Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/ScottishFinnishRadish

ScottishFinnishRadish

Voice your opinion on this candidate (talk page) (38/18/5); Scheduled to end 21:58, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

Nomination

ScottishFinnishRadish (talk · contribs) – Friends, colleagues, fellow editors, it is my pleasure to present ScottishFinnishRadish‎ as a candidate for adminship. SFR came to my attention with his helpful and well-considered interventions on the talk pages of contentious articles. His extensive work on edit-requests in particular has earned him appreciation, but SFR is far from a one-trick pony; he has a solid portfolio of content work to his name, including two GAs, and has substantial contributions to anti-vandalism and at AfD. SFR has impressed me with his patience, his knowledge of policy, and his communications skills, and I believe he will make an excellent addition to the admin corps. Vanamonde (Talk) 09:14, 10 September 2022 (UTC)

Co Nomination

I am pleased to co-nominate SFR, a friendly guy whom I also consider to be a friend. SFR displays a breadth and depth of knowledge in various areas, so he knows content and he knows the various plights that content contributors face. Likewise, he exhibits a sound understanding of our policies and guidelines, our procedures and best practices. An understanding which he articulate in a clear and unassuming way. SFR is also familiar with the many challenges that admins face, mostly because he pays attention and asks the right questions.

SFR often takes on resolving challenging, conflict-ridden disputes, doing so with a mixture of bluntness and grace. And above all else, with positive outcomes. He can also frequently be seen grinding on resolving requests that are more mundane and tedious, but which nonetheless are in need of attention. Requests which otherwise would become a source of conflict if left unattended. Critically, he has the kind of rare temperament that does not fracture and which rarely even bends (he even tolerates my incessant spammage, so that says a lot!).

At a time (a long time) in which we are consistently losing far more admins than we are gaining, and where some backlogs have become unwieldy, I know he'll be a welcome addition to the admin corps. So Let's Make RfA Gleat Again [←this is a joke], and let's start right here right now with SFR. As an admin, SFR is sure to positively embiggen the project, so I urge everyone to join me in supporting his nomination! El_C 11:15, 10 September 2022 (UTC)

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: I accept the nomination, and thanks to Vanamonde93 for convincing me this wasn't a horrible idea. I have never edited for pay, and I do not, nor have I ever, operated another account. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 21:58, 12 September 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: I plan to do most of my mop-work around AIV, RFPP, and BLP revdels/page protections, as well as adding the fully protected edit requests to my patrolling. I spend a decent chunk of my time patrolling the edit request queues, which gives me a view at an under-patrolled part of Wikipedia, and I often find questionable statements or outright BLP violations. Anything that speeds up the process of getting flagrant BLPvios hidden is a decent boon in my eyes. I also plan to close AfDs and do some copyright work when my time permits.

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

A: I've written a couple GAs (The amazing Rosetta Lawson and her husband Jesse Lawson) and plan to expand Frelinghuysen University to GA and work on articles of some of the associated people. I've rescued a few more from failed drafts (Lisa Winter and Margaret Bartlett Thornton to name a couple) and written an article with a funny name on a topic I discovered researching during an AfD (Shit flow diagram), which are the normal things to cover in this question. I think, however, the contributions I think are most important are my contributions dealing with BLPs. I've made many oversight requests via email, often found during edit request patrolling, to get some vile stuff removed. I spend a decent chunk of time lurking about WP:BLPN and like to think my contributions there are positive, and kept unsourced dross out of many articles. I've also nominated several problem BLP articles for deletion.

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: Well, there was this little thing, but it wasn't overly stressful. I also believe that, for the most part, I've mended fences with most of the editors involved there and we share a mutual respect. We may have different views on how exactly leads should be constructed and sourcing should be used but we all agree that the "healing crystal" that someone gave me at work is just a rock. Things also got pretty heated at JP Sears where balancing WP:BLP, WP:FRINGE, and an overall lack of good sources made for a contentious discussion, but I tried (unsuccessfully) to forge a compromise here that would address the BLP concerns as well as provide the necessary context about the article subject. In general, it takes a lot more than the internet to stress me out, and when I'm feeling stressed I have a beautiful wife, some lovely dogs and cats, and plenty of hobbies to help me recenter myself. I also don't have an issue just removing an article from my watchlist and shrugging, which I did at Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. It's a big Wiki and I don't have to work on all of it. I don't have a problem stepping away or reducing activity if I'm feeling burnt-out, and if I'm really worked up maybe I'll spend another hundred hours building a bed.

