User:Ktr101/Administrator coaching

I was born way back in a December morning of 1990. I was a Christmas baby, having been born just 5 days before. I thus suffer from the present issue that surrounds us people.

Fast forward 16 years, and I began to be interested in Wikipedia. I had always been a history buff from the start, and I wanted to give back to the community. I also wanted to write things down so that I would not forget what I had just learned. I became active, participating here and there, plagarizing what I could. After the "final warning" block, I thought: "Oh ----, I better straighten out my act." From there on, I started to edit articles about the Air National Guard. Things got better when I learned the various ways of citing things, and from there, I wrote even more. After wrapping up my 4 month stint on the ANG squadron page creation process, I diversified my interests, learning what to do, and what not to do in order to further a cause. I even led a proposal at the Military History project to change the naming conventions (it stalled out). In the process of that, I nominated myself twice for RFAs, failing miserably both times. I then went on to create two other WikiProjects, on top of the Cape & Islands one. All three are active to this day, but the newer two are in need of members.

This past month, I went to Balloonman and Xeno asking about a possible RFA. After some advice from both, they said wait a few months. I then waited, participating in random things. After a while, I created a template, and didn't think the process through. I then was nominated by another editor, and added in questions. Apparently I never did mention the critical parts, and I failed it on account of those two issues. I then asked Julian if he would be kind enough as to coach me, and he said yes. That leads to this. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 01:13, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Starting off

Welcome to admin coaching! To start off, I'm going to post the standard three RfA questions. Answer them to the best of your ability. Every month or so, I'll post them again, so we can track your progress.

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: As an administrator, I intend on working at AIV, the noticeboard. I would also help the whole speedy deletion backlog, as I have experienced firsthand the backlog at the site.

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

A: This is a hard question. Having made many edits on this site, I really cannot decide my best edit. In past RFAs, I had said that I had taken pride in my Air National Guard pages, but the truth is, I really am proud of all of them. This is because I passionately edit the site through good health and bad (try editing with a fever), and I have only regretted the edits that I made within the first few weeks here, when I pretty much plagarized things off the web. As those times are long past, I am looking into the future realizing that I have many more edits to go here. I will always love my work, because otherwise I would've stopped working on this site months ago. In the end, my best work is that with which I have done careful research for, and which has provided the base for many great articles.

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: No, and this is not because I try to avoid them. I just seem to work on the "calm" pages.

Is this Wikipedia?

One more question before we dive into lessons. What does this image symbolize? Do you agree with it? Why or why not? –Juliancolton | ^Talk 01:30, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

To some extent, yes I do. I think that since the average person isn't versed in Wiki policies, they are unlikely to know what is appropriate on this site. This makes them more likely to create a page for something that isn't really notable. I don't agree that we have a crapload of Pokemon stuff though, and other nonsense, because it seems to be more evenly spread out across the board. It does make a good point though about most of the new pages here. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 02:38, 26 August 2009 (UTC)