Universal Code of Conduct/Coordinating Committee/Election/2024/Candidates/1233

1233 (Questions)

Account 1233 (talk meta edits global user summary CA)
Candidate details
  • Languages: yue, en-5, zh-4
  • Region: ESEAP
  • Active wikis: zh, offline (outreach), meta
  • Wikimedian since: 2015
Selected home wiki Chinese Wikipedia
Type of seat (regional; community-at-large; or both) (division of regional seats) Regional Seat (ESEAP)
Candidate Introduction
Introductory statement / Application summary (maximum 200 words): Why are you running for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee? What would you contribute? Hi everyone, this is 1233. I was mostly active in the Chinese Wikipedia between 2018 and 2022 (still partially active now), where I have been volunteering for offline and regional matters since then. The main reason that made me consider a bid for the UCoC Coordinating Committee is mostly due to my experience on and off wiki since 2018.
Please describe your Wikimedia experience (such as contributions to the Wikimedia projects, memberships in Wikimedia organizations or affiliates, experience working on conduct issues in your community, activities as a Wikimedia movement organizer, or participation in building Wikimedia policies). I joined as editor in 2015 to revert vandalism that stemmed from events that were current back then. I became much more active after 2017 as I tried raising various internal governance issues within the Chinese Wikipedia, particularly related to admin's wheelwaring on blocks and unblocks for a now WMF-banned user.

Since 2021, I had been focusing on improving the internal governance structure within the Chinese Wikipedia, where the majority of such improvements have already been rolled out in 2022.

I am also a VRT member for the Chinese queue.

Professional Experience, Skills and Education
Please briefly describe 3 situations that show how you worked on, or advised others on, a complex conduct or policy issue. How did you work with others to address the situations? I helped the Wikimedia Foundation (voluntarily) to regain control of wikimedia.hk, a domain name that was used by a defunct chapter. Working with the foundation's legal team, I helped them understand the background of the situation.

I helped administer a local campaign to collect portraits of local political leaders and import them into Wikimedia Commons. I worked with those leaders (or their assistants) directly to help resolve various issues related to the work, and, at the same time, answer questions related to their Wikipedia page (unofficially).

Leadership Experience
Can you describe a policy, on wiki or off, that you helped to create or change? What did you learn from this experience? On my home wiki, I have helped lead the discussion for the current iteration of selecting administrative personnels. I have also led the (voluntary) explanation of the Office Actions for Chinese Wikipedia that happened in September 2021. That is also one of the reasons that made me interested in this role to run for the U4C.
How have you been able to empower people to make their voices heard? I do think that listening to others is very important. Without goals, no one can be guided well. If they already have their opinion on some matters, then I would find and suggest appropriate places (on-wiki: village pump/off-wiki: some other venues) to really discuss their concerns in an objective manner.
Sometimes in professional situations, there are personality conflicts. Explain how you remain productive even with personality conflicts. Working through conflicts has been a hard thing for me (and most people), especially when the conflict itself is very personal. However, achieving the goals remain the utmost top priority for me. I will try to create some common ground (i.e. a common goal of getting the job done), and let most discrepancies/deviances remain. Unless I have the final say, I may opt to pull back and refrain from starting quarrels until the end of such work, unless something very bad is looming forwards, then I will point it out both critically and objectively at the same time.
Strategic Thinking
In your opinion, how can the U4C be a positive influence in the Wikimedia movement? Back to step one of the question, a UCoC, in my opinion, should never happen (because TOC have already governed behavior in Wikimedia-related spaces as early as 2012). It is because of very egregious events that led to the UCoC being imposed/introduced in a way that some editors are still, until now, very critical of. However, even with a UCoC, there is no body to handle systematic failures, and that is where I consider U4C to be. In my own opinion, I would hope all these mechanisms not exist, not because of making the movement a place for harassment, but because such issues should, in my own opinion, should not exist in the first place. My vision for the U4C would be more similar to how royals work - they have power and authority but should only exercise the authority with great caution and act as the third line of defence.
How would you help the Universal Code of Conduct develop and improve over time? Rules change but principles shouldn't. I would like to see how each application of the UCoC help refines the UCoC itself, particularly on issues relate to how others perceive Wikimedia-related spaces to be as open and inclusive as they can.

Personal opinion of the UCoC: Much as with any document, most parts of the document should be alive and changed/amended whenever appropriately. This is especially for the current times of LLMs and Generative AIs. However, the principles of the UCoC should remain consistent over time. Furthermore, I believe every perceived weird rule must mean something much weirder happened.