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This page contains candidate presentations for the 2019 Weird Gloop board elections.

Voting will begin on December 22nd through the SecurePoll extension, and ends on January 5th. Please ask the candidates additional questions in the sections below. If you have questions you wish to ask all candidates, please put them in all relevant sections.

RuneScape Wiki

There are 4 candidates for 3 positions.

Dalek Sec

Dalek Sec ^{Talk • Contribs • Meta contribs}

Statement	My name is Nicolas, also known as Dalek (Sec). I've been playing RS for 12 years and I pride myself on having done all quests thrice. Because of this I have an extensive knowledge about many things related to RS (skilling, questing and lore alike). I, like many other players, relied greatly on guides to help me with my runescaping, until one day I decided I wanted to give back to those that helped me. That is why I became a wiki editor. Doing so has also given me a new sense of purpose, and that is why I am now running for board member. I want to give back by helping the community that has given me so much.
Wiki work	All my real editing started after the fork. I started out mostly focussing on small edits (such as grammar) and transcripts as a way of learning the ropes. Since then I have tested the waters of DPL with calculators and templates, did some module-editing in LUA, and helped out wherever I could. My proudest accomplishment was kickstarting the OSWF Quest Transcripts project, which led to the RS Wiki having a transcript of all but 3 quests. This eventually led to me becoming a behind-the-scenes OSWF helper with matching Custodian role, which has given me many opportunities to learn more about the more managerial/organisational side of the wiki. I also have an AWB (“Dalek AWB”) that helps me with repetitive edits, and I try to guide less-experienced editors however possible.
Other work	I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in IT (Web & Mobile Development), so it doesn’t take me too long to learn new technical aspects related to the wiki. Despite not being a native speaker, being a writer in my spare time (and all the research that comes with it) has given me a firm grasp of the English language. Furthermore, I’m also in the official RuneScape Discord server where I interact with the community on a daily basis. People there know me as a wiki-editor, which means they know they can come to me with wiki-related issues (such as incorrect/missing info on pages). Last but not least I’m also in the Clue Chasers Discord server, which allows me to keep an eye on issues & new information provided by the community that spends its days doing clues.

Questions from the community

Question - A lot of responses you provided to the prompts relate specifically to RuneScape or the wiki, but being a board member requires a different set of skills. What specific skills or qualities do you possess that you think will be beneficial to this role, other than a deep love of the game and the wiki? Christine 03:28, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

Some of the main skills I can bring into this would be: my attention to detail, my ability to think many moves ahead, and my passion. In the discussion, Cook explains some of the most important attributes (in his eyes) for the board. I will briefly touch on each of those 4:

Advocate for the community: This is a community I'm very passionate about. If I were to think that management is making a decision which I suspect could be detrimental to the community, I would definitely speak up about it.
Help make good decisions about money: Having no background in economics or finance, I am unable to offer any skills to this part. However, if the need were to arise, I would do my best to try and understand Weird Gloop's financial side up to the point where I could contribute to at least basic discussions about the subject.
Set the long-term vision: One of the benefits of my ASD is my ability to think ahead & creatively in various situations. The example questions asked in the discussion are the kind of questions I love to think about; in one part because there are many details to account for, and in another part because it invites a certain creativity to come up with out-of-the-box solutions when things threaten to get stale.
Take on some personal responsibility: I graduated high school with a diploma in Secretary Languages (sorry, it's a Dutch website, but feel free to request a translation if desired), which means I have at least a basic level of knowledge when it comes to things such as meetings and (external) communication. I would have no problem whatsoever with brushing up on those matters to be of assistance to Weird Gloop. Dalek Sec (talk) 16:59, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - I don't think anyone doubts your enthusiasm for helping out on the wikis, but from what I've observed you often seem unsure of what actions to take when faced with an unfamiliar scenario. If you are put in a position that is firmly outside of your comfort zone, how would you describe your typical reaction? cqm ^talk 20:32, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

The reason behind that uncertainty stems from wanting to err on the side of caution, and I admit that I should take the Be Bold policy to heart more. That is definitely something I am working on - slowly, but I'm getting there. Each new situation I figure out, is one I can fall back on in the future. To answer your question, I see it as a learning opportunity. I do my best to learn from the past however possible (whether it's my own past or someone else's), but that won't always be possible. So, when that happens, I have two choices:

Be bold: Figuring it's sometimes better to ask for forgiveness than permission, try to solve the situation to the best of my ability. If it turns out I handled incorrectly, take it as a learning opportunity and undo the damage if necessary.
Be humble: If it's something that's bigger than me, it might be best to consult with those more experienced than me and see which results that gives.

In the end, I admit I still have a lot of learning to do. It won't always be easy, and I will definitely make mistakes, but I guess that's what Be Bold comes down to: don't be afraid to fail, as long as you fail forward. 💬 Dalek Sec ✒️ 21:50, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

I don't see how being bold applies here. It's targeted at making the little things that are objectively better easier, not a protection against doing something wrong. Furthermore, if you're indecisive when it comes to making decisions as a board member and you intend to rely on others, i.e. other board members, to guide you, I don't see how you add value to whatever you're voting on. I'd like to see a board member being able to independently form an opinion. cqm ^talk 13:10, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - What's one thing you think Weird Gloop (or the wikis) could be doing, that we're not currently? The bigger the better. ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Some ideas I have:

3D print yourself: See if we can use the agreements we have with Jagex to offer a 3D-printing service, where a customer can preview a 3D-version of their RS character and pay to have it 3D-printed. Offer some default versions such as "Man/woman in Bandos armour", "Classic bot-look" or even "Gaz the Maxed Dungeoneer".
Silliness to promote the wiki: Expand on the cooperation with Jagex to see if we can get some silly items to celebrate a variety of things. An example: on 28 July 2020 Araxxor will be 6 years old. See if Jagex is willing to give/make us an item that lets us transform into Araxxor in popular places such as the Grand Exchange and walk around as him (completely harmless). People would notice, and we could use that opportunity to promote the wiki. For example, while shapeshifted, we could be saying things along the lines of "Who was the first player to get a solo Araxxor kill? Type /wiki Araxxor and find out!" Of course, we'd need to be careful to find a balance between doing & overdoing, but I believe it has potential. 💬 Dalek Sec ✒️ 18:44, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Do you think Weird Gloop should be trying to make more money? Why or why not? ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

This is a tricky one. On the one hand I want to say "yes", because it never hurts to have extra funds available for new ideas (such as the ones I mentioned in the previous question) or sudden unpredicted situations. But on the other hand we should be careful about our approach to get these funds. The current ad-free model is amazing from the POV of a wiki user, so that is definitely a path we should not stray from. One way, perhaps, would be to offer our expertise & experiences to aid fandom communities in transitioning to their own website, like we did. A consultancy, if you will. 💬 Dalek Sec ✒️ 18:44, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Pursuant to Elessar's response to a question above, do you support WG actively taking on additional wikis? Do you feel a decision such as this should require community consensus or just board consensus? Christine 15:05, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

Personally I would be in support of WG taking on additional wikis, but only after a careful analysis: can we expend our available time & resources in a way that would be beneficial to the additional wiki communities on one hand and our current RS Wiki communities on the other (more important) hand? While I think it's a good idea to expand, it shouldn't come at the cost of quality for our current communities. However, such a decision should not just be up to me or the board. While I agree the board should have the final say in the matter, it's equally (if not more) important to present this idea to our current communities and have them voice their opinions, concerns, critiques,... 💬 Dalek Sec ✒️ 18:47, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - You've been active on the wiki for about three months. This by itself is not a bad thing (and it may actually be a good thing), but it raises a small concern of continuity. How confident are you that you'll be around through the end of 2020? Can you imagine a scenario where you wouldn't be? ʞo oɔ 11:01, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

