Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2017/Candidates/Opabinia regalis/Statement

Opabinia regalis[edit]

I'm still hoping my attempts to bribe other people into running will work, but in the meantime I thought I'd put my money where my mouth is. (Or my mouth where my money is, in this case.) I was elected to a two-year term in WP:ACE2015 (statement, questions) and am throwing my hat in the ring for re-election.

Two years in, I've changed my mind about some things, but my basic qualifications remain the same, and still consist almost entirely of being a level-headed, deliberative, analytical person. Luckily I've learned during my term that being good at changing your mind is an essential skill for an arbitrator. Two-year terms are long enough to eat some of your own dog food, and hey, sometimes it doesn't taste good :) Astute observers will note that my edit count has gone down lately - I changed jobs this past summer and real work has been eating into my hobby time - which was one of my biggest hesitations in deciding to run again, but I do think that I've been reasonably effective in the job even with less time on hand, and I anticipate a less demanding schedule after the new year. I think the argument I made in my 2015 statement, that as a scientist I'd bring a thoughtful attitude about evaluating evidence, has worked out well on the whole. I'm still on the lenient side in terms of sanctions and still capable of talking to people like a human despite my lack of a spine, though I think I've slowly moved toward a firmer approach with repeated disruption.

When I ran last time, I emphasized my unusual background as a source of new perspective - I registered in 2006, had a successful RfA six months later, faded out of the project about six months after that, returned in 2015 after such a long absence that I needed a new RfA, and then ran for arbcom the same year. Now I'm just part of the project's furniture and will have to hope some new young guns get elected to serve that outsider role :) I think the committee benefits from a good mix of experienced arbs and fresh faces, and I've found it enormously helpful to serve along with some longer-memoried arbs, so I hope I can still be useful on the other side of this particular fence.

Mandatory stuff: Obviously I meet the requirements and have already signed the NDA. Alternate accounts are User:Opabinia externa (used on my phone and while traveling), User:Opabinia robotus (old account intended for a bot that I never got around to developing), and User:🐱 (new since last cycle, created to test emoji usernames after someone asked if it worked). Opabinia regalis (talk) 18:55, 18 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Arbitration Committee Election 2017 candidate: Opabinia regalis