User blog:-Algol-/Of policies, admins and the community

I was visiting a talk page of one of the users recently, and during a very interesting discussion I found out that there are people who did not know about some recent events occurring here, but seemed genuinely interested. Also you can call it as sort of a message to this wikia’s community.

As you may or may not know, an addition to the Chat Policy has passed. Gotta love the tag on the top of that page. It says the policy was passed by the community, while in reality it was passed by admins alone. Reminds of Louis XIV of France, who once said “the state is ‘’me’’”. Dear admins. I wouldn’t be exaggerating much, if I told you, that now you have yourselves a dead chat. Congrats. Is that really what you wanted?

You’re alienating people from this wiki. Is that what you wanted too? What’s the whole problem you have with people coming here? We are all part of the same Wikia network. The same large community. Certain users from, say, Dragon Age wiki are users of ME wiki too, even if they aren’t active here as much. Like it or not, they ARE part of this wiki, like it or not, they have rights to vote and also socialize. Socializing is part of what being a community is and that is why the Community Central (and not only) informs us of webinars, surveys, discussions and other social events. You cannot isolate yourselves from the whole web and live in your own little warm and cozy world.

And after passing the policy, which you liked, you banned Ygrain. A good user and a good person. You claim, that this decision was reached with debate, conversation, and it wasn’t reached easily. But words are cheap. You know what? In the end of the day, it simply doesn’t matter. To quote Samara, “Only your actions will be remembered”. You should listen to Samara, she’s very wise. Your actions and your words differ greatly from each other. SpartHawg said that apparently you didn’t “shoot first, ask questions later”, but that’s EXACTLY what you did. You never warned her. You just banned her, period. And that’s why people have trouble with assuming good faith in you, something SpartHawg seems to be soooo unhappy with. That’s because you undermine their good faith yourselves. Now tell me, why a re-vote wasn’t done? Is that so hard to do? Instead, while writing that you want an accurate representation of this community opinion, the three of you quickly passed a policy behind closed doors, disregarding the community. So much for democracy.

The way I see it, you guys were well aware, that this policy most likely would not pass because the majority will vote against. Just like it did last time. But you wanted it to pass sooooo much! So yeah, you found an excuse to make a decision you like and made Ygrain a scapegoat. Way better, then failing twice in a row with the same policy.

Guys, don’t be so control-obsessed. The Illusive Man was, and look how he ended up.

Also, a question. I repeatedly informed you that I did exactly the same thing as Ygrain during the voting. I informed another user of the voting going on, and I even gave you evidence of it. So why am I not banned???

@Commdor While I still think you’re the most reasonable of the whole trio, I am very disappointed. Your precedent does not hold a clear definition of "canvassing votes". Well it should. Especially when we talk about a precedent that sets punitive measures, like blocks. Not to mention, that Ygrain was never canvassing, but informing, as she never tried to endorse voting for or against. Instead, a definition from the first dictionary SpartHawg googled up was used in his “explanations”. It’s not that simple. @SpartHawg Do you have any idea what canvassing actually means? Clearly, you don’t. Because this definition you graciously provided has ‘’’soliciting’’’ as a clear indicative of the process. You know what “soliciting” means? Look it up right right here, in your favorite dictionary. It directly implies persuasion. Ygrain never persuaded anyone. And on a side note, if you like dictionaries so much, here is one for you. I think it perfectly suits you. @Lancer You insult Ygrain, you insult me, and you even lack the decency to answer to people you have insulted. And now you are playing victim? Pathetic.

Dear users. Legionwrex once told me that this wiki was being hated on for years. Now poor newbies can’t even access the chat. Several people have already left the wiki after the recent events, I am considering doing it too. To top it all off, one of your own moderators doesn’t seem to think highly of this wiki and its admins. So think! Think about whether you deserve admins with such attitude? Think about this wiki not having what you’d call a good reputation. I think there are good reasons for all this. -Algol- (talk) 17:27, January 27, 2013 (UTC)