[WikiEN-l] Bureaucrats decide!

[Oskar Sigvardsson]

On 4/10/07, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> And never mind the actual question RFA is supposed to answer.

RfA is the way we gauge how the community feels about promoting a
certain person to adminship. That is what it is. It works on
consensus, just like other processes on wikipedia. The community
decides.

If you wish to justify this decision you can use one of two arguments:
either A) consensus to promote was reached this time, or B) RfA
shouldn't work on consensus, but on the opinion of the bureaucrats.

I think it is clear that A wasn't fulfilled. When more 100+ opposes
something (and they aren't just morons, look at that list, there's
plenty of great, great wikipedians there), that's not consensus. If
you think it is, you don't know what consensus means.

And if you agree with B, well then... I don't know what to tell ya.
It's one of wikipedia's core principles, so far it has been the way we
run this big hunk of a website of ours. When there is such a strong
opposition within the community to a decision, then we don't make that
decision. Regardless of your own opinion, you should accept that.

Of course, the bureaucrats aren't beancounters, they are supposed to
look at the arguments, both for and against. Some of the arguments
against are undoubtedly silly (the OFFICE policy, the fact that Cyde
nominated him, ...) but there is a whole lot of them that aren't.
Valid arguments, voiced by some of the most respected members of our
community.

David, try to disregard your own personal feelings in this case, and
look on this as a cold, emotionless calculating machine. Do you think
this decision was fair? Do you really think that the voices of all
those who opposed should be ignored, just because they're (in your
opinion) "morons"? If you use reason, and disregard the "of course
Danny should be an admin" gut feeling (that can be your opinion of
course, but it doesn't allow you to go against consensus), then I
think the decision is clear.

--Oskar

PS. I realize that the mailing list doesn't follow the same rules as
wikipedia, but please refrain from calling people "morons". We don't
just have WP:NPA because it makes editing easier, we have it because
personal attacks are extremely insulting and uncivil. Please refrain
from using them in the future.