Wikipedia:Editor review/Wirbelwind

User:Wirbelwind

Wirbelwind (talk · contribs) About four months ago, I made one or two minor edits on Wikipedia and then decided to create an account to mask my IP. Since then, I have spent more and more time on Wikipedia, and recently, the thought of becoming an Admin crossed my mind. However, I don't feel as if I'm completely ready, but I would like to know if I am heading more or less in the right direction and making significant contributions, however small. I would like to be reviewed for such things as following and enforcing Wikipedia guidelines, as well as not making too many minor edits that are insignificant and contribute to clogging up the edit histories, and of course what I might do to improve future edits to guide me on my way in becoming a better Wikipedia editor. Thanks in advance for your time as well as constructive criticisms, if any. Wirbelwind 22:41, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Reviews

• Hello, Wirbelwind. Here is my review. Hopefully you will find some tips to improve.

  • First of all, I checked your edit summary with mathbot, and noticed you don't really use them (55% for major and 71% for minor edits). I suggest using them more often. When you modify something, the modification is listed in the watchlist of the persons who are watching that article. If you provide a summary, they will be able to know what you did before checking the differences, however if you don't provide one, they will be forced to check the diff. Thus, using edit summaries give some extra free time to everyone.
  • 13 user talk edits and 99 in article talk pages. Those numbers are not bad for someone who just recently started contributing. It is good to see you are sharing time with other editors in talk pages, the earlier you begin doing that, the faster you will accumulate experience to handle different conflicts.
  • The amount of time you spend at the reference desk is quite interesting. I noticed this talk, remember to always start new conversations at the bottom of the current talk page.
  • I notice you fixed some wikilinks like [[Harvest Moon (series)]]. Remember that you can "escape" wikilinks with [[Harvest Moon (series)|Harvest Moon Series]].
  • Checking your contributions, I realize you are what is known as a wikignome, someone who prefers doing small edits to articles than creating and expanding existing ones. I consider myself a wikignome too. As such, you may be interested in learning about the manual of style, and then clicking Special:Random to arrive to a random article, and apply the different styles depending in what the article needs. I also notice you contribute with some games like Harvest Moon, you may be interested in joining the Wikipedia:WikiProject Computer and video games, where you may find others who are also interested in the series.
  • Now, as your thought about becoming an administrator. It is still too early for you to try to become an administrator. If you check Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Standards, you will realize that the more edits and time you spend in Wikipedia, the more chances you get for becoming an admin. This is because spending time and editing here gives you experience that otherwise you would not get. I divide administrator in two big groups: those that are user-oriented and those that are article-oriented. The user-oriented ones primarily deal with vandals, reverting vandalism attempts, protecting articles, reporting and blocking users, etc. However, I don't see you reverting vandalism, nor reporting users to Administrator intervention against vandalism. The second group, the one oriented towards articles, mainly deal with deleting articles, images and categories. But I see an almost insignificant amount of time with Articles for deletion, reporting articles for speedy deletion, etc. So, I suggest you to do some patrolling, reporting pages that fit the speedy deletion criteria while patrolling, warning vandals with the correct templates, etc.

  As of now, you are right, you are still too young to consider adminship. You need at least a couple of months of active patrolling, and a good amount of interaction with others. As I said, adminship should be given to those who are willing to act like administrators, and so far, you have not done enough administrator-like actions to get it. If you want to continue the way you are going now, you will become an excellent wikignome. If you want to become administrator, you will have to change most of your current actions in Wikipedia, which may be too stressful. Meditate what you want to do, and whatever your decision is, just remember to stay civil, have a neutral point of view, and assume good faith. Good luck! -- ReyBrujo 21:15, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Comments

• View this user's edit count using Interiot's Tool (Firefox only).

Questions

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

   Answer: At the moment, I am most proud of Flyff because it was my first big edit, and I tried to make everything as fitting for an encyclopedia as I could, including removing content which is more suitable for a game guide as well as giving it a neutral POV. However, there is a section in the article "Criticism" which I have not really touched upon. There are also sections of the article which I have not touched, but I went through the first half fairly thoroughly, while learning more about Wikipedia.

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?

   Answer: I have had conflicts over editing, however, all but maybe one of the editors I had real conflicts with were problematic users who have histories of being warned or temporarily blocked. The less serious ones were mostly different interpretations of Wikipedia policies, but discussed in a meaningful manner. I haven't felt stressful over Wikipedia because it allows work to be saved and continued at a later time, which cuts down a lot of potential stress. However, there have been one or two times where I wished I had an easier mean to block persistant vandals, especially one who has a very extensive list of warnings and blocks. In some cases, I would put a template on the vandal's userpage to make a more noticeable record for admins about their history in vandalising. --Wirbelwind 22:54, 18 October 2006 (UTC)