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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.

Optional question from CollectiveSolidarity

4. You already have my enthusiastic support, but I would like to ask you : What was your biggest mistake while editing? And what did you learn from it?

A: When I was a newer editor I was responding to either a BLPN or COIN posting dealing with the article on Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, and with the belief that I was right, I edit warred trying to address the problems with the article. I should not have done that, and now I would be better equipped to get the assistance necessary to resolve the problem. What I learned is that I can just remove the article from my watchlist and walk away, which is what I ended up doing. None of us are under any obligation to fix any specific article, or deal with a dedicated undeclared COI editor. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 23:03, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

Oh, there was also the time I hid most of an arb case request because I messed up my cot/cob templates. I've gotten better at using them since then. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 23:15, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

Optional question from GeoffreyT2000

5. I like the nice rhyming words in your username! So, what do the rhyming words mean to you as a Wikipedian?

A: I assume you're asking what my username means? It's a nickname my old college roommate gave me after imagining me as an old timey bare knuckle boxer. Some pilsners were involved as well. I'm pretty sure I have the drawing he made of me as an old timey boxer in a box somewhere. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 23:41, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

Optional question from TheresNoTime

6. Prior to registering this account, had you previously edited Wikipedia?

A: This is going to be a bit of a broader answer that also covers 10 and 14. I've also explained much of this in the past in different conversations, but not all in the same place all at once. I started editing wikis in around 1999 or 2000, back when the preferred method of wikilinking was TwoCapitals rather than brackets. In the mid-to-early 2000s I also ran two MUDs, and set up a wiki at that point and edited extensively. Starting about a decade ago some pals and I set up a wiki as an easy way to log our tabletop RPG sessions and store our character sheets. Wiki editing is not new to me.

I had made probably a few dozen edits before I created my account. Normal productive IP stuff, copyedits and the like. What I did do that was unusual was read the back pages of Wikipedia, starting somewhere around 8 years ago (based on the job I was working when I started reading). I was always one to check talk pages when reading an article on a contentious topic, and during one of those talkpage reads, I saw a link to ANI or AE, which I checked out. This led me to read a whole lot more about Wikipedia that normal readers never see. It was pretty interesting, from an outside perspective, to see how much went on. Reading those types of discussions, seeing the arguments and results, makes one pretty familiar with a lot of the acronyms and cavernous PAG pages. I've read quite a few arb cases before I started editing, I'm familiar with the Eric Corbett drama, and watched FRAMGATE unfold from the guidelines. I also work in a field that requires reading significant amounts of technical documentation, ATPs, and SOPs, so the policy pages of Wikipedia are not nearly as dense to me as they would be to others.

I started editing because I found myself with some partial down-time at work, where I was sitting at a work station monitoring a test but not needing to use the vast majority of my attention. I figured that I'd read Wikipedia long enough, including all of the internal stuff, that I could lend a hand reasonably well and hopefully without friction. New changes patrol was a nice and easy low bandwidth activity that I could work on while still paying all the necessary attention to the units I was working on. If troubleshooting or refixturing arose I could drop it immediately without losing my place. When I had a bit more time I'd try to help on AfDs, as I knew they were chronically underattended. Fairly quickly I was accused of being a sock. At that point I emailed arbcom directly from my actual, real life, real name email address. I continued using that email address up through the Arbcom case I was involved in. When I was IP blocked and dealing with checkusers and UTRS I disclosed both my real name and employer. My hope was that by being honest in that way I could avoid some of the sock-accusation shenanigans. I don't think that Arbcom or checkusers do "proof of not being a long term crypto-sock" statements, but they've had my personal information for well over a year. Oversighters have access to my real name as well, because my early reports to the OS email were sent when my real email address was still linked to my account. I may expand on this a bit more later, but I'm already a bit late starting my commute, but didn't want to let this sit all day. I'll have some dedicated time to answer questions in depth in about 11 hours. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 09:51, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

Optional question from Tomorrow and tomorrow

7. I'm curious because it has been raised in the discussion: With the majority of your edits talk pages rather than at main, do you feel that that you have the needed knowledge of content editing?

A:

Optional questions from Wugapodes

8. Citing WP:BLPDS, an administrator has fully protected a high-traffic, controversial biography for 30 days. The full protection is to prevent the insertion of potentially defamatory material to one section of the article pending the conclusion of an RfC on whether to cover the material. You find yourself fielding edit requests on the talk page: under what circumstances (if any) would you edit through full protection?

