User:CWii/Admin coaching

OK, so let's give this a whirl! I should clarify that this is stolen somewhat shamelessly from Glen's formatting for my own admin coaching ;) Let's start with some editing statistics:

From Interiot's Wannabe Kate Tool

Category:	9
Help:	1
Image talk:	1
Image:	57
Mainspace	5104
Portal:	10
Talk:	257
Template talk:	7
Template:	110
User talk:	5121
User:	862
Wikipedia talk:	17
Wikipedia:	874
avg edits per page	1.46
earliest	21:04, 14 January 2007
number of unique pages	8540

total	12430

2007/1 	        4 	
2007/2 	        0 	
2007/3 	        0 	
2007/4 	        0 	
2007/5 	        0 	
2007/6 	        0 	
2007/7 	        0 	
2007/8 	        0 	
2007/9 	        0 	
2007/10 	21 	
2007/11 	381 	
2007/12 	1 	
2008/1 	        2534 	
2008/2 	        9489 	

Mainspace

24	Three Village Central School District
21	Garry's Mod
17	Robert Cushman Murphy Junior High School
16	Deep Freeze (software)
12	Cary, North Carolina
12	RackStar
12	Page 44
12	Arrowhead Elementary School
11	W. S. Mount Elementary School
11	Paul J. Gelinas Junior High School
11	Asia (band)
10	Anti-Executable
10	Steve Wilkos
9	Club Penguin
9	Miley Cyrus

Talk:

19	Dominican Day Parade
9	Asia (band)
8	Garry's Mod
7	Robert Cushman Murphy Junior High School
5	United States presidential election, 2000
5	Akatsuki (Naruto)
4	Athens
4	Arrowhead Elementary School
3	Ward Melville High School
3	Miley Cyrus
3	Main Page
3	Baby Ruth
3	Mickey Mouse
3	Three Village Central School District
3	Paul J. Gelinas Junior High School

Category:

2	Wikipedia GUS userboxes processed by John Bot
2	Three Village Central School District Schools
2	Valve games 
 	 
Image:

5	3village.gif
3	022 22.JPG
3	Realtimecrimecenterofficial.gif
2	INS screenshot.png
2	MZizijulas.jpg
2	AFM-a.jpg
2	Abalone1.jpg
2	QuickLogic Logo.jpg
2	FaronicsDFscreen.PNG
2	KRH TRF.PNG
2	Ralph Bakshi directing Fire and Ice.jpg
2	DFProd.png
2	Faronics logo.png
2	00614AD.gif
2	AEProd.png

Portal:

2	Mathematics
 	 
Template:

9	3VCSDWikify
7	KeepVote
7	Valve games
6	XFD Polling Templates
5	MergeVote
5	Uw-ifu1
5	PossVote
4	DeleteVote
4	Uw-ifu3
4	Uw-ifu2
3	NotDone
3	User xfire
3	Three Village Central School District Schools
3	NeutralVote2
2	Desperate Housewives

Template talk:

2	X1
 	 
User:

111	Compwhizii
81	Compwhizii/Status
29	Compwhizii/Navbar
26	Compwhizii/monobook.js
22	Compwhizii/Sandbox
16	Compwhizii/userboxesX
13	John Bot
13	Scarian
11	Compwhizii/Userboxes/BlockCount
11	Compwhizii/Awards
10	Compwhizii/3VCSD
10	Compwhizii/statusChanger.js
8	Compwhizii/ComplaintPreloadtemp
8	Scarian/Navbar
7	Compwhizii/Templates

User talk:

110	Compwhizii
26	AndonicO
15	McLiney
13	86.45.218.232
12	Cebactokpatop
12	Milk's Favorite Cookie
10	70.236.3.220
10	Lg saint
10	209.180.130.30
10	Snowolf
10	ViperNerd
9	Arsonist's Daughter
9	Healthykid
9	67.189.228.127
9	66.152.198.210

Wikipedia:

260	Administrator intervention against vandalism
36	Images for upload
33	Articles for creation/2006-10-07
33	Usernames for administrator attention
30	Huggle/Whitelist
19	Requests for page protection
17	Articles for creation/2008-02-23
17	Articles for creation/2006-10-06
14	Articles for deletion/Old/Open AfDs
14	Sandbox/Archive
11	Images for upload/Closed
11	Administrators' noticeboard/3RR
10	Images for upload/Pending
9	Userboxes/Computing
9	Bots/Requests for approval/John Bot 2

Wikipedia talk:

2	Requests for rollback
2	Sandbox/Archive
2	Sandbox

From Mathbot's edit summary counter

Edit summary usage for Compwhizii: 97% for major edits and 100% for minor edits. Based on the last 150 major and 150 minor edits in the article namespace.

