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Backslash Forwardslash

Nomination

Voice your opinion (talk page) (11/6/1); Scheduled to end 17:25, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Backslash Forwardslash (talk · contribs) – Here we have Backslash Forwardslash, a.k.a \ /. This user is well-versed in his editing, and has mastered the nearly impossible art of balancing the various aspects of the encyclopedia. In terms of vandal-fighting, \ / has thorough experience with huggle and twinkle, and has accumulated 122 reports to AIV. He (or she, but I'll use "he" for convenience) has also reported numerous usernames to UAA, quite accurately, I might add. Shown here, the user actively participates in community discussions and noticboards, such as AN and ANI. In addition, his AFD and MFD nominations are generally spot-on, demonstrating the judgment we look for in an administrator.

Ah, but Backslash isn't just a Wikignome. He improved Bruce Kingsbury from Start-class to FA-class, and substantially contributed to Australia Day, a GA. But his work doesn't stop there; he is active in DYK, both as a clerk and a nominator, frequently updating helping to update T:DYK/N. Several other editors have noticed and appreciated his work, hence his several barnstars, as well as a recently awarded triple crown. Also, per this, admins only, this user is an active and accurate CSD participant. Clean block log, an edit count of nearly 10,000 contributions, rollback and ACC permissions, the list goes on and on. I'm sure by now, through this fairly short and concise nomination statement, you'll see why I'm confident Backslash will make an excellent admin. –Juliancolton ^Tropical ^Cyclone 17:54, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(Belated) co-nomination from GARDEN : I am honoured to nominate a user as all-round helpful as Blackslash Forwardslash. I personally know Backslash Forwardslash from his work at account creation. He has, as of the time of writing, created 143 (one hundred and fourty three) accounts there. This shows that he is trustworthy and is not abusive of his accountcreator right, thus I can pretty safely suggest he will treat adminship in the same way. He is an adept vandal fighter as Juliancolton points out above, and the experience he has there will obviously be of utmost importance and utility to him in a sysop role.

He has experience of article building, having, as stated above, achieved an FA, a GA and several DYKs. The most inspiring part of this is that he has achieved the FA - a process that can be too much for even a GA - from a Start class article. His edit count is adequate, but not overly overpowering - it is nearing ten thousand, which is enough to silence both the editcountitists and Huggle haters in equal measure. He has no other problems I can see - no blocks, and no abuse of his rollback bit. It is for these reasons, and more, that I'm positive \ / will make a great sysop on the English Wikipedia. GARDEN 20:40, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: Thanks, I accept. • \ / (⁂) 20:01, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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 administrative work do you intend to take part in?

A: I'll spend some time milling around AIV, UAA and CSD –- all three manage to get backlogged at some point so I'm happy to help out there. I also plan to be helping out at WP:DYK, as the six-hourly updates regularly need admin attention.

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

A: I am pretty happy with my contributions to Bruce Kingsbury. It was the first article I had tried to expand, and it steadily improved over the course of a few months. I am also happy with getting Australia Day to GA, which was a part of Wikiproject Australia's 200 GA Drive. I managed to contact author Tess Gerritsen not long ago to request permission to use a photo, and learnt first hand how a subject of a BLP feels.

In other areas, I'm very happy with the work I've done preparing updates at DYK. DYK is a project than is either massively backlogged, or empty, so spending time there can have you on your toes. It's hard to say that I'm proud of reporting vandalism - it would be best if it never happened - but I guess I'm pleased that I have helped out there too.

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 have seen a few disputes in the time I've been here, but nothing in which I feel like I lashed out, or went over the top. There was an incident at DYK, when a dispute concerning calculating article size broke out. I did my best to try and streamline the discussion into something productive DYK talk page, and I think it worked to an extent. I also had in interesting experience in November, being accidentally blocked. Again, things stayed calm and all was well. I'm yet to find something on Wikipedia that makes me lose my cool, simply because unlike in a heated, spoken argument, there is always time to deliver a measured, reasoned response.

Optional questions from Aitias

4. Is there any circumstance in which you would delete a page despite a Hangon tag?

A. Yes. If the page is very blatantly vandalism, then I would delete without concern. If it was nominated as any others, mainly A7 or G11, I would spend a bit more time searching for any notability and if there is the slightest bit of doubt, I wouldn't delete. That said, watch listing the page after the hangon tag was honoured would be the next logical step.

5. What would your personal standards be on granting and removing rollback?

A. To be honest, I haven't considered what my standards would be. I guess I would like to see some solid evidence that the user can be trusted, along with some accurate reversions, but I haven't given assigning permissions enough thought to give you precise numbers.

6. Under what circumstances may a non-free photograph of a living person be used on Wikipedia?

A. As far as my understanding goes, non-free photographs shouldn't be used on living persons pages, as they are replaceable. There are exceptions, such as unique pictures that can't be replaced, such as this and this, but 99% of the time, non-free images are unacceptable.

7. An IP vandalises a page. You revert the vandalism and give the IP a final warning on its talk page. After that the IP vandalises your userpage. Summarising, the IP was sufficiently warned and vandalised (your userpage) after a final warning. Would you block the IP yourself or rather report it to WP:AIV? Respectively, would you consider blocking the IP yourself a conflict of interest?

A. I can't see why blocking the IP who replaced a user page with expletives would be inappropriate. We don't own our user pages, and vandalising a user page is no different from vandalising an article. Unless there was another issue not mentioned (content dispute, previous block), then certainly I believe blocking would not be inappropriate.

8. Under what circumstances, if any, would you block a user without any warnings?

A. If the user is a clearly disruptive vandal (Gwp and co.), or a confirmed sockpuppet, then warning would be a waste of time. Other than that, the standard warning routine should be adopted.

Q's from flaming lawyer

9. In your own words, no copy-pasting: What's the difference between a block and a ban? Also, give a real-life analogy between the two.

A. While both are designed to avoid damage to Wikipedia, blocks are the only 'physical' restriction. They are issued by an admin and use the MediaWiki system to prevent the user editing. A ban is not so physical, more a abstract form of editing restriction. They can be put in place by admins, the community or ArbCom, and are typically used to stop editors editing certain pages, topics, or the whole site. A block will often be used to enforce a site wide ban.

As for a real life analogy? Lets say a store clerk is abusing his access the the stores cash register. The boss may come along and move the employee into the storeroom, and informs him that he isn't allowed to serve customers. (I know, nice boss) There is nothing physically stopping the employee from accessing the register, only the threat of dismissal. If the boss is particularly displeased about the behaviour, he may choose to change the password for the employee's register username, hence physically preventing the employee from logging in and accessing the cash.

10. As an admin, you are going to be expected to work in many more areas than the ones you listed in Q1. Are there any areas of WP in which you feel you lack experience? How do you plan to improve your knowledge in these areas?

A. No one can gain experience in everything, and there are many parts of Wikipedia I just haven't come across. Some noticeboards such as WP:AN3 or WP:FRN I haven't had much to do with, among some others. In terms of improvement, I think the only thing one can do to gain experience is to study, watch other admins and how they do things, and maybe doing some things that don't require the tools. It would be irresponsible to go charging into an area with no experience expecting to do everything.

General comments

Links for Backslash Forwardslash: Backslash Forwardslash (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/Backslash Forwardslash before commenting.

Discussion

The entries in his block log are mistakes and should be ignored. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 20:21, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Support

Per WP:WHYNOT. Sceptre ^(talk) 20:11, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Beat the nom Based on what Julian said (as I've never met \ / but have seen his signature), he sounds like the best non-admin around, support.--Giants27 T C 20:15, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Would have written a co-nomination if Julian hadn't transcluded this so quickly. GARDEN 20:20, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You can still co-nom. :) –Juliancolton ^Tropical ^Cyclone 20:21, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Orly? Bit late, methinks. :( GARDEN 20:23, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Support. Very happy with everything I've seen from this user. Varied and intelligent contributions to a variety of areas, appears to be an excellent choice for an administrator. ~ mazca ^t|c 20:24, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thought-he-was-one-already (edit conflict, too!) Support. Hermione1980 20:25, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Weak Support ~~Support~~ The relatively short tenure - just over 6 months - is more than made up for by a lot of work, numerous awards, the nominators statements, etc. I have not looked into his policy knowledge but the overall look of his talk pages and user sub-pages as well as the numerous requests to co-nom give me a good feeling either he knows policy or will learn it before applying it. He's been a rollbacker and account-creator for longer than not, that shows responsibility. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 20:27, 13 February 2009 (UTC) The concerns raised by opposers are eroding my support, but it's still above neutral. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 20:52, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Control-alt-delete-enter-space-shift-tab-capslock-backspace-numlock. (Also for my observations of this user, which have been nothing but positive.) Acalamari 20:35, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Strong support as nom –Juliancolton ^Tropical ^Cyclone 20:44, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
A stellar candidate, no reason not to support! Good luck Majorly talk 20:51, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Support Is not going to break the Wiki. Contributions look good, has large amount of clue. Isn't perfect, but none of us are. The opposes are less than convincing (and some appear to be axe grinding about the process rather than the candidate). --Chasingsol ^(talk) 21:22, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Default support Opposes are unconvincing to me.--Wehwalt (talk) 21:45, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Very strong support (read: long-winded support) Had been thinking of nominating \ / myself, but I was too oblivious around here and missed my chance to co-nom ;). Anyway, \ / has been a huge asset to DYK for as long as I've known him, taking part in areas such as assessing nominations and maintaining the queues, as well as technical stuff like revamping nomination templates. Furthermore, his strongest asset is his ability to build bridges with users and work constructively with just about anyone, as evidenced by the discussion linked below in response to Ottava Rima's oppose—rather than arguing with O R and fighting, \ / worked with O R to turn O R's concerns into a proposal and put it to a vote, which I think shows a strong ability to get things done even when working with people you disagree with. (And, for what it's worth, I hate Ottava Rima, so supporting a candidate who has gotten along with Ottava Rima in the past should be saying something.) rʨanaɢ ^talk/_contribs 23:26, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose

Oppose - The eagerness to close discussions prematurely seems to show a disregard for the fundamentals of consensus and a desire to hurry up and push an idea through before it can be thoroughly vetted by the community at large. This is not a good trait to have when wanting to be an admin. Ottava Rima (talk) 20:16, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Would you mind pointing to an example or two of these? It sounds like a valid concern but I haven't seen anything worrying in my quick review of contribs. ~ mazca ^t|c 20:27, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ditto Mazca. This is cause for concern. Had I seen it with examples, I might have waited before adding my support above. Please provide info. Thanks. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 20:29, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
He is referring to my closure of this thread. I had closed it because the discussion of the idea Ottava was proposing had turned ugly, numerous threats of going to ANI were passed around. Upon Ottava's request, I started the poll (I had linked in my answer to question 3) which rose the standards of debate somewhat, and waited until another user closed the discussion. • \ / (⁂) 20:38, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

~~RMHED. 20:19, 13 February 2009 (UTC)~~[reply]

