Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Newyorkbrad

Newyorkbrad

Voice your opinion (13/0/0); Scheduled to end 05:32, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Newyorkbrad (talk · contribs) – Newyorkbrad has been a regular editor since July, 2006. Since then, Brad has contributed in excess of 5000 edits, well spread across the main spaces.

Brad is an active participant in deletion discussions at XfD where his contributions are always based on a solid policy foundation and common sense. ([1], [2]). Additionally, Brad has been involved in a lot of policy debates and discussions regarding the application of policy. (eg: [3] [4], [5])

An attorney in real life, Brad has shown a particular interest in arbitration, where he discusses cases, presents evidence [6], proposes temporary injunctions [7], findings of fact [8], principles [9], remedies [10], and assists with general maintenance of the arbitration pages. [11]. His work assisting at arbitration would clearly be enhanced with admin tools giving him the ability to review deleted articles and edits and assist with enforcement of injunctions and remedies.

Brad is extremely generous with his expertise, writing and expanding legal articles, including Recusal, Jones Law, and Bureau of Insular Affairs; assisting other editors with the legal articles [12], [13] and helping answer legal questions on the reference desk. [14] He has been active in the creation of a series of biographies, including those on US Federal Judges (eg: Peter J. Hamilton, William James Wallace, Frederic Dodge, Hugh H. Bownes).

Always calm, kind and fair, Brad has never even pushed the boundaries of WP:NPA or WP:CIVIL. He takes the time to welcome new editors and looks out for other editors, new [15] and old [16] alike, offering words of encouragement and friendly advice. [17]

He also assists with vandal patrol, where he follows up with the appropriate level warnings from the full range of warning templates (eg: [18], [19], [20], and [21]. When appropriate, Brad reports vandals to WP:AIV ([22], [23]) and also assists administrators with maintenance of AIV.[24]

Brad is an exceptional candidate for adminship. I believe he will make an outstanding administrator and ask the community to support this Request for Adminship. Sarah 01:11, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here:

I would like to thank Sarah for a wonderfully written and kind nomination statement. I also thank several other editors who have urged me to seek adminship. I accept. Newyorkbrad 05:38, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Questions for the candidate

Dear candidate, thank you for offering to serve Wikipedia in this capacity. Please take the time to answer a few generic questions to provide guidance for voters:

1. What sysop chores do you anticipate helping with? Please check out Category:Wikipedia backlog and Category:Administrative backlog, and read the page about administrators and the administrators' reading list.

A: If my candidacy is successful, I would continue as an administrator much of what I have been doing as an editor over the past six months. I'd continue dealing with vandals whom I spot from the articles on my watchlist as well as from reports at WP:AIV, warning when appropriate and blocking when necessary.

I'd continue participating in discussions on the administrators' noticeboards (WP:AN and ANI), addressing incident reports presented by editors, and raising more complex situations for open discussion and consensus solutions. I would participate in whatever evolves to replace the personal attacks noticeboard (WP:PAIN) and in the somewhat lesser-known forums such as WP:RFI and WP:WQA.

I also anticipate keeping an eye on blocked users' requests for unblocking. My impression is that many, perhaps most, of these requests are frivolous, but occasionally there is a questionable block or one that hasn't been sufficiently explained, and the blocked user is entitled to a prompt review by an uninvolved administrator and should receive one. Conversely, when the block is valid, confirmation of that opinion by another admin can be reassuring to the blocking admin while reinforcing to the blocked user why his or her conduct was unacceptable.

I might get involved in addressing some 3RR reports on WP:AN3, a board whose business has historically been handled by just a few admins (more are pitching in lately). I have some ideas for new mechanisms that might make that board a little bit more user-friendly and less confrontational, which I would certainly discuss with the admins with experience on that page and seek consensus support for before trying out.

I also would help out with WP:AE, the arbitration enforcement board. That can be a very unpleasant place sometimes, and the burden of dealing with some of the project's most intractible situations is being handled right now by a very small number of admins. I'd also feel qualified to work on any backlogs involving bios of living persons and textual copyright issues, which are areas requiring constant administrator attention for the protection both of the project and of third parties whose rights may be involved. Finally, although deletion-closing is not something I presently plan to make a specialty area, I have enough AfD and MfD experience to participate in the admin tasks there is well.

Although I've described a number of different areas in which I look forward to being involved if my candidacy is successful, I should also add that I plan to pace myself. Within the past couple of weeks, I've seen several highly-regarded admins either resign their sysop privileges or suggest they were thinking of doing so. Stress and burnout for administrators and other contributors is a major problem for the encyclopedia and the community. I plan to avoid that fate and to be here for the long haul, and I hope to work as administrator to help maintain an environment where others feel the same way.

Finally, no matter what administrator functions I perform, I intend always to remain a content editor as well and to continue writing, editing, and updating articles.

