Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Wikid77

Wikid77

Voice your opinion on this candidate (talk page) (0/0/0); Scheduled to end 05:00, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Nomination

User:Wikid77 (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) – Although I have been asked to submit a wp:RfA for years, this is a self-nomination to reduce work for current admins. Previously I had thought of admins as full-time managers, but now I see admins can take wikibreaks and share the workload. What finally prompted me, to submit an RfA, was a user asking why their article was deleted, at the wp:Help_desk, and I noticed an admin could read the deleted page and answer the user, whereas I could not. Also, the growing complexity of wp:templates and Lua script modules has left a shortage of technical admins who are prepared to update a complex template used in a million pages. However, I also intend to help with wp:AfD work, or to block users who are causing severe wp:Disruption, in unprotected templates or in major articles or images. —Wikid77 (talk) 05:11, 28 September 2013 (UTC)

Questions for the candidate

Dear candidate, thank you for offering to serve Wikipedia as an administrator. Please answer these questions to provide guidance for participants:

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

A: Mostly updates to protected wp:templates, Lua modules or other protected pages (see: CAT:EP), especially between 1:00-6:00 am, when many other admins are typically unlikely to respond. Several users have complained that this is "no longer a wiki" because so many pages have been protected, and they need help with timely updates to pages. Some full-protected templates have waited almost 3 years for updates, for issues noted and explained years ago. However, I am also willing to help with any emergency needs which involve numerous admin actions. -Wikid77 05:11, 28 September 2013 (UTC)

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

A: I feel a timely response to a frustrated user could be the best contribution (why: to improve the spirit of cooperation among users, to build positive synergy): someone had noted how a songwriter of a Tim McGraw song had been misspelled, and I was able to find a wp:RS source and correct the songwriter's name, as requested. Many templates have complex problems, and I have often debugged template glitches for other users within a few hours. However, among pages I wrote, the original Template:Convert/spell (April 2011), to convert a measurement and show the numbers in words, was a success. Perhaps the biggest impact was rewriting the wp:CS1 cites to use Lua script as 13x faster, transforming Uncle_G's Lua prototype in February 2013 (70 edits) to closely match {cite_web/old} format. After I explained how the wp:Scribunto interface was slow, a MediaWiki developer rewrote it to allow double-speed Lua. Among 100 recent articles, I created "Recovery of Aristotle" to help correct myths about Aristotle and focus attention on ancient Greek texts as well as recovery from old Arabic translations. With calendars, I wrote "Old Style 1752" (omitting 3–13 September) and 14 pages of "Old Style common year starting on Monday" (etc.) to remind people how calendar years had begun on 25 March, for many centuries longer than new-fangled "1 January" as New Year's Day, and those calendars were extremely complex to write, as if the whole world had forgotten how calendars looked after the Middle Ages. Meanwhile, I have written numerous essays: "wp:Wikimedia Foundation error" explains the 60-second timeout of formatting large pages, while "wp:Advanced text formatting" shows detailed typesetting, and "wp:Wikifinagling" allows talking about skirting the rules, without any demeaning comments about the profession of a lawyer. I have begun creating wp:Helpbox pages, such as {{wikitext}} for a short reference card to remind users about markup format or template parameters (see: {{convert/help}}). Feel free to ask questions about the thousands of templates or articles or essays I have edited. -Wikid77 05:11, 28 September 2013 (UTC)

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: Yes, many conflicts have reminded me to drop the wp:STICK and "back slowly away" from disputes, and in fact, some editors have even complained at me for leaving a debate too soon. I have kept my indef topic-ban of "Murder of Meredith Kercher" (in wp:RESTRICT) as a reminder not to go against a group of editors or else face censure. Instead, treat each person as an individual with their own viewpoint and "go with the flow" of other editors. In a sense, Wikipedia has "traffic-jams" of conflicts, and many users are stuck on the same road, to find a mutual solution, not abandon the efforts and quit. One former vandal wrote to me about being reformed to now correct vandalized text, so give people time to change their viewpoints. Hopefully, as a admin I can remind people not to tower above others in demanding a lofty "fairness" in mid-traffic, but instead, we try to work with others to clear problems at a reasonable pace. There are numerous conflicts, and progress requires diplomacy. -Wikid77 05:11, 28 September 2013 (UTC)

General comments

• Links for Wikid77: Wikid77 (talk · contribs · deleted · count · AfD · logs · block log · lu · rfar · spi)
• Edit summary usage for Wikid77 can be found here.

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