Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2008/Candidate statements/WJBscribe/Full version: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:18, 19 November 2008

Revision as of 00:38, 19 November 2008

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I confess thatto I havehaving always been rather astounded by the trust the community has shown in me - perhaps this is a good time to thank all of those who have encouraged me to run in this election, your words have truly humbled me - and yet it seems I find myself once again asking if I have your confidence. I have been a bureaucrat for roughly a year and an administrator for just under two. I have also been chairing Wikipedia's [[WP:MC|Mediation Committee]] since January, a role from which I will stepping down in December. I am proud of what I have achieved in those capacities and now I am offering to put some of what I have learned into practice in a new arena by serving on the Arbitration Committee.

There is no denying that the role of an Arbitrator is a hard one. I gave long and serious thought to whether it was one that I was able to fulfil. I have a tremendous amount of respect for those who have taken on this difficult responsibility. To them it must often have felt like they were navigating a minefield without the help of a map. Often users are all to ready to declare that they have lost faith in an Arbitrator or the Committee as a whole when they find themselves disagreeing with a decision. Nevertheless the Committee’s work is important and it is essential that the best candidates are appointed to it. And whilst I do respect those who have served on ArbCom, a lot of mistakes have been made - especially in the past year - and there is often little sign of the Committee learning from those mistakes. I believe that the Wikipedia community would now like to see a real change of direction from the Arbitration Committee. In particular, there are several areas in particular where I believe it is a priority that ArbCom learn from past failures: