Board Thread:Shingeki no Kyojin Wiki/@comment-424719-20150404012154

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I am PrelateZeratul, former Rollback, Council Member, and Administrator user, here on the Shingeki no Kyojin Wiki for longer than a year.

I am addressing the community, but primarily User:Manuel de la Fuente, the current only Bureaucrat of the wiki: please read this as if you were an experienced and longtime member of this wiki, and not a nuisance who has only joined us five months ago with under 300 inconspicuous edits. You have been given an abundance of information proving that I have been manipulated and abused by User:Hfc2x, admitting that the position granted to you was but out of pure spite on my behalf, and even still, refuse to grant me my position that was wrongfully stolen from me in an impulsive lust for power. You have now threatened to have me blocked as to shut me up, and removed Gourgeist’s position as Rollback as to secure that no one with importance on this wiki would have any leverage against you.

I am now putting this forward to the other users of the Shingeki no Kyojin Wiki: this proposal to remove Manuel de la Fuente as Bureaucrat of Shingeki no Kyojin Wiki and have the position replaced by myself, the only currently qualified user for the position and who had rightfully had it previously.

After all, real peace is not just the absence of conflict; it is the presence of justice.

Manuel de la Fuente’s lack of requirements for Bureaucratship
'''You made a grand total of 30 edits before adding your request for Administrator rights on March 15th, 2015. You had only joined in November of the previous year.'''

Furthermore, the tactless and sloppy clearness of your intentions can be seen here, as you only made edits after my first proposal against Hfc2x was made here. You had not been present on the wiki since November, and appeared little under a month after my proposal was presented, at which time my newer proposals were in limbo. Shortly after you requested Administrator rights, which spits upon the very rules of this wiki:


 * The user must have at least 1000 constructive mainspace edits to request admin rights.


 * Strong and consistent history of contributions, though quality is more important than quantity (only had 30 edits, and was absent for months)


 * History of anti-vandalism and corrective work — undoing or reporting vandalism, or both

And that doesn’t even touch upon the requirements needed to become a Bureaucrat:


 * To become a bureaucrat, you must be an administrator, with few exceptions. There are cases where an administrator is doing an amazing job with editing, is trusted by the community, and is stopping vandalism where they will be most likely nominated.


 * Be among the most capable contributors to the wiki
 * Be highly trusted by the community over a long period of time
 * Be thorough and a good judge of character
 * Be fair and balanced in determining consensus in difficult cases
 * Have at least 1300 constructive mainspace edits.

[1]

Your excuse was “I’m an Administrator on the Mentalist Wiki”, but it clearly says mainspace edits, not edits from another wiki. It is a common rule that your performance on other wikis has no leverage on this one. Shortly thereafter, when I posted a proposal against NeoSuperior’s actions, he felt cornered that the community wanted him chucked and out of pure spite, promoted you. If someone had created a new account and requested for Bureaucratship, I wouldn't be surprised if the circumstances would be the same as they are now. NeoSuperior did not abide by the following procedure:

Procedures

 * Users must have made 5 edits to non-social namespaces in a regular fashion for the preceding month to be able to vote or nominate. Social namespaces include comments, walls and the user space.
 * Users must have adminship to be nominated for bureaucratship.

Stage 1: Nominating

 * 1) When this page is opened, users may be nominated by others. Statements must be fewer than 100 words.
 * 2) If the nominee accepts a nomination, community members may ask the nominee any questions they may have. The nominee may choose not to answer.
 * 3) At the end of one week, nominations are closed, questions are closed and voting is opened.

Stage 2: Voting

 * 1) When voting begins, community members may do the following:
 * 2) Place one "support" vote under the nominee of their choice.
 * 3) Place one "oppose" and/or "neutral" vote under as many nominees as the user feels strongly about.
 * 4) Attach reasoning to your position. Every vote must be logical, reasonable, and in line with the stated requirements for adminship. It is the responsibility of the voter to ensure compliance. Unless they are later clarified in an acceptable way, non-complying votes may be discarded without notice.
 * 5) Individual votes may then be critiqued or discussed at any time in a civil and reasonable manner.
 * 6) At the end of two weeks, voting is closed. Voting is also closed if there are no votes for three days.

Stage 3: Resolving

 * The nominee with the most complying votes is considered first.
 * If the nominee has a rate of support of 75% or above, the rights are granted.
 * If the nominee has a rate of support between 65% and 75%, bureaucratic discretion is to be used in determining whether rights are granted. Arguments from the votes provided and the responses of the nominee to questions will be considered.
 * If the nominee has a rate of support of 65% or below, the rights are not granted.
 * If the nominee with the most complying votes is not granted the rights, then the nominee with the next most complying votes is considered. The same process of percentages and bureaucratic discretion detailed above is used until a nominee with a suitably high rate of support is found.
 * This means that if no-one has a rate of support above 65%, the nominee with the highest rate of support is granted the rights.
 * When deciding which nominee has the most complying votes, any draws are resolved by considering the candidate with the most support from current administrators first. If there is a draw in administrator votes, bureaucratic discretion will be used to determine which nominee will be considered first.

So... Both Hfc2x and NeoSuperior failed to follow these rules, as leading Bureaucrats of the wiki, and somehow I'm demoted and blocked for doing something that's not against the rules? Many people took my proposals as some kind of power grab - assuming I looked at such positions on the internet as "power" - and were against what I was doing, not having the full story played out for them. Why would I even want Bureaucratship if I was already an Admin? The only difference between them, as some might not know, is that one has an extra ability of promoting people. No, this isn't a "power grab", as some new and inexperienced wiki users might come to believe. It's about protecting the wiki from people like Hfc2x, who would block someone simply because they disagreed with him, or denied promotions of capable editors because of personal feelings and opinions, or pulled the whole Bureaucrat promotion crap for Neo.

Unfortunately I've been forced to copy + paste the procedure above because of many peoples' ignorance of the rules. Yes, ignorance, as in a previous forum I was accused of a power play because I said Manuel didn't meet the Bureaucrat requirements of 1300 edits, and I have a bit over 1300 edits... Had they looked at the Nominations for Bureaucrat page, they would have known that it is a specific requirement for that position. As Gourgeist noted in his support for me on his Message Wall, I'm very thorough with the rules and probably know them better than anyone on this wiki.

No, most of these steps were not followed. 1 Perhaps he followed the first step, despite it not being the preceding month, but Manuel did make some edits before requesting Adminship. I assume he wanted to follow the steps but quit at the first one because the rest are impossible, especially for such a brief opportunity where Neo might not be a Bureaucrat for long. 2 He was not previously an Administrator, having joined just five months ago and contributing only 30 times before requesting the rights. 3 This step was particularly ignored than the others. It didn't take a week for nominations or voting: it took four days to be promoted! Funny thing is, he wasn't even applying for Bureaucratship, he was applying for Adminship - why was NeoSuperior so eager to finish this so fast without any regard for the procedure? Neo claimed that since there were no objections he's granting the rights to him...despite the fact that it takes a week for just the nominating process alone? Of course the next step was ignored, because it took him only four days to shut it down, when the whole process should have taken two weeks.

I don't put this blame on Manuel, because he had only requested Administrator rights, not Bureaucrat rights. However, that does not excuse him keeping them, nor does it excuse NeoSuperior granting them.

Hfc2x's lack of involvement and abuse of the wiki
I have been on this wiki for over a year now, and months ago, me, Hfc2x and Gourgeist (I will not refer to them by name out of respect) added each other on Skype and talked for a while afterwards. Long story short, I did not like the way Hfc2x was handling the wiki, and his position as Bureaucrat. That includes blocking Gourgeist for personal issues that weren't relate to the wiki |1, refusing to promote me to Administratorship, and even lying on the first proposal about "valuing me as an editor" when in the forum, it is revealed that he did refuse to make me an administrator (Gourgeist explains here |1, whole situation viewable here [1].)

To be specific, he said "I'll never make him an admin ever" - clearly contradicting what he states on the proposal, in which he says his personal feelings don't get in the way of the wiki, and that he had appreciated my ability as an editor... Which is proven untrue and afterwards, he flees the discussion and hands Administrator rights over to NeoSuperior - not only somehow avoiding the fact that he lied, but also failed to follow the rules in promoting NeoSuperior.

