Wikipedia:Editor review/GTBacchus

User:GTBacchus

GTBacchus (talk · contribs) I've been a Wikipedian since January 2003, a particularly active one since last October, and an admin since December 21. Any suggestions on how I can do a better job are welcome.

Reviews

• I've run into you someplace, now where was it? Oh yeah, that userbox thing.... ;) I think it will take several more months before we know if the conflict is really over, but I think you have had some success at moving the mess forward. And I didn't see anyone who really blew their top at you, so your contribution was definitely valuable. Other than that, I generally avoid controversies, so I've only encountered your janitorial edits. Wikipedia needs more good janitors, but the skills of defusing conflicts are harder to find so I endorse your decision to focus on that. GRBerry 03:44, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Comments

• See this user's edit history with Interiot's tool and edit summary usage (Warning:Both tools have stopped updating and the edit counts are way off. Please consider using Flcelloguy's Tool or Interiot's Tool 2)

Questions

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

   I'm not really a long article writer most of the time, but I'm proud of my small edits. I do a lot of stub sorting, and try to improve every article I encounter while doing that in some small way, even if it's just adding a category and some minor formatting. I'm also proud of the few occasions when I've been able to cool edit wars down by talking to the people involved, or just by editing the article to some compromise version that ends a tug-of-war between two non-NPOV versions. There's also informal mentoring, which I'll say more about in the next question.

2. 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?

   Stress? Me? Never! No, I've certainly dealt with conflict here. I seem to have a habit of trying to mentor "problem editors". This can lead to... interesting situations, which usually don't blow up in my face. I've been in some content disputes of my own, but none of those have really turned ugly. The biggest conflict I've been a part of is the whole userbox affair, in which I've been trying to stop people calling it a "war" and acting like it's a war, and trying to explain and articulate the case against boxen. How successful I've been at reducing the tension of the affair, I don't know, but I keep trying.

   As far as future conflicts, I guess I'll see what happens. I really believe that WP:AGF is a magic carpet that will fly you over the thorniest of confrontations. If you can make it clear to someone that you see and appreciate their good-faith contributions, then you already have some common ground from which to build, and any problems that arise are probably just misunderstandings over some detail.