Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2018/Candidates/SilkTork/Statement

SilkTork

I have been an admin since 2008, and I served on the Committee during 2012 and 2013. I joined Wikipedia in 2006, not just so I could help build articles, but also so I could be part of this project, which I feel is a remarkable example of collaborative human achievement. I love and respect Wikipedia and the community that has developed to build it and keep it moving in the right direction. I feel that the rules we have generated here for our community are a model for how society as a whole could be run. While ArbCom is a part of our community - it is not above or separate from it, it is set up and run by the community, with the consent of the community - it is a weak part of our community, showing where our guidelines and methods sometimes let us down. As time has gone by, we have needed the Committee less and less, showing that we are growing and developing as a community. This is good. We may one day be able to disband ArbCom, but for now we still need it as a backstop. So these days the main function of the Committee is in deciding when to accept or reject a case. Send a complex case back to the community, and we can end up with prolonged disruption and frustration with perhaps the wrong people leaving the project. Take on an easy case, and we weaken our community's resolve and confidence, allowing the community to rely too much on the backstop rather than finding solutions ourselves - something we are actually very good at doing. Once ArbCom take on a case the Committee needs to work together with the community to find a water-tight solution. While resolving the case quickly is helpful to all concerned, finding a decent solution is more of a priority than speed.

I created User:SiikTook in December 2008 purely to test out the account creation tool. It's never been used. I gave my identity credentials to the Foundation back in 2011, though am happy to do so again if required. And I confirm that I will fully comply with the criteria for access to non-public data.