Universal Code of Conduct/Coordinating Committee/Election/2024 Special Election/Candidates/C.Suthorn
| Account | C.Suthorn (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA) |
|---|---|
| Candidate details |
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| Selected home wiki | Commons |
| Type of seat (regional; community-at-large; or both) (division of regional seats) | Commons at large and CCE |
| Introductory statement / Application summary (maximum 500 words): Tell us who you are, why you are applying, and your relevant experience. | I already stood in the original election and did not reach the quorum. However, I came 14th out of the 37 candidates for 16 seats. I was also among the top 16 in the two voter guides, so I have decided to run again. My motivation is the same as in the original election and anyone who wants to can read my original statement on the candidate page of the original election. In the discussion after the election, the assumption was made that only a few of the candidates were suitable or that the voters wanted a smaller U4C. I do not agree with this assessment. There were a large number of candidates for the SSA region, some of whom had already worked on the preparation and adoption of the UCoC, so they are very suitable. Nevertheless, the SSA seat remained vacant. My assessment is therefore that the voters cast many neutral votes on the assumption that the respective candidates would receive a vote in favour or against from enough other voters. I apply for a community-at-large seat and the CCE seat, as some of the photos and videos I upload to Commons are either from Poland or were made in Germany and Austria but are about Central European topics, for example images from protests against the former polish PIS government and their stance on abortion, or the East Pride Parade. I also contributed a large number of media files from protests against the war in the Ukraine. |
The following section is transcluded. You can add comments and questions on this page: Universal Code of Conduct/Coordinating Committee/Election/2024 Special Election/Questions.
Questions
[edit]- Hi C.Suthorn, you wrote NWE as your region and the languages you stated are matching. Now, you are applying for the regional CEE (central and east europe) seat, as well as a community-at-large seat. A quote from your self introduction is "as some of the photos and videos I upload to Commons are either from Poland or were made in Germany and Austria but are about Central European topics". This is the only association between you and CEE in your candidate's statement. Can you allay an impression of a strategic choice of region to increase your chances of getting elected? Thank you in advance for your reply, --Ghilt (talk) 21:56, 20 July 2024 (UTC)
- WMF has defined 8 "grant regions" and the U4C uses these grant regions as the regions for the regional seats. As there are only 8 regions, only the two regions NWE and CCE are allocated to Europe. Germany and Austria are assigned to Western Europe - not only at WMF, but everywhere. However, this has only been the case since the end of the Second World War and only by chance: In Austria, the four Allies decided that the four occupation zones should become a neutral (and then actually Western) state. In Germany, the three Western Allies turned the Trizone into the (Western) Federal Republic. If things had turned out differently, Germany and Austria - on the border of the Grant Regions NWE and CCE - would probably be part of CCE today. However, culturally Eastern Europe is closer to me than Spain or Portugal, for example. For example, the history of Judaism in Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe is closer to me than that in Spain and the USA. When the invasion of Ukraine happened, one of the first demos in the world was in Berlin in front of the Chancellery and I made the effort to be there and documented the demo for Wikipedia. C.Suthorn (@Life_is@no-pony.farm - p7.ee/p) (talk) 07:10, 23 July 2024 (UTC)
- The U4C charter says „one representative from each region will be elected by regional distribution“ will be elected. Given that you are not from the CEE region (that's why NWE was your region in the last election [1]) I don't think you can run for the CEE seat. I hope the election committee can clarify before voting starts @KTC? --Johannnes89 (talk) 04:59, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- Yes, it is to the EC to decide that. C.Suthorn (@Life_is@no-pony.farm - p7.ee/p) (talk) 06:16, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- This election is organised by the U4C. The EC is opened to the U4C asking for advice and interpretation of election rules etc. (and some technical on results), which they have done on this and other matters. No members of the EC have expressed any issue with any of the candidates' eligibility (not including the 3 candidates that were already declared ineligible for block/lateness). It will be for the voters to decide whether they feel a candidate is suitable to represent a particular region and/or community-at-large. Regards -- KTC (talk) 19:24, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- @KTC: speaking only for myself, I'm glad to hear the whole EC has discussed this. My understanding was that you had just given your personal opinion to us about the topic rather than any kind of actual EC decision making (which we were respecting as befits your