Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Chzz

Chzz

Voice your opinion on this candidate (talk page) (15/6/2); Scheduled to end 09:12, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Nomination

Chzz (talk · contribs) – Chzz has been around since early last year and has been incredibly active since February this year. In this relatively short time he has gained a remarkably broad experience in many areas of the encyclopedia, and has established himself, in my opinion, as one of the friendliest and most helpful editors that we have.

I first met Chzz when he started helping at WikiProject Articles for creation and I noticed how much care and attention went into his article reviews. He often takes the time to give a constructive comment (example) when a submission has some issues, rather than just using the default message. He also spends considerable time formatting and expanding articles after reviewing them (see, for example, Donald Miralle). Chzz helps out with Category:Unreviewed new articles and has demonstrated a full understanding of guidelines and policies relating to inclusion criteria. He regularly nominates articles for speedy deletion and also makes full use of the proposed deletion and articles for deletion processes.

Chzz spends time answering questions at the help desk and responding to queries in Category:Wikipedians looking for help. Often his talk page acts as a help desk as well and you will see the quality of the help given (random example) from looking through the archives.

My perception is that this editor is highly principled and does not shy away from standing up for what he/she feels is right. I have seen this editor handling delicate situations rather well (example) with a good combination of admonishment and encouragement. Above all they are conscientious, evidenced by the careful keeping of notes of issues which need to be monitored or followed-up later. In my opinion, Chzz will make a fine administrator and I'm glad he finally succumbed to pressure and agreed to stand. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 19:05, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here:

Thank you for your kind words, Martin - I'll do my best. I accept  Chzz  ►  09:06, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Questions for the candidate

Dear candidate, thank you for offering to serve Wikipedia as an administrator. It is recommended that you answer these optional questions to provide guidance for participants:

1. What administrative work do you intend to take part in?

A: I can help with the deletion processes (CAT:CSD backlog, expired PROD, and AfD - in all cases, of course I would try to rescue the article if possible). I often check through new pages, and deleting the blatantly inappropriate content rather than tagging it would be more efficient. I can help with page protection issues (including the never-ending {{editprotected}}). I'm sure I could help with blocking too; I've noticed occasional delays in processing WP:UAA recently. I understand that DYK needs help - I'm familiar with the process there, as I've had quite a few DYK's. I'm quite happy to help in any area at all, although I'll certainly triple–check any actions until I am very familiar with the tools. I would also find it useful to be able to see deleted articles when helping new users, and userfy where appropriate.

2. What are your best contributions to Wikipedia, and why?

A: I'd say that it was helping other users (see my talk page archives) - I think that's the most important thing that anyone can do on Wikipedia. In terms of articles though...I most enjoyed William Windsor (goat), because lots of people got involved, including several that don't edit much. Re-launching spotlight led to me working on Marco Polo quite a bit; I helped Fountain of Time on it's way to FA (GAR), and I edit a lot when I process GANs, such as First-person shooter. I've helped new users create articles such as Dagenham Roundhouse, 2009 Thekkady boat disaster. All of those preceeding examples are about collaboration, which I think it the heart of Wikipedia. In addition, I have created articles from scratch, such as Tanna japonensis, Lydia Foy, Arthur Adams (singer), and many more.

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

A: I've had disagreements, and thus "arguments" in the truest sense, but I've never entered into an edit-war. I've occasionally felt stressed, and when that happens I step away from the keyboard or work on something else for a while, to regain perspective (eg). I'm not afraid of dealing with contentious, difficult issues. Recently, for example, I've worked hard to resolve the many difficulties in Talk:List of best-selling music artists (see extensive archives).

Additional optional questions from candidate (might as well get this out of the way)

4. Why were you blocked?

A: A year and five months ago, shortly after becoming a 'serious' contributor, I was full of the spirit of WP:BOLD, and embraced the freedom of Wikipedia. I thought that adding an image would make the article on goatse much more informative, and I felt that the discussions on the topic did not show any policy-based reasoning that prohibited just going ahead and adding one. I uploaded the image, and it was almost instantly deleted, so with righteous indignation, I tried again, and a third time - and was blocked for just over 1 hour. I certainly wouldn't do anything like that now that I understand things better; I would, instead, work towards consensus. I've made many contributions since then, and had no significant drama at all.

Additional optional questions from Bwilkins

5. Would you be willing to advise bureaucrats in private of any alternate account that you may have, or may create in the future if you become an administrator?

