Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/RegentsPark

RegentsPark

Nomination

Voice your opinion (talk page) (0/0/0); Scheduled to end 19:27, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

RegentsPark (talk · contribs) – I bumped into RegentsPark in May last year during an acrimonious debate on the Burma/Myanmar naming debate. What struck me about RP, was that he maintained his calm and composure during the entire incident when temperatures headed northward all around. He is familiar with article writing standards, something critical to this project, although I have been prodding him to get at least one article featured as he writes pretty well. RegentsPark is well versed in policy and editing standards, takes part regularly in policy debates, understands the notability criteria exceedingly well (as evidenced from his participation in several contentiousness AFDs). He also participates in the RFA process, knowing fully well what is expected of adminship. While he does express concerns about what specific admin tasks he would like to take part in, I personally think that question is immaterial. The project stands to gain more from his experience and mature all-round thinking as compared to working on a specific admin-task. Regents Park has my full trust to make well thought of decisions as an admin. I wish him all the very best. =Nichalp «Talk»= 07:46, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: I accept. --Regent's Park (Boating Lake) 19:27, 26 January 2009 (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 administrative work do you intend to take part in?

A: Initially, I’ll probably focus on WP:AFD and the parts of WP:RM where admin help is required since I have a bit of experience in these areas and have some sense of how to evaluate deletion and move requests. I’ll also start looking into helping out at 3 RR violations. By nature, I like to know what I’m getting into before jumping in but, once I’m comfortable, I swim like a fish. So, if I’m confirmed as an admin, I’ll slowly, but surely, start showing up everywhere.

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

A: Amongst the many things I do on wikipedia, I enjoy giving third opinions because they are a way to dispassionately look at an editing dispute and to give an opinion where I don’t have a personal (mental) stake. It amazes me that, in most cases, editors politely accept the opinion and move on and has lead me to believe that most regular wikipedians are open to discussion and to be reasonable for the good of the encyclopedia. Amongst article contributions, I was impressed with the stellar job that we collectively did on the 2008 Mumbai attacks where several editors, including myself, updated the article based on the news we were monitoring (I had a personal stake, my sister lives in Bombay not far from where the attacks took place) while others checked references and facts as they were added. I’ve worked on many other articles but the one I like the best is probably the most trivial, Charles J. Knapp. Trolling for stuff to do, I stumbled on this brief account of a 19th century US representative from New York and decided to update his biography. In the process of searching the archives of the New York Times, I discovered a lost town (Pepacton NY), a century old bank failure (the failure of the Binghampton Trust Company), and a criminal indictment of Mr. Knapp (some things never change in New York!) and left the article looking like this. For me, this ability to provide good information at the margins of knowledge is one of the strengths of wikipedia. The history of the United States or the campaign of Barack Obama are well covered elsewhere (if much harder to retrieve) but this succinct snapshot of Mr. Knapp and the failure of The Binghampton Trust Company exists only on wikipedia.

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 think that the Burma/Myanmar naming debate that Nichalp mentions above is a good example of how I handle conflict situations. Nichalp conducted a straw poll on whether the article on Burma should be titled Burma or Myanmar. The straw poll was inconclusive in number but Nichalp decided that the case for Myanmar was stronger and moved the article. Naturally, all hell broke loose! As a strong proponent of the Burma title, my first reaction was ‘who the heck does he think he is?’ But, instead of immediately joining the angry protests, I researched his contributions, saw his prodigious record on wikipedia, and concluded that his actions were in good faith and that he had a point (we were swimming in the same shade of gray, but on opposite sides of the dividing line). So, I acknowledged that and questioned the process rather than the person or the rationale, not giving up until the action was reversed. I was still fairly new on wikipedia and, even in retrospect, I think I handled the situation well by not letting my judgement get carried away by my emotions. I believe that the vast majority of regular wikipedians are here to improve the encyclopedia and are willing to engage in reasonable dialogue as long as no one dumps on them, and that by acknowledging that their motivation is the same as mine (better articles), most conflicts can be resolved amicably. (The initial straw poll, Nichalp’s move, and the ensuing brouhaha - yes, Nazis entered the picture! - is here. The discussion on ANI is here.)

General comments

• Links for RegentsPark: RegentsPark (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/RegentsPark before commenting.