Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections January 2006/Candidate statements/Morven: Difference between revisions

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How about the proposed [[Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Code of Conduct]]?

--<font colorspan style="color: darkred;"><font facespan style="font-family: georgia;">[[User:Herschelkrustofsky|<span style="color: darkred;">HK</span>]]</fontspan></fontspan> 00:23, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

==Questions to many candidates by [[User:PurplePlatypus|PurplePlatypus]]==

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#What's your opinion on desysopping as an ArbCom penalty?

::There's a reason we don't hand out admin abilities with a new account: some of them can cause damage and need someone who can be trusted. If someone has shown that they cannot be trusted with those abilities, then they should not have them. 'Cannot be trusted' means more than having made a mistake or two; it means using them with bad faith, or repeated inability to understand when they should be used.

#How closely do you think admins should have to follow policy when using their special powers?

::Policy is a guide to doing the right thing. While there are some instances of 'the right thing' that are not laid down in policy, and instances where in fact following policy could be seen as doing the wrong thing for the circumstances, admins should depart from the spirit of established policy when using admin abilities only with trepidation. Minor technical violations of the wording, but not the spirit, of policy are less critical, I feel.

::If an admin decides that the good of the project over-rides policy, then they should tread carefully. If the situation is not an emergency, attempting to change policy is the better tactic. If there is not time to change policy, preferably the admin should ask for advice from others before taking action.

::If an admin does deliberatly not follow policy, they should explain their actions fully and publicly. If other admins disagree and change things back, things should be dealt with by either changing policy or through the dispute resolution process, rather than warring over the action.

&mdash;[[User:Simetrical|Simetrical]] ([[User talk:Simetrical|talk]]&nbsp;•&nbsp;[[Special:Contributions/Simetrical|contribs]]) 02:44, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

::Thanks, —[[User:Morven|Matthew Brown]] ([[User talk:Morven|T]]:[[Special:Contributions/Morven|C]]) 04:35, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

==Concerns over personal attack templates==

[[User:Improv]], who is also a candidate for the arbitration committee, has placed the following statement on [[Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)]]:

: ''I am concerned about [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Templates_for_deletion&curid=895730&diff=34790720&oldid=34790144#Template:User_against_scientology|recent templates] surviving AfD that appear to contrast with [[WP:NPA|established policy]]. In particular, I feel that these templates are [[Poisoning the well]] when it comes for how we treat our fellow wikipedians. There are circumstances where knowing too much about one's neighbours politicises how one deals with them. This is, to an extent, unavoidable in society, but wearing signs of hate as badges on our shoulders takes what is a small problem that we can usually deal with into the realm of being damaging to the community. Already, there have been signs of people refusing to help each other because they are on different ends of a political spectrum -- this seems likely to get worse if this trend continues. Some people cry that this is an attack on their first amendment rights (if they're American, anyhow), but that doesn't apply here because Wikipedia is not the U.S. government -- it is a community that has always self-regulated, and more importantly it is an encyclopedia with a goal of producing encyclopedic content. We have a tradition of respecting a certain amount of autonomy on userpages, but never absolute autonomy. We might imagine, for example, templates with little swastikas saying "this user hates jews". I am not saying that such a thing would be morally equivalent to this template against scientology, but rather that we should aim to minimise that aspect of ourselves, at least on Wikipedia, so we can make a better encyclopedia. The spirit of [[WP:NPOV|NPOV]] does not mean that we cannot have strong views and still be wikipedians, but rather that we should not wear signs of our views like badges, strive not to have our views be immediately obvious in what we edit and how we argue, and fully express ourselves in other places (Myspace? Personal webpage?) where it is more appropriate and less divisive.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3AVillage_pump_%28policy%29&diff=34797833&oldid=34788153]

I am inviting all candidates, including Improv, to expand on this theme on their questions pages. Do you agree that this is a cause for concern as we move into 2006? How do you see the role of the arbitration committee in interpreting the interpretation of Wikipedia policy in the light of this concern? --[[User:Tony Sidaway|Tony Sidaway]]|[[User talk:Tony Sidaway|Talk]] 20:51, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

:It's a concern, that's for sure. As a project with a goal, rather than a social space, everything must be interpreted in terms of the good of the project. This includes keeping contributors happy, of course (although not above all else). Most userboxes are mostly harmless, and while creating them and using them does not directly contribute to the encyclopedia, fostering a sense of community is a worthy task in itself and an eventual gain for the project.

:Users should never use explicit personal attacks on Wikipedia; [[WP:NPA]] is clear. Furthermore, [[WP:CIVIL]] asks us to treat others and their beliefs with respect, even if we disagree. Userboxes that attack others or their beliefs, or are divisive are contrary to WP:CIVIL and the core principles of this project.

:I would urge all Wikipedians to avoid bumper-sticker statements of divisiveness on their userpages.

:The role of the Arbitration Committee is not to create policy. If selected, I would uphold our existing policies of user conduct as appropriate, in a spirit of encouragement towards productive editing rather than factionalisation and strife. —[[User:Morven|Matthew Brown]] ([[User talk:Morven|T]]:[[Special:Contributions/Morven|C]]) 10:29, 13 January 2006 (UTC)