[WikiEN-l] I will be leaving the project

Tue Jun 21 13:30:12 UTC 2005

On 6/20/05, Phil Sandifer <sandifer at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> I hope Silsor intends to spend a LOT more time than he has browsing
> recent changes and dealing with the abject stupidity that Rick was
> our first line of defense against. Because otherwise, that block just
> hurt the project a lot.

Now hold on -- this is NOT Silsor's fault that RickK is leaving. The
only person behind RickK's actions is RickK. He was not forced out. He
was not persecuted. If he believed the 3RR was applied incorrectly,
there are reasonable channels through which that communication could
go through. If he had written to the list, "Silsor has blocked me, but
I was reverting copyrighted info, can someone please unblock me?" he'd
probably have been unblocked within the hour.

I don't know why RickK wants to leave. But that's his choice. If he
wants to give some silly reason -- a single other admin *maybe* made a
bad call -- that's his choice as well. But that doesn't mean it's a
legitimate reason, and it doesn't mean that we should heap trouble
onto the person who allegedly made the bad call.

Worst consequence of a 3RR violation? Blocked for a day. Get some
sunshine. Stretch your bones. Call your parents. Cool off.

RickK was a good editor. His tireless work in keeping out nonsense
will be missed. It's too bad he decided that something this petty was
the last straw. But you know what? I bet if this hadn't happen,
there'd have been another last straw. People don't throw a fit and
leave over some little thing when they're content as a whole. I have a
feeling he was on the way out one way or another anyway -- this is
just a convenient excuse.

And in that case, I wish him luck on whatever else he chooses to spend
his time on. Fortunately this is a collective project. RickK did a lot
of good work, but so do a lot of other people.

Let's not get confused over who made this choice, though. RickK's
choice was his own. He had plenty of other options that he knew about
-- at best he was the victim of a bad call, at worst he violated a
simple and well-known rule. He chose to leave -- an extreme choice,
but that's his choice to make. He's welcome to come back if he changes
his mind.

FF