Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Colin M

Colin M

Voice your opinion on this candidate (talk page) (7/0/0); Scheduled to end 14:55, 9 April 2022 (UTC)

Nomination

Colin M (talk · contribs) – It's my pleasure to present to you Colin M for consideration. While Colin first registered for Wikipedia in 2007 he started editing more seriously in 2019. Since then he has worked to improve a variety of articles, including five he has brought in the last year to Good Article status. You will also find him knowledgeable about Wikipedia policies and guidelines, with a particular focus on Article Titles. He has brought that expertise to his work in closing Requested Move discussions. The content he has produced often requires sensitivity and you will find him a thoughtful collaborator and one who is willing to lend help to others where he can. This combination of qualities should make Colin a capable administrator and I hope you join me in supporting him. Barkeep49 (talk) 14:34, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

Co-nomination

Colin M is the sort of potential administrator I like to see, somebody who has done a lot of work on improving the encyclopedia in neglected areas (including several good articles), politely and helpfully assisted others do the same, and would now like to help out with some of the administrative backlog. I've been particularly impressed with his contributions during content debates, such as at AfD, where his opinions regularly match the final consensus, and show he can politely respect views of those who disagree with him. He shows the right attitude and communication skills that I believe are essential for administrators to have, and I’m happy to endorse this request for adminship. Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 14:37, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: I accept. Thank you Barkeep and Ritchie for the kind words. I have never edited for pay, or on another account. Colin M (talk) 04:16, 2 April 2022 (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. Why are you interested in becoming an administrator?

A: Mostly because it would help me close requested move discussions. I've been active at RM for a while, both as a participant and a closer, and having the admin bit would make it easier to close a wider range of discussions (for example, by making it easier to move over a redirect with history, or in cases where a page is fully move-protected). RM has had a sizeable backlog in recent months, and I'd like to be able to more effectively help clearing it out. I'd be open to helping out in other admin areas as well, but moves are my bread and butter.

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

A: I'm most proud of my content creation work. My first big project on Wikipedia was working on Magellan expedition, a level-4 vital article. Since I began working on it in 2019, it's gone from 10 kilobytes and 4 footnotes to 80 kilobytes and 160 footnotes (though I can't claim all the credit, and there's still lots of room for improvement). I've also created several dozen articles from scratch, with topics ranging from linguistics, to 19th century periodicals, to LGBT history, to... Cow Tools (somehow my most viewed article by far). I've had the pleasure of bringing a handful of them, such as The Hobby Directory and Wormwood: A Drama of Paris, up to GA with the help of some great reviewers. Aside from my content creation, I think my participation in requested moves over the years has been a positive force in the project.

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: Rarely. My content work is mostly in obscure corners, and, fortunately, the atmosphere at RM is pretty consistently respectful and collegial. When a content dispute does come up, I try to resolve it through talk page discussion, assuming good faith. An important lesson that took me a while to learn is that sometimes it's best to just walk away from a low-stakes dispute, even if you're confident that you're right. Spending a long time in pursuit of a change that makes the encyclopedia a little bit better can ultimately feel a little silly when you realize you could have instead spent the same amount of time to make 20 other uncontroversial edits which each improve the project just as much. On the other hand, if it's a truly important matter and 1-on-1 discussion is clearly not heading toward consensus, that's when I would consider bringing more voices into the conversation, for example by posting a neutral notice to a Wikiproject, or opening an RfC.

Optional question from LindsayH

4. Hey there ~ thanks for allowing your name to be put forward. What do you think is the most important (if such a thing exists) or valuable of all our guidelines or policies?

A: This feels a bit like choosing which of my vital organs are most important! I think the project would be irreparably harmed if any of its core content policies went away, with verifiability and NPOV being among the keystones. But I guess one policy I would call out as an unsung hero is Consensus. It is absolutely amazing to me that Wikipedia functions as well as it does – if you traveled to a parallel universe without Wikipedia and tried to explain to someone there how an encyclopedia that anyone on the internet can edit had actually blossomed into a vast, high-quality information source relied on by a sizable fraction of the world's population, they would never believe you. I think Consensus is the key reason Wikipedia doesn't end up looking like the wall of a public bathroom. Using consensus for decision-making elevates good arguments over noise, it encourages civility, and attracts thoughtful editors who are here to build an encyclopedia. If decision-making was done by a straight vote or through some top-down process, I don't think the project could have ever achieved the remarkable success that it has.

Optional question from Andrew D.

5. I just looked at Cow Tools as you seem especially interested in this topic. I notice that it still has an {{italic title}} despite all the recent effort invested in this issue. Is this an oversight or what, please?

A: Yes, this was absolutely an oversight which I've just fixed. Thanks for pointing it out.

Optional question from Ganesha811

6. Are there any areas of adminship you do not plan to participate in, due to unfamiliarity or lack of technical knowledge? If you later decided you wanted to help in these areas, what would be your plan to become an effective admin in those areas?

A: I'm generally more interested in working in areas related to content rather than conduct, so I have little familiarity with venues like WP:AIV or sockpuppet investigations and would be unlikely to do admin work there. I participated in requested move discussions for months before I started closing any, and when I finally did, I started with cases where consensus was very clear, and gradually worked my way up to more challenging closures. I would take a similar approach if I were to start doing closures in other venues such as WP:FFD, or WP:AFD.

Optional question from A. C. Santacruz

7. Would you be open to recall? If so, under what criteria?

A:

Optional question from Iffy

8. Have any of your RM closures been challenged? If so, how did you deal with those challenges?

A: I have not had any closes formally challenged at move review. I can think of only one case where I've had a closure informally challenged. This was an unusual case where I found consensus for a position supported by a minority of participants, so I can understand the editor's confusion. I tried to explain the reasoning behind my close in more detail, with reference to certain principles related to consensus like WP:NOTDEMOCRACY and WP:DISCARD, which seemed to be enough to satisfy their concerns.

Optional question from Celestina007

9. I want to know your thinking of this theoretical scenario, you observe very reliable sources giving different information on a statement made in an article, what do you do about that? There is no specific “right answer” per se, but I want to understand your thought process, in order to ascertain if you are capable of making good judgement, so could you be so kind as to please explain your course of action if you observe the aforementioned hypothetically scenario?

A:

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You may ask optional questions below. There is a limit of two questions per editor. Multi-part questions disguised as one question, with the intention of evading the limit, are disallowed. Follow-up questions relevant to questions you have already asked are allowed. You may ask optional questions below. There is a limit of two questions per editor. Multi-part questions disguised as one question, with the intention of evading the limit, are disallowed. Follow-up questions relevant to questions you have already asked are allowed.

Discussion

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

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

Support

1. As nom. Barkeep49 (talk) 14:55, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
2. Support as co-nom Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 14:58, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
3. Not familiar with the candidate, but I trust the nominators. Tol (talk | contribs) @ 15:11, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
4. Support A good candidate who will make an excellent administrator. scope_creep^Talk 15:13, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
5. Support: I trust the nominators, and I particularly appreciate the content creation work. Bsoyka (talk) 15:23, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
6. Support: I remember the candidate from his exchange with Persicifolia half-way through this discussion on the expression "wheelchair-bound" on WT:MOS. He certainly seemed to consider other points of view, even if he did not quite finish up the exchange. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 16:22, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
7. Support per noms. Also good to see someone with an edit count less than 10k run. 15 (talk) 16:33, 2 April 2022 (UTC)