Wikipedia:Esperanza/February 2006 elections/Aaron
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Greetings. I am Aaron. I've technically been a Wikipedian since December 2002 (how else could I have grabbed "Aaron" as my screen name?), but in practice I've only truly been active since November 2005.
And yet, in the mere three months I've been an active editor, I've seen a rapid and noticeable decline in the amount of civility and sense of community on Wikipedia, much of it due to a steady increase in the number of admins who have decided to "go rogue", so to speak, and make this a much less pleasant place for everyone else. There's not much we at Esperanza can do about the admins themselves (though our own Admin Coaching program will help, over time, by creating new admins that are more conscientious), but we can do plenty to increase the sense of community. Indeed, that is our very raison d'etre.
However, I don't think we're nearly as effective as we could be. All the infrastructure is in place, but much of it is going unused. We're quite good at posting messages of support on user talk pages when somebody says they're stressed, but most of the rest of Esperanza seems underutilized. This is not a good thing, especially as it appears Wikipedia is about to enter a more turbulent era.
So I actually have a platform to fix this. Nothing major here, only a few simple changes, but changes that I think will make Esperanza much more effective and greatly increase the sense of community:
1. I would ask - not require, merely ask - that all Esperanzians add the following pages to their watchlists:
...so that all Esperanzians will be more aware of what's going on with the group and its individual members at any given time, and thus far more likely to participate.
2. I would especially request all Esperanzians to add Wikipedia:Esperanza/Proposals to their watchlists, as this page appears to be particularly in need of more member participation.
3. I would propose a change to the charter, stating that all program proposals made at Wikipedia:Esperanza/Proposals would receive some sort of up-or-down vote, along the lines of how Wikpedia already handles such things as deletion votes, requests for admin privileges, etc. (As someone who's had a proposal of his simply "wither and die on the vine" on the Proposals page, I can say from experience that it's the sort feeling that Esperanza should be doing everything to prevent from ever occurring.)
4. I would urge us to develop a plan to make the #Wikipedia-esperanza IRC channel much more active. Every time I've ever gone there seeking advice or help, it's been empty. We should come up with a way to make it more popular and useful for all Esperanzians.
5. Free cookies for everyone.
In short, I believe in Esperanza, but I want to help take it to the next level. I hope you'll consider giving me your vote. --Aaron 07:30, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
