Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Xenocidic

Xenocidic

Voice your opinion (talk page) (31/2/1); Scheduled to end 00:55, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Xenocidic (talk · contribs) - This is one of the hardest RfA's that I've ever written, not because Xenocidic isn't deserving, but rather because I am being very hypocritical for writing it. You see, Xenocidic has not been actively editing for six months which is normally my criteria, but he's only a few weeks away from that magical six month mark. I thought about asking him to wait 2 weeks to run, that way I could say that he'd been active for six months, but I'm not sure what he might learn in two weeks that he doesn't already know. And it's not fair to him to force him to wait when he's ready now.

I even thought about serving as his admin coach---a program that I believe in---to get him past that six month mark. But to do so would be even more hypocritical than nominating him a few weeks early. Admin coaching, IMHO is not a means to polish one's resume, but rather a means to help somebody who needs some guidance. I've said elsewhere that I'd rather have a coachee that needs a lot of help, than the one who is all but ready to run. To me, coaching is a means to help guide a person to learn more about Wikipedia. It should not be something somebody does to get a check by their name---in fact, for some candidates coaching is, IMHO, a detriment. Xenocidic is one of those candidates.

I was going to coach Xenocidic because he approached me a few weeks ago about the possibility of coaching him. At the time I told him I was too busy, but I decided to take a look at his edits and comment on his editor review. My initial impression was very positive. This impression was heightened by others who echoed my sentiment. Several RfA regulars (Useight and Rudget) commented on his editor review that they thought he was about ready for adminship. I agree. As an Admin Coach, I honestly don't know what I could have him do that would be meaningful that he hasn't already done! I could run him through some busy work, but that isn’t fair to him or the process.

Xenocidic has been active on Wikipedia for about five and a half months. He is active in a number of "adminly" areas wherein he has participated in not only the wikispace, but also the wiki talk space. He participates in discussions on not only user talk, but also article talk. In short, this is one of the more well rounded candidates I've seen (well, if you exclude the fact that he only writes about video games!) I've spent about 12 hours scrutinizing this candidates edits trying to find some reason to justify forcing him to wait even two weeks, and I can't. 12 hours.... that's 3 times longer than any of my past candidates! I keep coming back to one thing, he's ready now.Balloonman (talk) 23:46, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: I humbly accept, and thank my would-be coach for his kind words. xenocidic (talk) 00:46, 28 May 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: At first, I will likely stick to what I know best, blocking persistent vandals reported at AIV, protecting pages that are being routinely vandalized, and deleting pages that clearly meet CSD criteria. I would also be adding myself to Category:Wikipedia administrators who will provide copies of deleted articles as it is my opinion that contributors should be granted the ability to take their work elsewhere or improve upon it such that it meets inclusion criteria. After completing Admin school, I would branch out and help with administrative backlog. I would, of course, continue to assist other users with any questions they may have as well as do my best to defuse conflicts between users.

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

A: A lot of my work is somewhat behind the scenes and wiki-gnomish (copy-editing and such), but I think the most visible would be the major cleanups I completed on Realtime Worlds and WeMix.com (the latter still needs work but I saved it from a 'blatant advertising' CSD tag as the initial contributor had a conflict of interests, but I felt the article satisfied notability criteria). I also completed a major overhaul of Adopt-a-user, in particular helped to reduce the backlog of those seeking adoption from over 120 down to zero (this is starting to grow again, will have to do another adopter tree-shaking run). I do create articles whenever I'm the first on the scene with breaking news, as with Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.. I'm also particularly pleased with two of the templates I designed - {{Truestatus}} & {{Statustop}} - which are used to effectively customize StatusBot and visually display said status, and allow other users to easily do so as well (for the latter I must credit Chetblong for the visual design). An overview of my contributions can be found at User:Xenocidic#Contributions. Lastly, I feel the interactions between myself and my adoptees has been helpful - for my adoptees and myself - as it has prompted me to expand my horizons.

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: On the subject of stress, a user category I created was nominated and successfully deleted. During the discussion I became somewhat defensive. Looking back, I now see why it was not a worthwhile or useful category. I've been involved in a couple conflicts, but most of the time I try to resolve it with talk page resolutions, either directly with the editor, or on the talk page of the article. In the past, it may seem like I let my preference for the Xbox 360 somewhat colour my contributions as with the video game platform infobox order conflict. It was my opinion that the order listed by the press release should be used, others thought this was to preference the Xbox 360 (we've since reached a consensus to order the platforms by chronological-then-alphabetical order). Conflicts like this I've taken to the Video games WikiProject for a wider range of opinions. Lately I've been steering clear of these conflicts altogether because they often tend towards lameness anyway. I've since been approaching such issues with neutrality in mind. On the subject of lamest edit wars, I've tried my best here and here to try and act as a facilitator to resolve the "Niko's nationality" debate listed at lamest edit wars, as I am a disinterested party.