A:

9. An editor requests page protection. You review the edit history and see 50 edits going back 4 years. Those edits are mostly back-and-forth reverts between dynamic IPs (v6 and v4), redlinked usernames, and some names you recognize as recent change watchers, but there are some helpful IPs who improve the page every few weeks. The disruptive editing occurs in clusters, and an RC watcher or helpful IP usually reverts the disruption within a minute or so, though on a few occasions the disruption has lasted for up to an hour.

My question: in this situation, whats action would you take, and why?

A:

Optional question from HouseBlaster

10. Thank you for putting yourself forward at RfA! Below, some people are raising concerns about how quickly you learned your way around the encyclopedia. For example, you knew that [[this]] is called a wikilink on your fourth edit, were asking people to discuss changes on the article's talk page soon thereafter, and made a successful report at AIV, all on your first day! You also made your way to AfD on your second day editing. How did you learn to edit?

A:

Optional question from Espresso Addict

11. You seem to have created a single article (Shit flow diagram) during your tenure. How well do you feel that you understand the concerns of editors focused on content creation, particularly given your stated interest in working on copyright and closing deletion debates?

A:

Optional questions from Ixtal

12. Many editors have questioned your suitability as admin based off your low percentage of mainspace edits. Seeing how you plan on working mostly on AIV, RFPP, and BLPP, how have other areas of the wiki helped you gain experience with PAGs relevant to these areas?

A:

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

A:

Optional question from MaxnaCarta

14. Given the concerns raised by others that you have possibly edited previously without disclosing, please can you explain how you became familiar with vandalism, what AIV is, and how to report someone there the same day you started editing?? While newbies are not always clueless, this shows rather advanced knowledge for someone’s first day of editing.

A:

Discussion

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

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

Support

1. First! El_C 16:16, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
2. Support SFR and I have not agreed on everything, but they seem to be WP:CLUEful and to play it straight even in controversial areas, and that counts for a lot. Bon courage (talk) 17:15, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
3. Support support support! Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 22:01, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
4. Support My only regret is that I can support this but once. SFR is one of my favourite editors, and per El_C's co-nomination statement above, I agree has all of the skills and understanding we like to see from admins. I think they will be a fantastic holder of the mop. Sideswipe9th (talk) 22:14, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
5. Support Excellent candidate who will make a fine addition to the admin corps. scope_creep^Talk 22:30, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
6. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 22:34, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
7. Support. User can be trusted with the admin mop. NASCARfan0548 ↗ 22:36, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
8. support per nominators. seen 'em around.-- Deepfriedokra (talk) 22:37, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

   enthusiastic support -- Deepfriedokra (talk) 22:38, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

9. Support, I've hoped to see this for a while now, and certainly have no reservations now that I do. Seraphimblade ^{Talk to me} 22:38, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
10. Pile-on support Andre🚐 22:39, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
11. Support. POS (for pile-on support) . More candidates like this, please! P.I. Ellsworth , ed. ^put'r there 22:46, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
12. Trusted, competent. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:53, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
13. support seems ok--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 22:59, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
14. Support. I have been impressed with SFR's deft hand at resolving disputes and edit requests in high-conflict areas. Simply put, we need more admins like him. Generalrelative (talk) 23:07, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
15. Support. Sure. But always remember... CollectiveSolidarity (talk) 23:11, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
16. Support. Being an admin should not be a big deal. ✠ SunDawn ✠ (contact) 23:15, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
17. Support. BilledMammal (talk) 23:26, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
18. Support. Easy support. This editor is always pretty great to work with! –MJL ‐Talk‐^☖ 23:30, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
19. Support, absolutely and completely. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested ∆transmissions∆ °co-ords° 23:33, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
20. Support Of course! Beccaynr (talk) 23:35, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
21. Support. No concerns. Arbitrarily0 ^(talk) 23:39, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
22. Support Oh my goodness, yes and please. Absolutely would be a net positive with the tools. RickinBaltimore (talk) 23:44, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
23. Support Great work on edit requests and reverting unhelpful edits! GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 23:46, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
24. Supprt Admins who are willing to do behind the scenes tasks are greatly needed, and I really have no reason to oppose, as any accusations of being a sock are currently evidentiary baseless. Sea Cow (talk) 00:47, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
25. Support I’ve seen this user around. This user will enjoy having the mop. Sarrail (talk) 00:59, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
26. Support. Oh my God. I cannot take the complaints about SFR's tenure seriously. Two years is enough time to learn the essentials three times over. About the mainspace percentage: Do you guys realize there are other tasks to do here? We're set to tank under 1000 admins in January and it'll only decrease from there. And here we are talking about mainspace percentage, as if he hasn't made 5,000 edits and created a good article there anyway. —VersaceSpace 🌃 02:39, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

