Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2019/Candidates/Barkeep49/Statement

Barkeep49

Hi I’m Barkeep49 and I’m running for ArbCom because I believe in Wikipedia. I believe in our mission to provide high-quality information to the world. For free! I believe in our community, the ways people from different cultures come together for a common cause, to work out differences through discussion, and successfully write informative encyclopedic material. I hope to have contributed to the community through my content creation (more than 20 good articles), work with New Page Patrol (where I am the elected coordinator), and measured contributions to the community in discussions.

I also believe in ArbCom. I do not think of it a necessary evil. Considering what it faces, having to solve the problems that a capable community has shown it cannot, ArbCom does a good job, on the whole. Every ArbCom gets some stuff wrong but they do a better job than you’d think if you only read ArbCom’s noticeboard. ArbCom is also better positioned to handle difficult English Wikipedia behavior problems than the Wikimedia Foundation Trust & Safety team.

I hadn’t expected to be running. I am a relatively new administrator. While I remember what it’s like to feel put down or otherwise dismissed because of that status, I also don’t have the range of experience of many who get elected. However, multiple experienced editors whose opinions I value encouraged me to run. Strictly looking at the requirements I meet them: I am over 18, have thousands of mainspace edits, have no bans or blocks, no alternative accounts, and will fully comply with the criteria for access to non-public data, as I already do as an OTRS agent. However, meeting those minimums are not why I’m running.

I am running because I also don’t think you have to be crazy to run and that kind of rhetoric isn’t helpful. Being on arbcom is not fun. The problems are SERIOUS, the rewards few, and the criticism (that which should be listened to, that which should be ignored, and that which should be confronted as toxic) is never-ending. However, the chance to tackle challenging problems on behalf of a community and for an idea I believe in doesn’t strike me as crazy. It strikes me as a chance to be of service. I hope the Wikipedia community will trust and privilege me with the chance to give my service by electing me to ArbCom.

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