I am very confident of sticking around for the wiki. Despite my short activity/presence, the wiki is something I've grown to be very passionate about, and I don't see myself abandoning it in the foreseeable future. Of course, there could always be a cas de force majeure, but let's keep our fingers crossed that nothing too severe will happen this year :) 💬 Dalek Sec ✒️ 18:44, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Imagine a scenario where Cook and/or Gaz have an idea that could benefit Weird Gloop, but you are either skeptical, not too sure about the specifics, or don't exactly understand what they're proposing. Because of the change in structure of Weird Gloop for 2020, they can not have the final decision. What would you do as a member? Haidro ^(talk) 23:58, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

I would do what I assume is the logical course of action and ask for more details, asking questions about every aspect of his/their idea if necessary until I know enough details to either form an opinion or research anything needed to get there. Based on that opinion, I'd decide my next course of action: vote for or against the idea when the time comes. Of course, I'd first tell them why I feel the way I feel about their idea, giving them a fair chance to elaborate further if desired. 💬 Dalek Sec ✒️ 19:49, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Elessar2

Elessar2 ^{Talk • Contribs • Meta contribs}

Statement	Hi, I’m Elessar2, an editor and recent admin on the RuneScape Wiki. I’m passionate about the wikis and active on discord as well as in discussions on the wiki. I would like to be a member to represent the community, and help further development of the wikis in the future while ensuring that said progress is in the best interest of the community.
Wiki work	While I’m fairly new to the wikis, I’ve done a lot of editing in my time here. I started out working on the M&S update, and then tackled projects such as the rework of drops tables and store tables, module documentation (the requires/loads templates), the infobox hit calculator, a rework of the calculator scripts, and the updating of the mining and smithing calculators. Most recently I’ve been working on an events gadget (lists d&ds, resets etc and sends notifications), as well as continued work on calculators and I’m also starting to work on the new GE extension. Additionally I’m currently one of the coordinators for OSWF tasks.
Other work	I’m an avid player of RuneScape, and while my playing now is generally afk while working on the wiki, I started playing around 2003. Outside of the RuneScape community I’m an Architect (which also involves duties of a general contractor) living in Switzerland with no formal IT related training (beyond a high school course), currently also an officer (OF-1 working on OF-2) in the Swiss army and a volunteer firefighter. Over the years I’ve also developed and maintained (including sysadmin duties) a number of small business websites (including e-commerce).

Questions from the community

Question - As you haven't served on the board yet, what role(s) do you envisage taking on? cqm ^talk 20:33, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

I'm interested in filling either the secretary or chairperson roles on the board. In a more general sense I'd like to keep the conversation with the SchnuppTrupp group going and see if we can't get them to join Weird Gloop. Kind of tied into that is to work on getting more involvement with some of the back end projects such as maps (for the RS3 wide) and especially the GE extension (which I haven't had a chance to work on as much as I'd like). Generally I'm also interested in seeing if we can't get more runescape communities, with knowledge of specific game areas, editing the wiki. I know there was some effort this past year in doing that (more and less successful), but I think we can do better. I also think it's going to be important to keep trying to work with Jagex on various projects, especially since Shauny, who was a huge champion for the wiki, left. Elessar2 (talk) 15:48, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

With the exception of your final Jagex comment, how do you feel that being a board member would aid in the activities you outlined moreso than (already) being an active editor and administrator? Christine 02:55, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Secretary and chairperson are also board positions. As far as expanding the community, the board/directors are the only ones who really have the power to effectively negotiate with other groups/communities/companies. In regards to projects like maps and the GE extension, there are things that i believe could/should be done at the Weird Gloop level to further them, so that they can be completed in an effective manner. Elessar2 (talk) 13:27, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - What's one thing you think Weird Gloop (or the wikis) could be doing, that we're not currently? The bigger the better. ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

I think one thing, that we touched on a little bit in our panel, is working with people who want to use our data. We have lots of usefull runescape information on the wiki, a lot of it (and ever more) in easily readable formats (json, smw etc) but it doesn't seem like there's a ton of people who use it outside the wiki, most of the uses I know of are tabular data (for googlesheet calculators and the like) or images. I think this would increase the number of people who use the wiki (and hopefully the number of editors) but also the number of people who are likely to see errors. Elessar2 (talk) 21:41, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Do you think Weird Gloop should be trying to make more money? Why or why not? ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

We should be trying to make more money. While we don't necessarily need it to maintain the wiki as it is, it would expand our possibilities. It would allow us to do more things like the pins, stickers and t-shirt for wiki/runefest, or buy out other runescape related domains. Furthermore it would allow us to do projects that cost money but that Jagex aren't on board with budgeting for us. Additional funds would also allow us to pay more people, whether that's as editors, developers, graphics or anything else we may want or need. In the UK the corporation taxes are not profit dependent, therefore, the percent tax we pay (19%) is the same whether our surplus is 1£ or 100,000£ Elessar2 (talk) 21:41, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - You've been active on the wiki for a little bit less than a year (which honestly surprised me). How confident are you that you'll be around through the end of 2020? Can you imagine a scenario where you wouldn't be? ʞo oɔ 10:59, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Extremely confident, unless something terrible happens (my death etc), I can't really imaging not being active on the wiki in a year. Elessar2 (talk) 21:41, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

In the future, would you be interested in taking on a more active role in managing Weird Gloop? If so, in which particular areas do you feel you'd be most effective? ʞo oɔ 22:20, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

I would be very interested. As stated above, I'm interested in filling the role of either chairperson or secretary, and those are also the general types of duties I'm very experienced filling (from the military, clubs and non-profit/charities). I also have a good amount of experience dealing with business negotiation/partnership type deals and coordinating activities form my job as an architect (/general contractor). Additionally as I am geographically fairly close to the UK and the nature of my job, it is easily possible for me travel there should the necessity arise. Elessar2 (talk) 13:27, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Imagine a scenario where Cook and/or Gaz have an idea that could benefit Weird Gloop, but you are either skeptical, not too sure about the specifics, or don't exactly understand what they're proposing. Because of the change in structure of Weird Gloop for 2020, they can not have the final decision. What would you do as a member? Haidro ^(talk) 23:58, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

First, to be clear, the change in the structure doesn't mean they can't have the final decision (other than specific major things, such as selling the company), it means that members have the final say, in that they can tell the directors what to do, and overrule anything they have done or want to do. It is necessary for directors to have the "final decision" for them to be able to effectively run a company.

To answer your question though, I'd ask questions and gather information from them, as well as do my own research until I have enough information to make an informed decision. Furthermore depending on what the idea is, it may be better left to community consensus, although as a board member it would still be my duty to ensure that the proposal is worded in such a way that editors can also make an informed decision on it, and to leave my comment/support/oppose on it with more than 1 word. Elessar2 (talk) 13:27, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

Do you feel that the question of whether WG should be actively seeking to make more money on its own and/or taking on other wikis should be up to community consensus? Christine 03:55, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

The idea of actively seeking to make more money no, individual specific methods of accomplishing this, absolutely. To be clear I am also in no way advocating adding adds to the wikis (big yikes). Taking on other wikis, I think depends on the wiki, its topic, and what exactly taking it on looks like. Elessar2 (talk) 09:39, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

This is a good clarification to make. Christine 15:05, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

IsobelJ

IsobelJ ^{Talk • Contribs • Meta contribs}

Statement	I am nominating myself to continue being a RuneScape wiki representative on the board. The role of board member is a position I take very seriously; given that the continued success of the wikis is in some ways dependent on Weird Gloop being operated effectively. I think that it is important for board members to be able to think critically about proposed actions and to represent the values and interests of the wiki communities when making decisions. As an active editor and member of the RuneScape wiki community I feel I am in a good potion to represent the community’s interests. I have previously dealt with difficult situations within the community and believe that I have demonstrated that I act with integrity and without bias. I have previous experience of being a board member, during which I feel that I have learnt a lot about what it means to be on the board. While I am extremely proud of our success so far, I would like the next year to see improvements in the operating of the board and I would like to be able to be involved in doing this as a board member.
Wiki work	I have been an editor since 2013. I became an admin in 2016. I generally work on projects, historically doing things like revamping the scan clue guide, skill training guides and upcoming updates. I do a lot of image work too. I get involved in a lot of community stuff, like Wikian title nominations. This year in particular I set up the One Small Wiki Favour project and the annual wiki survey.
Other work	In real life I work full time in a job that relates loosely to UK employment law. There is nothing that I am connected with in real life that would cause a conflict of interest with the board.