    And re the concerns about figuring things out so quickly: I think the more experienced Wikipedians have a bad tendency to assume that any editor who gets into the rhythm too quick is a sockpuppet. That happened to me too. Guess I'll eat my words if this ends up being a clean start or worse, but I heavily doubt either of those are the case here. —VersaceSpace 🌃 02:50, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

27. Support I’m a relatively new editor, but I’ve seen SFR’s work and think they would make an excellent addition to the admin team. I also have tremendous respect for the opinions and judgment of our two co-nominations, and have no reason to doubt their conclusion that SFR would be a good admin. Regarding some comments concerning SFR’s ratio of Talk-to-Mainspace edits: While I understand these concerns, I believe they are misplaced. We are discussing whether SFR should be made an admin, not whether SFR should be promoted to the (non-existent) position of “Editor Who Contributes Lots of Mainspace Content.” The work I’ve seen from SFR on Talk pages is precisely what qualifies them for the position of admin: behind-the-scenes negotiation and dispute deescalation. ThanksForHelping (talk) 03:09, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
28. Support. I believe this editor has protentional to become a good admin on the platform.`~HelpingWorld~` ^(👽🛸) 03:25, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
29. Support. I've had the pleasure of working with ScottishFinnishRaddish in quite a few places. They are a great editor, and would make a good admin. There is unhelpful scrutiny on their number of edits and how long they've been here. We should not be counting it in the hundreds of thousands or in decades. SWinxy (talk) 04:17, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
30. Support As someone who firmly believes that, unless you're creating new articles by yourself, you should be editing talk pages far more than you should be editing main, I believe someone who spends a lot of time on talk pages is an asset to the community. FrederalBacon (talk) 05:17, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
31. Support, ScottishFinnishRadish is one the greatest editors editing here and he'll be a great admin! -----Lilach5 (לילך5) discuss 05:19, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
32. Support, Seems more than qualified and clearly capable of helping.DocFreeman24 (talk) 06:20, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
33. Support, naturally, as nominator. And I want to note that percentage of edits by namespace is a rather poor indicator of whether a candidate knows what's what with content. Talk page content discussions (which SFR has participated in a lot of) do a lot more for one's understanding of content than anti-vandalism or category cleanup, and yet the latter categories will inflate your mainspace contributions quite substantially. Vanamonde (Talk) 06:43, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

    Just seeking clarification, as nominator what are your thoughts on concerns raised about SFR not being a new editor or their responses here? Tomorrow and tomorrow (talk) 07:16, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

    @Tomorrow and tomorrow: Thanks for asking nicely. When I offer to nominate a candidate, I do so after investigating their record quite thoroughly, and I was aware of both discussions you link above. I spent quite literally days searching for evidence that SFR was here for non-constructive purposes, and failed to find any. I'll note that I consider hat-collecting non-constructive, and didn't find evidence of that, either: I had to persuade SFR to run, rather than him needing to persuade me. I also chatted with others who did similar investigation, and spoke with SFR about his history, and the responses contained further lack of evidence of malicious intent. I don't think it's reasonable for to continue to be suspicious after all that: I'd never get anywhere, on Wikipedia least of all. I'd also like to point to the eloquent answer given by my previous nominee Wugapodes, when asked a similar question: "it shouldn't be strange that someone read the fucking manual" (I'd encourage you to read his full response).