A: I have no problem in declaring it right here. I have never edited with another account, except;

• Prior to signing up, I edited a little as an IP - very little though, and it's many years ago; I can't even remember what it was, some very minor typo or something.
• ChzzBot (talk · contribs) - an approved BOT account
• MaxiPop (talk · contribs) which was created per User:WereSpielChequers/Newbie treatment - I informed Arbcom of this before using it, and as you'll see I mucked things up by forgetting I was logged in to that one, and answered a helpme shout [1]. I signed as soon as I realized, [2] - guess I'm not very good at 'socking' :-)
• One other account, per the above, which is currently still performing the said 'test' - naming it here would defeat the object, although it's not a dig deal, if you want me to. Again, arbcom informed. I've made 5 edits with it.
• I have forgotten to log in a couple of times (or been logged out through a disconnect), but I've corrected that with a sig later.

I have never made any other edits with any other accounts.  Chzz  ►  11:10, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Nothing to hide here; I appreciate how important this is, and can provide any information required.  Chzz  ►  11:10, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Additional questions from NuclearWarfare stolen from Jennavecia

6. What is your view of the current BLP situation? Do you believe there is a problem or do you believe that we are doing a sufficient job in maintaining our BLPs and protecting the subjects of them? If the former, please explain how significant you feel the problem is.

A:

7. For BLP AFDs resulting in "no consensus", do you believe it is better to default to keep or default to delete? Why?

A:

8. Imagining you're an admin, you go to close a BLP AFD on a marginally notable individual. Reading through the comments, you see that the subject of the article (identity verified through OTRS) has voiced concerns about false claims that have been made in the article, and wants it to be deleted. How much consideration, if any, do you give to their argument?

A:

General comments

• Links for Chzz: Chzz (talk · contribs · deleted · count · AfD · logs · block log · lu · rfar · spi)
• Edit summary usage for Chzz can be found here.

---

Please keep discussion constructive and civil. If you are unfamiliar with the nominee, please thoroughly review Special:Contributions/Chzz before commenting.

Discussion

• Edit Stats at talk page. AtheWeatherman 10:16, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Support

1. Support Great user. One of the most helpful to newbies. I personally have mainly seen him in bot areas, where he interacts with others well. Also I've had a look at a few of his edits on admin areas, such as deletion, and am impressed. Fully trust this user with the tools. I'll expand if need be :) - Kingpin¹³ (talk) 09:19, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
2. Support. And about time too! Chzz is invaluable to Wikipedia, very helpful, knowledgeable, and personable. I'm certain he will make an excellent administrator. -- œ^™ 10:08, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
3. Support. Looking through the candidate's deleted contribs (back a month or so), I see a lot of good CSD tags. I agree that there were some questionable tags, as noted, and I'd like to see the candidate take more caution before actually hitting the delete button, but I think this is more of a volume issue than a quality issue - with as many tags as I'm seeing, surely a few will be questionable. Looking at the 250+ 150+ CSD tags from this candidate over the last month, if only half a dozen were bad, I'll take it. I also see some thoughtful nominations to AFD, which speaks well for the candidate. In short, I'm unconcerned. No objection to granting the tools. Good luck, UltraExactZZ ^Claims ~ Evidence 12:16, 27 October 2009 (UTC) Some of those aren't csd tags. Revised number is more accurate, pending a line-by-line count - which I guess could be done if questions remain. UltraExactZZ ^Claims ~ Evidence 12:19, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
4. He isn't already? except I knew he wasn't. Chzz is helpful at AfC, answers those ever-important {{helpme}} questions and is a great article contributor. GrooveDog • i'm groovy. 12:44, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
5. Support The information presented below by SoWhy is troubling, but Chzz'z explanation and information presented by UltraExactZZ above show that Chzz is willing to fix identified problems and it is a small problem. I do not think Chzz will misuse the tools. ~~ GB fan ~~ ^talk 12:53, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
6. Strong support Exemplary editor, one of the most diligent and committed I have come across. Has the character and temperament to learn from and overcome comparatively minor mistakes made and become a definite asset to the admin corps.  Skomorokh, barbarian  13:06, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
7. Support: Experienced, has very good policy knowledge and is very helpful. Definitely qualified for the admin tools. ≈ Chamal ^talk ¤ 13:20, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
8. Support Been waiting for this one. Giving Chzz the tools would be one of the greatest benefits to the encyclopedia. Nobody but nobody does more to help newcomers, and if there's a helpme tag somewhere, nine times out of ten Chzz has helped them. One need only look at the talkpage archives for proof Chzz will help this place be friendlier to join. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 13:50, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
9. Weak Support I think Chzz will be a good administrator if he can stay away from things that push his buttons. Everyone makes mistakes and everyone deserves the opportunity to learn and grow from them. Hopefully we can be supportive of him if things get too hot, as hopefully he would if we find ourselves in a contenuous position. Doc Quintana (talk) 13:54, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
10. Of course (deletion mistakes can easily be undone, and no one is perfect). Majorly talk 13:59, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
11. Support - I've encountered this editor in the field and find him to be thoughtful and reasonable. Agree with UltraExactZZ that Chzz's work in AfD is an overall plus to the project. The objection by So Why is answered well, and I am strongly convinced Chzz will be a quality addition to the mop and bucket corps. My best wishes in the RfA process and beyond, Jusdafax 14:04, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
12. Support Other than being one of the single most helpful people I've come across on here, Chzz displays a very good understanding of the intricacies of policies. I totally take on board SoWhy's concerns below, and would suggest that, should this RfA pass (and probably even if it doesn't) is go slow and steady with CSD. I remember when I used to tag for CSD that it's easy to get carried away with getting things done as fast as possible, and I certainly see admins deleting faster than I do to blast through the 100 page backlog that builds up. Tag, use the preview, check the article meets the requirements on the template, then tag it. Avoid using Twinkle when it could be borderline. GedUK  14:12, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
13. Support—Peter's oppose is concerning, but I still feel that Chzz is likely to be a net positive if granted +sysop. As others have mentioned, Chzz dedicates their time to helping newcomers, something that's more important than ever at this point. –Juliancolton | ^Talk 14:22, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
14. Support - the response to SoWhy's concerns is thoughtful and detailed, so I think overall he'll make a good admin. PhilKnight (talk) 14:57, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
15. Strong Support Very helpful to new people. I just can't see a valid reason for why (s)he shouldn't be an admin. I give my full support for him/her.  Ilyushka88  talk  15:37, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Oppose

