Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2004/Candidate statements: Difference between revisions

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== [[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor, aka Uncle Ed]] ==

I've been arounda longerWikipedian thanfor mostthree years (I'm user #188). I was the developer who did most of the sysop promotion (using direct edits to the MySQL database!) until we automated that. I was the first admin to be elected as a Bureaucrat.

Well, I'm all about improving accuracy and eliminating bias. Even though occasionally I get flamed for '''holding''' POVs that other contributors dislike, I'm generally one to whom people come frequently to '''put out the flames''' when the edit wars get out of hand.

I probably have the lowest ratio of (extreme POVs held) to (edits reverted), because I'm rather good at distinguishing between "common knowledge" and "what I personally believe". So I hardly ever engage in [[edit war]]s. (Okay, except with Dr. Connolley, but it's all in good fun - it never gets mean-spirited. ;-)

I can get any relevant idea into any article, and make it stick -- without sparking an edit war -- simply by taking into consideration WHY the warring parties are so keen on keeping or deleting a certain wording. It's almost always because they feel that's the only way to keep Wikipedia from endorsing a biased POV (see [[Augusto Pinochet]]).

Well, I'm all about improving accuracy and eliminating bias. Even though occasionally I get flamed for '''holding''' POVs that other contributors dislike, I'm generally one to whom people come frequently to '''put out the flames''' when the edit wars get out of hand.

I've brought peace to the Balkans, the history of Chile (see [[Augusto Pinochet]]), and so many other disputed articles that I've lost count.

If elected to the arbcom, I would encourage all contributors to try courtesy and empathy first before making an appeal. Also, maintain a "clean audit trail" yourself, as Jimbo used to say when he WAS the arbcom. I prefer to say, "People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" or "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." We shouldn't be making personal remarks about each other (that's why I wrote [[Wikipedia:Avoid personal remarks]]). Andand if[[Wikipedia:Staying otherscool startwhen teasingthe usediting gets hot]], it'sbecause generallywe bettershould tofocus shrugon itmaking offaccurate (whichand isunbiased whyarticles, Inot wroteon [[Wikipedia:Stayingmaking coolothers whenfeel thecheap editingor getsputting hot]])them in the wrong.

For users who do NOT support our goal of making accurate and [[NPOV]] articles, I favor quick action. If an uncooperative user doesn't respond to polite requests on their talk page, I think an admin would be well-advised to block their account temporarily (i.e., a "temp-ban"). I have found even a 10-minute temp-ban works wonders. It's more about how swift the consequences are, than how stern they are.

For determined trolling or POV pushing, I would prefer to talk the matter over by private e-mail with arbcom members like Cecropia, Mav, sannse, Raul, Theresa and The Cunctator. I'm sure we can think of something effective if we put our (virtual) heads together.