Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2013/Candidates/RegentsPark/Statement

RegentsPark
Hi. I’m RegentsPark. I’ve been an active editor since early 2008 and an admin since February 2009. I ran (unsuccessfully) for an open seat on ArbCom last year.

I am a strong believer in the content mission of this project. Our place in the world is measured, largely, by the quality of our content, in particular by how accurate and complete is the information we present to the many millions of users who visit this site each year. It is our responsibility to ensure that everything that ends up in our articles is reasonably complete, well researched, well sourced, and carefully crafted. We do this through a process of collaboration and conflict, both of which are important in ensuring the quality of our articles. Collaboration is one of our central tenets and it is the essential glue that makes this a functioning endeavor, but conflict is important too because, often, it raises the information content in our articles to a point far beyond what traditional encyclopedias can provide. Arbitration comes into play when the level of conflict makes collaboration impossible and it becomes necessary to place restrictions on the actions of certain editors or, because absolutely no one here is irreplaceable, when it becomes necessary to weed out those editors who are no longer able to functionally collaborate.

I am, by nature, a deliberative person with a minimalist bent and believe that one should act decisively, but only when necessary. I am not easily upset and try not to act in haste. When I make a mistake, I'm more than willing to recognize it, to apologize if that is necessary, and to do my best to move things along. On Wikipedia, I work on an almost daily basis with a range of editors, varying from prolific content contributors to obvious pov pushers to pedants with esoteric stylistic obsessions. I respect them all because I recognize the passion that they, as do you and I, bring to the project. Whatever our motivations for being here might be, whatever our differences in world view might be, it is that passion that has helped create this unparalleled collection of human knowledge.

These are the perspectives and qualities that I offer to you when you make your choices amongst the various candidates. I am well over 18 years of age and am willing to disclose my real life identity to WMF if elected. I have no other accounts on Wikipedia.--regentspark (comment) 21:16, 16 November 2013 (UTC)