Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Paulmcdonald

Paulmcdonald

Voice your opinion on this candidate (talk page) (18/1/1); Scheduled to end 23:41, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Nomination

Paulmcdonald (talk · contribs) – Fellow Wikipedians, it is my pleasure to bring forth User:Paulmcdonald for your consideration as an admin candidate. I first interacted with Paul when I was a clueless newbie in my first 10 days or so of editing when I was ticked off that he supported deletion of an article that I was reading. I vented at him a little bit, and he stayed calm and tried to explain relevant policy, though it undoubtedly fell on deaf ears. In any case, Paul was the victim of my constant questioning throughout my first few months of editing, and he was always patient, kind, and helpful. In addition to his helpfulness to me, he has all of the characteristics we as a community could possibly want:

• He has a ton of experience at articles for deletion.

• In the last 250 AFDs in which he has participated, his !votes have been in consensus or there has been no consensus nearly 85% of the time.
• His comments always indicate that he has thoughtfully weighed relevant policy and rarely are "per so and so" !votes, which brings me to my next point.

• He is extremely well-versed in our policies.

• Look at these three AFDs just from the last few days, and you will see that in each he not only linked a policy, but explained how it applied to the given situation. Being articulate is an important trait in an admin, and one that Paul undoubtedly embodies.
• In addition to his knowledge of our policies, he has written numerous essays which are displayed on his user page.

• He maintains a calm demeanor.

• Even in this dispute, Paul remained calm throughout despite comments being made about his off-wiki activities. It shows he has a thick skin and can handle whatever may be thrown at him when he has the admin tools.

• He is a content creator.

• Paul has created 100 articles in his time at Wikipedia and has made over 16,000 edits, more than 55% of his total edits, to article space.
• He keeps an archive of deleted articles so he can work to improve them and reintroduce them to article space.

• He has a clean block log, is well-respected within the projects he works, and is steadily active and has made at least 100 edits in 34 of the last 39 months. Though he doesn't rack up thousands of edits per month, he is more than able to be a significant positive during what time he does volunteer with us. -- Go Phightins! 21:52, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: I accept the nomination--Paul McDonald (talk) 22:05, 30 April 2013 (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. What administrative work do you intend to take part in?

A: Mostly I plan to run through AFDs and help newbies adjust to the process of going through AFD discussions.

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

A: I would say that my contributions to the College Football Project and Kansas historical articles. I've also written a few essays that some seem to have found helpful in their work on Wikipedia. I hold these examples as some of my best work because they have stood the test of time and have been referenced by other editors. Check my user page for links to a lot of my projects and involvement.

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: When I was new, I got in a lot of conflicts. That gives me the perspective of being able to help new editors going through the same thing--I understand the emotions involved. As I've matured on Wikipedia, I've learned to lean on the policies and guidelines. Now I encourage people who disagree with me to go ahead and say so. It's not about them or me, but about making Wikipedia better.

Questions from Secret,

4.Do you still support your view of this essay you created Wikipedia:Discriminate vs indiscriminate information? Why or why not?

A: Yes, absolutely. I have found that editors who use the argument "Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information" are usually arguing about a very specific and indeed discriminate collection of information. Of course, all other policies and guidelines do still apply.

5 What is your current opinion on WP:BLP1E?

A: I think that it leaves a lot to interpretation on the fly. Basically, it states that low-profile currently living people are not notable if they are only known for one event... unless, of course, they actually are notable for one event. It's not very clear. That's okay, that's why we have discussions.

6 What is your view of consensus?

A: I'm assuming you are asking about the concept of consensus while linking to the article/policy and not necessarily my view of the article/policy itself. Consensus can change. Consensus is not always clear. Consensus is not a scoreboard or popularity contest. Consensus is not determined by volume. Consensus can change minds of individuals or it can strengthen their resolve. And most importantly, consensus is not always the way I think it ought to be.

Question from DrumstickJuggler,

7 We have many admins on Wikipedia, so what do you think will set you apart from the others?

A: I don't really know other admins on Wikipedia so I really cannot fairly answer that one.