Questions from the community

Question - What do you feel was your most meaningful contribution as a board member in 2019? Christine 03:23, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

I think the most important thing was acting as something like what will be the "secretary" role going forward. I took on a lot of the responsibility for arranging meetings: getting everyone's availability, chasing up people who hadn't provided it, and setting a mutually convenient date. I also wrote up minutes from the meetings based off riblet's and my own notes and posted announcements on them to both wikis. I think this was important for keeping the work of board transparent and for keeping accountability to the wiki communities generally. IsobelJ (talk) 10:29, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - Over the past year, what do you think you've done well as a board member? What did you think you didn't do well on and how could you improve in those areas? cqm ^talk 20:36, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

I think I was one of the most active/vocal participants in board discussions - I like to understand fully what is being discussed before I give support to it/give any feedback so I think my tendency to be curious and ask a lot of questions helped to make sure that proposals were put through some amount of scrutiny.

I also think I did well in taking some responsibility from Cook/Gaz in doing the things I mentioned in response to Christine's question. While I wasn't really confident in doing that at first (mostly due to being unsure what was expected of me as a board member) I took over a lot of this later on in the year.

This year I would like to take on extra responsibilities from the offset. I'm glad to see that other candidates are interested in the role of secretary this year - I would like to try something new and act in the role of RS Wiki liaison. One thing I'd particularly like to do this year is to continue to clarify our expectations of what the board should be doing. I'll elaborate more in my response to Cook's question below about what the board could do better next year. IsobelJ (talk) 10:29, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - What's one thing you think Weird Gloop (or the wikis) could be doing, that we're not currently? The bigger the better. ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

I would like to see more support from the board for implementing large scale projects that were suggested in the wiki survey this year. A common theme was an interest in a more personalised experience for wiki users; for examples in guides, suggestions about what they should do on their account, and progress tracking for achievement completion. To achieve this we would need to work with Jagex - for access to the information/support to link RuneScape and wiki accounts. Other suggested improvements may also require information from Jagex - for example access to data on drop rates would allow us to implement the most requested feature of more accurate drop rates. I would like Weird Gloop to push for Jagex' support to make these improvements to the wiki.

Additionally, there are suggestions such as the creation of a wiki app, large scale overhauling of calculators and upgrading of maps to make them interactive which could be achieved with external help (e.g. an additional sysadmin or outside technical person) focused on completing these projects. With our current technically people already engaged in many projects, perhaps this is something the board could consider doing to get additional projects done. IsobelJ (talk) 10:29, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Do you think Weird Gloop should be trying to make more money? Why or why not? ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

I don't think we need to focus on making more money right now. Over the past year we've operated in a way that means we don't use our whole monthly budget and have money in reserve in case of emergencies. We haven't had any proposals that would require additional funding to complete, but if that changes in the future I would suggest making a case to Jagex to increase our funding from them. IsobelJ (talk) 10:29, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Pursuant to Elessar's response to a question above, do you support WG actively taking on additional wikis? Do you feel a decision such as this should require community consensus or just board consensus? Christine 15:05, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

I'm happy for us to take on more RuneScape related wikis if there is consensus from the board to do so, bearing in mind consideration of how much time/money etc it would require us to invest.

For expansion to hosting non-RS wikis I think that this would be a significant change in direction in what that should be discussed on meta wiki. Right now I'm not convinced that hosting other wikis would be beneficial to us, but regardless of my personal opinion this is the kind of significant decision that I'd argue for the community as a whole to be involved in making. IsobelJ (talk) 13:18, 31 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - What's your appraisal of how the board operated last year? What can we do better (as a group)? ʞo oɔ 11:05, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

My appraisal of the last year would be:

When we started out we weren't really sure what the board should be doing or what was expected from the board members.
Board meetings/discussions usually focused around Cook running ideas by the board and providing most of the direction for the company.
Some members were more vocal than others in giving feedback on ideas.
We haven't been that organised in having regularly board meetings or progressing projects/ideas.

That said, the fork and following success of the wikis has exceeded expectations. I think everyone who put themselves forward for candidacy last year had the best intentions in wanting to help the wikis succeed, but we were hampered but not being experienced in running a company to know how to achieve that. I think we can better this year and I would like to see:

Board members being more active in running the company, taking on roles to take some responsibilities away from Cook/Gaz.
Board members being more active in suggesting and taking on the work involved in Weird Gloop's projects.
Better planning and progress tracking for projects - perhaps we could implement something like a "project log" where active projects are recorded, and in each meeting we could identify what needs to be done next on it and by who etc tp keep them on track.
Formalise how we the communities want the company to operate by finalising the constitution. I would like us to create an "easy read" version of this on meta wiki so editors are aware of how Weird Gloop works and how it can be held accountable to them.
More regular board meetings and feedback to the community. IsobelJ (talk) 10:29, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Imagine a scenario where Cook and/or Gaz have an idea that could benefit Weird Gloop, but you are either skeptical, not too sure about the specifics, or don't exactly understand what they're proposing. Because of the change in structure of Weird Gloop for 2020, they can not have the final decision. What would you do as a member? Haidro ^(talk) 23:58, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

I have encountered this situation fairly frequently this year and I will continue as I have done previously - I will ask questions to ensure that I understand what the proposal is exactly and why the proposer thinks that it is beneficial. If I remained unconvinced I would express that, and the board would vote on whether to proceed and/or we could make a meta discussion about the proposal. IsobelJ (talk) 10:29, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Have you been involved in any situations where you remained unconvinced of an idea, and were in the minority? If so, how did you deal with this? STAR the coolest bean (talk 2 me xoxo) 15:26, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

Perhaps the only thing that I can recall was a suggestion from iN008 that we changed the way that eligibility for voting worked so that it would be on a per wiki basis, which was something I felt strongly opposed to. We discussed it within the last board meeting but no one seemed to have strong feelings either way, which led to the creation of a meta thread. IsobelJ (talk) 11:54, 24 December 2019 (UTC)

MitcheII

MitcheII ^{Talk • Contribs • Meta contribs}

Statement	Hey, I'm MitcheII, I edit for both the RSWiki and OSWiki. Putting my hat in the ring as I feel I at least offer a differing perspective in the decision making process and have contributed new/interesting ideas to the discussions I have participated in; frequently bouncing ideas back and forth with Cook about business processes as is.
Wiki work	I primarily edit for the RSWiki as cleanup/maintenance/revitalisation work is much more plentiful and interesting to me, I'm much more suited to looking for improvements in systems/articles/calculators than writing new prose myself. In particular I do a lot of Farming related articles but have dipped a toe in the mess of Image naming conventions, in particular Pets. :) Only a relatively new Editor as I did not participate in any meaningful way pre-fork.
Other work	Currently a Sales/Technician for a Computer and Phone Repair company based in Australia. Currently half way through a double Bachelor in Business and Commerce, majoring in Finance and Management so I feel my previous studies will at least be of help for recommendations in that regard.