Optional question from InDeBiz1

4. Do you believe that it is possible for a user that has been blocked for reasons other than 3RR - making an allowance for the fact that it is possible for two or more editors to experience moments of extreme stubbornness, believing that their edit(s) is/are correct - to ever be completely trusted again? Or, do you believe in the line of thinking, "Once blocked, always watched?" If you believe that it is possible for complete trust to be regained, what is a "reasonable threshold" of time - whether it be specifically time or a number of successful edits - for that trust to be regained? What about a user that has previously been banned but perhaps was able to convince administrators to reinstate their account? --InDeBiz1 Review me! / Talk to me! 10:55, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

A: As a community centred around the advancement of knowledge through the processes of mutual understanding and respect, I feel that it should also be our duty to "forgive and forget" when appropriate. If someone receives a block, but later shows themself through their words and actions to have learned their lesson and matured (people can change, after all), then they should be allowed to continue contributing constructively to Wikipedia without restriction or oversight (or, any more oversight than every editor receives through peer editing). As far as a threshold of time - this would of course depend on the nature of the block, but several months of sustained quality editing without repeating the behaviour(s) that initially led to the block would be a good indicator that the user's attitudes have changed. Many valuable community members (including a few admins, I believe) have been blocked in the past and once they've proven themselves to be committed to the improvement of the encyclopedia, a prior block should not be a prejudice against them.

From what I understand of the banning policy, only "community" (i.e. de facto) bans can be commuted with a consensus of administrators, more formal bans must be appealed to the Arbitration Committee. In either case, if a ban is lifted, I feel that the "forgive and forget" mentality should still be observed, though the nature of the ban will effect the length of time before an editor would regain the "complete trust" of the community.

Just to add my two cents as nom, I think it is also important to remember that not-all blocks are created equal. Some are definitely warranted, but others aren't. A poorly administered block could be forgiven and forgotten immediately---I once gave an indef block for vandalism to a solid contributor because I was over eager to block a persistent vandal---E.g. I blocked the wrong account.Balloonman (talk) 15:14, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Optional question from Filll

5. Please answer two of the eight AGF Challenge 2 exercises found here. Directions are here. Post a link to your answers here so that people can peruse them.

COMMENT: We've been down this road before and the AGF Challenge questions were not well received, I would suggest caution in answering these questions... and would not be opposed if the candidate refused to do so.Balloonman (talk) 16:23, 28 May 2008 (UTC) NOTE: These questions are being discussed on the WT:RFA page

A: I'll take a stab at them -

2.3 Shockingly

I might first point out to User:Sigh-Clone that the term "cyclone" is widely regarded as being derived from the Greek word "kyklôn" (revolving), the present participle of kykloûn (to revolve), the verb derivative of kýklos (cycle). As far as User:ZZ, I don't think that "driv[ing] [[them]] out [[of Wikipedia]]" would be the appropriate response - while his message was somewhat curt, his exasperation is understandable in light of the refusal by User:Sigh-Clone to heed the advice of editors with respect to Wikipedia's policies original research, reliable and verifiable sources and edit-warring (which he would've likely been blocked for prior to ZZ making the shockingly comment). From a multiple choice standpoint the answer Wikipedia aspires to be a respected reference work, so the sigh-clone etymology must be left out until sources are provided seems closest to what I believe here. If this is an isolated incident of (so-called) incivility by ZZ, no action should be taken.

2.5 How long is yours?

If all reliable sources state the length of the DVD is 75 minutes, that is the length that Wikipedia must publish. If there is a different reliable source that supports the 51 minute claim, the discrepancy should be noted. If not, then the editor's assertion cannot be inserted into the article due to no original research. To be respected, Wikipedia's guideline on verifiability must be observed. Ignore all rules cannot be used as a trump card to force the 51 minute claim into the article. Another issue at play here is whether Amazon and other "similar sites" (online retailers) can be considered reliable sources when it comes to running lengths. A quick review of the archives at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard had some brief discussions on this, but I did not find a concrete consensus one way or the other. I would do my best to search for more reliable sources for either claim.

