Wikipedia:Requests for bureaucratship/SoWhy 2

SoWhy

Voice your opinion on this candidate (talk page) (14/0/0); Scheduled to end 12:30, 31 July 2017 (UTC)

Nomination

SoWhy (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) – So good I nominated him twice? I contacted SoWhy a few days ago, having noticed his calmness, use of logic and clear understanding of policy and its nuance. I asked him if he'd consider running for Crat ... and he reminded me that I'd made the same approach in April. Oops. Well, I'm here now.

I trust SoWhy to be a good Bureaucrat. To solidly ensure policy is followed, assess discussion consensus wisely, be careful with staying up to date with community consensus and be boring as hell like the rest of us. He clearly knows how to open discussions, is sufficiently humble that he's not above asking opinions and taking feedback but is prepared to take a firm stance when needed, including looking past number counting in his AfD closure work.

Whether or not there's a need for another Crat, whoever they might be, used to be a common theme at RfB, back in the days when RfBs were more common, but it's worth addressing. I'd say there's a case for adding to our numbers. Yes, tasks for Crats these days are fairly light, and our numbers have stayed reasonably stable down the years, but some of our Crats are less active these days and there have been times (Dec 16 re Godsy's Crat Chat and a March 2017 discussion about the Bureaucrat mailing list) when we've had to resort to pings and talkpage notifications to get a good number of Crats opining. Furthermore, I think a small addition of fresh blood is a good thing from time to time, especially when I look at the energy and thoughtful contributions I've seen from some of our newer Crats at BN.

All in all, I believe SoWhy is an excellent candidate to join the Bureaucrats and I do hope people will be able to support this nomination. Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 14:10, 19 July 2017 (UTC)

Co-nomination

I have been familiar with SoWhy's work for some time, regularly cross-referencing the useful essays Common A7 mistakes and Ten Commandments for Speedy Deletion. I've noticed their increased presence this year, and have spent time with them going over various processes and procedures. What I've discovered is that although we've sometimes disagreed on how to apply some policies, and at time expressed divergent opinions, I've always gone away thinking "well although I don't quite agree, SoWhy's been polite and courteous about it, and they've got a point". I am convinced that he can handle difficult decisions, and explain them thoroughly to those who disagree without any risk of inflaming a dispute.

Elsewhere, SoWhy has been a regular at RfA for many years. He has participated in 369 discussions, matched consensus 84% of the time, and put forward ten candidates who passed. Even on the occasions where consensus didn't agree with his !vote, he graciously accepted the result and moved on with the minimum of fuss. More recently, we were two of the nominators on Anarchyte's RfA, and SoWhy's co-nomination and thorough investigation into the candidate's history was a key factor in making the nomination pass with 97% support. It's a shame to see such a strong RfA nominator go over to "the other side" of closing discussions, but I have full confidence in their ability to do this, and am happy to endorse Dweller's suggestion that they should receive the 'crat privileges. Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 16:05, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: I thank both Dweller and Ritchie for their kind statements and accept their nominations. Regards SoWhy 12:31, 24 July 2017 (UTC)

Questions for the candidate

Dear candidate, thank you for offering to serve Wikipedia as a bureaucrat. You may wish to answer the following optional questions to provide guidance for participants:

1. Have you read the discussions on when to promote and not promote? What do you understand the criteria for promotion to be?

A: I began being active at RfA almost exactly nine years ago. Since then, I have !voted in almost 300 RfAs according to the RfA !Vote Counter tool, including many heated discussions. I am aware of the rough numerical expectations of when to fail (< 65%), when to promote (> 75%) and when to consider the discussion carefully (in between) but I also know that if numbers were all the community needed (like de-wiki does), we wouldn't need crats to judge these requests. In a nutshell, I believe consensus to promote exists, if - to borrow some terminology from German law - there is a degree of certainty that silences reasonable doubts ("eine Gewissheit, die vernünftigen Zweifeln Schweigen gebietet"), i.e. when no sufficiently reasonable policy-based reasons were mentioned not to promote. Like with deletion discussions, where a few well-reasoned !votes to delete can outweigh a lot of non-policy based keep !votes, so can a few well-reasoned oppose !votes outweigh a lot of "they are a great editor!" !votes.

2. How would you deal with contentious nominations where a decision to promote or not promote might be criticized?

A: My method when dealing with closing discussions has always been this: If I believe editors could reasonably have expected a different outcome, I will explain my reasoning very carefully and probably with far too many words (just to be sure). Explaining your actions is always preferable to defending them later. Examples include [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

I believe the same applies to RfX, although if it is a contentious nomination, chances are, I have an opinion as well, in which case I won't touch the RfX as a crat.

3. Wikipedians expect bureaucrats to adhere to high standards of fairness, knowledge of policy and the ability to engage others in the community. Why do you feel you meet those standards?