Additional question from WorldTraveller101

8. Do you plan to be very active in user-discipline areas as well, such as blocks, AIV, ANI, and other discussions?

A: User-discipline areas would be a new area for me. I don't know how to block someone if I wanted to. I have no objection to learning how, but before that I would want to spend time in discussions about user discipline. I have some experience in discussions but more would we welcomed.

General comments

• Links for Paulmcdonald: Paulmcdonald (talk · contribs · deleted · count · AfD · logs · block log · lu · rfar · spi)
• Edit summary usage for Paulmcdonald can be found here.
• Stats on talk. Theopolisme (talk) 00:05, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

---

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

Discussion

Support

1. Support - enthusiastically, as nom. Go Phightins! 22:43, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
2. Support. Paul has been a strong editor, regular talk page participant, and prolific content contributor, especially in his favorite subject areas of American college football and Kansas history, with over 1,700 new articles created. He has also been a long-term and regular AfD participant, with over 1,000 AfD discussions to his credit. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 22:48, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
3. Support I've run into this editor before at AfD, and I a positive impression of his contributions there, one that's confirmed by my review of AfD, article creation, and talk page histories. --j⚛e decker^talk 23:28, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
4. Support PumpkinSky talk 23:48, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
5. Support - Terrific nom by Go Phightins! Paul strikes me as a very mature person. One stretch that must have been very trying was a mass AfD nomination of articles created by him, and I think he handled it well - see this talk page discussion and this wikiproject discussion. And that was back in 2008. Also, in all of the nominations that I found from this incident, the articles are still there. One minor thing: If he becomes an admin, he should start archiving his talk page discussions instead of deleting them. RockMagnetist (talk) 23:57, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
6. Weak Support The potential for narcissistic behavior and the disapproval of anonymous editing are a little concerning. Keepscases (talk) 01:07, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

   Keepscases, why do you think there is a potential for narcissistic behavior? RockMagnetist (talk) 01:50, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

   I also have no idea what this means. Newyorkbrad (talk) 02:44, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

7. Support - per nom. Paul also has met consensus 83% of the time on AfDs when !voting (not counting AfDs that were closed as no consensus), which is much higher than some other admin candidates. Command and Conquer Expert! ^{speak to me...}_{review me...} 00:06, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
8. Support. Another fine editor. NintendoFan (Talk, Contribs) 00:19, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
9. Support. Great AfD work. We still need a few more admins to help us clear the AfD queue occasionally. -- King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 00:27, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
10. Support Everything looks great to me. Seems like he'll keep his cool, and he's done good work with AFDs. Inks.LWC (talk) 01:23, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
11. Absolutely. Kurtis ^(talk) 01:24, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
12. Support Mediran (t • c) 01:25, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
13. Strongly Support: Paul seems like a very active, strong editor. Also, it's nice to see a clean block log Cheers and good luck. WorldTraveller101^{Did I mess up?} 01:32, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
14. Support - Very mature editor. I agree with RM, though, that he should probably archive his talk threads. TCN7JM 01:46, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
15. Support because I see no reason not to. Someguy1221 (talk) 02:32, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
16. Support. Fully qualified candidate. Newyorkbrad (talk) 02:44, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
17. Support, an overall net positive for the project. — -dainomite   03:48, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
18. Rschen7754 03:57, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Oppose

1. Primarily, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, but it's also a community, especially when it comes to administration. I initially was neutral per the concerns raised by Keepscases and when you add that to a lack of knowledge of other adminisitrators, I just can't support this process. While I acknowledge it would be impossible to get to know everybody, it helps to know at least a decent selection of admins in the community that you are working in.--DrumstickJuggler (talk) 04:58, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Neutral

# At this point I'm neutral per the concerns raised by Keepscases above and pending an answer to my question.--DrumstickJuggler (talk) 01:45, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

1. Neutral, nearing Support Will wait for candidate to answer the few questions first. Arctic Kangaroo 03:30, 1 May 2013 (UTC)