2. Of your articles or contributions to Wikipedia, are there any with which you are particularly pleased, and why?

A: Like virtually all editors, I came to Wikipedia originally to write articles. Coming to the project in 2006, I found myself envying those who were here a few years earlier and had the blank pages to work on. I would have loved to write the articles about the 60 Sherlock Holmes stories, or the 79 original Star Trek episodes, or the 14 operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, but those niches were already taken. So instead, I drew on some real-world expertise and, as Sarah notes, decided to write some biographical pieces on U.S. federal judges. Some of these are still stubbish and pretty basic, but others contain more interesting nuggets of U.S. legal history well-worthy of inclusion in an encyclopedia: see for example Martin Manton and Richard J. Daronco, or Peter J. Hamilton and Samuel Mandelbaum. (None of these is, or will be, a featured article, but some could have had DYK mentions if I'd thought to nominate them at the time.) I've also written a few other law-related articles, some of which Sarah has mentioned, and contributed to a variety of miscellaneous topics ranging from the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories to Arthur Yager to Nero Wolfe, the last of which I hope to help make an FA someday. My contributions list and watchlist, like my list of interests in general, can be described as somewhat eclectic.

As the months have passed, I've found myself spending more time in project space, though I've tried to do that in addition to, rather than instead of, my article-writing and editing. Relatively early in my Wiki-career, I did my best to assist in resolving a particularly contentious and difficult situation that was dividing the community, although unfortunately I don't see a lot of evidence at the moment that I succeeded. I hope that I've made positive contributions by participating in problem-solving on the noticeboards, and by workshopping a number of ArbCom cases, and by commenting on some RfCs. My focus has been on trying to resolve issues and find a positive way forward for everyone where that is reasonably possible.

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: My mainspace editing has not involved me any serious controversies that I can recall. I've had some of my edits to various articles reverted (ever since my first edit as an anon, which was reverted within 2 minutes of my posting it, but stuck when I posted again with more detail in the edit and the edit summary). One particular reversion of a copyedit I did, a reversion accompanied by an edit summary along the lines of "these changes aren't very good," still rankles a little, but I reread my edit again a few minutes ago and my critic was probably right. Candidly, some of my articles probably haven't had any readership at all yet, much less drawn readers interested enough in the contents to edit-war over them.

I've been involved in more controversy in Wikipedia space. Commenting on contentious discussions on the noticeboards, or on proposed and pending arbitration cases, by definition puts one into the middle of a dispute, although I've generally tried to be a problem-solver rather than a disputant. (As a particularly silly recent example, I think I may have kept the "Santa Claus Wheel War" out of arbitration. Don't even ask....)

I've certainly been called a few choice names, sometimes by soon-to-be-banned trolls or problem users, but a couple of times by experienced Wikipedians I respect. I won't pretend that doesn't sting, especially in a project where I felt at home from the outset of my involvement largely because of its ethos of civility and addressing the merits of issues without personal attacks. But given that in "real life" I'm a corporate litigation attorney in Manhattan, I have to say that I've been called worse.

General comments

• See Newyorkbrad's edit summary usage with mathbot's tool. For the edit count, see the talk page.

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Discussion

Support

1. Strong Support in lieu of co-nomination. I love this user. He will be the kind of thoughtful, mature, friendly, helpful sysop we need. I enjoy reading his opinions all over this project, and absolutely trust his judgment. Ms. Ewart covered the subject perfectly. I couldn't support more strongly. - crz crztalk 05:33, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
2. Cyde Weys 05:39, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
3. Support. Not fair voting before it opens, you cheaters. -Amarkov ^blah_edits 05:40, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
4. That was a surprise, I thought you were one a long time ago! Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 05:41, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
5. Support. G.He 05:41, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
6. Support, absolutely. I've never experienced so many edit conflicts because of people rushing to support an RfA. It bodes well. · j e r s y k o talk · 05:43, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
7. Support alphachimp 05:44, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
8. About time — Lost^(talk) 05:47, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
9. Strong Support need I say any more? James086^{Talk | Contribs} 05:49, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
10. Strong Support. No problems, excellent answers to questions. Insanephantom (my Editor Review) 05:53, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
11. Support, excellent editor. Seraphimblade 05:56, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
12. Super-strong Support - unbelievable level of involvement. --BigDT 05:57, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
13. Yes Naconkantari 06:00, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
14. About time Jaranda ^{wat's sup} 06:02, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
15. Automated Support. Dragons flight is on vacation, but he thinks Brad is a great guy who deserves the mop. Of course, Brad is also an idiot who didn't realize he was already a better candidate than most three months ago. Not only that, but he has the nerve to run only after his would be nominator goes on vacation. Those evident errors in judgment aside, Brad has already been a calm, rational and articulate contributor to important discussions at ANI and many other places, and if he is going to act that much like a sensible admin, it is about time we make him one. DFBot 06:02, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Oppose

Neutral