Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2015/Candidates/Drmies/Statement

Drmies

My name is Drmies. I have been an editor since 2007, an admin since 2011. I have many edits, some of them useful. Wikipedia ought to be, primarily, a place for article creation and expansion, and I've tried to do my bit, having created over 1000 articles, with a couple hundred DYKs, and I co-edited 3 FAs and 6 GAs. I have two other mostly dormant accounts which ArbCom is aware of; I doubt that any of you have ever run into them (and they're much nicer than me).

Admins and arbs should enable editors to write. The ideal ArbCom is nearly invisible, and I would like for ArbCom to be considered less frequently as an option in dispute resolution. But this will only happen if editors are willing to work out their problems at a lower level (DR, AN, ANI); ArbCom should be a last resort, not a panacea. You may find me less likely than some others to accept a case.

When a case lands at ArbCom the process frequently seems complicated. I can’t promise to make it simpler, since I barely understand it, but I would like to try. It is cumbersome too: a recently started case could take weeks or months, when a consensus was forming elsewhere already; by the same token, two admins were recently desysopped in a matter of hours. I also hear complaints about ArbCom not being transparent enough, and I think we can do better. Individual Arbs I know are fine people, but the Com part seems to spoil it a bit. I'll try to do something about it, if only by communicating a bit more with the larger community about where we are in a given process.

Frequently I find myself occupying a middle position in an argument, seeing both sides, and I hope that in all my years I have been able to bring some sides together and, as an admin, reach fair and equitable solutions--the many RfCs I closed can testify to that. I do not believe the block tool is our best tool, and in all but the obvious cases we should talk before we block; that some call me an enabler, well, that does not really bother me. Blocking and banning are serious matters. I don't want ArbCom to be regarded as a death panel, and when ArbCom lays down the law, as sometimes it must, I want more consideration for the spirit and less for the letter of the law.

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