Greetings everyone! I just want to bring attention to a matter on the AVP Wikia recently regarding it's two Admins: Leigh and Cruentus. I am posting this here because I am unable to interact with Xenopedia.
Specifically some behavior that I've witnessed and experienced that is detrimental to the Wikia.
Now, I won't keep anything in the dark from you all: The impetus for this was a block issued to me for 3 (later extended to 5) months by The Cruentus, the Bureaucrat of AVPW. I understand how that looks, but please give me the benefit of the doubt: my following thoughts have been frustrations I've been having for a long time now and block was the drop in the bucket to spill them all over.
Leigh
Let me say this about Leigh: He's a wonderful editor. Easily on of AVPW's most active and dedicated users (the sheer edit count speaks for itself!). But a good editor isn't neccesarily a good Administrator. I've had few run ins with Leigh; we focus our edits on different pages of the site and so we seldom cross paths, but when we do, things can get testy.
My main issue with Leigh is that he is too heavy handed regarding the edits of other people. Now, It's one thing to occasionally make a perfectly fine edit and have someone tweak it. It's a community wiki and that kind of comes with the territory. However, it's another thing when you make perfectly fine, sourced edits to several pages and come back a few days later to see each one of them has been undone with little or no explanation. Every single one.
This creates an environment that is almost hostile to users, driving away new and old users. I'm not the only user who has voiced these concerns. Codexas made a very direct and eloquent observation of this behavior. Perhaps a bit much calling Leigh Dictatorial, but I can't find myself disagreeing. Leigh's editing style is detrimental to the community, leaving users feeling like their contributions are unwanted. Yet Another Example.
One of my biggest conflicts with Leigh was on the Dorsal Spine article. I compromised on my point, even though it had ample evidence and even if the "canon" was questionable, outright deletion was unwarranted (Trivia exists for a reason!). I didn't go to the talk page. I didn't see the point; Whenever Leigh decides something, Cruentus backs him up. There was no attempt by either Cruentus or Leigh to compromise, which tells me there was probably no intention either.
I've contacted Cruentus about this behavior (and whenever Cruentus sees Leigh or any admin being spoken to he is quite willing to add in his opinions unprompted anyway). I made a comment, both on Leigh's page and to Cruentus, that something needed to be done about Leigh's behavior. I was warned for that comment. Codexa said something I didn't quite understand: "People are expecting to be banned for speaking their mind. They are not banned but warned instead. It's obvious what is going on here."
I believe Codexa was saying that Cruentus issued warnings in order to justify later blocks and bans. Speaking of Cruentus...
Cruentus
I can't say much about Cruentus. They're never around when I'm there and I've actually never seen them interact with an article with the intention of adding anything to pages. Whenever Cruentus is around, it's usually because some kind of user conflict is going on and there's nothing wrong with that I guess.
However, like Leigh, Cruentus is too heavy handed, just where punishment is concerned. He is far too willing to block, lock, silence, and warn. Too willing to jump in the middle of any conflict. On Leigh's talk page, he dismisses complaining users simply because there were past disagreements, as if that makes our concerns invalid somehow. On that same page Codexa and I were accused of "Slagging" Leigh off behind his back (even though we were ON his talk page). Instructed to "bring it up" with Leigh instead.
Fastforward to this month. HadAnd0426 reached out to me about some admittedly snippy comments I was making to another needless edit by Leigh. Re-reading it, I'll admit I was a little heated in the exchange, but at the end of the day, the discussion was between me and Had. And it was over. I didn't feel Leigh's comments were neccesary, so I deleted them.
Xenopedia has rules which allow users to edit their own talk pages and DOES distinguish between user and article talk pages. When my edit was reverted, I undid it and posted the exact sentences and source which cleared my actions:
"User talk pages are also a good way to communicate with other users. Generally speaking, you may post anything you like on a user's talk page, so long as it abides by Xenopedia's behavior policy and is not offensive. Also please ensure to respect the user's wishes — if he/she does not wish to have such content posted on their talk page, you must accept their decision. - Source
Over the course of several days, I've had not only Admins but users put unwanted comments on my talk page, constantly revert my edits, ect. Cruentus has not even attempted to address this blatant breach of Xenopedia policy. He claims warnings cannot be deleted and fails to provide where this is spelled out in the Wikia's policies when I asked twice. This despite claims that this rule is "almost universal" across wikis (but curiously absent anywhere on XP...).
I was warned for executing my right to remove content from my User Talk, as the page clearly spells out. My decision was dismissed and used as a pretense for a block by an Admin, despite me citing it to them REPEATEDLY. Cruentus demonstrates a clear disregard of Policies that are years old.
This was a relatively small matter too, but Cruentus saw fit to hand out a block lasting nearly into 2021. Again, very heavy handed.
This behaviour needs to change or he needs to step down.
Conclusion
AVP was the first fandom I ever got in; I've loved it since I was very small. I've actually been editing on Xenopedia for about a decade, way WAY back when Troop and Cadmium were the Wiki Admins. From what I remember, we had a much livelier and diverse community. But between then and now, everything on the Wiki has gone stagnant.
The AVP universe isn't lacking for new content. There's countless books, movies, games, comics, figurines, spin-offs, crossovers, ect. But week after week, it's the same 2-5 editors. I don't believe it's because the "well" has run dry, so to speak.
I just think that Leigh and Cruentus' leadership stifle any new voices.
I've spent money and bought comics and all kinds of nonsense, just for the sake of building up this wiki. But if these are the people calling the shots?
You may well just go to another wiki.