Perhaps this is an oudated concern, considering these posts were made back in March of this year, but it's still something I feel needs to be addressed.
My concern is regarding this post:
http://www.wikia.com/wiki/User_talk:Kirkburn/Archive_2
Down under Section 16: Sysop Privileges
Now, I, personally, have no issue with having my sysop privileges revoked. However, since my name was blatantly mentioned in this post, I feel the need to come to my own defense. In the few months I was a moderator of the Story section of the ERwiki, I put in a -lot- of work tracking down various stories off the web, contacting various guilds for permission to copy things from their forums. I did my best to keep up with the Weekly Feature, even though I was almost constantly busy at that point trying to keep my personal life in order. This was all explained to Lilithia when I signed on to help; she said she understood and had no issue with it.
NEVER in my time as a moderator did I ever feature a story that did not have merit. And nine times out of ten, they were NOT people I was familiar with. I read every story that I featured, if it was well-written and I got actual enjoyment out of it as a reader, it got featured. I didn't -care- who wrote it or what guild they were in, my focus was on the writing, as a Story Feature should have been. So, I'm not sure out of what left field that accusation is coming out of.
As for me being a "defunct" account, yes, I went underground for a while. Shortly after I took up the Story Moderator mantle, I started getting harassing emails, someone defaced Gospel's page on the wiki, I started getting harassing tells in-game. After a few months of that, yeah, I got fed up. No one from the ERwiki made any attempt to contact me once I went on hiatus. Not once.
In closing, I'm not sure who or what the original post was about, but seeing as how my name was was the only one brought into it, I felt it necessary to explain why I've been away for so long. The ERwiki, however, is more than welcome to revoke my sysop privileges, as was obviously discussed by the looks of the original post.
Gospel Lightfaith 13:14, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
- While I'm generally going to keep my nose out of this one, I do think it should be clarified that I don't believe there was any accusation made against you regarding your selections. The chart that was referenced in that message referred to features during a period after you were no longer active. Your name was mentioned, as far as I can tell, just as a mod who was no longer active and still had privileges due to Wikia staff repeatedly ignoring requests to remove inactive moderators and admins.--Eupheria 18:57, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
- Eupheria is correct. The request for de-sysop of your account was only because of an extended period of inactivity, and for no other reason. As I remember, the post on the talk page was regarding multiple issues about several accounts in a single correspondence. Yes, we did try communications through IM, e-mail, and so forth, but the majority of activity was shifted to the wikis for transparency, so I can see how you wouldn't have heard much. As for the other issues that were mentioned there, those were taken care of a week or so after the post, and our transition to the wiki’s new setup was eased. We changed the appearance of the front page, other layout aspects, and, in time, we will use a new voting system which should allow us to sidestep some old issues and allow for greater community involvement.
- I got word just a few days ago that you had returned to operations on the wiki, Gospel, and we're glad to see you back! --TarrVetus 17:55, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
Yeah, that wasn't about you, G. This:
the featured content on the front page is frequently only that from friends/good acquaintances of the moderators in charge of choosing features
Was referring to me and Tai, I'm thinking. I have no particular problem with the new system but I do deny favoratism. It would imply deliberately ignoring good articles for worse ones by buddies, which I never did (the pages I featured were all awesomely wicked), or plotting with buddies to post their articles, which I also never did.
I didn't favour certain people so much as fail to actively avoid them. I will admit to being lazy, I guess: I tended to feature pages that had been updated recently, with the thoughts that a) it would encourage that author to post more and b) looking through completely random archives for a feature worthy page bored me. (I know, I know, but I'm being honest here.) I may also have been out of the loop, since I never heard or saw any complaints about favoratism from the community. In retrospect, I was clearly not on-board with the post-other-people initiative so my position got reorganized out of existence (which was in my opinion very politic, for the internet).
