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_ Bureaucracy _ Steward elections

Posted by: thekohser

Did anybody notice that in the recent Wikimedia election for Stewards, http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/Elections_2012/Guidelines did not expressly exclude users whose accounts were blocked?

One such user just contacted me. Even though he was entitled to vote, nobody on Meta would open up his account even for a minute for him to cast his ballot. He's thinking of taking it to the next level -- a letter to the WMF legal eagle, Geoff Brigham.

Never a dull day in crowdsourced politics, eh?

Posted by: thekohser

I suppose I shouldn't be so cryptic. The user on Meta is "Egg Centric", and apparently he was blocked for asking the Steward candidates http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stewards/Elections_2012/Questions&oldid=3396808#Questions_from_en:User:Egg_Centric:

QUOTE
1. Do you have a job? What is it... actually, tell me your entire occupational history - or at least as much of it as you care to share.

2. Please tell me about your favourite hobby - if that's Wikipedia, please tell me about your second favourite hobby.

3. There are a million and one reasons you may decline to answer this, but if you do then kudos whatever your answer - do you have any history of mental illness?

4. I'm interested how much you would show discretion; is there anything at all you could imagine never doing under any circumstances under a steward job? For example, if Willy on Wheels turned out to have been doing page move vandalism because an eccentric billionaire had told him for every page move he would save an orphan... and now said billionaire had changed his mind and would now save 50 orphans a day for every day that Willy on Wheels was unblocked, I'm sure any sane steward would unblock him. An utterly ridiculous example, but I provide it to show that even very strange actions could be done for the good of the project. Is there anything you rule out? Egg Centric 20:46, 8 February 2012 (UTC)


Seems quite unfair to block a user just for asking questions -- after all, couldn't the candidates decline to answer any or all of them that made them uncomfortable? I know if I were running (again) for Steward buttons, I would have been willing to answer at least two of those questions publicly, even to a pseudonymous interrogator.


Posted by: mbz1

QUOTE(thekohser @ Thu 1st March 2012, 4:45pm) *

I suppose I shouldn't be so cryptic. The user on Meta is "Egg Centric", and apparently he was blocked for asking the Steward candidates http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stewards/Elections_2012/Questions&oldid=3396808#Questions_from_en:User:Egg_Centric:
QUOTE
1. Do you have a job? What is it... actually, tell me your entire occupational history - or at least as much of it as you care to share.

2. Please tell me about your favourite hobby - if that's Wikipedia, please tell me about your second favourite hobby.

3. There are a million and one reasons you may decline to answer this, but if you do then kudos whatever your answer - do you have any history of mental illness?

4. I'm interested how much you would show discretion; is there anything at all you could imagine never doing under any circumstances under a steward job? For example, if Willy on Wheels turned out to have been doing page move vandalism because an eccentric billionaire had told him for every page move he would save an orphan... and now said billionaire had changed his mind and would now save 50 orphans a day for every day that Willy on Wheels was unblocked, I'm sure any sane steward would unblock him. An utterly ridiculous example, but I provide it to show that even very strange actions could be done for the good of the project. Is there anything you rule out? Egg Centric 20:46, 8 February 2012 (UTC)


Seems quite unfair to block a user just for asking questions -- after all, couldn't the candidates decline to answer any or all of them that made them uncomfortable? I know if I were running (again) for Steward buttons, I would have been willing to answer at least two of those questions publicly, even to a pseudonymous interrogator.


Well, it reminded me a Russian joke that you might or might not understand because to understand Russian jokes one should have lived there.
So here's a joke:

There's a meeting of members of an union (In Soviet Union everybody was a member of an union, and were required to attend meetings ) Rabinovich gets up and asks: "Could you please tell me where meat has disappeared from the stores?" The question gets ignored. In a week there's another meeting. Kogan gets up and asks: "I am not asking where meat has disappeared from the stores, but could you please tell me where Rabinovich has dissipated?

And you're asking, if somebody could get blocked for asking questions. smile.gif

Posted by: Fusion

QUOTE(mbz1 @ Thu 1st March 2012, 5:39pm) *

There's a meeting of members of an union (In Soviet Union everybody was a member of an union, and were required to attend meetings ) Rabinovich gets up and asks: "Could you please tell me where meat has disappeared from the stores?" The question gets ignored. In a week there's another meeting. Kogan gets up and asks: "I am not asking where meat has disappeared from the stores, but could you please tell me where Rabinovich has dissipated?

And you're asking, if somebody could get blocked for asking questions. smile.gif

Yes, that is a black comedy joke OK.

Posted by: mbz1

QUOTE(Fusion @ Thu 1st March 2012, 9:19pm) *

QUOTE(mbz1 @ Thu 1st March 2012, 5:39pm) *

There's a meeting of members of an union (In Soviet Union everybody was a member of an union, and were required to attend meetings ) Rabinovich gets up and asks: "Could you please tell me where meat has disappeared from the stores?" The question gets ignored. In a week there's another meeting. Kogan gets up and asks: "I am not asking where meat has disappeared from the stores, but could you please tell me where Rabinovich has dissipated?

And you're asking, if somebody could get blocked for asking questions. smile.gif

Yes, that is a black comedy joke OK.

So you did understand it. Great! There were many jokes like this one in Soviet Union.
Here's one more:
Rabinovich submitted paper work for emigration to Israel.
A Soviet emigration official asked him: "Why do you want to leave?"
"Well, there is nothing in the stores, you provide us nothing to feed the kids."
The official became angry and said: "Do you know what we would have done to you for such words in 1937?" Rabinovich smiled sadly, and responded: "Well, it only proves that you do not have even bullets anymore..."
BTW for telling such jokes one could have been sent to Gulag, or even worse to mental institution, and this is not a joke.