Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/VernoWhitney

VernoWhitney

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Nomination

VernoWhitney (talk · contribs) – I am pleased to present Verno Whitney as a candidate for adminship. Verno has been with us for almost a year, during which time he has become a central part of Wikipedia’s copyright cleanup. Among his contributions to that work, he has been a prolific contributor to suspected copyright violations since March, he has been a conscientious clerk at Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations since May, he has personally devoted many hours to evaluating and cleaning individual CCIs, he is an active volunteer for the permissions queue at OTRS, and he runs User:VWBot which handles much of the manual labor at various copyright points and also helps to ensure that articles tagged for problems receive appropriate review. He is also an active participant at various discussion boards related to copyright (including the oft-neglected Wikipedia:Non-free content review and Wikipedia:Media copyright questions Oh, and even my talk page, where I get a wide diversity of copyright questions! [1], for one example) .

In terms of judgment, Verno is a careful evaluator. His deletion logs show a history of appropriate deletion tags (WP:CSD#G12, WP:CSD#F9, WP:CSD#F11), but he also knows when content needs further review rather than immediate deletion. He has listed many articles for additional content review at the copyright problems board. He also recognizes when content does not need deletion at all ([2], [3]). And he knows when to seek feedback when necessary, as all of us who work in this area must do: see, for example, this thread at my talk page.

Verno does quite a bit for the project already, but he could do even more with the tools. He has need of them to prevent redundant labor. Snagging one day at random at SCV (which actually displays examples of the kinds of judgments required there), we can see that he frequently must tag articles for some admin to review. On that particular day, it was for history merges. Frequently, it’s for WP:CSD#G12. Also, as an OTRS agent he often handles tickets for items that have already been deleted and must request an admin to restore them in order to note the permission (see for one example: [4]). Too, with his familiarity with image copyright issues, he could help clear out some of the perpetual backlog at image CSDs.

I think Verno is one of the best assets copyright cleanup on Wikipedia has, and the tools would only make him better. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 12:10, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Co-nom

There's not much I can add that's not already quite evident about how invaluable VernoWhitney is to the copyright cleanup project. What I can say though is that VernoWhitney is one of the most dedicated, proficient and thorough editors I've had the pleasure of working with. His passion for keeping Wikipedia clean is indeed inspiring to me, and I can just imagine how much better things could be if he's able to perform his duties more efficiently and expediently with the admin toolset. I would have to say he's more than qualified to wield the mop: He's got a clean block log, over 20,000 edits, plenty of barnstars, doesn't get involved in senseless drama, always uses edit summaries, operates a useful bot, is helpful, clueful, reliable, and accountable. 'nuff said. -- œ^™ 12:25, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: I accept. Thank you both for your kind words. VernoWhitney (talk) 12:42, 5 November 2010 (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: I intend to continue working in the copyright area; speedy deletion of copyvios, undeletion of images and articles when permission is confirmed, history merges to fix attribution for cut/paste moves, and blocks of repeat infringers.

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

A: As you may have guessed from Moonriddengirl's nom statement, that would be my copyright work. I have helped complete multiple WP:CCIs and would hazard that I have cleared most of the entries at WP:SCV almost daily since mid-March. I am an OTRS volunteer and regularly handle copyvio complaints and permission donations there. I programmed and run VWBot which helps clerking the text copyvio area so that tagged problems don't get overlooked and provides redundancy for the occasions when the other bots that work in the area go down. I also contribute to discussions at WP:IMAGEHELP and WP:NFCR on a semi-regular basis. As far as non-copyvio work goes, I keep Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Request board clear.

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 believe the biggest conflict I have been in was for starting CCIs on users who uploaded copyvios in good faith. I would say that having my motives called into question caused my stress. I have dealt with it by trying to explain in detail why I did what I did and why I stand behind my actions, and attempting to explain using different words when there appears to be an impasse in communications.

General comments

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

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Please keep discussion constructive and civil. If you are unfamiliar with the nominee, please thoroughly review their contributions before commenting.