Edit: This thread is no longer needed as Shockstorm has returned and is actively looking into hiring an additional admin. I'm leaving this thread for the sake of documentation.
Do I have your attention now? Good.
The Problem
This wiki is currently on a death spiral due to the following factors:
- No active admins. Shockstorm is the admin who was most recently active, and he has vanished for over a year. This directly contributes to the largest problems this wiki has, as there is no one who can act as an arbitrator between parties when content is in question.
- There have been attempts to give fans a way to provide speculation and personal theories in a way which does not present them as fact, but without an admin to rule on disputes they are effectively dead in the water.
- The Wikia adoption process is typically used to resolve the problem of inactive admins. It encourages the promotion of a highly active user to admin status.
- Our most active user is a controversial one who has been banned from several other Wikia communities. In my opinion: AlexSheperd holds strong opinions about the subject matter of this wiki which can frequently diverge from those of others, and rolls back attempts by others to excise his contributions (in part or full). This is frequently accompanied by an assertion that material should not be removed without a discussion, which can be problematic due a track record for both parties being unyielding in these debates. In the absence of a third party with executive authority, the effective end result is that his editing viewpoint prevails. In my opinion this is not fair to the larger community, and in the worst case might be contributing to some of our problems with keeping users active.
- Wikia's administrators cannot arbitrate in these matters as they are not subject material experts, nor can they be appealed upon to reinstate bans previously executed by absent admins. (prior art cannot be cited in these matters)
The Solution
We need an active administrator. Given the controvery of voting in our most active user through the community adoption process, I see two alternative solutions:
- We internally elect a different user of this wiki to be an administrator and reference the outcome of this poll to Wikia's staff in support of the decision. I see this as being somewhat problematic due the overall inactivity of the wiki, and it being difficult to establish someone other than AlexSheperd as an active contributor. Such a vote would probably boil down to who makes the best case for their candidacy, but any past history of contributions to this wiki should be considered to strongly weigh in that candidate's favor.
- A reputable third party from another Wikia community volunteers their services as an interim moderator. This is the best solution if a clear majority on who to elect cannot be reached.
Format of this thread
This is not an election thread. We need candidates before we can have one of those. My intent is to create another thread two weeks from now for the vote proper, allowing others a chance to select candidates that have been identified in this thread.
Do:
- Nominate yourself or someone else as an admin candidate for this wiki.
- Provide any qualifications that you feel you are relevent towards this individual's candidacy. Experience operating other wikis is a plus, as are links to those wikis so that others can make a more educated decision.
Do not:
- Reply directly to other posts in this thread. This wiki has a pretty clearly demonstratable track record for getting into edit wars over unyielding viewpoints. We really don't need this to be another one of these since the goal is to elect an administrator who will manage those problems in the future. I can't stop you from doing so, but I'm going to put it out there that this thread is what Wikia admins are going to see when using the outcome of these discussions to discern the community intent.
- Campaign against others. This goes hand in hand with the last rule. If you truly feel strongly against a particular candidate, you're welcome to create a thread of your own. Try to keep it to one thread per candidate for everyone's sanity.
- Decide that it's okay to break the last two rules if someone else already has. You stand a much better chance of getting a desireable outcome if this thread is kept in a clean format and easy to follow.
Full Disclosure
Please do not assume that I am an unbiased party in these matters. I'm not, as I have openly participated in a previous vote to ban AlexSheperd from the wiki, and have less openly petitioned Wikia for a reinstatement of his ban last year. I ask that you look at the revision history of this wiki and make your own decisions on its future. My intent is to drive this matter to a resolution. Whatever it is, I don't care, I just know that we need one.