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If you look at my talkpage, you will probably notice that I was hesitant about getting involved with the board. I still am, which understandably leads to the question of why I'm running.

The answer is that someone had to run, at least to make it competitive. I, among others, was playing a game of chicken with the nominations that cannot be played any longer. The end of this term sees us lose FCP and David Gerard, two users who have been with the site for far longer than almost everyone else, and I am honestly not sure what happened to the good Reverend. Three good users and staff members are departing, and everyone is reluctant to run except seemingly for LGM, nobs, and Enchanted13. Seeing the conundrum, I decided to do something. Granted, later hindsight might make me regret making a decision before coffee, but hey. Carpe diem.

If elected, I plan to pursue a few small courses of action:

  1. Post Board Minutes on the Saloon or Other Visible Page: The last Board minutes I can find here are from several years ago, reducing the Board's transparency and making it difficult for RationalWikians to figure out what the Board does. By posting the minutes in a place where more RationalWikians can see them, I hope to improve the appreciation RWians have for it, and thus increase their investment. The time for RationalWikians to not care about the Board is over. We should all care.
  2. Find a Permanent IT Staff Member: The 2017 data breach should be a wake-up call. We need people on hand who can help run the site full-time and prevent security breaches as much as possible. I fully stand with other Board members who are prepared to pursue that course of action.
  3. Acquire a RationalWiki Subscription to a Scholarly Database: This might be tricky, so this is kind of a stretch goal (so to speak). Part of our image problem is that we aren't often seen as scholarly enough, so hopefully a subscription to a database that at least some RationalWiki users can have access to would help us in that regard. Plus it would increase the accuracy of our articles, which is always nice.

I didn't want to run. I still don't, not truly. But if elected, it won't matter what I wanted to do during the nomination process. I will still serve the Wiki and the Foundation as fervently as possible, and I hope that one term on the Board will be enough to do so.