1. Weak Oppose A good candidate but their work in CAT:CSD, an area they expressed to wish to work at as an admin, suffers from beginner's mistakes, e.g. A7 for fictional character, G11 for an article that even contains criticism of the subject, A7 for a club that played at the highest level of its sport, G11 without advertising content, A7 with claims of importance and a reliable source and A7 for a band consisting of notable musicians. Those taggings (all declined within the last month) demonstrate that the candidate has not yet the necessary grasp on the speedy deletion criteria (especially G11 and A7) to be trusted with the deletion button - which is a shame because he has shown to a be very good candidate for adminship otherwise. Regards SoWhy 09:53, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

   • Hanayu Ashitaba (20 September 2009) I tagged as {{db-person}} - yes, that was incorrect; it should have been redirected, as it is now. I understand why I made that mistake, and won't repeat it.
   • Everything (software) I tagged as {{db-spam}}, as I thought it was "exclusively promotional, and would need to be fundamentally rewritten to become encyclopedic", based on the phrases like can rapidly find files, an extremely lightweight application, using very little memory, etc. I appreciate that it did contain references, but noted that they were all forum postings (e.g. [3]). I appreciate your point, and will be much more circumspect with this criteria in the future.
   • Badener Greifs I tagged {{db-club}}. Speedy was removed with the comment, Appearing in the German Bowl and being in the top league in a country are both indications of possible notabality to me so speedy removed. I agree, that was incorrect.
   • Bright Eyes Sunglasses I tagged as {{db-spam}}, based on phrases exploding in popularity throughout the east coast of Australia, set it on the path to expansion again, reaching 120 stores throughout Australia and New Zealand. I also had concerns about unsourced BLP content, that he was running a large retail franchise proved to be beyond his skills. Thus, I conclude that it was not exclusively promotional, but I do feel that it would "need to be fundamentally rewritten to become encyclopedic". I appreciate that A7 was not appropriate.
   • AMFJ, {{db-band}} - I thought that falkworld.net appeared to be a primary source, and rettir.is contains a copy of the same text. I may have missed the fact that grapevine.is appears valid, and I agree that this should not have been processed as a speedy deletion.
   • The Queen Project - I did not realise that the wikilinks to artists represented a claim to notability for a band; I know better now, and will not repeat that misake.

