't be able to handle the workload from cases" theory. It will take you what, an hour, to answer all of these? There are three large sets of questions, plus the large set of general questions (most of these are from the 2012 set, by the way), plus a few one-offs. If you're not willing to spend five hours answering questions, why hope to I have that you'll be willing to spend five hours reading evidence pages? So, I guess my answer is 無.  S ven M anguard   Wha?  22:22, 14 November 2013 (UTC)
 * OK, I'll pick the ones I think I would most like the answers to, if I were considering whether to vote for me. --Floquenbeam (talk) 22:56, 14 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Sven, Arbs need to know how to prioritize, how to triage demands on their time, and when to say no. The key to managing the workload is to set reasonable limits and to communicate those limits upfront, which is what Floquenbeam is doing here. So I view his response to you (and to others who have posted voluminous questions) as encouraging. MastCell Talk 23:35, 15 November 2013 (UTC)
 * It's unreasonable to expect voters to be able to read through all these questions as well. Hot Stop talk-contribs 23:38, 15 November 2013 (UTC)

Questions from Rschen7754
I use the answers to these questions to write my election guide. There is a large correlation between the answers to the questions and what the final result is in the guide, but I also consider other factors as well. Also, I may be asking about specific things outside the scope of ArbCom; your answers would be appreciated regardless.

The questions are similar to those I asked in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012; if you've already answered them, feel free to borrow from those, but make sure the question has not been reworded.



Thank you. Rschen7754 02:12, 20 November 2012 (UTC)


 * This is, IMHO, an unreasonable number of questions for one user to ask all of the candidates to answer. The number of General Questions was limited for a reason. Are there, say, two of them you find particularly important?  Or any that are specifically directed to me?  If you identify those, I'll take a stab at them. If anyone else really wants a particular one or two of these answered, let me know. --Floquenbeam (talk) 21:57, 14 November 2013 (UTC)
 * On the contrary, I believe that the ability to answer a massive volume of questions is a good indication of whether the candidate is able to handle the workload of being an arbitrator. --Rschen7754 22:53, 14 November 2013 (UTC)
 * OK, I'll pick the ones I think I would most like the answers to, if I were considering whether to vote for me. --Floquenbeam (talk) 22:56, 14 November 2013 (UTC)

Questions from Collect
I also use these questions in my voter guide, and the latter three were actually general questions asked in 2012, which I asked be used again.



Thank you. Collect (talk) 03:48, 13 November 2013 (UTC)


 * This is, IMHO, an unreasonable number of questions for one user to ask all of the candidates to answer. The number of General Questions was limited for a reason. Are there, say, two of them you find particularly important?  Or any that are specifically directed to me?  If you identify those, I'll take a stab at them. If anyone else really wants a particular one or two of these answered, let me know. --Floquenbeam (talk) 21:57, 14 November 2013 (UTC)


 * You are free to ignore any questions asked by anyone at all. Four of these were from last year and asked as "general questions" of all candidates last year,  and were answered by most candidates last year,  so I really only added three questions.  If this is too onerous, then simply skip them and I shall note that on my ACE page.  I am asking the identical questions of all candidates, and so there is no way they are "aimed" at you.  Cheers. Collect (talk) 22:13, 14 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Well, yeah, I know I can ignore any I want to ignore, I just wondered whether you were interested in some more than others. I'll pick the ones I think I would most like the answers to, if I were considering whether to vote for me. --Floquenbeam (talk) 22:22, 14 November 2013 (UTC)

Questions from Begoon
Ideally, I'd have asked one question, like Mark did, but my unconquerable tendency to long-windedness only let me cut it to 2, sorry. (I felt [a] and [b] would be cheating.) I view both these questions as utterly optional, so please don't feel obliged to answer either of them. .

Thanks. Just one more then, if I may? I promise it will be easy and straightforward - I always save the simple questions till last... (I lie too )

Questions from beyond
''At first, you hear nothing, but you slowly become conscious of a low, sibilant hissing; it seems to be coming from a few feet behind you, no matter how you turn. As the hissing grows louder and ever louder, you realize that you can make out what seem to be the words of a chant, though it sounds like no language you've ever heard or want to hear; you're not sure that human throats can even produce the alien sounds. Suddenly, just before the maddening chant becomes too loud for you to bear, words spring unbidden into your mind and form a question:''
 * [At first you hear nothing, then you become conscious of a faint rasping noise. It is Darwinbish filing her sharp little teeth to a semblance of needlepoints.] Not much hope of that, so I'll help deflect the fishbowl creature. Outer Gods, just wait till I'm on ArbCom and you'll see mo better clout. My sockmaster is sure to let me run any year now.  darwin bish  BITE  ☠  23:11, 15 November 2013 (UTC).
 * So there's hope ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 23:16, 15 November 2013 (UTC)
 * So there's hope ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 23:16, 15 November 2013 (UTC)

Questions by Gerda Arendt
Thank you, precious candidate, for volunteering.

Thank you, passed, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:50, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

Questions from Carrite
Thanks for running. I bring this matter up numerous times a year at RFA, so don't think I'm being nihilistic here — I do think it a very serious matter...




 * That is indeed what I believe. I will be voting "Oppose" and I urge others to do likewise. We can not have Arbs with undisclosed previous accounts, in my opinion. Thanks. Carrite (talk) 22:20, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Question by Wizardman
I am shocked that this question hasn’t been asked above, as I feel it is simple yet says a great deal about any candidate. No wrong answer to this question aside from “I don’t know”.

Question from John Cline

 * I'm sorry my question seems to carry a hidden context. I would hope to have asked if a user had any semblance of a "right to edit" Wikipedia. And I would hope that your giving the correct answer means the question managed somehow to hit its mark, perhaps subconsciously. Thank you for answering me; even answering promptly. And good luck as well.—John Cline (talk) 04:14, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Note that I added the sentence in italics later; I'd intended to add it when answering, and evidently removed it by accident. --Floquenbeam (talk) 04:27, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you Floquenbeam. Your answer is fine, though I'd like to clarify a point in your premise. Considering the ToU requires users to " adhere to applicable community policies ", it does seem impossible to find "lots of things that don't violate the ToU but do violate WP policy." It was this encompassing nature that prompted me to cite "violations of our Terms of Use" instead of policy violations alone.—John Cline (talk) 08:17, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Note that I added the sentence in italics later; I'd intended to add it when answering, and evidently removed it by accident. --Floquenbeam (talk) 04:27, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you Floquenbeam. Your answer is fine, though I'd like to clarify a point in your premise. Considering the ToU requires users to " adhere to applicable community policies ", it does seem impossible to find "lots of things that don't violate the ToU but do violate WP policy." It was this encompassing nature that prompted me to cite "violations of our Terms of Use" instead of policy violations alone.—John Cline (talk) 08:17, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

Question from Piotrus
(Note borrowed from Rschen7754): The questions are similar to those I asked in 2012. If you've already answered them, feel free to borrow from those, but make sure the question has not been reworded.



Thank you, --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 06:33, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

Question from User:HectorMoffet
The number of Active Editors on EnWP has been in decline since 2007.

This decline has been documented extensively:
 * In our own "Editor Trends Study"
 * In popular media ("Nobody wants to edit Wikipedia anymore")
 * In scholarly literature ("How Wikipedia’s reaction to popularity is causing its decline")

This raises several questions:



Additional Question from Carrite

 * Thank you. Carrite (talk) 03:26, 28 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Carrite (talk) 03:26, 28 November 2013 (UTC)