Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Thingg

Thingg

Voice your opinion (talk page) (15/2/0); Scheduled to end 15:10, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Thingg (talk · contribs) - Over the last several months, I've been spending a lot of time editing Wikipedia. I've met many great users, and one of those who has really stood out above the rest has been Thingg. A prolific recent changes patroller, rather than simply reverting the vandalism, he follows through with appropriate warnings and AIV reporting if deemed necessary. Not only is he tireless in his efforts to combat vandalism, but he maintains an incredible level of composure in the face of the personal attacks that are often directed at him.

His contributions to the WikiProject Xbox, of which I'm a member, have been invaluable - and I'm sure the same can be said of his work in the other WikiProjects he holds membership in. Not only did he assist us in designing our project page, but he created many of the templates that we are using, as well as put his artistic skills to use in designing our logos (note we're in a transitional period right now). Also, he uses one of my userboxes ;>, and he's got a great sense of humour - which I think is an important quality no matter the position.

He's been a member since November 2007 and has already made over 10,000 contributions. Also, even though he's been registered for just 6 months, he seems to have already acquired a vast knowledge of wikitext, and has been able to solve every problem that I've ever put forth to him. Please note, I believe that Malinaccier wished to be included as co-nominator. For these foregoing reasons, I feel Thingg would make an excellent Wikipedia administrator. He is both a gentleman, and a scholar. xenocidic (talk) 14:31, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Co-nomination from Malinaccier–Thingg came to me yesterday asking whether he was ready for an RFA. I didn't respond "yes", I responded with the question "May I co-nominate?" I like Thingg's work on Wikipedia so much because he doesn't "specialize" in anti-vandalism only, article building only, or wiki-gnoming only—he does it all. In the five months that he's been here, he's helped get Playstation 3 up to Featured Article status, has made 316 edits to WP:AIV, and has had the time to be an active contributor in several Wikiprojects. In addition to these statistics, I've found that Thingg is a kind, attentive user who is always open to criticism. In response to a templated warning he once recieved for coming close to violating the three revert rule, he replied civilly and calmly here, and didn't blow up about "not templating the regulars." Incidents like these, coupled with his editing skills lead me to believe that Thingg is definitely ready for the extra burden of adminship. Thank you, Malinaccier (talk) 15:02, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: I accept. And thank you for your kind words. Thingg^⊕⊗ 15:10, 19 April 2008 (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 admin work do you intend to take part in?

A: Since I do quite a bit of vandalism reversion, I will block persistent vandals I come across and also help out at AIV, RFPP, and UAA. As Wikipedia has become more and more well-known (attracting larger numbers of vandals) and Huggle has come into relatively widespread use, AIV has often looked like this. I hope to help keep the number of extant reports to a minimum. Also, CSD seems to always have work to be done, and I plan to help keep the backlogs down over there. Once I gain experience with admin duties, I also plan to participate at AN, ANI, and RAA. Also, being able to move a page over a redirect will come in handy in situations like this where a page is incorrectly moved and is edited by someone else before it can be moved back.

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

A: My improvements to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable are the probably the best contributions I have made to Wikipedia. Although the latter did not reach FA status, the article is still much improved over what it was. As Xenocidic mentioned, I helped with setting up Portal:Xbox 360 and designed some of the templates for WikiProject Xbox when it was just starting. I have made quite a few contributions to articles relating to the High definition optical disc format war and participated in the discussions on how to present information as events progressed through the format war's climax and aftermath. I also do a fair amount of vandalism reversion and I am happy to help keep Wikipedia free of vandalism.

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: The largest conflict I have been involved in was how to present the studio support information on the Comparison of high definition optical disc formats page after Warner Bros. announced in January they would be ceasing support for HD DVD as of June, 2008. The flash point was a pie chart that showed which studio supported which format and what their market share was. After much discussion, six or seven different image proposals, a few polls (that were contested afterward), and a not-so-welcomed "visit" by a group of students from Harvard University, an image was proposed that satisfied everyone. In my humble opinion, I kept my head throughout the battle and did not attack other users for their views. (full discussion is located on this page) Another very short conflict that I encountered on RC patrol was on how to word the lead sentence in the PlayStation Home article. The question mainly related to whether the service was called "PlayStation Home" or simply "Home." A rapid series of posts with links to various Sony websites revealed that both titles were used and a solution was rapidly proposed and implemented. (discussion located here)

Neither of these conflicts caused me much stress because, at the end of the day, the exact wording of an article does not matter very much and I try to keep that in mind at all times. Also, if a discussion gets really heated, I usually try to just walk away from the conflict and find something else to do because edit wars and other conflicts are never productive and almost always turn out badly.