NeoSuperior's wrongful promotion and abuse of power
Hfc2x himself violated the rules in the nomination process of Bureaucrat rights to NeoSuperior: there was no two-week vote, he lacked 1300 constructive mainspace edits, and he was absent for the better half of a year previously. Hfc2x waved off my accusations and labelled them as “personal matters”, and dropped his responsibilities onto NeoSuperior and then disappeared. NeoSuperior edited some images and then himself disappeared for a straight week afterwards, at which point I needed to address this incredulous violation of the wiki by regretfully presenting a proposal against him.

After I had set up the proposal to remove him because all of the preceding events were not done in coordinace with our rules, Neo closed down the vote early, taking power away from the community and their decisions after I presented my case. Despite being an illegitimate Bureaucrat and lacking the authority to do so, he demoted me from my Administrator position and blocked me for a duration of three months. Contrary to the rules, I had not received a warning and the block was not of short length... all of this seemingly out of assurance that I would be out of his hair. I had to contact staff in order for me to be unblocked, and even at that point NeoSuperior wasn’t confronting any of the accusations I had against both him and Hfc2x. His actions were also likely heavily influenced (and perhaps orchestrated) by Hfc2x, as all of his actions were paranoid and random, this being supported by the fact that Hfc2x told me himself that he and Neo talked occasionally over Skype. The reason for my block was “posting screenshots”, which in and of itself doesn’t constitute a block at all, but funnily enough isn’t even against Wikia’s rules anyway. All of this and more is swept under the rug and I was made to look like the bad guy.

I was unblocked by SemanticDrifter, a staff member (but not restored to my position because I had not think I needed to ask a staff member for something a Bureaucrat should do themself) and Neo was shortly afterwards warned by him. NeoSuperior crosses yet another line, by locking the vote forum and still his excuse for the whole situation is “it’s a personal matter”, thinking his position of Bureaucrat can excuse shutting people up. Another staff member responded to the forum by saying I was using sockpuppets, to which I reveal that they are in fact my siblings who lurked the wiki because of my connection to it (Gourgeist explains his point of view on this on his Message Wall that I linked to above about how we are related). I am willing even still now to prove that they are my siblings upon request. Even without them, Andress52, Raposu, and Emperor Jarjakine voted for Neo’s removal and at that time Gourgeist was showing regret in posting a forged screenshot which reveals Hfc2x hadn’t intended to promote me to Administratorship long ago, to maintain his friendship with Hfc2x. In the same link above, he admits that he choose friendship over violations on the wiki and I do believe he would have voted for me had he not been blocked at that time.

Manuel de la Fuente's wrongful promotion
At this point Manuel de la Fuente, a user with 30 edits, requests Administratorship. It seems he saw an opportunity where he can become an Administrator because NeoSuperior will obviously give up the position to anyone that asks. Even now, NeoSuperior fails to admit any wrongdoing and leaves the situation as soon as he can. I then ask Manuel, a user with 30 edits who joined only five months ago, to step down as Bureaucrat and restore my position that was wrongfully taken from me.

'''SemanticDrifter, a staff member, told NeoSuperior that I cannot be blocked for posting screenshots, because it is not against the rules. And here we are today, with me still not as an Administrator, and the threat of a block by Manuel currently hanging over my head. Where is the justice in this situation?'''

I discussed the situation with him before he threatened to block me via Skype for about ten days, and as the days pass by it becomes more and more clear that he feels comfortable in his position despite admitting that he is not qualified in any way to hold that position. He drags the situation for far too long, claiming time to be the cause, but even as I provide evidence and he receives it, he always needs more – perhaps hoping I will grow tired of the situation and quit? He then himself grows tired and tediously writes an e-mail that basically says I was in the wrong and he’s keeping the position. I tried to be patient and kind, but as I write this, the state of the wiki has significantly lowered in quality content that it helmed before this whole mess. Even as it stands, even if he were to retain his position, why am I not allowed to retain mine which he admits was taken away wrongfully?