    With respect to your other concern; I do not think it is in any way a bad thing for an admin to be a strict enforcer of BLP; not only is it a core policy, it's one of the few areas in which Wikipedia and its editors can face legal consequences. It's an unfortunate reality that we have any number of articles on people not in the public eye, whose questionable activities we cannot document, because no source that's good enough has paid them attention. Under the circumstances, I do believe SFR was justified in demanding a consensus building discussion. That discussion, and the reverting that occurred during it, got more heated than it should have: but if it's the number of reverts SFR made that concerns you, I'd point to his answer to Q4. Vanamonde (Talk) 07:59, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

34. Support, I am unconvinced by the opposes at this point.--Ymblanter (talk) 08:13, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
35. Support Yeah. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:35, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
36. Support based on excellent tenure, accomplishments in various fora, and, yes, personal positive feelings towards the editor. I do not mean to downplay the content issues. I would significantly prefer a more content-oriented editor myself, all else equal. Still, all else is rarely equal, and I have a high opinion of SFR's potential for adminship. Vaticidalprophet 08:39, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
37. Support. I'm sure if I looked at his noticeboard posts, I could find something I disagreed with. And we have very different pie charts. But from one precocious editor to another (my fifth edit after registering, I think I had one IP edit before I registered, but it's been a while; note that I used another article as a template for biographical format and wiki-syntax, and wrote in Word, and I've been told I would have been blocked as an obvious sockpuppet of somebody experienced if I hadn't failed to preview and note that Word on my laptop was still set to smart quotes), I like the cut of his jib. Looking at the discussion on his user talk referred to in a couple of Opposes, I'm impressed by the candidate's calm and to the point responses, including his suggestion that the ongoing discussion at BLPN is a more appropriate place to discuss. Looking at his edit summaries in rejecting edit requests, linked in another Oppose, I expected to find he was just templating; but he gives a reason each time. An important part of being an admin is explaining things to people, so I was concerned about that, and I did wince a bit at this talk page section referred to in another oppose, but that was an unfortunate collision between, on the one hand, a well-meaning newbie with a valid point that, since we have an entire article on the specific issue, was to a large extent a matter of balance, and on the other an experienced edit request patroller (and most edit requests languish unexamined, this editor is doing something much needed, and doing it competently and with a good grasp of relevant policies) who saw a wordy, value-laden post that buried the actual request (I read it twice and I still can't quite see what specific edit was being requested). With two GAs, the candidate has two more than I will ever have (I used to write articles, and I still sometimes improve them, but I've never competed in that arena). His other mainspace contributions are useful: the first-day edit linked in an Oppose as an example of precocious knowledge of link syntax usefully applies specialized knowledge to inform the reader, I'm very glad he made it. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders, does explain himself, and gives a very good account of why he needs the tools. 19 months of high activity is sufficient for me; others may differ of course, but the one thing I would advise is, if you do become an admin, remember that lesson from Talk:Climate change; especially as an admin, you need to remember that the obvious response isn't always the right one, and in particular, that someone's communication style may mask something you hadn't thought of and should take into account—in this instance, someone pointed out that there was actually a valid edit request buried in there, along with a source (although a better one was available). This may be the longest Support made here, but here's the end of it :-) Yngvadottir (talk) 09:00, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
38. Support IMO two years is enough experience. More importantly their understanding of policies and practice shows that they'll make a good admin.. ‐‐1997kB (talk) 09:36, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

Oppose

1. Oppose I have a few concerns: (1) The candidate is a very new editor, with less than 2 years here; (2) The candidate's edits are overwhelmingly at talk pages rather than at main, with <20% on main; (3) Of the main space edits, the editor started out principally by undoing edits...a very strange pattern for an obstensively novice editor... and even now roughly 10% of their main space edits are simply reverting others' edits. I'd want to see a year or two more experience, and more focus on adding content before a yes vote. Banks Irk (talk) 22:53, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

   Wikipedia has reached a point where undoing unhelpful contributions is an easier way to start meaningfully participating than creating or noticeably expanding a new article about a notable subject. The talk page edits are from reviewing edit requests for articles, a task way too few people perform in an encyclopedia that requires people to submit such requests when attempting to edit protected pages, and that encourages editors with a conflict of interest to do so even in the absence of protection. ScottishFinnishRadish's work for the encyclopedia is neither suspicious, as you seem to imply, nor does it need any change, as your request for "more focus" seems to say. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:09, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

   This is a bit of a tangent but depending on what your interests are this can vary highly, areas such as metalworking and other industrial processes and motorsport related articles dearly need editors, but generally speaking yes, it is hard to find a niche. Just my two cents X-750 _{List of articles that I have screwed over} 04:59, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

   More focus on content after two GAs and thousands of edit requests? Also, plenty of editors can pass RFA with less than two years of experience. I mean, lots of people learn faster than a stumbling oaf like myself, but there are great numbers of admins who have done well with the mop after just one our two years of tenure. Sure, my criteria says that I prefer editors with more than three years experience, but that is just a preference, not a requirement. CollectiveSolidarity (talk) 23:10, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