Additional questions

Question from DanBealeCocks

4 A new editor, user:wiwiwejd992728, has made 23 contributions to WP. 10 of those are vandalism, the rest are things like typo or spelling corrections. What do you do?

A: If the user had four recent warnings for vandalism and had vandalized after the final warning was served, I would block him/her. Otherwise, I would take no action.

General comments

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

• Links for Thingg: Thingg (talk · contribs · deleted · count · AfD · logs · block log · lu · rfar · spi)

---

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

Discussion

Support

1. Excellent administrator. Trust the nominators. Rudget 15:16, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
2. Support as the co-nominator. Malinaccier (talk) 15:16, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
3. Support as nominator. xenocidic (talk) 15:17, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
4. Support Good candidate. Will use the tools responsibly. Anger22 (Talk 2 22) 15:21, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
5. I gave Thingg rollback, and he's been great with that. I trust him with the tools. Acalamari 16:20, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
6. Support: Even while just from watching this RfA unfold as it happens, I see that the oppose added by 75.61.233.244 is in reference to this edit. Thingg responded appropriately, and also outlined politely why the link was inappropriate. Judging from this, and his previous contributions, I predict he will be a sound admin. WilliamH (talk) 16:24, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
7. Support Will be a great asset as an admin. Epbr123 (talk) 16:26, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
8. Support. Seen him around a lot and I'm impressed by his work. Useight (talk) 16:26, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
9. Support, even though yesterday some IP was attacking him (probably about vandal work) on articles. That's probably a good sign. weburiedoursecretsinthegarden 16:37, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
10. Support Has done great work already and deserves the tools. --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 16:46, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
11. Support Dedicated WP editor, fellow vandal fighter, and sparkles with trustworthiness. κaτaʟaveno^T_C 16:48, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
12. Support Always seen good work from Thingg in the vandal fighting department. I know the mop won't get abused.--Fabrictramp (talk) 16:49, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
13. Support -- Good user, meets my requirements and per the noms...Good luck! --Cameron (t|p|c) 16:52, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
14. Very Strong Support - Great editor, great vandal fighter and, most importantly, someone i trust. I'd go as far as to say, Thingg is one of my wiki-friends :-) TheProf - T / C 17:04, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
15. Knee jerk support. Saw the name, know the history, no hesitation. Wondering when this one was coming. Easy support. Do your thingg, thingg! Keeper | 76 | Disclaimer 17:15, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
16. Support - Net positive to the project without a doubt. I'm sure there were some slip ups (a diff or two from the oppose section) and you know what? Who cares, we all make them. I also do not believe they should nullify the benefit this user will bring with the tools. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 17:26, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Oppose

Doesnt take the time to determine if a link is truely relevent. He just deletes the important work of people trying to contribute without care.

IPs are not allowed to !vote. Useight (talk) 16:24, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

1. Weak oppose - I have seen this user around WP:AIV a whole bunch, and know that he has got the whole anti-vandal thing down, but now I would like to see a bit more participation in other areas that would require the tools, such as WP:ANI and especially WP:AFD. I also see little CSD tagging which makes me question this user knowledge of the deletion policy. My recommendation is to gain a little wider range of contributions and come back in a few months. Best of luck, Tiptoety ^talk 16:31, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
2. Oppose. Mindless reverting. Don't bite the newbies. --- RockMFR 17:04, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

   Thats a very weak reason to oppose (IMHO) TheProf - T / C 17:12, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

   I normally wouldn't respond to an oppose because I consider that bad form, but I just wanted to clarify that the only reason I reverted that edit was because it removed the speedy-deletion tag from the page. I can assure you, if the editor had not removed the tag from the page, I would not have considered reverting it. Respectfully yours, Thingg^⊕⊗ 17:16, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

   Would you make the same revert again in future? Epbr123 (talk) 17:23, 19 April 2008 (UTC)