Questions from the community

Question - Can you provide some examples of the differing perspectives and new ideas that you have contributed? Christine 03:17, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

A lot of things were actually discussions with Cook as there was a period where we bounced ideas off one another business strategy wise. Initially it were things that could populate a RSWiki/OSWiki/Weird Gloop Merch store then potential designs/ideas for the RuneFest/WikiFest T-Shirt. Interspersed throughout were discussions about upcoming business proposals Cook was going to pitch to Jagex and my opinions on it/the previous one, defensive advertising talks and whether or not that can be leveraged to the company's advantage. In terms of ideas on the Wiki itself I went slightly overambitious with my first Yew Grove post about formalizing and standardizing the naming convention of Pets Images as I'd noticed they were all completely out of whack when doing some pre-LOoT editing; the thread itself also showing my... differing perspective and commitment to my positions as the idea itself received a fair bit of push back, not that this dissuaded me. I personally advocated for the compacting of calculator entry and the hiding of specific inputs which Elessar thankfully revamped, implementing both of the things I had desperately been wanting. My biggest project on the Wiki, the RSWiki Herb Calculator, wasn't exactly a completely new idea but no one else had thought of asking Mod Easty (who was the freshest set of eyes to touch Farming code) about how it actually worked. MitcheII ^(talk) 10:19, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - What's one thing you think Weird Gloop (or the wikis) could be doing, that we're not currently? The bigger the better. ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

I know it's not just as simple as saying "expand" but I would love to see Weird Gloop become a Wiki Company instead of a Runescape Wiki Company. I know there are already talks of hosting a couple of other gaming related Wikis (as well as differing Runescape Languages) and with those being most analogous to our current set up would be a good first step. Expanding outside of Runescape brings a whole slew of issues in terms of uprooting current editing communities as well as not having anywhere near the level of connection with other gaming companies as we do with Jagex. I however do feel that there is a convincing angle that even an unfamiliar company would at least lend an ear to in terms of Defensive Advertising. Specifically the reason Jagex was even slightly interested in supporting Weird Gloop monetarily was because they thought they would get something out of it worth more than the cost of supporting us; in this case what they received was an almost complete elimination of non-Runescape game advertisements on the ‘’largest’’ Runescape related website bar-none, which is pretty insane for player-retention. Based on a couple of research papers, defensive advertising like this is actually worth proportionally more than the value of those ads themselves. At however many million views per month, realistically Jagex in this case is getting a pretty insane deal by just barely supporting Weird Gloop and realistically should be paying far more out of pocket for anywhere near the level of competitor ad cleansing we provide. The success with the Runescape Wikis lends credit to the idea that both the Company and Weird Gloop can benefit monetarily and have better editing and Wiki environments. MitcheII ^(talk) 10:19, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Do you think Weird Gloop should be trying to make more money? Why or why not? ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Weird Gloop is a business, by definition its purpose is to make money. Of course this is an uncomfortable thing to say because of the appearance as a community driven, user contributed website but even before Forking, the Runescape Wikis were making money, just not for anyone that actually contributed/ran it. Of course there's always the option of being a not-for-profit organisation and just taking what is necessary for upkeep and continuation of the Wikis, but if Weird Gloop turning a profit doesn't at all negatively impact Users or even the majority of Users then what is the problem with making more money? MitcheII ^(talk) 10:19, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Pursuant to Elessar's response to a question above, do you support WG actively taking on additional wikis? Do you feel a decision such as this should require community consensus or just board consensus? Christine 15:05, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

I personally think that taking on additional Wikis is a very viable route for Weird Gloop growth. Armed with the knowledge from dealing with Jagex we're now more informed of our position and the value we hold as a company which allows us, with other Wikis, to make better deals and understand the difficulties of expanding and express these to potential partners. Yes to board consensus but I don't think it requires RSWiki/OSRSWiki community consensus to be perfectly honest, however the community of the additional wiki's consensus is paramount and needs to be almost unanimous as it was for our fork. The community needs to be fully behind the switch and whatever master they currently serve needs to be in the dark as long as possible, a community for a completely different game/subject would only serve to potentially leak plans before they're ready. MitcheII ^(talk) 08:54, 24 December 2019 (UTC)

How (if at all) would your opinion change if Weird Gloop making a profit were to negatively impact (the majority of) users? STAR the coolest bean (talk 2 me xoxo) 15:18, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

This actually depends as, in my opinion, even decisions that negatively impact users can still be the correct and popular (in the greater Runescape or otherwise community) choice. There are definitely scenarios where something terrible for user experience like running Ads on Weird Gloop Wikis is still cast in a positive light and recognised as the right thing to do in the short term. I'm not at all advocating for Ads mind you, I run adblocker 24/7 as I can't stand ads, but with goodwill and understanding from the community, even business decisions that negatively impact users can be the right thing to do. Of course I'd prioritise practises that either leave the current user experience relatively unchanged or ideally improved in addition to whatever profit seeking measures are taken before at all considering sacrificing how pleased users are with the Wikis. MitcheII ^(talk) 08:54, 24 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - You've been active on the wiki for a little bit less than a year, and your activity often comes in bursts. How confident are you that you'll be around through the end of 2020? Can you imagine a scenario where you wouldn't be? ʞo oɔ 11:03, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

My editing activity definitely comes in bursts but in terms of the community I'm genuinely always available and typically read through active discussions (so long as they're spicy) even if I don't specifically contribute to them. Work has taken up more of my free time (editing time) as of late with the Holiday period but even then, editing activity I believe holds little value in terms of eligibility as a board member outside of a very basic barrier to entry. I don't see myself not participating in board and wiki discussions regardless of what period of the year it is. Outside of the obvious in death or illness, I don't see myself voluntarily removing myself from the board if elected before my term is up. MitcheII ^(talk) 10:19, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Imagine a scenario where Cook and/or Gaz have an idea that could benefit Weird Gloop, but you are either skeptical, not too sure about the specifics, or don't exactly understand what they're proposing. Because of the change in structure of Weird Gloop for 2020, they can not have the final decision. What would you do as a member? Haidro ^(talk) 23:58, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Well realistically if I or others dont have enough information, the solution is to ask. If it's a contentious idea, the right play is to have Cook/Gaz/someone who is for the idea make a proper proposal outlining any details that people might need. Cant make a decision without all the info. If in this scenario I'm genuinely skeptical of the idea and its viability then voicing this skepticism should be priority number one and listening to the reasoning on the other side before deciding. If still skeptical vote appropriately. MitcheII ^(talk) 02:24, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Old School RuneScape Wiki

There are 4 candidates for 3 positions.

BigDiesel2m

BigDiesel2m ^{Talk • Contribs • Meta contribs}

Statement	My name's Dan, and I've been a member of the wiki since May of 2017. I started getting more involved around the time of the fork, and was made an OSRS wiki admin in April of this year. I think my experience working as a bridge between the wiki and various OSRS communities gives me a valuable perspective on the wiki's place in the wider RuneScape community, and as a member of the board I'd like to use that perspective to help grow the quality and standing of the wikis even further.
Wiki work	Since becoming an admin earlier this year I have had the opportunity to represent the wiki in a number of collaborative projects, most notably the UIM guides and the recent Twisted League pages. These projects have allowed us to improve the wiki with expert knowledge outside our usual editor group, and to bring in new contributors from communities that otherwise would not have engaged with the wiki. I've also been a big part of managing the wiki's One Small Wiki Favour tasks, both in creating the tasks and helping new editors that the program brings in. Beyond those major projects, on the wiki I've done a little bit of everything, such as editing images, creating new templates, covering updates, and making calculators. Editing the wiki has taught me all sorts of skills, and I am always ready to learn new things to improve it even more.
Other work	Beyond the RuneScape wikis, I have been involved in various wiki projects over the last ten years, mostly depending on whatever game or hobby holds my interest at the time. Beyond wiki stuff, in real life I have most notably volunteered and worked at my local library, helping manage various summer programs to encourage reading and library engagement with the local youth. I believe that this experience has translated to the sorts of projects I most enjoy on the wiki, many of which work towards improved community collaboration and engagement.