Excellent rationale, thanks for the insight! –Juliancolton ^Tropical ^Cyclone 20:19, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
This user opposes everyone and everything, I mean look at the CU/Oversight elections, he voted oppose for every candidate.--Giants27 T C 20:21, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Utter bollocks. RMHED. 20:55, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
orly? GARDEN 21:25, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
(e/c) Just leave RHMED, he does this everywhere - I doubt anyone will oppose per his lengthy rationale. — neuro^(talk) 21:27, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) Your choice of words is inappropriate, RMHED. — Aitias // discussion 21:29, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
No my choice of words are entirely apt given that what Giants27 wrote is completely incorrect and quite possibly a personal attack. It's a good job I'm not overly sensitive. RMHED. 21:36, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
(e/c) Just look at his talk page - he constantly uses inappropriate and rude wording and try and reap fruitless discussion about his demeanour, or cause shock, or something. Honestly, if we want to have a discussion about his offensive choice of words, I think it would be better placed at his talk, as it will no doubt extend a good bit. — neuro^(talk) 21:36, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Yet another personal attack. RMHED. 21:40, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, I was careful to avoid one there. Please feel free to list the ad hominem attacks in there, and I'll strike them if they actually are. — neuro^(talk) 21:42, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Note to all of you – if you'd actually taken the 30 seconds it would have taken to check for yourself, you'd see that RMHED's RFA stats are 76 supports, 17 opposes. We're not exactly talking Kurt levels here. – iridescent 21:43, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Uh, Giants wasn't talking about RfA. I don't think anyone has mentioned it. — neuro^(talk) 21:49, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
As an aside, a few of those supports are merely designed to cause controversy, such as supporting over diffs showing incivility. — neuro^(talk) 21:53, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
[1], [2], [3], [4] and that's just at first glance. No way would I trust someone this bitey at UAA given that you've specifically said that's where you intend to work. Your use of the Google test ([5], [6], [7] in the last week alone – that is, 50% of your AFD comments in the period) also leaves me distinctly unimpressed. – iridescent 20:29, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Very much agree on the usernames except this one [8].—Sandahl (talk) 21:07, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
"Mangina" is indeed a neologism for the vagina of an FTM TS; however it's also a fairly common name. – iridescent 21:13, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, but combined with "super" it could be questionable. It was blocked so someone else agreed. I have to say I would have sent it a nice-uw-username first.—Sandahl (talk) 21:22, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The bitey usernames are cause for concern, but the neoligism ones are reasonable, if a bit terse in the nomination. 1 is already deleted and the other two are failing fast, with 0 supports. If he's written a couple of sentences saying why it was a neologism, the outcome of the AFDs would be likely no different. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 20:49, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose per iridescent. If he can't work out what is and is not a disruptive/bad username when reporting them I hate to think what he'd do with the banhammer actually considering he was reporting them to UAA I'm pretty sure I know what he would do Ironholds (talk) 20:38, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
No. --Malleus Fatuorum 20:41, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Note: General discussion moved to talk page ([9]) — Aitias // discussion 21:20, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
There was no discussion, only the usual badgering. But let me be specific. It is very unlikely that I would ever vote for a candidate with only 35% of contributions to article space. The effort here is to build an encyclopedia, not a police force. --Malleus Fatuorum 21:39, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Tentative oppose - Unhappy with UAA work - the 4th link is permissible, anyone could make such a mistake, but the others leave me wary of supporting your effort to get the tools. — neuro^(talk) 21:30, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Strikingly weak oppose I like your attitude, and all of your work here except UAA. However, the concerns raised above with this area are too much for me to support. Good luck, anyway. —Cyclonenim (talk · contribs · email) 21:58, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Neutral

Neutral Good user, but points by Iridecent are causes for concern. iMatthew // talk // 20:48, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Per Matthew, though I have to qualify that user is an excellent user, it seems :). NuclearWarfare _(Talk) 22:18, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I want to be convinced to support. \/, convince me somehow that you can improve at UAA :) NuclearWarfare _(Talk) 22:19, 13 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

@@ Line 84: / Line 84: @@
 #'''Support''' Is not going to break the Wiki. Contributions look good, has large amount of clue. Isn't perfect, but none of us are. The opposes are less than convincing (and some appear to be axe grinding about the process rather than the candidate). --[[User:Chasingsol|Chasingsol]][[User Talk:Chasingsol|<sup style="color:darkblue">(talk)</sup>]] 21:22, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
 #'''Default support''' Opposes are unconvincing to me.--[[User:Wehwalt|Wehwalt]] ([[User talk:Wehwalt|talk]]) 21:45, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
+#'''Very strong support''' <small>(read: long-winded support)</small> Had been thinking of nominating \ / myself, but I was too oblivious around here and missed my chance to co-nom ;).  Anyway, \ / has been a huge asset to DYK for as long as I've known him, taking part in areas such as assessing nominations and maintaining the queues, as well as technical stuff like revamping nomination templates.  Furthermore, his strongest asset is his ability to build bridges with users and work constructively with just about anyone, as evidenced by the discussion linked below in response to Ottava Rima's oppose&mdash;rather than arguing with O R and fighting, \ / worked with O R to turn O R's concerns into a proposal and put it to a vote, which I think shows a strong ability to get things done even when working with people you disagree with.  (And, for what it's worth, I hate Ottava Rima, so supporting a candidate who has gotten along with Ottava Rima in the past should be saying something.) '''[[User:Rjanag|r<font color="#8B0000"><span class="Unicode">ʨ</span></font>ana<span class="Unicode">ɢ</span>]]''' <sup><small>[[User talk:Rjanag|talk]]</small></sup>/<sub><small>[[Special:Contributions/Rjanag|contribs]]</small></sub> 23:26, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
 =====Oppose=====