My name is Covington and I have been a proud Wikipedian for over a month. As a four-year online community administrator and a new Wikipedian, I am in a unique position to speak for the newbie position as well as to bring in previous experience.
As a Community Justice member, I have maintained a consistent pattern of involvement ever since I signed up this month. I was active in our meeting, as well as on our talk page. In addition to Community Justice, I maintain the Article Improvement Drive and send out messages for Esperanza’s User Page Award contest. Off Wikipedia, I have been an online community creator and administrator (as I said above). I am also the president of a 200+ member club, and I mediated an extremely heated discussion regarding one of my university’s harassment policies which resulted in consensus.
While I cannot promise anything, as Community Justice should be run by the consensus of many members, not the whims of one person, I do have ideas to bring to the table.
1) Reward Good Faith. Too often, the vandal get the attention, and the exceptional Wikipedian goes unacknowledged. Community Justice is developing barnstars are in the works at this moment; I’d like to see the Community Justice barnstar program in full force, after putting up to a “vote” for the entire membership. I will reward those who are doing good.
2) Guidance for New Wikipedians As my experience as a new user is still close to my heart, I understand that it's confusing to be a new Wikipedians. Often new users get uncivil when they misread one of the rules and three experienced Wikipedians pounce on them. I worked to give the templates a more positive wording, and I will continue to ensure that all parts of Community Justice. I will treat new Wikipedians with respect and point them in the right direction.
3) Communication As with any organization, communication is important. There should be communication between the membership and the governance team. I will keep you all up to date on the involvements of the governance team via postings and newsletters so that every member will have the appropriate knowledge to better participate in and discuss Community Justice. I will not leave you in the dark.
4) Positive EncouragementI will stress the do’s instead of the don’ts.
5) Consensus I am a consensus builder and a “talk” person; I prefer to discuss changes before placing it on the main page. I will ask you for your opinion before making major changes.
Civility is the backbone of Wikipedia. Without it, Wikipedia would become a chaotic battleground and therefore cease to be an encyclopedia. As Wikipedians, it is our duty to ensure civlity on Wikipedia. No, I am not advocating vigilantism; only some of us (the admins) can discipline other Wikipedians, and it should be that way. Rather, each one of us has some power on Wikipedia because we can choose how we respond to other people
Let's use this power to make Wikipedia a better place.
Thank you for reading my statement. I have the skills, experience, and good will to serve the membership well.
