I find myself agreeing with everything you're saying, SilverCrono. When you put it that way, the Mirage Arena does simply seem like a stupid and redundant idea that we're getting way over our heads into.
To put it simply, the Arena is just a hassle. I myself joined the Arena because I felt that I had nothing to do on the wiki anymore, which isn't true at all. Despite what I thought, and many others thought, there are things to do here on the wiki... let me rephrase that, constructive things to do on the wiki, and the Mirage Arena distracts from what needs to be done, is pointless, and generally is just a pain to have to handle. When I joined the crew, the thing that was on my mind was "I don't do anything on the wiki anymore. I might as well put in my two cents." I didn't expect it to be that big a problem. All I really do there is clean up after users who ignore the "75 edits" rule. If you look at the votes we have, there aren't very many, and most of them are from users who are regulars. That's exactly what it is, just an exclusive club for the regulars here on the wiki that reject newbies. At this rate, the Arena is going to become not a voting session, but a place where we can socially cast out newcomers here on the wiki and tell them they can't be a part of the community unless they actually edit the mainspace. That is an activity that I myself recently decided I do not want to be a part of. This makes me a huge hypocrite, as I was the person who said "It will be no problem at all". What an amazing lie.
On the matter of "quality edits", "editcount", and "mainspace edits", if the Mirage Arena is to continue, it needs to be thought over. The rules are seriously flawed. It should start with clearly defining what a "quality edit" is, a solid number for editcount we need to decide on, and users who are actually dedicated to and will help moderate it. The crew is far too small, and I don't want to be expected to have to check every single user's editcount and delete every good post that's pasted to the wall. If this becomes mainstream, it will be way to big of a hassle for me to deal with. But, like SilverCrono said, it's not about me. It's about the Arena.
I suggest giving it more development time - a lot more development time. The crew was a little to excited to get it started, and I think it was initiated too early. Now that we have a taste of what it's going to be like, I suggest closing it down and really rethinking it. I am not opposed to just getting rid of it completely, however. But I think it's too early. Give this idea a chance to develop. While it is a huge distraction from the mainspace, it is still only a week old. The Arena could have a lot of potential, should it continue. But my previous statements still stand.
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I feel sort of torn between the MA. On one hand, it seems a good idea, as a fun place to let loose and enjoy the community. On the other hand, it can easily spiral into the only thing people around here edit, much like the DNC on the Final Fantasy Wiki. I hate to say it, but a lot of users edit just for that (The sole reason I no longer visit it). I myself haven't voted on the MA, mostly because I apparently don't fit the "requirements", which need "quality edits". That seems kind of hypocritical, but I'll get to that later. Anyway, the MA isn't a motivation to edit; it's more like telling a child they'll get a cookie if they clean their room. They'll just eat the cookie and mess it up again, much like what will happen here. People will get to the edit number, and stop being good. If the edit count was insanely high, there would be few contributors to the MA. It's... complicated.
