User:Steve Smith

NOT RETIRED

This user won't retire, but he might retread.

My name is Steve Smith, and I'm from Edmonton, where I practice law.

I've been on Wikipedia off and on since February 23, 2007. I am currently an administrator, and have been since January 2008. I have previously been an arbitrator, oversighter, checkuser, and OTRS volunteer. I gave up all of those roles fundamentally because I did not find them rewarding. I don't know that I find administratorship "rewarding" either, per se, but I don't see any harm in leaving my bit idle except for those odd occasions that I don't. If you disagree, I am open to recall.

Over the years, I have expended a great deal of intellectual energy on Wikipedia's processes and implications. I've decided to stop. Wikipedia is a fascinating triumph in some ways, and an irredeemable mess in others, and that's really as far as I care to go. One of Wikipedia's most incisive critics once expressed hope that my [de/a]scent into the bowels of Wikipedia governance might make me a better critic, but all it really did is provoke wiki-nihilism. Sorry, GBG.

I like to write articles when my schedule allows, mostly about the political history of Alberta.