Comment: Good work! Edit summaries are very important, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise :) This is a collaborative project, and it's very important to let people know exactly what you are doing. If you could budge that up to 100%, that would be even more fantastic.

Let's try some basic RfA/editor review-like questions

1. What sysop chores, if any, would you anticipate helping with? Please check out Category:Wikipedia backlog, and read the page about administrators and the administrators' reading list.

A: From my message to you from before you can see that I am open to participating in many different administrative tasks. My first task would be to help and clear out the Administrative backlog. It looks like people are overlooking the current status of many old AfDs which need closing. Its February 28, theres discussions from the 20th there :P. Also I would like to Always be available and monitor AIV. The people who watch that page have always been quick to take action. I've made many reports there and I would like to thank them by helping by taking the approprite action for reports. I can go on and on. So I will :). I'll help out over at RPP, XFD,IFU,AFC. I think you get the point :)

I'm glad to hear you want to work on AfD and IFU, those are easily overlooked areas. I'm happy with this answer.

2. Of your articles or contributions to Wikipedia, are there any about which you are particularly pleased, and why?

A: I'm not an article writer. English is by far my least favorite subject. But I have helped out in some places. I have worked on Three Village Central School District and its schools. I've also done some work on Garry's Mod and Faronics; I rewrote Deep Freeze (software), and used that as a base for Insight (Software) and Anti-Executable.

OK, cool. I would really suggest that you try a little bit of article writing or expansion, or even copyediting... every little bit counts. I'm personally not an article writer either, so I can't judge you too much ;) but the trend in RfA these days is going back to article-writing. Besides, that's what we're all here for.

3. Have you been in any conflicts over editing in the past or do you feel other users have caused you stress? How have you dealt with it and how will you deal with it in the future?

A: Yes, unfortunately. The Asia (band) external links dispute being the biggest. It has now died down, after weeks of bickering. Also there was an edit war on Dominican Day Parade which resulted in a block for me. I compromised and improved and reinserted the content. The original IP that started the dispute has not replied since.

Okay.

Optional questions - many of these are working under the assumption that you want to be an admin. If so, answer. If not, or not right now, leave them out :)

4. In your opinion, what attributes make someone a good admin?

A: They should understand the tools and there use. They should also be calm, neutral, and be open to criticism. Also in Betacommand's case, they should be able to take loads of bullshit :).

:)

5. Why do you want to be an admin? (Personally, as opposed to the technical aspects in required question 1)

A: Adminship. Even though Jimbo says it's no big deal, for me it shows that the user is experienced and I respect them and their actions.

Does this always hold true? What about admins who have been desysopped for their actions? What about admins who have been found gaming the system? I'd like to hear your thoughts. :)

In such a case were the admin is being highly disruptive and abusing their buttons then of course not.

6. You find out that an editor, who's well-known and liked in the community, has been using sockpuppets abusively. What would you do?

A: I would first contact their master about this, getting their story first. Then I would file an SPP report showing evedence. If needed a RFCU would be filed. Although this would not be popular with some of the community, rules are rules, and if the editor is abusing his privileges, he/she must suffer the consequences.

Good answer.

7. If you could change any one thing about Wikipedia what would it be?

A: Give Riana the Founder permission :D.

Extremely good answer. ;) More seriously, though? :)

Sorry, at the moment I can't

8. Under what circumstances would you indefinitely block an established user without any prior direction from Arb Com?

A: If the user is abusing his editing privileges (edit warring, vandalism, etc.) persistently and has been approached by me or another admin about their behavior then I would. If the user is still somewhat new I would indef. block them until they could explain their behavior. If they can explain I would unblock them and have them on probation. If they were an experienced user or an admin I would block them and file an RFCU to check for account hijacks.

That sounds fine to me.

9. Suppose you are closing an AfD where it would be keep if one counted certain comments / discussions that you suspect are sockpuppets/meatpuppets and would be delete otherwise. The RCU returns inconclusive, what do you do? Is your answer any different if the two possibilities are between no consensus and delete?