General comments

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

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

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

Discussion

Support

1. Strong Support. Xenocidic is an excellent editor with plenty of experience and has an excellent handle on policy. A fair number of his recent edits in the mainspace have been automated, but he has plenty of manual edits improving articles. Excellent communication skills and always civil; he's always willing to help other editors. My interactions with him have always been positive. Over 80 reports to AIV. I think he'll do a great job as an admin. Useight (talk) 00:58, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

   Note: about 2 weeks ago he discovered huggle (or twinkle)... prior to that all of his edits were manual.Balloonman (talk) 01:08, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

   Yeah, it's not a problem. I've used Huggle for a couple hundred edits myself and I don't mind an RFA candidate using automated tools, as long as they don't rely on it too much (see User:Useight/RFA Standards). Not a problem with Xenocidic. Useight (talk) 01:14, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

   Yep - I've been testing out huggle the past week or so to see what all the fuss was about per the recent discussion at WT:RFA. Extremely powerful and robust tool, kudos to Gurch (though I'm not sure yet if I'll continue using it). xenocidic (talk) 01:16, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

2. per nom Dlohcierekim 01:36, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
3. Support. I'm not so high on the social networking aspects of StatusBot, but I will not let that influence my decision making process her.e I find the candidates' article building contributions sufficient, well rounded with contributions in other gnomish areas. He seems to be a good communicator, a solid base of policy knowledge and has a squeaky clean record deserving of community trust. MrPrada (talk) 02:17, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
4. Support Candidate has enough experience. Slightly unusual answers, e.g. the category in Q1, show individuality and awareness of how the system works. Shalom (Hello • Peace) 02:43, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
5. Strong Support - Can only benefit Wikipedia with the tools. User is persistently gnomish (which I consider a good thing), civil and helpful. The work at WP:ADOPT is great. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 02:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
6. Beat the nom support - this is the RfA I've been waiting for, because it's the first one for an editor I've seen around and thought should be an admin, with no need to check. I've been watching xenocidic for a couple of months now already.  Frank  |  talk  02:56, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
7. Support - Seems a solid editor despite short history. See no reason to oppose. Adam McCormick (talk) 02:58, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
8. Support I've had nothing but positive encounters here, and I'm more than happy to support. After all, you prettied up my Status Indicator for me. ;-) --Koji†Dude ^(C) 03:19, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
9. Support per nom. Vishnava _talk 03:44, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
10. Support Seeing the right stuff MBisanz ^talk 06:23, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
11. Support - Per WP:WTHN.  Asenine  07:45, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
12. Support - good candidate. — Athaenara ✉ 08:18, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
13. No qualms. Rudget (Help?) 09:16, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
14. Support. Trustworthy and competent; the length of time for which the candidate has been active isn't a problem for me, in this case. Experience trumps time. Anthøny 09:24, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
15. Support Clearly clueful. Whilst I take note of the comments regarding the duration of the account, I see no reason why we should do ourselves a disfavour by not giving the tools now, rather than waiting an arbitary couple of months. M♠ssing Ace 09:54, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
16. Űber Support My Criteria: Can the user be trusted? (answer = yes) and Will the user benifit from admin tools? (answer = yes) 110% :-) Prom3th3an (talk) 10:18, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
17. Support - Good candidate, a great deal achieved in a relatively short period of time. Keep up the good work. Lradrama 11:06, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
18. Strong support per great experiences in the past. You wouldn't be able to tell he's been here for less than half a year, which is a very good thing. Good luck. weburiedoursecretsinthegarden 11:49, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
19. Support A good editor. --Siva1979^{Talk to me} 12:14, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
20. Strong support This editor is a genuine asset. Ecoleetage (talk) 12:31, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
21. Support. Per reference to WP:LAME; along with the nom support and a clear possession of all faculties. Tan | 39 12:59, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
22. Support Well-rounded candidate who, as an administrator, will more than likely dabble in a little bit of everything depending on where administrative help is needed. It's the kind of candidate I'm always willing to support. SWik78 (talk • contribs) 13:01, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
23. Support Looks good, this guy's got clue. GlassCobra 14:16, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
24. Support I encountered him a few weeks ago and he left a good impression on me, as in encounter, I was spying on him. ;) <3 Tinkleheimer TALK!! 14:17, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
25. Support reliable user. Speed CG ^Talk 15:34, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
26. Support Well, I did offer to nominate you... - DiligentTerrier (and friends) 15:51, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
27. Support. I trust the nominator's decision, and my one interaction with you was positive. Good luck, Malinaccier P. (talk) 16:22, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
28. Support Strong candidate with a genuine want to help the Wikipedia community (adoption). The answers to your questions show that you have a clear understanding of policy and I am confident that you will fulfill this role perfectly. Cheers, Razorflame 16:23, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
29. Support All of my enocunters with this individual give me no reason to believe they would abuse the tools. Chrislk02 ^{Chris Kreider} 16:36, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
30. Support - good candidate! Deacon of Pndapetzim (Talk) 16:42, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
31. Support - Solid editor who gets it. Net Positive. Danthecan (talk) 17:02, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
32. Strongest possible Support At the risk of sounding ridiculous, that is what I think. I met xenocidic back in late January when I was helping get Wikiproject Xbox starting and I was immediately struck by his character and just all-around good work. Over the last few months, I've seen him become more and more involved with more areas of Wikipedia than I can count. I have absolutely no question that he will be one of the best admins we've ever had and he's always willing to lend a helping hand to everyone. No reservations whatsoever. Thingg^⊕⊗ 17:48, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Oppose