A: In my 13 years as an editor and almost 9 years as an admin, I have been criticized my fair share but, as far as I can tell, there has never been any reasonable complaints that I had acted unfair or unfriendly. Staying rational, methodical and calm even when something really annoys me has always been my goal, both on- and off-wiki. When I believe that I am somehow agitated, I might be tempted to comment, but I almost always manage to close the browser window instead. And I think anyone reading my talk page contributions will agree that I am pretty successful in achieving that. Also: I take WP:INVOLVED very seriously. I strongly believe that no admin or crat should act in their role if there might be the appearance of bias, broadly construed (except of course blatant vandalism, 100% support RfAs etc.). Random example: I relisted a recent AFD (won't name it since it's still open). After another week, more sources were provided and some arguments made that I found unconvincing, especially since I thought the sources demonstrated notability. I wanted to comment on it and !vote to keep the article but since I had previously touched the AFD in an administrative role, I stopped myself both from commenting and of course closing the discussion.

As for policy knowledge: Like most people, I don't like being wrong, not only because of my chosen profession. I can admit when I am but I prefer to avoid it if possible. That means, before I apply any policy or guideline I'm not 100% familiar with, I will read what it actually says (not just the WP:3LA often used). I am pretty firm in most policies that one needs in their daily wiki-life but more importantly, I'm very good in finding those I am not so familiar with.

Additional question from Amakuru

4. You had a previous RfB in January 2010, which finished as no consensus. Please could you explain why some people objected on that occasion, and whether there's anything different this time around (other than seven years more experience of course!), which might satisfy those objections?

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Discussion

RfBs for this user:

• Requests for bureaucratship/SoWhy
• Requests for bureaucratship/SoWhy 2

• Links for SoWhy: SoWhy (talk · contribs · deleted · count · AfD · logs · block log · lu · rfar · spi)
• Edit summary usage for SoWhy 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, in anticipation of imminent transclusion. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 12:26, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
2. Happy to support. Anarchyte (work | talk) 12:33, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
3. Support as co-nominator Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 12:37, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
4. I don't particularly like SoWhy, who has always struck me as a stickler for a letter-of-the-law interpretation even when it flies in the face of common sense, and for adhering to whatever a written policy/guideline happens to say even when "consensus as defined by what people are actually doing" is to disregard that policy and it's just the case that nobody has got around to updating the formal document. However, that without-fear-or-favor pig-headedness is exactly the trait one does want in a crat. ‑ Iridescent 12:37, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
5. Support - SoWhy has the qualities I want to see in a 'crat. ​—DoRD (talk)​ 12:39, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
6. Support per Iridescent. The job is to promote and demote based on policy, not personal whims, so if that's SoWhy's character, then that's just what we want.  — Amakuru (talk) 12:41, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
7. Support SoWhy is eminently qualified - very experienced, calm, level-headed with a firm grasp of policy. Happy to support.--Pawnkingthree (talk) 12:42, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
8. Support - It's actually a little scary how much much of the co-nom and comments so far are basically reading my mind. All in all, I think I've disagreed with SW on a good deal more than I've agreed with them on, but I've never come away thinking that anything was had other than a level headed discussion. Happy to throw in my lot. TimothyJosephWood 12:46, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
9. Support Denisarona (talk) 12:50, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
10. Support SoWhy's unwavering work going back nearly one and-a-half decade is a stellar track-record of a level-headed, calm, and dedicated administrator. His reasoning and judgement, evidenced by a decade of admin work, is constantly sound, and you can click any random page of his talk page archives to get a sense how he deals with sometimes quite irate editors disagreeing with a CSD delete or decline, or an AfD close - by calmly providing his reasoning and his reading in policy, making his disagreements clear when needed, but never fanning flames with those who challenge him. MLauba ^(Talk) 12:59, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
11. Yes! I promised SoWhy years ago that I'd support him if he were to run for RfB a second time and, in the spirit of keeping that promise, here is that support. SoWhy has long been a reasoned and careful administrator with a plethora of experience; he is more than qualified and suitable for the role. There might not be much bureaucrat work nowadays but the position requires a level head, which SoWhy possesses, and that's what is the most important factor. Acalamari 13:05, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
12. Support per Iridescent. I don't think there is a Wikipedian I probably disagree with more things on than SoWhy, but those disagreements almost always stem from their desire to respect what they see as consensus, and always are the most conservative possible reading of it. This is the ideal outlook for a 'crat. He is also a lovely person even when you are disagreeing with him, which is a huge plus. TonyBallioni (talk) 13:15, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
13. Support: No issues overall with his judgement. KGirl ^{(Wanna chat?)} 13:28, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
14. Support Appears quite sound for the position indeed. Collect (talk) 13:33, 24 July 2017 (UTC)