A: If it was obvious (someone admitting to it) then it would be delete. Otherwise I would leave it as no consensus.

OK. Have you considered pathways such as re-submitting the article for AfD, or perhaps taking it to DRV for wider review?

Yes, that's also a good option.

10. In your view, do administrators hold a technical or political position?

A: Administrators hold a technical position. Nothing political about it.

In an ideal world, perhaps... in reality how far do you believe this to be true?

11. We all know that good-faith edits, while not being vandalism per se, sometimes reduce the quality of an article, and should be reverted or amended. In your opinion, however, is it possible for an article to be improved by edits made in bad faith? What course of action would you take if such a scenario arose?

A: Yes its possible, the edits can add valuable information to an article. If was a formatting problem I would rm it and move it over to the talk page for formatting fixup, then put it back.

OK.

12. What part of Wikipedia do you dislike the most or feel most frustrated with in your time here thus far (this can be a user, type of user, policy, restriction etc.)? Have you tried to overcome these and would adminship make life any easier for you?

A: The ignorant users. The ones who always think that their right and we're wrong.

How do you define 'right' and 'wrong' on Wikipedia?

Right would mean following the policies put out and not being rude about it. Wrong would be the opposite and being persistent and not listening to what others have to say.

13. Above you can see a number of statistics about your edits. Do you consider any of these important? Which do you consider most important?

A: I don't find any edits more special than the next.

Fair enough. Let's phrase this differently - if one's edits are more highly concentrated in one region than the other, what would this mean to you? Would it be good or bad? Under what circumstances?

Ah! I think that a person that only participates in one field would not be good, even if they're good at it. I like to see those things but also need to see people who do have experience in other areas

14. Lastly, do you have any criteria when voting in RFAs? If so please present them, if not then it doesn't matter.

A: The person meets for speedy oppose if:

• Has less than 500 edits.
• Less than 2 months old.
• Recent vandal activity or even edit tests.
• recent block release.

Otherwise I vote on my experience with the user and what others have said.

OK.

The candidate may make an optional statement here

Sorry, I have nothing really to say at the moment :P.

Any questions you have for me?

Vandalism test!

Among the tools you get when you're an admin is rollback. Rollback allows an admin to revert vandalism quickly, but should only be used to vandalism - there have even been arbitration cases involving inappropriate use of rollback, with admins using it to revert edits they dispute, but which are not outright vandalism. So, here's a quick vandalism test for you. I'll give you 6 diffs - please tell me whether you think they are vandalism or not, and why.

1. [1]

   No. NPOV vio.

2. [2]

   Yes. pretty random.

3. [3]

   Yes, ya mum would agree ;)

4. [4]

   NO! Give that guy a cookie, he's helping out!

5. [5]

   Borderline, more of something I would undo with edit summary.

6. [6]

   Nah, rv per WP:NOT.

Deletion-related

1. You come across an AfD with 4 keep !votes coming from IP's against 1 delete !vote coming from an established user. What would you do?

A: Relist to generate more experienced consensus and non-COI votes.

Blocking-related

1. You revert an edit which you believe to be original research, but after checking the article's history, you notice the same user has already made 4 reverts to retain the context. A discussion was opened at the talk page with no response from the parties. What would you do?

A: If there is a 3RR vio I would block for 24h. If not I would message him, and if he continues I would protect and point to the talk page.

Protection-related

1. You've fully-protected a page for an indefinite period due to edit-warring. Shortly after, a member of the conflict confronts you and requests you revert to his preferred version whilst protected because it currently contains unverifiable or wrong material. What would you do?

A: I would tell them that protection is not a endorsement of a version. I would point to where the dispute resolution is taking place or just the talk page to talk about it and come up with a solution.

1. You wish to copyedit a certain paragraph in an article, but it has been fully-protected due to disputes. What would you do?

A: I would inquire and ask permission at the location of current discussion of the article before doing so.

Requests

Please add a throughout explanation of the decision and cite the appropriate criteria

CSD

• The following are examples of CAT:CSD requests (add (d) for deleting, (l) for listing at a deletion forum, and (r) for removing the tag).

1. An image has been tagged for deletion as lacking a fair use rationale, but an editor adds {{restricted use}}. The usual seven days period has passed.

   L It's a case-by-case thing.