position). Barkeep49 (talk) 22:23, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- I really think we should stop creating or maintaining committees that are hand-selected by the WMF and then pretend to speak for the community, who then make far-reaching decisions like this. Braveheart (talk) 05:41, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- Big +1 here. Committees that have this sort of large-reaching power – (dis)allowing people to run for posts – should be accountable, at least partially, to the community itself. I have great respect to all members of the Elections Committee and I understand that they exist in a system that was not necessarily created by them, but it doesn't mean that the community cannot demand some changes. This is yet another WMF-selected committee, picked out by staff, not accountable to anyone, with no community scrutiny. One can only imagine what would happen if a different group of people, with vastly different goals/ideals were selected. This is not okay, on a principle level. Nadzik (talk) 08:40, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
- As EC member I still don't fully understand why we need an EC: In my home wiki, we never needed such a committee. I guess that's how things work on en wp and on meta? I wouldn't mind if the U4C would organize it's own elections. Der-Wir-Ing ("DWI") talk 15:52, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
- I think the bigger point here being that regional representation requires some backing from communities associated with the region, rather than using geographic terms that have immense grey areas to determine if someone is eligible or not. As with many other things related to the WMF, these kind of processes require a bottom-up approach so that the need for this committee and who represents communities of a region is understood by the communities in a region. Otherwise we end up with a random assortment of users with closer ties to the WMF than the region they represent. Braveheart (talk) 21:31, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
- As EC member I still don't fully understand why we need an EC: In my home wiki, we never needed such a committee. I guess that's how things work on en wp and on meta? I wouldn't mind if the U4C would organize it's own elections. Der-Wir-Ing ("DWI") talk 15:52, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
- Big +1 here. Committees that have this sort of large-reaching power – (dis)allowing people to run for posts – should be accountable, at least partially, to the community itself. I have great respect to all members of the Elections Committee and I understand that they exist in a system that was not necessarily created by them, but it doesn't mean that the community cannot demand some changes. This is yet another WMF-selected committee, picked out by staff, not accountable to anyone, with no community scrutiny. One can only imagine what would happen if a different group of people, with vastly different goals/ideals were selected. This is not okay, on a principle level. Nadzik (talk) 08:40, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
- I really think we should stop creating or maintaining committees that are hand-selected by the WMF and then pretend to speak for the community, who then make far-reaching decisions like this. Braveheart (talk) 05:41, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
- @KTC: speaking only for myself, I'm glad to hear the whole EC has discussed this. My understanding was that you had just given your personal opinion to us about the topic rather than any kind of actual EC decision making (which we were respecting as befits your position). Barkeep49 (talk) 22:23, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
- The U4C charter says „one representative from each region will be elected by regional distribution“ will be elected. Given that you are not from the CEE region (that's why NWE was your region in the last election [1]) I don't think you can run for the CEE seat. I hope the election committee can clarify before voting starts @KTC? --Johannnes89 (talk) 04:59, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
- WMF has defined 8 "grant regions" and the U4C uses these grant regions as the regions for the regional seats. As there are only 8 regions, only the two regions NWE and CCE are allocated to Europe. Germany and Austria are assigned to Western Europe - not only at WMF, but everywhere. However, this has only been the case since the end of the Second World War and only by chance: In Austria, the four Allies decided that the four occupation zones should become a neutral (and then actually Western) state. In Germany, the three Western Allies turned the Trizone into the (Western) Federal Republic. If things had turned out differently, Germany and Austria - on the border of the Grant Regions NWE and CCE - would probably be part of CCE today. However, culturally Eastern Europe is closer to me than Spain or Portugal, for example. For example, the history of Judaism in Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe is closer to me than that in Spain and the USA. When the invasion of Ukraine happened, one of the first demos in the world was in Berlin in front of the Chancellery and I made the effort to be there and documented the demo for Wikipedia. C.Suthorn (@Life_is@no-pony.farm - p7.ee/p) (talk) 07:10, 23 July 2024 (UTC)
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