Questions from the community

Question for all candidates - What's one thing you think Weird Gloop (or the wikis) could be doing, that we're not currently? The bigger the better. ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

One thing I think Weird Gloop should do is take a more proactive approach towards protecting other, non-wiki information repositories that might otherwise be lost. While the wiki is by far the largest source of RuneScape information today, this was not always the case, with sites like Zybez, Tip.it, etc. being a major part of RuneScape's formative years. Nowadays, many of these sites are fading relics, and are in danger of disappearing completely or being co-opted by people who want to abuse what little name recognition they still have. In the same way that the wikis archive information about how RuneScape has changed over the years, I think it would be worthwhile for Weird Gloop to look into taking control of some old fansites and archiving them as well. If we don't, we're in danger of losing more fansites in the same way we lost Zybez, which now redirects to the old FANDOM wiki (which is obviously bad for both the official wikis and the RuneScape community as a whole).

On the same note of archiving outside-of-game information, I think it would be worth considering a better way to archive official Jagex communications on our own servers, hopefully with stronger search functionality as well. Various Jmods often share droprates and mechanics in Twitter replies, which can be broken up and partially deleted by either side of the conversation. This is particularly an issue with old information where the Jmod has left Jagex, or in cases where the question-asker deletes the question or their account entirely. Having a system in place to automatically (and retroactively) back-up all information from official Jagex Twitter accounts would be an invaluable source for editors trying to improve our official sourcing, and remove the wiki's reliance on third-party archiving websites (which are inconsistently used and only useful if someone on the wiki goes out of their way to utilize them). BigDiesel2m (talk) 00:29, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Do you think Weird Gloop should be trying to make more money? Why or why not? ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

I would argue that right now the wikis provide significantly more value to Jagex than they are being paid for, so I think it's entirely reasonable for Weird Gloop to try and make more money. While we did run a small surplus last year, the increased costs of new infrastructure must be considered, including any initial costs in setting up the new system and migrating to it. Having more money would allow us to accelerate this process of upgrading the core infrastructure, as well as provide flexibility for new projects like all the ones brought up by the candidates here. BigDiesel2m (talk) 23:59, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

Pursuant to Elessar's response to a question above, do you support WG actively taking on additional wikis? Do you feel a decision such as this should require community consensus or just board consensus? Christine 15:05, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

I imagine that if we did want to take on any additional wikis (such as the German-language wiki) the existing wiki community would be generally supportive, so having the community make that final decision makes sense to me. If this support for the new wiki from the community is not there, then I think it's important to address the reasons for that before taking it on. Bringing it to the community as a discussion (rather than just foisting it upon them) also provides an opportunity to develop stronger ties between the existing wiki community and the new wiki, which can help with the transition to Weird Gloop and foster collaboration further down the line. I like to imagine Weird Gloop is more than just a server host for wikis, and community discourse can lead to cross-platform improvements for old and new wikis alike. BigDiesel2m (talk) 02:45, 24 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - You've been a big part of our community outreach in the last year. Would you be interested in taking on the OSRS Wiki liaison role on the board? Could this also be a platform to do the wiki "newsletters" you were talking about? ʞo oɔ 10:50, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Being the wiki liaison and working on a quarterly wiki newsletter of sorts would have a lot of overlap, as both benefit from being up-to-date and aware of the myriad projects going on within the OSW community. Keeping track of all the large and small things happening on the wiki is one of my favorite pasttimes, and I've even made pages like osrsw:User:BigDiesel2m/ProjectList to try and organize them. While the two roles have a lot of overlap, I hope that the newsletter project is not predicated on the results of this election, and I think it's something we want to explore regardless of whether I end up as OSRS Wiki liaison. BigDiesel2m (talk) 00:29, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Imagine a scenario where Cook and/or Gaz have an idea that could benefit Weird Gloop, but you are either skeptical, not too sure about the specifics, or don't exactly understand what they're proposing. Because of the change in structure of Weird Gloop for 2020, they can not have the final decision. What would you do as a member? Haidro ^(talk) 23:58, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

In any of these cases, I think it's important to focus on clear communication between the board and the directors. If I am skeptical of a proposal, I would ask the person who brought it to defend and expand upon their proposal. Similarly, if I am unsure about a proposal's specifics, I would tell them as much, and give them an opportunity to clarify those specifics. I think this approach would work well for any proposals brought to the board, not just those brought from the directors. Once it comes time to make the decision, the Weird Gloop constitution gives an outline of how to handle it, with a vote on the proposal organized by the meeting's chairperson. In cases where the board seems split or unsure of the right approach, I would encourage the chairperson to consider bringing the proposal to the wider wiki community in a public venue like the Meta wiki forums. This would allow for more discussion of the topic, and give board members more time to consider the proposal's merit. BigDiesel2m (talk) 00:29, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

Gau Cho

Gau Cho ^{Talk • Contribs • Meta contribs}

Statement	I, Gau Cho, am running for election because I have the skills and knowledge for long-term strategic planning for the company. I am an active OSRS player (first started in 2002), I contribute in-game content to the wiki, I write code for the wiki (Lua/Javascript), and I contribute to the business side of Weird Gloop as a company. My objective over the next year is to establish good business practices for Weird Gloop, which I have begun by writing the constitution of the company with Isobel. My goal is also to promote user contributions to the wiki and increase cooperation between Weird Gloop and Jagex.
Wiki work	Business I read the Companies Act and wrote the Weird Gloop constitution. I am very familiar with many legal requirements and restrictions that apply to our company and representatives and will ensure the representatives’ meetings will function smoothly and productively. I would be the ideal candidate to take on the Secretary role, which will allow me to set up an easy way to maintain our required statutory books and minute book, among other tasks. Projects I began playerbase-driven drop rates for the OSRS wiki, which became the very visible and important Drop Log Project, which I am now in charge of. The data is now sourced directly from RuneLite and Jagex. I also set up the stores modules with Towelcat to upgrade store information across the wiki. Code In addition to the above projects, I work on a bunch of different types of things for the wiki including The in-progress development of a DPS calculator gadget. Upgrading infoboxes such as Infobox Monster to add smw support and additional parameters.
Other work	On the business side, I own a single-person corporation for work, and I play an important managerial role in my day-to-day. I’m sure that I would contribute significantly to Weird Gloop and the wikis as a representative. I have a strong appreciation from both the bigger picture and business side, but also from the user perspective. I listen to everyone and don't get upset or angry if someone disagrees with me - I am fair and impartial. Thanks for choosing me!

Questions from the community

Question for all candidates - What's one thing you think Weird Gloop (or the wikis) could be doing, that we're not currently? The bigger the better. ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

See the long-term strategic planning answer below. Gau Cho (talk) 22:39, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Do you think Weird Gloop should be trying to make more money? Why or why not? ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Absolutely, however, not at any expense. In fact, the community consensus clause in our new constitution probably significantly decreases the value of our company by allowing the community to veto something such as an attempt at monetisation. Having more money in the bank allows us flexibility to increasing server resources, but also to work on new projects that may arise. That being said, our short-term and long-term company objective is not profit and so money should be seen as a reserve to the means of an ends. Gau Cho (talk) 22:39, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Pursuant to Elessar's response to a question above, do you support WG actively taking on additional wikis? Do you feel a decision such as this should require community consensus or just board consensus? Christine 15:05, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

I think the question needs to be narrowed down further for me to say anything other than "case-by-case". Of course, things still remain case-by-case, but as a general principle, I support consolidating Jagex-related language and game wikis under the WG umbrella. With regards to expanding beyond Jagex, the question is what are we providing to the hypothetical sister wiki, and I think this is a long discussion. For example, let's say a fandom gaming wikia wanted to join WG. We have advice about forking, but we don't really have the manpower/employees or setup to provide a service for profit. And I doubt we would have enough volunteer hours from admins/wiki people at hand to support a sister wiki that we don't have a particular interest in. That's not to say it's not impossible, but we need to distinguish volunteer work which is what most of us does, with paid services. And that would also be changing the object of WG (aka Weird Group) and so that definitely deserves a concrete analysis of a particular opportune situation if it comes up. Gau Cho (talk) 23:15, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - You talk a bit in your statement about long term strategic planning. What do you think Weird Gloop's long term objectives should be, and how can we measure them? ʞo oɔ 10:40, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Some short- and long-term objectives would include:

Establishing viable long-term business practices for Weird Gloop the company with minimal red tape.
- Specifically, establishing and standardizing legal requirements such as the statutory books in a simple and easily maintainable format
- Establishing a simple manner and structure to meeting notes and resolutions
- Working on defined roles to distribute workload
Making ourselves indispensible to Jagex
- The more Jagex relies on us, the more indispensible we are and the more we can obtain from Jagex
- We need to work on maintaining formal and informal channels of communications beyond just via community managers. Channels include: Community managers, Developers, Analytics team, API team.
- We have the support of rank-and-file Jagex employees. We need to continue to actively maintain goodwill through concrete actions to be able to exploit opportunities (bring back Weird Gloop muffins and Xmas cards!)
- On an aside, there's a similar argument to be made for getting access to RuneLite as a research tool (at least on the OSRS side) that would empower us to obtain a lot more data.
Data accessibility for the community
- On both wikis, making information available in an easily accessible format (smw, json) helps empower the community to make further tools. Ideally, these tools would be made on the wiki if not available on the wiki itself.
Fostering new editors
- We need to encourage continued growth of editors as there will always be people leaving and coming. The more manpower we have, the more ability we have to work on new projects.

Some ways to measure the above include:

Active number of editors
Revenue
Number of channels of communication/sources of data with Jagex
Number of active projects (OSWF, drop data, smw, Infobox rework, Recipes, etc)
Milestone achievement - whether Weird Gloop gets early access to Jagex's "secret project"

Gau Cho (talk) 22:39, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Imagine a scenario where Cook and/or Gaz have an idea that could benefit Weird Gloop, but you are either skeptical, not too sure about the specifics, or don't exactly understand what they're proposing. Because of the change in structure of Weird Gloop for 2020, they can not have the final decision. What would you do as a member? Haidro ^(talk) 23:58, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

The board is intended to be a check on the power of Gaz and Cook. In the constitution we essentially have veto power over any plan or decision that they may make. So individually and collectively as the board, of course I would question and fight against anything that is against the interest of Weird Gloop. I'm not stranger to debating with Cook as you can see on the discord. Gau Cho (talk) 23:15, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

iN008

iN008 ^{Talk • Contribs • Meta contribs}

Statement	Hello again, I'm Jonathan (though most will know me as iN008 or simply John). I am nominating myself for the board once again in hopes that I can continue to ensure that the actions of the board are first and foremost within the best interest of the editors, as well as keeping the wikis heading in the positive direction that they have been going since the fork.
Wiki work	I started editing the RuneScape Wiki in 2011, taking a hiatus in 2014 and returning in 2017 with a rekindled interest in Old School. Since returning I have been an active editor and have contributed over 37,000 edits on Old School, with roughly 17000~ of that in the last year. I've been involved with numerous projects, both my own and those of others, as well as contributing to discussions regarding changes across both wikis, my favourite has been the introduction of the transcript space on Old School. My focus has generally been on consistency within the file space and mainspace. Having been active on discord I've also been able to help users who've asked questions about the wiki, editing, or general osrs information whenever such questions had arised.
Other work	During my hiatus from editing I was a member of site staff on a retro game board, as such I am familiar with being a liaison between communities and site owners. More recently I've contributed to a smaller wiki (kenganverse), helping them work out a chapter category system as well as answering questions they had about forking/becoming independent from fandom.

Questions from the community

Question - What do you feel was your most meaningful contribution as a board member in 2019? Christine 03:23, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - Are the any board actions, proposed or enacted, that you feel have not been in the interests of the wikis? cqm ^talk 17:33, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

Not that I can recall from memory. iN008^talk 11:30, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - What's one thing you think Weird Gloop (or the wikis) could be doing, that we're not currently? The bigger the better. ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Beyond addressing faults or starting projects as suggested in the wiki surveys, which for the most part I believe should be handled at the individual wiki levels. I believe we should continue to find ways to increase our active editor numbers, especially on the Old School side where the discrepancy between editor count and playerbase is far more significant, while OSWF has offered a handfew of regular editors so far, finding further ways to increase our active editor count should be considered. For example there is a general sentiment that the wiki isn't easy to edit or in the extreme case cant be edited at all, we should try to address this misconception if we want to see an increase going forward. iN008^talk 11:02, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Do you think Weird Gloop should be trying to make more money? Why or why not? ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Since we already meet the required funds to maintain the wikis, I wouldn't necessarily oppose endeavors to gain more revenue if we were to dedicate such funds to improving what we already offer (i.e. the wikis) or to related projects that would require money to pull off. Whether that means purchasing runescape related sites of interest (tip.it / CML esq sites) or putting towards the development of resources or tools (such as ways to read historical cache dumps). iN008^talk 11:30, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

You seem to support WG adopting other wikis. Do you feel a decision such as this should require community consensus or just board consensus? Christine 15:05, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

I believe a mixture of both is required. The board will need to establish whether or not hosting an additional wiki is feasible as well as figure out how it will be funded. If it is within the realm of possibility I feel the conversation should be opened up to both our existing community, and the potential forking community to see what input they have on the matter. It should be noted the forking community's opinions should be listened to closely during a forking discussion, especially any concerns regarding the process or how our meta or board functions. iN008^talk 15:20, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - What's your appraisal of how the board operated last year? What can we do better (as a group)? ʞo oɔ 11:06, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

In my view, board members were rather directionless in terms of what we were meant to do beyond attending meetings, especially since all the financial and governance of Weird Gloop fell upon Gaz and yourself over the last year.

As a group, I felt that some of the board members rarely, if at all, offered their opinions, asked questions, or voiced their concerns during meetings when provided the opportunity to do so. Personally I will be looking to vote for candidates this year who I belive are more likely to do so, should I be voted into the board again I hope I myself will be more proactive in meetings aswell.

Furthermore, I noticed that actually scheduling meetings was rather bothersome given the different time zones and availability, planning them even further in advance may help to find a suitable time to hold them but obviously that might not work for everyone. iN008^talk 11:30, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - ^{Will you quit the board if I make it bounce?} Honest and innocent question though, why should we vote for you for the board when you decided to abruptly leave the server because you were unhappy with a decision? It doesn’t feel like an attitude one should have on such position. Meeeeerds ^msg 05:54, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

I'm sure you don't mean to come off as disingenuous, but that's how the question feels in the way you have worded it. I'll attempt to answer to my best of my ability regardless.

For a start, understanding why I left is important, I've explained this before but shall do so again here. It was half joke but mostly protest. The later of which is very important. The reason for protest: the notable change made prior to any consensus being established, before a thread was even made (see discussion 2). This change was then made "status quo" for the purposes of the threads consensus in the second discussion, which frankly shouldn't have been the case. This is still a notable issue when a similar case has occurred again since that incident.

This wasn't as you put it, a clear cut case of me not liking the outcome and leaving abruptly because of it, but rather disappointment in the process which led to the outcome, I left clear indication I was still available via direct message and on the wiki itself. I strongly believe in proper consensus, with every side being heard and not disregarded, so you should know if any such incident were to happen in a board meeting, should I be present, everyone would certainly be made aware of it, especially if such a thing were to be against the best interest of the editing community.