2. An editor tags an article which was only edited by himself with {{db-author}}. After looking at it, you notice it perfectly meets our policy and has been on for a while.

   R and talk to the author about why he/she wanted deletion.

AIV

• The following are examples of WP:AIV requests (add (b) for blocking, and (r) for removing).

1. A IP has been blocked a month ago for vandalism, and now began vandalizing again, but this time had only received a level 4 warning.

   R- Users must be throughly warned.

2. A registered user vandalized past level 4 and hasn't been previously blocked.

   Depends on the age of the account.

New account: Indef block.

Established: 36h.

RFPP

• The following are examples of WP:RFPP requests (add (p) for fully-protecting, (s) for semi-protecting, (m) for move-protecting, and (d) for declining).

1. An editor requests semi-protected for a page which was semi-protected 3 times during the last month, each time resulting in a large amount of vandalism whenever expired.

   Indef semi

2. An editor requests semi-protection for an article edit-warred solely by IPs.

   Protect semi

3. An editor requests semi-protection for a book that would be advertised at a popular TV show the next day.

   Decline. Protects aren't for expected problems, only for current.

20 Questions :)

1. You find out that an editor, who's well-known and liked in the community, has been using sockpuppets abusively. What would you do?

A: I would contact him privately off-wiki (IRC, e-mail, etc.) to get his story. If we can come to a reasonable conclusion I would block all of his socks and Hardblock them. I would also post to teh drama board ;) to get more input. If he is unwilling to communicate I would block the socks and file a WP:RFCU on his socks and main account.

2. While speedying articles/clearing a backlog at CAT:CSD, you come across an article that many users agree is patent nonsense. A small minority, of, say, three or four disagree. Upon looking the article over, you side with the minority and feel that the article is salvagable. Another admin then speedies it while you are making your decision. What would you do?

A: I would contact the other admin about the deletion, and that I am about to userfy it so it could be worked on. When the article becomes satisfactory I will contact the admin agian and if they approve I will move it into article space.

3. You speedy a few articles. An anon keeps recreating them, and you re-speedy them. After dropping a note on their talk page, they vandalise your user page and make incivil comments. You realise they've been blocked before. What would you do? Would you block them, or respect that you have a conflict of interest?

A: Anons can't create pages. I win :)

4. An editor asks you to mediate in a dispute that has gone from being a content dispute to an edit war (but not necessarily a revert war), with hostile language in edit summaries (that are not personal attacks). One involved party welcomes the involvement of an admin, but the other seems to ignore you. They have both rejected WP:RFC as they do not think it would solve anything. Just as you are about to approach the user ignoring you, another admin blocks them both for edit warring and sends the case to WP:RFAR as a third party. Would you respect the other admin's decisions, or would you continue to engage in conversation (over email or IRC) and submit a comment/statement to the RFAR? Let's say the ArbCom rejects the case. What would you do then?

A: I would continue the discussion off-wiki with all parties and invite the other admin. I would also submit a statement to the case as well. If arbcom rejected this I would continue with unofficial mediation and have the page protected to stop the edit warring.

5. You're closing an AfD where 7 (including the nom) of the 11 people want to delete, most delete people cite that the article does not meet WP:BIO or WP:N. The people wanting to keep dispute this, and cite some evidence. How do you close the AfD?

A: If the evidence included sources and information that would make the person clearly notable then I would close it as keep and work the information and sources in.

6. If you could change any one thing about Wikipedia, what would it be and why?

A: For a type of dispute resolution I would create a jury of randomly selected users to hear the case. (Like in a real trial)

7. Under what circumstances will you indefinitely block a user without any prior direction from Arb Com?

A: Vandalism, Publicly admitted sockpuppery, Attacking users after warnings, High amounts of disruption that I'm not involved in (for COI reasons).

8. A considerable number of administrators have experienced, or are close to, burnout due to a mixture of stress and vitriol inherent in a collaborative web site of this nature. Do you feel able to justify yourself under pressure, and to not permit stress to become overwhelming and cause undesirable or confused behaviour?

A: Unfortunately that may be hard to do in some situations. I think that the best cure for such situations would be to just walk away from the computer, or take a short wiki-break.

9. Why do you want to be an administrator?

A: Being an administrator would allow me to do more things without relying or waiting on other users. I would also give me the ability to help other users, which is something I enjoy.

10. In your view, do administrators hold a technical or political position?

A: Technical. Using their tools they can help out other users and maintain the 'pedia.