2. Strong oppose. Creating their account on 22 January 2021, this editor has been editing only a bit over a year-and-a-half. When they started editing on 11 February, one of their first edits was to blank the welcome template—an odd way to start editing. My concerns are in line with those raised early on at the editor's talk page: "You must be the most precocious editor we have ever had". This editor had a very unusual start, highly suggestive of a returning editor, and set about from the outset appearing to be checking all the right boxes towards RFA, which is where it always appeared they were aiming. Content creation was never primary for this editor, who nonetheless indicated considerable knowledge of Wiki-processes. An 800-word and an 1,110 word GA—passed by editors I'm unfamiliar with—do not convince me, and in fact, look like another box to be ticked on the much-too-quick route to RFA. I can't recall recently seeing an editor with only 18% of their edits in mainspace. I'm additionally concerned that neither the nominators nor the RFA candidate addressed this editor's odd history in their nomination statements. Considering this editor's early history, there is nothing that can be said to convince me that it is not much too soon to trust this "new" editor with the tools. This is my strongest possible oppose. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 23:42, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

   Wikipedia:Newbies aren't always clueless; some editors learn very quickly. BilledMammal (talk) 02:14, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

   Of course, particularly when they are motivated to improve content, or create bots, or scripts, or propose new and better processes or policies. But this editor did not appear to aim for or excel at any of that. Unlike the example of editors who have few edits in mainspace because they excel in technical areas and write scripts or bots rather than mainspace content, this editor came right out of the starting gate with a specialty that appeared to be to tick off the boxes to RFA at a steady pace. Of course one can learn quickly, particularly if they've been observing Wikipedia for a long time. But typical new editors have an interest in more than adminship, or what years ago we referred to as "climbing the pole to RFA"-- the kind of editor I trust the least. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 03:00, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

   Typos fixed, [1] SandyGeorgia (Talk) 05:50, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

3. I don't endorse the sock accusations above, but having only 18.5% of edits to mainspace is shocking and indicates a worrying lack of experience in actually editing the encyclopedia. I'm someone who spends far too much time outside of mainspace, and I still manage to have twice that. I'm aware that the candidate spends a lot of time answering edit requests - however I don't think that's the sort of maintenance work that prepares one for adminship, and I'm concerned that a lot of their responses involve slapping newbies with a canned template telling them to "get consensus", which is just going to be confusing and meaningless to most inexperienced editors [2][3]. Frankly, most of the times I've seen this user around they've been involving themselves in drama at some noticeboard or other, which doesn't give the best impression. Spicy (talk) 00:03, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

   Per Edit Summary Search [[4]], the candidate Templated edit requests as denied, almost always without further explanation, well over 600 times in the past two months alone. Banks Irk (talk) 01:08, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

4. Strong oppose. The editor is very new and needs sufficient experience. To gain these features and responsibility you must be reliable enough and able to resolve disputes smoothly. I do not see that this currently applies to the candidate.--Sakiv (talk) 00:19, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
5. Oppose, largely per Sandy and Spicy. Way too much time on the noticeboards, and minimal content editing. My time as an editor has personally convinced me that those who spend the most time on noticeboards and the least time on consistently building article content (no, 2 short GAs isn't particularly impressive and shooting back at new editor requests mainly with canned templates doesn't help, either) don't make good administrators. Hog Farm _Talk 00:29, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
6. Oppose per SandyGeorgia. I've reviewed a number of the candidate's early edits, and it's pretty clear this isn't their first account. I would like to see ScottishFinnishRadish be more forthcoming about their past editing history. -FASTILY 01:18, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
7. Oppose - Way too few edits in mainspace, only 18.5% of their contributions. Much too much time on Talk (48.7%), User talk (19.95%), and Wikipedia (8.8%) - a combined 77%. Admins should understand the needs and requirements of Wikipedia's content editors, and I don't believe SFR's experience lends itself to that. WP:Communication is required, but it's not the purpose of Wikipedia, creating and editing content is. Beyond My Ken (talk) 01:46, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
8. Oppose – I don't vote at RfA as a rule but I think some very valid concerns have been raised here, namely the strange namespace makeup of the candidate's edits, that they seem to be flatly rejecting quite a lot of edit requests (which is the bulk of their activity), and seem unusually policy-aware on their first day of editing. 5225_C (talk • contributions) 02:19, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
9. Oppose. Others above already summarize many of my concerns already when seeing this name here. The combination of too new, too much time on noticeboards, and too few mainspace edits is a huge red flag. Personally, I've seen too much of a "just barrel ahead attitude" on enough occasions that I don't think they would be suitable as an admin at all. I do recall warnings myself and another editor gave them on their talk page earlier this year and just saw talking past attitude in response. Too trigger-happy to edit war and too much WP:NOTTHEM attitude when their behavior was at issue. KoA (talk) 03:14, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

