What use is a martyr's dying breath to motivate an apathetic crowd when you are neither a martyr or dying?
I'm not going to argue the block. The reasons were fair enough. The global part of it was a little perplexing, but whatever. Even stranger to my tastes was the "admin swipe." I'd understand if mine were removed (even though I had still been using them to delete vandal pages I saw) but it only gets worse for me.
Most of you really don't know me that well. My likes, dislikes, and a side or two of my personality, sure. There is some stuff I intentionally don't bring up though. There are too many Brits, city folk, and young people for me to speak openly about my political beliefs, and don't worry, I'm not going to preach to you about the wonders of Enlightenment philosophers or founding fathers (but even if I did speak about them, it wouldn't have likely been too positive). Instead I'm going to speak about something simple, I just want to share my thoughts on this situation.
Back when Brickimedia the dark URL went down, some users who had been blocked longer than I had for doing less had their 1,000 year bans lifted. I felt that they should have been all along, of course, but the problem was that they were having their ban lifted because there was no other site to go to. They only had here. If that doesn't show that they were blocked because they were competition and every move they made was watched for a slip-up, then I don't know what does. I don't like those rules. I won't name names, but these users were not Meiko. Wikia would probably deny it, but I'm pretty sure they would not have noticed the coding change had they not been keeping such a close eye on me.
Here is okay. I don't inherently have any problems with here. I don't have any problems with Sannse (just her job :P). But those politics are unacceptable for me. Some users left wikia and...the other place for reasons that may have been similar or unrelated, but I stayed. You see, I believe in the value of hard work. I do give up sometimes and I am sloppy, but the prospect of keeping this site prepared was good enough for me. If I was told that Brickimedia the website-which-shall-not-be-named was not going to come back, I would have been gone.
As I'm sure you know, we have moved again, and there were some doubts one user of high standing was having about our ability to succeed. He was able to offer us our rights back on Wikia and all bans undone. This offer was just unacceptable to me. That's bribery and lobbying. I have no tolerance for men and women with power "going to bed" with big business.
If that road was met with support instead of universal criticism and Brickimedia the Dark Lord of the Brick were thrown on the pyre of websites who tried to carve a niche outside of Wikia's monopoly, I would not come back here. It's demoralizing enough that Wikia relies on voluntary slave labor and gets their way when they want it. Some other admins might vandalize? We could just remove their rights and undo the edit with two clicks when they are guilty or we could stop the problem before it happens by removing all of their rights, after all, most of them aren't parenting people their own age like they should. Yeah, that reason is good enough."
I'm a stubborn person. I'm sure that most of you can relate to that, that's why most of you aren't leaving. I understand a few of your reasons, but honestly most of them are weak. However, I'm not going to bother trying to convince you. Honestly, I don't care. You can work hard, and you can be rewarded; power to you. I'd like if would move, but it's fine if you don't.
However, I would hope that you are staying for the right reasons; to build an encyclopedia about LEGO. Wikia has played dirty politics (I could talk more about it, but it's not really necessary) but they aren't the only ones who will. With the rights removal, there will be a power vacuum. Choose wisely. Just a bad admin or two, and I have already seen some users who are planting themselves for it, and this wiki will only get worse.
Assuming I don't get blocked again for writing a blog of this caliber, I may add more later, so check back.
Bye. ~