Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2021/Candidates/Thryduulf/Statement

Thryduulf

 * I wasn't intending to stand this year, but with (at the time of writing) fewer candidates I would be happy to vote for than there are seats available, I feel the need to step up to the plate to ensure that 2022 has a committee with enough members to be functional. I'm not as familiar with recent cases as I could be, which will increase the time it takes me to answer questions about them, but does mean I will be approaching without preconceived notions.

I have been a Wikipedian for very nearly 17 years, an admin for about 16½ and an Oversighter and Functionary since my previous term on Arbcom in 2015.

Most of my work on Wikipedia is in a supporting role to readers and article writers – mostly gnoming and working with redirects. My philosophy is that readers must always come first, content editors and maintainers (article writers, gnomes, etc) second and those that support the first two groups (template editors, bot operators, dispute resolution specialists, etc.) third. The goal of dispute resolution should always be that the needs of the encyclopaedia comes first, even if that is not the ideal outcome for any individual. The project is bigger than any one person and nobody is unreplaceable, me included. This means that even a hundred featured articles does not give a free pass for bad behaviour, especially if it impacts readers or new editors.

If elected to the committee I will do my best to make sure that things to do not get forgotten and that cases and other ongoing work is progressed with as little delay as possible – things dragging on for months benefits nobody. I aim to be vocal on talk and workshop pages, and commit to ensuring every ongoing request (on which I'm active and not recused) gets at least one arbitrator comment every week while it is open.

I feel everybody involved in dispute resolution should be treated fairly and with respect, but this comes with the greater responsibility to always treat others with fairness and respect. While I will endeavour to always uphold this standard myself I am human and not perfect, so please let me know (politely and with context) if you think I could do better.

Declaration: I have signed the confidentiality agreement. I have several other accounts, all listed at User:Thryduulf, but only user:Awkward42 is used for editing.