Quoth the new Matrix movie... "you dont know a man until you've fought him" - I believe I have the distinction of being the first to have fought James... About a dozen 35k talk pages record our debate about a trivial little matter regarding some old Irish potatoes... anyway... Jay did indeed cross a line of civility there with me, and I and others were keen to point it out.. Either way, all the fighting softened both of us quite a bit, and in the end he was able to see my points, and I was able to understand his point of view as well... Civility prevailed. Referees dont even try to stop any fights until some blood/teeth on the floor.
At the heart of the matter, with J, despite honest disagreement - was a mutual interest in making the IPF article a good one, and for this to happen some simple restructuring had to take place... (By the way... how IS the IPF article doing?? :)) This mutual interest in quality... of understanding how different points of view on a subject - is in itself in need of addressing in a quality article. There are those who want to bury facts - remove details etc - James, I thought, was one of them, but in fact - in the end - compromised quite equitably in the inclusion and reordering of the IPF material. In all, he and I in fact had little disagreement - rather each wanted to take different angles to the article - neither of them were entirely encyclopedic to begin with. My POV was overly heated - his was overly sterile...
Anyway - Im a fucking expert. I dont care what little disputes some people have gotten into... the communalist - beat up on the outsider tendencies of all cliques means that the stagnant quo is the law of the land... And this would tend to mean that JT would not become a sysop - given the bubblings of a pissy well-placed individual or two - I know nossink of the conflicts involved - only that Jay is not unreasonable - and has contributed so damn much to the WP - that its ridiculous that this would even be an issue.
-Steven MacGrieves