   oh wow. I really encourage people to read this section KoA is talking about. The alleged edit warring is one thing, but the open wikilawyering and evasiveness in response to Koa and @Roxy the dog isn't what we want from an admin in my opinion. Tomorrow and tomorrow (talk) 03:31, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

10. Oppose. Too new to the project. Sportsfan 1234 (talk) 03:19, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
11. Oppose Sorry but there seems to be several red flags here. ɴᴋᴏɴ21 ❯❯❯ talk 03:58, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
12. Strong oppose. I was just going to say it's too soon, in general, and raises questions about how a new editor can have most of their edits on talk pages and pick up enough to be trusted with the tools. But having read the comments above, as well as the observations by SandyGeorgia, I am concerned that this user has edited under another account. I think we would be foolish to believe anyone would gain enough knowledge and experience to be an admin, by just spending the majority of their time on talk pages. No ... not enough experience ... and the above-raised questions about a previous account cause too much doubt. — Maile (talk) 04:09, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
13. Oppose Demonstrably unsuited for admin work, perfectly welcome as a fine and sometimes humorous contributor elsewhere. I hope we can revisit sooner than later, as the resolve is very obviously present. ~ Pbritti (talk) 04:50, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
14. Oppose - A few months ago this treatment of a new editor, and subsequent failure to acknowledge having screwed up, was shocking. It does make me wonder why someone would choose to respond to edit requests but not bother to read them. Clayoquot (talk | contribs) 05:09, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
15. Oppose Lack of engagement with content creation - the actual product of this project - demonstrated by a low proportion of edits to main space and creation of only one article. Their first 24hrs of edits are very fishy. The account immediately set about dealing with vandalism using WP acronyms/lingo in edit summaries ("ce", "go to talk first", "rv", "blanking welcome template", "rm vandalism", "rm or") talks about things A lot of people do [5], uses templates and even welcomes new editors and nominates articles for speedy deletions. The sheer rate and volume of initial edits (something like 100 to 50 different pages in the first 24hrs many only minutes apart) make it a practical impossibility that they could have been reading up on policies and guidelines as they went. Vladimir.copic (talk) 05:22, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

    No comment on the rest, but creation of only one article seems only technically correct (the best kind of correct). Jesse Lawson was a longstanding redirect with no other edits until the nominated radish turned it into an article, which is an article creation that doesn't show up under the basic click-me tool. Indignant Flamingo (talk) 05:36, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

    The same applies for many editors. For every 1 technical creation, there are 5 stubs or redirects that have been fleshed into real articles. Are you suggesting this editor does this to redirects or stubs at a higher rate than others? Vladimir.copic (talk) 05:44, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

    I am saying that the radish has created more than one article. Indignant Flamingo (talk) 05:45, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

16. Oppose The observations made by SandyGeorgia about the candidate's early edit history are quite on point and are substantiated down below by Hammersoft. I'm surprised that the candidate and their nominators did not consider it necessary to offer a convincing explanation. Their content creations are acceptable but do not make a dent for me. Modussiccandi (talk) 09:18, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
17. Reluctant oppose; i'm not convinced by all the talk of knowing too much when starting ~ do we have to assume that new editors are idiots who can't have a look around, read instructions, practise, &c.? ~ but i am very concerned by Clayoquot's illustration of the candidate not responding appropriately to an edit request and then not admitting the error and maybe even apologising for it. I expect admins to be able to do these things (especially the latter two) automatically. Maybe i ought to ask a question about that to offer a chance of correction or clarification; till then, though, i have to be here. Happy days ~ Lindsay^Hello 09:34, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
18. Oppose What I have seen from him, does not gives me positive vibes. Contrary. No confidence in him. The Banner talk 09:42, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