1. Per Q2; WeMix.com is tagged for cleanup at this time and Realtime Worlds is not much different to what it was before. (edit, realised that was a little short...) What I mean to say is that I can't support admin candidates who don't have a good background in mainspace work unless they are really, really useful in other areas. When your best contributions to mainspace are cleanups I go :/ a bit, not because those contributions are worthless (obviously not), but because I think it's really important for someone who wants to adminstrate an encyclopedia project to have experience with writing one first. To take a random analogy, in retail one usually spends some time working at the counter before being promoted to manager, etc, etc. naerii - talk 03:21, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

   Er, Xen is the person who originally tagged the article for deletion and then applied the clean up tab to WeMix.com before substantially improving it. The fact that he didn't remove a tag that he applied shouldn't be used against him. In fact, I think he deserves credit for trying to salvage an article he initially taged for speedy deletion! As for Realtime Worlds did you look at the entire history? His first series of 22 edits made significant changes. The second series of 15 edits didn't make as many changes. The difference between what he started with and ended with is vastly different with very minor edits from other people!Balloonman (talk) 03:37, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

   To clarify, I left the rewrite tag I added on the article after I rewrote it because I felt it could use a second set of eyes. As far as work from the ground-up, most of the articles I created are for as-yet-unreleased games so they're really not that substantial at present, but I do plan to flesh them out when the time comes. xenocidic (talk) 04:00, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

   I read the history of both articles, yes, and whilst the work was useful it's not what I'd like to see as an example of someone's "best" contributions to Wikipedia. naerii - talk 17:53, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

2. Oppose, in the answer to question 3, xenocidic refers to these 2 threads[1][2] (oldids[3][4]) where he tried to "act as a facilitator to resolve" a debate. From his comments there, it appears to me that xenocidic doesn't understand our NPOV policy. which aims to represent "fairly, and as far as possible without bias, all significant views that have been published by reliable sources." Here[5] he barges into the thread and declares "case closed", saying "can we put this one to rest." When someone disagrees he states "Please refer to the consensus/compromised already reached."[6]. A week later he's reverting[7][8] editors and telling them[9] on their talk pages that consensus had been reached (there wasn't any). If this editor thinks the way to resolve debates where one source says one thing and another source says another is to sweep in and say it's settled, I question their overall judgement when it comes to content disputes. Balloonman said xenocidic "only writes about video games" and that's also a concern of mine. --Pixelface (talk) 16:59, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

   The consensus I was referring to is actually at the Talk:GTA IV (a majority of editors seemed to agree with the "unspecific Eastern European" compromise - Eastern Europe includes Serbia). However, I do agree that Pixel's suggestion here would be another way to resolve this particular dispute. xenocidic (talk) 17:18, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Neutral

1. Neutral Does not meet my standards for adminship, based on time as a registered Wikipedian. However, I am very pleased with the candidate's answers to the questions, thus far. I will watch this RfA and perhaps change my vote in the next few days as more questions/answers arise and after I have a chance to more thoroughly examine the candidate's contributions. Good luck! --InDeBiz1 Review me! / Talk to me! 02:03, 28 May 2008 (UTC)