11. Have there been any times where you were insisting on a certain edit and realized later or during the dispute that your version in fact had a POV problem?

A: Yes, not to that letter but things like that. I apologize and do want they wanted and I thought was wrong.

12. How do you draw the line between extreme POV pushing and vandalism?

A: When the text is Micheal Jackson is a Fucking child molesting faggot or Bill gates is the best person in the world..

13. Do you believe there is a minimum number of people who need to express there opinions in order to reasonably close an AfD? If so, what is that number? What about TFDs, RfDs, MFDs and CfDs?

A: I think that 4-5 for AFDs are a reasonable number. For others I think 3-4 strong and clear opinions will do.

14. Can semi protection be used on articles where there are many edit conflicts or when vandalism is quite frequent but not all the time?

A: Yes, if there is about 10 vandal IP edits a day constantly then a semi protection can be good. Edit conflicts need Full protection if there is non-anon edits.

15. How would you act, as an admin, to help defuse situations between other editors?

A: I would try to clam the situation, then mediate to form a fair outcome.

16. Will you edit your preferences/editing to remind you when you leave a blank edit summary?

A: Yes.

17. Do you think discussing blocking of the established editors over IRC instead of WP:ANI is appropriate? I am not talking about the rare case when the editor is on the vandalizing spree warranting an emergency action. This is not what an established editors would ever do anyway.

A: No. Not all editors use IRC, but it could be used in addition to ANI for real-time discussions. But ANI should still be updated to reflect on the current discussion.

18. Administrators are very much involved in hot editors' related issues, be it the conflict resolutions or policies that do not have the clear cut interpretations (unlike 3RR, WP:SOCK, etc) and require case by case approach (such as DR or Fair use policies). Do you agree that the better understanding of editor's concerns require administrator's continuous involvement in content writing? As you admit yourself, your involvement in the content writing is so far insignificant and more often than not acceding to adminship further reduces user's involvement in content writing. How can you make sure you will in your administrative actions be able to understand the editor's concerns if you continue to stay away from significant editing?

A: Recently to relive boredom I've been working on articles to improve them. While I highly doubt I can father an article from stub to FA, I enjoy improving it. So it helps to take breaks from doing maintenance tasks and instead writing articles. Doing so I've also discovred the high detail of WP:MOS and the helpfulness of WP:LAYOUT.

19. What do the policy of WP:IAR and the essay WP:SNOW mean to you and how would you apply them?

A: IAR is something that should be used lightly and not for dumb things. ie, don't use it for using IAR I created a sock to aviod my ban. It should be used where a policy clearly keeps you from greatly improving the encyclopedia. SNOW should be used were the consensus is highly obvious (ie, 10 Delete votes in 6 minutes) or where the consensus attempting to be gained is very stupid (ie, MFDing ArbCom for waste of space :P).

20. For what, if any, reasons might you consider speedy deleting a page not covered in WP:CSD? (As an example, some administrators speedy delete dictionary definitions and editorial rants, citing [[WP:NOT], even though neither of these falls under a particular criterion for speedy deletion.)

A: Usually if the content is questionable I would put it through AFD instead. I think that if there is a question you can't answer somebody else probably can, so ask them (so you don't make a foolish mistake ;-)).

Your block

I'd like to discuss your block. It was only a month ago, so perhaps it's fresh in your memory still. So let's see... (I haven't investigated your block very thoroughly, so I'm just going to make assumptions here - feel free to correct them).

• What were the circumstances?

A: I edit warred on Dominican Day Parade

• How did you feel when you were blocked?

A: I was sad and disappointed of myself.

• How did you feel when you were unblocked?

A: I was very motivated and improved the text that was originally being put in.

• What have you learned from being blocked?

A: That care should be used in automated tools to be careful of edit warring.

• How have you modified your behaviour to ensure you are not blocked again?

A: When using such tools I intend to keep a count in my head and not remove content because of poor formatting and sourcing.

• What has it taught you about blocks in general?

A: It has taught me that blocks are very effective and really have the user understand what they did wrong.

• Do you think this will affect any future RfA? How?

A: Possibly. Since it was in February it shouldn't effect a late June RFA too much.

• Do you think this will affect your own approach to blocks, should you become an admin at some point?

A: Yes. Now that I know how effective they are I will probably use more care when giving them out.