It should also be noted that being in the discord server is not a prerequisite for the board, as the meetings take place in direct message voice chats. Upon request I immediantly rejoined the server for the first and only meeting held in the server itself. iN008^talk 11:30, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

For clarity: it was a valid question, just not ideally worded. iN008^talk 11:50, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Imagine a scenario where Cook and/or Gaz have an idea that could benefit Weird Gloop, but you are either skeptical, not too sure about the specifics, or don't exactly understand what they're proposing. Because of the change in structure of Weird Gloop for 2020, they can not have the final decision. What would you do as a member? Haidro ^(talk) 23:58, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

It would be as simple as raising such a concern whilst the suggestion is brought up, chances are if a convincing or clear explaination of the idea hasn't been made, others would do the same.

On the other hand, if I was skeptical or outright opposed to such an idea, then I would make my voice heard in that situation, if the board is split on the issue then a meta thread could be created to settle the dispute. It should be noted Cook had faux-suggested an idea not too long ago, too which both Isobel and myself immediately rejected the notion, however in this case Cook was only looking to create an example of such a scenario. iN008^talk 11:02, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - What concerns have you had personally about board/meta issues over the last year? How effective do you think you've been in communicating your concerns and what actions have you proposed or undertaken to try and address them? IsobelJ (talk) 12:08, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

This question seems to be very similar to cqms earlier question so see that answer.

I believe it is different enough to warrant its own answer because it is specifically about your role and contribution to the board, whereas his was not. Christine 15:05, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - Last year the focus of much of Spineweilder's nomination was on a perception of inequality between members of the OSRS and RS wiki communities which he wanted to see the board address. As this was a concern for you as well - perhaps you can elaborate on where you think this perception came from? Is this something that you think has improved over the year? Is there anything else that needs to be done to improve this? IsobelJ (talk) 12:08, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

That perception came from various discussions between OSRS admins and heavy-editors at that time, who concluded such based on events prior. I'd rather not overgeneralize that issue by attempting to summarize everything here as there certainly was several view points. I will say that over the past year this perception has diminished somewhat, though I certainly can't speak for every editor. In part I would contribute this to the increased (and for the most part more positive) communication between the two communities. iN008^talk 16:17, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

Riblet15

Riblet15 ^{Talk • Contribs • Meta contribs}

Statement	I am running for the board to represent the active editors in the business decisions of Weird Gloop. I want to ensure that Weird Gloop serves our community to the best of our ability and spends our funding appropriately. I will make sure we have justification for Weird Gloop expenses and proper record of the decisions made during board discussions. I began editing the Old School wiki because of the gap in quality between the two wikis, and as a member of the board I will ensure OSW is equitably represented.
Wiki work	I joined the wiki in 2009 and became active on the old school wiki in mid 2017. Historically I have put significant work into standardization, allowing us to be thorough in our coverage of anything with an infobox. Over the last year I have been improving the quality of Old School templates and modules, working to reduce the technical debt in code we have inherited from the RS3 wiki. I have improved the OSW experience for our editors through changes like standardizing the presentation of templates on many pages, and creating a gadget to display "advanced data" across many articles. As a member of the board in 2019, I regularly requested a statement of justification for any spending of gloop funds. I would also regularly be the notetaker during our board meetings. Making sure notes were taken during meetings allowed us to to clarify unclear points as they came up, and gave us a reference when writing summaries for general review. I am currently active on the Discord, and aim to help newer editors understand the basics of the more confusing aspects of editing the wiki, such as images, modules, dpl, and our API.
Other work	I currently work full time as a software engineer, which involves a significant amount of collaboration within a team. This has given me experience in explaining my perspective on issues precisely to work through challenges in a technical way, while still understanding the perspectives of others. This technical background has also made it easier to take the lead on the old school wiki modules to make a larger impact on the experience of the users of our site.

Questions from the community

Question - What do you feel was your most meaningful contribution as a board member in 2019? Christine 03:23, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

Edit for clarity: if other than noted above. Christine 03:24, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

I believe requsting justification on expenses has been the most meaningful contribution, especially due to the company not having developed standard policies to ensure all actions are recorded. A good means to take this further would be a (simple) formalized document with three fields to record the expense, the amount, and justification. Riblet15 (talk) 23:42, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - Do you think funds are being spent appropriately now? cqm ^talk 13:04, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

Yes, the choices of spending I have seen proposed by the directors have all been in the best interest of the community and the company. The interests of the community and the company have always been in close alignment when it comes to site reliability, community outreach, etc. Riblet15 (talk) 23:42, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - Do you think the board has done an adequate job of recording any decisions being made this far? Do you see room for improvement in this area? cqm ^talk 13:04, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

The reports posted by Isobel have been a fair representation of what was discussed at each meeting, and all information requested of the directors has been provided to the board. I do not have reason to beleive any director decisions have been withheld from the board, though technically I do not have proof of this. Riblet15 (talk) 23:42, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - Do you think there's a lack of equality between OSW and RSW still? cqm ^talk 13:04, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

There is still room to improve. Since the fork, I brought forward a series of dicussions about RFAs, which I saw as a major division in the cultures of the two sites. At the time of fork we had nearly no Modules or SMW support on OSW, but now nearly all the important templates are integrated. At this point, OSW infoboxes are actually cleaner and better documented than RSW, though the same can't be said for all template documentation and user help guides.

However, the most apparent (and perhaps existential) concern is when looking at the number of editors we have on the two sites. Despite OSRS being the more popular game and the more popular wiki, if we look at some of the basic numbers on Special:Statistics for OSW and RSW we have 73% as many active old school editors. The true value of the wikis is our large community, but we still don't have a clear answer for what will encourage a reader to become a long-term contributor. Every angle I consider it, OSW should have more active editors than RSW (more content updates, less tech expertise necessary, more obvious prose to fix on articles), so what is causing the gap? Riblet15 (talk) 23:42, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

I think one answer to the gap is the maturity of the editor base. RSW has had over a decade to build up it's editor base, some have stuck around for a long time. OSW had had far less time to do that building. An alternative explanation is that the player base is significantly different in that people are more interested in playing the game rather than writing about it for OSRS. cqm ^talk 09:56, 26 December 2019 (UTC)

Those definitely sound like contributing factors, but it's really hard to do more than speculate and actually measure the impact of each variable on editor retention. Riblet15 (talk) 20:58, 31 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - What's one thing you think Weird Gloop (or the wikis) could be doing, that we're not currently? The bigger the better. ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Making sure Jagex really understands our value. It's clear as a company they really don't get how much we are providing for them, otherwise they would be the ones approaching us with info and ideas constantly. I realize our points of contact with Jagex are fairly dynamic, but I see a lot of value in finding a way to coordinate with them on a regular cadence, or even sending someone to have meetings with them in person. Cook has done a great job with his status reports to get us to where we are now, and I think we can do even more. Riblet15 (talk) 23:42, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Do you think Weird Gloop should be trying to make more money? Why or why not? ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

The top priority of Weird Gloop should be providing the best possible experience for our community of readers and editors. We do need sufficient funds to keep the site running, but we're not like a standard company trying to make the most revenue for our shareholders. For example, running ads on our site could make us orders of magnitude more money than Jagex is willing to pay. But we should value the experience of the site above this. We expect to have slightly higher profits in the next year than the current year, so I would like to see us increase the compensation for our sysadmins, whose market value is much higher than we have been able to support since the fork. Riblet15 (talk) 23:42, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Pursuant to Elessar's response to a question above, do you support WG actively taking on additional wikis? Do you feel a decision such as this should require community consensus or just board consensus? Christine 15:05, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

I would not support Weird Gloop taking on another wiki unless I was 100% confident that it would not cause negative impact on the RSW community. The success of our fork was a complex challenge. We needed Jagex fully committed, and more importantly we needed complete unanimous support from our editors to make it work. Had this been a community discussion, it would have been almost impossible to maintain consensus for the entire year we were in limbo. Our previous host would almost certainly have shut down any on-site discussions and banned those in charge, and it would have been impossible to spread the word of the new wiki to the long tail of infrequent editors.