Neutral

1. While I don't participate in these RfA's anymore, I encourage enthusiastic support for this candidate. Chris Troutman (talk) 22:09, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
2. Neutral, for now. I'd like to point out that on this editor's very first day of editing they had already learned about wikilinking [6], knew about WP:CSD#G11 (admins can see deleted history of this userpage), knew about WP:AGF [7], knew about how to request semi-protection [8], and knew about WP:AIV [9] (and despite saying they didn't know about template warnings, they were using {{uw-vandalism2}} less than 3 hours later [10]. That's a rather astonishing level of knowledge for someone on their first day of editing. I would like to see this reconciled with their statement that they have never had another account. --Hammersoft (talk) 01:10, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

   I haven't placed a vote yet, and while I do find some of these things quite odd for a new editor (especially CSD), I figured out wikilinking in my second ever edit, so I don't see what's strange about that. In general though, I do agree that this editor's immediate competence when they first began editing is worth scrutiny. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 01:41, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

   I agree that wikilinking isn't suspicious (it's not too hard to figure out), but the templates and other policy knowledge is worth examining. I'm starting to get the vibe that the candidate has always viewed themself in an 'administrating' role on WP rather than an 'editing one'.Tomorrow and tomorrow (talk) 01:47, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

   I would say that there is a significant difference between knowing how to add a link and knowing the jargon of "wikilinking". Sdrqaz (talk) 02:41, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

   Yes, but seeing how we refer to internal links as wikilinks in our help pages and MoS, I don't think that in particular should raise suspicion, Sdrqaz.— Ixtal ^{( T / C )} ⁂ Non nobis solum. 06:15, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

3. Neutral I am waiting for their answer to question 6 but am considering opposing. Scorpions13256 (talk) 01:53, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
4. Neutral pending the answers to the already-proposed questions – let's give the candidate some breathing room to respond. theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/her) 04:11, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
5. Neutral pending answers to questions. Even though I nominated SFR for EOTW, that has little influence on whatever my vote may end up being. Opposing editors that are suspicious of SFR's quick learning (which is understandable), should come up with questions that will allow the candidate to explain themselves. While RFA votes are subjective evaluations of trust-worthiness, there is no benefit to prejudging the abilities of editors as newcomers. — Ixtal ^{( T / C )} ⁂ Non nobis solum. 07:45, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

General comments

I think it is worth noting that a Wikipedian who has spend much of their time editing talk/user pages rather than mainspace will naturally acquire more 'friends' than someone who edits content primarily. As such it might be constructive if support comments have more than a few words saying "yes please" or similar. Tomorrow and tomorrow (talk) 01:27, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

In theory they'd also naturally acquire more 'opposite of friends' for the same reason though. ––FormalDude (talk) 01:30, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

That's true, and I fully endorse *everyone* leaving detailed comments, but in this case none of the oppose !votes seem to be based on negative past experiences with SFR (whereas we get phrases like "favourite editor" from the support side).Tomorrow and tomorrow (talk) 01:35, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

---

I think it's absolute nonsense that you need more experience than SFR has to be an admin. First we have User:Enterprisey/Tenures at RfA which shows that 18 months is hardly unprecedent. But I think that table is pretty misleading. For instance, I show up at 14 years. In reality I had been here ~18 months when I RfA'd. Some editors have more than enough experience after 12 months while others will not develop enough experience after 12 years (like me - 12 years in I wouldn't have been fit for RfA). We have other ways of judging whether someone has enough experience - the oft bemoaned questions being one way, another way is looking at their actual edits. It feels to me like these opposes are using "not enough experience" as something a bit more concrete than "I find this editor unsuitable for adminship" but this has the unfortunate effect of suggesting to some candidates who might be very ready to run that they should wait. I hope editors judge SFR on what he does or doesn't know (and what he has and hasn't done) rather than based on how long he's been around. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 01:51, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

• I'll be back to tender a specific (!)vote, but am really concerned by the idea that the editor might not have sufficient tenure to have acquired and demonstrated adequate competence. Writing this, I read the above and BK49 is of course also correct on the effect on other potential candidates with this. Even in the post 2016 admin world, we've have multiple candidates with 18 months (and several with much less) active editing. Those saying the candidate lacks experience should be able to demonstrate where the editor is falling short. 20% too low mainspace % many say - but are their multiple GAs flawed? Or point to some problematic small-a admin work diffs. Nosebagbear (talk) 09:46, 13 September 2022 (UTC)