Wikipedia:Administrator elections/October 2024/Candidates/Robert McClenon

Nomination

Robert McClenon (talk · contribs · he/him) – I am Robert McClenon, and have been editing Wikipedia from 2005 to 2006, and again since 2013. I have from time to time been asked whether I am planning to run for administrator or why I am not already an administrator. I have had two unsuccessful Requests for Adminship, in March 2006 and in September 2017. The request in 2006 was a case of too soon, although it was easier to become an admin in the first decade of this century. The request in 2017 seemed to start well, but then became more critical as I was questioned about some of the speedy deletion nominations that I had made at New Page Patrol, and became negative. I think that there have been at least three changes in the past seven years. The first is that I learned from that failure. The second is that new article creation is now restricted to autoconfirmed editors, which reduces the number of misguided new article creations, and so changes the priorities for New Page Patrol. The third is that I think that the views of the community have changed, so that the community now mostly agrees with me that quality control is even more important than continued expansion of the encyclopedia. We need more Class C articles more than we need more new stubs.

My focus as an editor has been on the maintenance and improvement of the quality of the encyclopedia. As an administrator, my focus will continue to be on the maintenance and improvement of the quality of the encyclopedia, and I hope that I can further improve the encyclopedia by wise use of the administrative tools. Robert McClenon (talk) 14:38, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

I have never edited Wikipedia for pay. I will work with other administrators to enforce the rules that editing for pay must be disclosed. Robert McClenon (talk) 14:38, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

I was asked to offer some comments about incivility. Civility is the fourth pillar of Wikipedia. I have written an essay about different types of incivility, at User:Robert McClenon/Incivility. Robert McClenon (talk) 23:02, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: Yes. I am not arguing with myself. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:27, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Please disclose whether you have ever edited Wikipedia for pay. See above statement.

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: Much of my work in Wikipedia has been in the three areas of dispute resolution, the draft review process. and the deletion discussion process. Being given access to the administrative tools would enable me to do those jobs better, and to do work in those areas that is beyond what I am now doing. In particular, first, as an administrator, I will be able to view deleted articles, and so be better able to decide whether a draft being reviewed is an improvement over a deleted article. I would also like to close discussions at Miscellany for Deletion and at Deletion Review. I have not been closing deletion discussions because I have seen that there is a bias for non-admin closers because they do not have the ability to delete pages.

As an admin, I will also review speedy deletion nominations, especially G6 technical requests and G11 spam.

Robert McClenon (talk) 14:38, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

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

A: Some of my best work in Wikipedia has been mediating content disputes at the Dispute Resolution Noticeboard. I have learned usually to begin a content dispute resolution by reminding the editors that the purpose of dispute resolution is to improve the encyclopedia, and then asking them what they want to change in the article that another editor wants to change (or what they want to leave the same that another editor wants to change).

Another area in which I have made contributions to Wikipedia is in Articles for Creation review. I have focused on drafts whose titles already exist in article space. Sometimes their titles require disambiguation, and I have become very familiar with disambiguation. I also have a great deal of experience in dealing with drafts whose titles are redirects. Admin status would give me the ability to delete blocking redirects rather than tagging them or moving them.

Robert McClenon (talk) 14:38, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

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: Much of my work in Wikipedia has been in trying to reduce conflict. One of the most stressful episodes in my history in Wikipedia was my second RFA in September 2017. It was difficult because some editors began taking issue with my whole record of contribution to the encyclopedia. I dealt with that stress in what I thought was the only reasonable way, which was to withdraw my RFA but continue editing, and to learn to be more patient in nominating new pages for deletion. Shortly after that, the flow of bad new articles was reduced by limiting new article creation to confirmed editors. Other than that, most of my involvement in conflicts has been trying to resolve conflicts, either at DRN or at WP:ANI.

Robert McClenon (talk) 14:38, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

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Discussion

• Links for Robert McClenon: Robert McClenon (talk · contribs · deleted · count · AfD · logs · block log · lu · rfar · spi)
• Edit summary usage for Robert McClenon 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.