I would like to believe that I could return to the wiki with Manuel de la Fuente still as Bureaucrat despite every cell in my body telling me otherwise, but ever since his installment, there's been nothing but anarchy... from him taking a "leader role" and making all of the decisions, to contemplating changing the rules in favor of his position... which would state that edits and history on the wiki don't matter when nominating. Not to mention all of the backlogging that will need to be done because of Gourgeist's absence, me being busy having to convince Manuel of something that he doesn't even deny, and the fact that Manuel runs a wiki in which he has zero experience with. The wiki as of now is a wreck: Talk Pages have been replaced with Message Walls, there are now competitive "Achievements" which defeats the purpose of "everyone is equal", and the overall feeling that was noted for its uniqueness is gone.

I don't want anyone to be mistaken in how I feel about the users involved in this discussion. I know they're all probably genuinely good people in real life, but their actions have consequences and abusing someone online is no better or worse than in real life. It is the internet, and people aren't as we perceive them to be; there is no tone, we have less restraints, we're all hiding behind figurative masks and most notably, have no fear in our actions. I still have Hfc2x added on Skype, and I'm open to discussion with him any time, and regret the prejudice he initially held against me and the differences we have, but his, Neo's, and Manuel's abuses have all led to this.

Ever since then, Gourgeist and I are talking via Skype and he has shown willingness to come back, as we were a great team before the situation arised: I would update character articles in correlation with their appearance in the newest chapter, he would write blog posts reviewing that chapter and made sure every article was neat and clean and we usually revolved around writing the entire newest chapter summary on its article. If you search in the past for the chapter summaries, it would either be me or him. We were alone on this wiki without help from Hfc2x, without anything to really gain from it other than our mutual love of the series. The most prominent trait for the wiki we wanted was for it to be a 100% canon source for material documenting events in the series, as that is what makes it what it is. Shortly after Manuel was promoted, only about a month into it, we have characters named "Goggles"... for his signature goggles in the series of course, but what kind of name is that? How is that canon and how can we take the wiki seriously if we're calling unnamed characters by what they wear? I can excuse characters like the Smiling Titan because it's a very important character and one could almost say it's a recurring character, having its own introduction and then death scene, but why a background character with little to no lines? Hange is often called Goggles in fandom - is this where we're stretching it from? I know it isn't his fault because he did not create the article, but he made it obvious that the article is staying. He has prominently been editing it as well for the past couple of days, and keeping the article to me as an avid fan is alarming. Bottom line of this section: I do not trust him and the way he edits, because he has only edited here for five months, and until recently only had 30 edits starting from March, when he requested Adminship. This completely goes against the rules, as communities must be familiar and comfortable with the governing Bureaucrat. This is why the rules must be honored, because if they had been, the mess the wiki is in right now would never have of happened. If Manuel stays, Gourgeist quits, and I will likely depart as well because I don't trust the way the wiki will be managed with a user who joined just late last year and has been promoted through scheming means in an attack against myself.

'''I now address Manuel de la Fuente directly: should you block me, close the discussion or abuse your power in any way again, I will report it to staff. I will not have you ignore my accusations, I will not have you ignore our rules, and I will not have you belittle me as NeoSuperior did. The opportunity for you to step down with some dignity is still open, but otherwise, should you abuse your power you will lose. I request that you step down from this position you're not qualified for and promote me once again, as it was before Hfc2x and NeoSuperior's violations.'''

Discussion
Here people will place their comments and their votes with them. I have been urged by staff to invite people to comment with their opinions and will do so.

Voting is limited to users whose accounts are over a week old and have more than 10 edits. The comments and voting will be in the form of a discussion, not a poll. The duration of this voting will last for a week long, and cannot be closed or stopped in any way before then.

UPDATE: In contact with Wikia Staff I have been told "Yep, I've confirmed that they don't mind using a "vote counter". The staff member I have been speaking with has urged the use of a vote counter to make it easier for people to see where others stand. With that being said, voting is still restricted until someone makes a post in the comments, this counts votes, nothing else. This discussion has been moved to here  