I still think that chart is meaningless, out of context. If I saw a second pie chart that showed "contributions to the wiki based on group" then I could compare it to the "wiki awards based on group" chart to see if there was a real discrepancy. IMO groups like the tears / tong / whoever get more awards because they post more articles and update more often. Alas, that is my statistics background talking. It is perhaps very true that the perception of fairness is more important than the reality of it. (... see how unconvinced I still am? Gawd. I'm probably wrong, too.)
Either way, I already know I won't change anyone's opinion on the internet. I disagreed with a policy but I'm not in charge, and that's ok with me. Others have put way more effort into this puppy than I have - like you, for instance! (Seriously. I remember you hunting up stories on the ER boards. It was epic.) I'm happy enough to help out. It's a neat site and deserves lovin'. Lots of lovin'.
I'm glad you're back and wiking again. Don't let the spammers get ya down! They're like naked night elves dancing on mailboxes. Best to ignore them.
--Krelle 00:57, 22 August 2008 (UTC)
- I'm going to chime in here. I know I'm a bit late to the party, but it seems I've only just discovered now that I've evidently been the pawn in some broad nepotistic conspiracy plot to "stack the deck" as it were in the matter of Featured Articles here on this Wiki. A few things:
- I'm not here to "redeem" anyone, just to speak my piece and have my thoughts about this known. To be honest, I'm not terribly pleased with being the subject of controversy without my knowing it, and especially when I appear to be the pawn on more than just one field of play, as it seems.
- I'm not here to defend the "legitimacy" of the whopping two articles I wrote and evidently have had Featured as the purported nefarious result of said "conspiracy". In fact I'd rather happily concede my right to all honors such as they are since I honestly didn't write any of those things for "brownie points" with anyone anyway. I certainly didn't write them to ruffle the feathers of any other sensitive egos who happen by as has seemed to occur here. I wrote them for me. If others found them entertaining, then so be it.
- That out of the way, it's my understanding that the accusation seems to be one of garden variety Favoritism, with a general vote of "conflict of interest" on the part of those who reccomended my two articles as Featured. I'm not going to debate that charge. Yes, Krelle and Tai know me. And although the two featured articles are on Sharael and Cualgne- neither of whom are members of the Tong, and to my knowledge Neither Tai nor Krelle really knew those articles to be mine until this debacle occured, plausible deniability still sounds like something of a cop-out here.
- What I will say is this- "Conflict of Interest" is an interesting charge within the context of this particular case as it can be viewed in one of two ways:
- You might say, as it seems to be charged herein, that Krelle and Tai had a conflict of interest when they voted these two articles in as Featured Pages for this Wiki- because, yeah, they may have had reason to favor my writing over that of others.
- Or, you might say the person who raised this concern in the first place had his own conflict of interest when he raised a stink about it- because he himself had once been a member of the Grey Tiger Tong, and left under what some might term, "less than favorable circumstances" and thus may have his own proverbial axe to grind with his former guildmates.
- To me, you can't charge the one without holding the validity of the other, else you're somewhat of a hypocrite yourself for being willfully blind.
- As for me, I'm fairly sure I am not unique on this Wiki to have had two of his articles held up as Featured work, and why this individual has some particular interest in my case- as an individual who just happens to have been in the same guild as me and just happens to seem like he's got a grudge in the first place- seems... well, fishy, to be perfectly honest. In either case, As I said, I don't particularly appreciate being the pawn in some favoritist conspiracy at least as much as I don't appreciate being the pawn in someone else's quest for self-aggrandizement by way of besmirching his peers by any means possible.
- Be that as it may, I've said my piece. I also am quite sincere when I say: if it bothers the complainant that much that I've received a whole two accolades for my efforts, then I ask you to please strip me of them. Because as Krelle has rightly said, the purpose of such honors is to encourage writers, not encourage this sort of insipid, catty jealousy.
- --SkunkWerks 00:28, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
Article composition on the ER Wiki
Weekly feature selections by associations