Depending on who approaches Weird Gloop looking for hosting, there are a lot of scenarios. Suppose some other game publisher commits 10x more than the current Weird Gloop budget, would it be a good idea to pursue this? At that point, WG could hire full time engineers to handle the new wikis with no risk of harming the RSW experience. If we wanted their fork to be a success we would also need to ensure complete commitment from their editors, and face the same risks of drawn out conversations and retaliation from another host if we put this to a community discussion. However, supposing the additional resources would not be sufficient to provide for the new site independently, could this harm RSW? If we need to spread our resources thinner and it would put the current RSW experience in danger, I hope the board would prevent this scenario. If not, this is where it would be most valuable to get the consensus of the RSW editors, and I believe someone on the board would have the obligation to make the community aware of the board discussions. Riblet15 (talk) 20:58, 31 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - What's your appraisal of how the board operated last year? What can we do better (as a group)? ʞo oɔ 11:06, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

In general, the board discussions have been completely dominated by Cook building nearly everything himself, with organization work from Isobel and minor comments from everyone else. This year, it would be strongly to our benefit to divide up the responsibilities similarly to how they are stated at the end of the constitution. In general, we should also try to have diverse ideas contributed from everyone, since for example nearly all measures of spending were initially ideas from Cook that were then presented to the board. This includes bad ideas, to make sure the veto rights we are writing into the constitution are sufficient. Riblet15 (talk) 23:42, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Imagine a scenario where Cook and/or Gaz have an idea that could benefit Weird Gloop, but you are either skeptical, not too sure about the specifics, or don't exactly understand what they're proposing. Because of the change in structure of Weird Gloop for 2020, they can not have the final decision. What would you do as a member? Haidro ^(talk) 23:58, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

If I don't understand the proposal I would ask in the board discussion for clarification. If I am skeptical and their explanation is not persuasive, I would bring it to a thread on Meta and make it known in discord. Riblet15 (talk) 23:42, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

RuneScape Wiki (Portuguese)

There is 1 candidate for 1 position.

Crowborn (Yuri Nikolai)

Crowborn ^{Talk • Contribs • Meta contribs}

Statement	Hello, i edit under the username Crowborn. I am interested in applying as representative for the Portuguese-language RuneScape Wiki. I am currently in university, pursuing an Archaeology career. I am very interested in contributing to the creation and spread of open information on whatever topics i can contribute to, and the RuneScape wiki has been a part of my life and of this pursuit for many years.
Wiki work	I have contributed primarily to the Portuguese RuneScape Wiki since about 2014, translating content in all areas of the wiki, and being an admin there for a few years.
Other work	I also have experience editing and translating content in many other collaborative platforms, especially Wikipedia and Cataclysm-DDA's Transifex project.

Questions from the community

Question - I notice that you are the only candidate for this position. Were there other people interested? If so, do you know why they didn't apply? cqm ^talk 20:42, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

I do know that Gugu was also interested in running, but the pt-br guys decided amongst themselves already that they're good with Yuri. ʞo oɔ 00:42, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

My concern with that being the case is that it circumvents this process. I'm largely interested in why this was sorted between themselves rather than opening it up for others to decide. cqm ^talk 13:01, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

Really? If two potential candidates decide they're happy with either of them running, and they don't want to needlessly compete with each other, that's hardly a bad thing. ʞo oɔ 22:22, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

I didn't say it was a bad thing, but as I've never had much interaction with either I don't know what other candidates bring to the table. Perhaps if the chance was given, voters would disagree with their decision or perhaps they'd agree, but if they're both happy with either of them being elected what was the harm in them both running in the first place? cqm ^talk 08:02, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

I mean, there's obviously a cost (both psychologically, and just in terms of effort) to running for this. It's not hard to see why only one of them would want to do it, if they're both agreeable. ʞo oɔ 09:58, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Indeed Gugu was interested, but he said he wouldn't apply for fears of "not being able to administer the role for a full year" (due to time constraints, i believe?).Crowborn (Talk) 18:39, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - What views are you hoping to represent that the english wikis are not covering at the moment? Alternatively, what's unique about pt-br that should be considered by the board? cqm ^talk 20:42, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

I don't think our aims and views are conflicting in anything, but i believe having representation inside the board is important for ensuring continued representation outside the board (establishing precedents/making sure policies are future-proofed) for possible future expansions to additional non-english communities. As for the unique stuff: We have a very small number of regular editors, and i believe the formal discussions and consensus/voting framework used by other wiki-like projects simply doesn't work there, or at least don't work yet. The small community of editors usually foregoes votes and solves issues via discord chats rather than opening discussions, seeing as we don't have a sizeable amount of people that would vote, nor anything like the Yew Grove (unlike in the English wiki, the old Wikia-specific """forum""" system was used before the fork). In case our wiki sucessfully grows after some changes i will discuss in the question below, i believe having someone inside the board would help with the creation of more formal methods of discussion when that became a need.Crowborn (Talk) 18:39, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Question - What do you think we should be doing for pt-br that we aren't right now? How can we help the wiki grow? ʞo oɔ 00:42, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

Our wiki is currently without experienced coders, and as such there are many crucial systems that are either strongly needed as part of article contents or that would make editing much easier, and that we can't currently implement on our own due to a lack of know-how. The biggest example of this would be functioning, bot-updated Grand Exchange displays and pages, but i could think of many more things to mention, like categories being added to images via item IDs. It would be extremely helpful if we could work alongside the people who built these systems for the english wiki for translating and porting these things. As it currently stands, i'd say about 50% of missing pages aren't worth creating until certain modules and templates are localized, seeing as the plain text contents we would add would become almost entirely obsolete once we got the relevant systems in place. I think sucessfully making the wiki a more stable place for creation can encourage new users in becoming active editors, rather than scaring them off with fifty invalid arguments or missing templates every time they attempt creating pages for a new game system that we currently haven't even began looking into. Crowborn (Talk) 18:39, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - What's one thing you think Weird Gloop (or the wikis) could be doing, that we're not currently? The bigger the better. ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Contacting several foreign-language wikis that didn't fork, assessing wether it would be worth it (in terms of more users vs. additional maintenance work) to invite them over and host new forks. Possibly even non-wiki format communities, as long as a focus and a coherent vision is maintained. Crowborn (Talk) 18:39, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Do you think Weird Gloop should be trying to make more money? Why or why not? ʞo oɔ 10:37, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

I don't know the details about Weird Gloop's finantial situation, so i don't know how useful my opinions would be prior to learning more, but in general i believe more money is always something that can be saved as an emergency fund or invested into future expansions. Making more money would be a good idea, but only if this doesn't disrupt the current modus operandi (prioritizing the reader by not adding ads to wiki articles, etc.). I like the idea of expanding WG into more fields, but as said before, i don't know the specifics of these potential future money-making activities, so i can't voice definite support or opposition. Crowborn (Talk) 18:39, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

You seem to support WG adopting additional wikis. Do you feel a decision such as this should require community consensus or just board consensus? Christine 15:05, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

I think this is just a matter of board consensus. It boils down to server load/file sizes vs. the amount of potential readers each wiki brings, which is information the board is more qualified to give opinions on. Other inter-wiki things are so minor they don't really impact the average editor (for example, interwiki links in the ends of pages). Crowborn (Talk) 05:03, 26 December 2019 (UTC)

Question for all candidates - Imagine a scenario where Cook and/or Gaz have an idea that could benefit Weird Gloop, but you are either skeptical, not too sure about the specifics, or don't exactly understand what they're proposing. Because of the change in structure of Weird Gloop for 2020, they can not have the final decision. What would you do as a member? Haidro ^(talk) 23:58, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

I never cast votes (and avoid casting opinions) before being well-informed about something, so i would definitively discuss the issue further with the other members to try and figure out the specifics and clear up any misunderstandings. If i voted against a measure, it would be in support of clear alternatives that are better in my view, not due to uncertain specifics or a lack of understanding for the proposal.Crowborn (Talk) 05:03, 26 December 2019 (UTC)

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