Forum:The Future of this Community

Hello everyone. This community has seen some crazy ups and downs over the last few days. Honestly, as an outsider it is somewhat difficult to even parse all the different threads of the arguments back and forth. It seems that the only thing certain about the leadership of this wikia is that it is in a state of flux.

Inactive members, promotions not following previously established guidelines, lots and lots of arguing, and frequent complaints to staff have made it clear that this community is in crisis, especially in light of what appears to be a concerted effort at a hostile takeover from outside sources. It's hard to evaluate all of these political maneuvers from the outside, but it is apparent that something has to be done.

Please remember that the positions of Admin and Bureaucrat aren't as hierarchical as they might seem. They have a few extra rights, but they are a member of the community just like everyone else. To that end, I have taken the liberty of removing Bureaucrat rights from everyone who previously had them, pending the wiki as a whole stabilizing. Since the issue really seems to be jockying for "control" of the community and not actual malicious editing I have left Admin rights in place. The only real difference between the two is that only Bureaucrats can assign user rights. no one can promote or demote others until the community is in a better place. Any editing, blocking, or other maintenance duties can still be carried out. That still leaves 9 Admins who have all edited recently.

Any discussion about the future of the wiki will have to include a conversation about what the leadership should look like. There have been several forum pages dedicated to that issue, but they quickly derailed into circular arguments going back and forth. Communities do get to decide their own leadership and the standards that govern them, but they need to be free to do so in an open and transparent forum.

Everyone gets a voice, although not every voice carries the same amount of weight. But the flip side of that equation is that communities need to chart their own course outside of concerted efforts to "expropriate" them from the outside. Sockpuppets and/or users from other wikis seeking to manipulate consensus can't skew the conversation.

There is no pressing need for any Bureaucrat activity. If there are issues, please reach out to us at Special:Contact.

How many Admins are really necessary? Bureaucrats? Should there be minimal activity level? Are there actual issues with the current Admins? How should they be selected going forward? You can use this forum as a centralized place to discuss these issues, but please note that no Bureaucrat rights will be granted for the foreseeable future. And insults and harassment have no place in a constructive conversation. --semanticdrifter (help forum | blog) 22:22, September 17, 2013 (UTC)