   In conclusion - I made mistakes. In the timeframe indicated, I believe that I tagged over a hundred other articles correctly (I will try to get stats on that) - but that is no excuse. I will be more careful. I understand the need for extreme caution in speedy deletion, and as stated in my acceptance, I will only delete truly blatantly inappropriate content under Speedy Deletion criteria. I understand that administrative deletion decisions require even more caution than tagging, as there is no natural 'second check'. If I possibly can, I will try to tag articles for CSD in the next few days, to demonstrate that I honestly will be ultra-careful in future. If more time is required for such proof, that's fine - I can simply withdraw from this RfA, it's no big deal. Thank you for highlighting those errors, which will help me to be more accurate in the future.  Chzz  ►  12:10, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

   P.S. I've extracted the other 100+ CSD tagged articles, in case anyone wants to check them, here  Chzz  ►  15:11, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

2. weak OpposeThere is alot here that i like. But i think the CSD still needs work as what SoWhy has outlined and may need some more work. The time we spend in nominating an article should reflect wether we truly feel we would delete it as an admin (which at this point i think the decisions by chzz are too rushed) We all make mistakes, Im just hesitant at this point for supporting and have a level of caution at this time. Ottawa4ever (talk) 11:37, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
3. Oppose. Chzz is a helpful editor, but is not level-headed when discussing things close to him. I remember this discussion regarding censorship on the main page. Despite the obvious opposition to that hook, Chzz continued to force his own opinion by approving the hook against consensus, regarding his own position as the legitimate one ("...it's clear from the discussion that there is no policy reason to prevent this from going ahead."). A similar discussion occurred here, again regarding his own opinion as the only legitimate one ("This sort of thing that is decided by the community via agreed policy. If you think that policy needs to change, then suggest changing it. In the meantime, please adhere to the policy.") I find Chzz too quick to consider his own opinion, or interpretation of policy, as a legitimate reason to act without consensus, and this is quite alarming for a potential administrator. I am thus opposed for now. PeterSymonds (talk) 13:48, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
4. Very Weak Oppose. I came here to support but, well, several of the issues noted above are, regrettably, concerning. Chzz has made some excellent contributions to the project, with a particular emphasis on excellent. However, the recent CSD mistaggings noted by SoWhy are a cause for concern, especially since Chzz intends to work in that administrative area. On top of that, the diffs noted by PeterSymonds, are definitely not a plus, but I guess we all have our own opinions - just try not to press them on others in the future. -FASTILY_sock ^(TALK) 14:35, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
5. Oppose. There is no denying that Chzz is a very helpful editor - and this is not to negate his boundless efforts with the welcoming and helping of newbies. However, I have several concerns and am agreeing with PeterSymonds. Some fairly recent actions, such the DYK hook, seem to indicate his underlying tendency to consider his own opinion higher than others. This could be problematic if he gains admin tools and starts making decisions contrary to consensus. I also have a general concern about his view on speedy deletion. Although it was a few months ago, I can't help but remember this incident. To give some background, new user Reahad created several one-line articles (I believe six) about notable individuals; Chzz tagged all of these pages under A1/A3. The application of "no context" in this case was questionable, and along with that, the author was actively starting to expand the articles, as promised in his edit summaries. I decided to decline the CSD tags and keep an eye on the situation, because it only made sense to let the author continue to expand his pages. During this time I had an off-wiki conversation where Chzz considered my use of "admin discretion" as bothersome, which in part led a wikibreak. This whole case, as an example, causes me to question his judgement and reactive tendencies. This is not meant as retaliation - rather, I'm just judging based on my past experiences with him, and it leads me to oppose. JamieS93 15:30, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
6. Oppose I'm sorry Chzz, I very rarely oppose, hate doing so and hope that with a bit more caution and empathy for the new contributors at speedy deletion we will see you again in three months or so. I'm mainly opposing per SoWhy, though with this additional example A world tour by Mary J Blige tagged as "No context". Also I'm a little concerned about your judgement; The Goatse thing that got you blocked was long ago, and I'd normally disreagard it, but the example PeterSymmonds gave was from this summer. ϢereSpielChequers 15:43, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Neutral

1. Provisional neutral: Chzz is a superb editor, and I am a great admirer of their work. I was thrilled when I heard they'd finally agreed to stand for adminship, and saw myself supporting in a heartbeat. However, the objections raised by SoWhy are difficult to ignore. I've come across many pages tagged for deletion by Chzz, and don't usually see problems, so would guess that valid taggings far outweigh the errors. In spite of the errors, Chzz would almost certainly be a huge net-positive, but I think I will wait a while and see what other comments arise, before deciding whether to move to support. AJCham 10:28, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
2. Neutral - hmm... I came to support, but those CSD tags are a bit troubling... I'll come back later to see if the questions convince me.--Unionhawk ^{Talk E-mail Review} 12:09, 27 October 2009 (UTC)