User:Dennis Brown/RfA

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If you are looking for my RFA, it is here. I was nominated by Pedro and Elen of the Roads. It closed 25 April 2012 at 134/31/2 (successful)

Reviews of potential admin candidates

You should read the whole of this page before you make a request on my talk page and read the required prerequisite policies if you haven't before. I don't necessarily review in the order that I receive requests. I can't promise that I will nominate anyone even if I give a positive review. You are welcome to have someone else nominate you even if I review you, there is no obligation here. I have my own criteria, which may change over time. Be forewarned that I will be honest and direct in my assessment, but so will the community if you seek the admin bit, so it is better to be prepared. I may have to decline or delay a review due to time constraints or if I feel adminship is too distant for a review to be of use.

My primary criteria is about demeanor and general knowledge. Admins should be calm, patient editors with a good, broad understanding of Wikipedia. Being an expert on a subject matter is fine but doesn't influence my decision to nominate. How you deal with disputes, problem editors and general editing does. I prefer to review candidates that have been active for at least one year with at least 5000 edits, of which the majority are non-automated edits, and I prefer at least 35% or more of those edits are in article space. Any blocks should be at least 12 months in the past, with no record of

WP:NLT
violations. It is better if you have at least 200 edits per month in 12 of the last 18 months. These aren't hard and fast rules, but I'm more likely to consider a review if you meet this basic criteria.

If there are any previous "incidents" that are likely to come up in an RfA, you must tell me about them in advance. I don't like surprises, and these are best deal with up front. No one expects perfect candidates, but the community insists on honest candidates.

Before you ask for a review...

...you need to understand a few things.

1. Adminship is not a promotion, it is a volunteer job for no pay. This means you will have to sacrifice a great deal to be an admin. You will lose a great deal of editing time, you will have to read and study a lot of policies on subjects you aren't always interested in, and you will have to sometimes do things you personally disagree with because the consensus is on the other side of your opinion.

2. Adminship is stressful. Everyone and their uncle will be asking you to do favors, such as making an uncontroversial page move (did you look and check everywhere to make sure it really was uncontroversial?) You will have to be willing to explain everything you do, even when you are 100% in the right. You will be called to ANI when someone thinks you abused your tools, no matter how innocent you are. You will spend a lot of time doing things that aren't exciting but need to be done. People are going to call you names sometimes, and you will have to just overlook it. You will have to sometimes tolerate things that non-admin aren't expected to tolerate, such as incivility or hostility directed at you, and not react to it.

3. Adminship is about serving. This means that if someone needs you to undelete or userfy a page (did you check to make sure it isn't a copyright infringement?), and you don't personally like this person, you still do it. You don't get to pick and choose who you are nice to, you must go above and beyond to act fair and neutral to everyone. You must sometimes miss out on participating in a discussion that you care about. You will need to learn the basics on things like page protection, even if you have no interest in page protection, because sometimes, you will need to use those tools. People are going to ask you to do things for them, and you have to decide when to direct them to the proper board, when to just do them, and when to say "no", without injecting your personal opinion about them or the act. This isn't always easy.

4. Adminship is obligation. If you have time and know there is a backlog at

WP:RFPP
, you need to reduce it, even if you don't like working that area. You can't cherry pick all the time. Obviously you decide which areas you focus in, but you have to be willing to help out everywhere sometimes. It isn't always fun. Some days, none of it is. Other days are a walk in the park.

Adminship doesn't make you cool, or give you more power in discussion, or make it easier to get your edits in (actually, it hurts your editing). It is for people that want to work in the nuts and bolts behind the scenes. There is no glory, but there is a rewarding experience for those that find joy in those things. Most people do not, so you have to ask yourself if adminship is really for you, and be prepared to answer why you want the admin bit before you ask for a review.

Things you should be very familiar with

My nominations

I don't differentiate nominations and co-nominations since it is the !voters opinion of the candidates themselves that determine the net result. Each name will link to their RfA.

Editors whom I have co/nominated for adminship
Result Candidate Support Oppose Neutral Notes
Green tickY Dennis Brown 134 31 2 For comparison and information only. My RfA. Closed April 25, 2012.
Green tickY Bbb23 135 17 8 Closed 20 July 2012
Green tickY Berean Hunter 160 0 0 Closed 27 July 2012, unanimous consent
Green tickY Basalisk 64 17 5 Closed 23 November 2012
Green tickY Monty845 85 10 0 Closed 27 November 2012
LuK3 29 25 8 Withdrawn by candidate 4 December 2012
Carrite 82 52 13 Withdrawn by Carrite February 9, 2013. Note, this was a request for a temporary adminship, something new.
Theopolisme (2nd) 80 27 10 Closed March 2, 2013 with 75% support, but the Crat didn't see a consensus.
Jasper Deng 30 28 9 Withdrawn by Jasper Deng March 9, 2013
Green tickY Anna Frodesiak 218 3 4 Broke
WP:200
, one of the largest turnouts in Wikipedia history, #6 or #7.
Green tickY Go Phightins! 138 0 2 Closed 29 May 2014 by unanimous consent
Green tickY Samwalton9 101 0 2 Closed 28 November 2014, unanimous consent
Green tickY Czar 97 3 2 Closed 29 November 2014

Reviews

I generally protect the pages after completion to reduce the need to watch, but admins can add notes if needed or non-admins can just leave a note on my talk page if there is something that needs editing.

  • Basalisk  Done 13:53, 5 September 2012 (UTC)
  • TheGeneralUser  Done 13:32, 6 September 2012 (UTC)
  • User:LuK3 was done privately before setting this page up.
  • LuK3 follow up  Done 01:14, 1 December 2012 (UTC)

Mentoring

Tools

About RfA

RfA week is more stressful than you realize. You are up on display for others to poke and prod, and they will. Every candidate thinks it will not affect them, and they soon find they were mistaken. It is human nature to want acceptance from our peers, yet RfA guarantees you will receive criticism, including some that is unfair or unearned. Expect it. Plan to get away regularly, and do not just sit there refreshing your page. It is unhealthy and will hurt your chances at RfA as it will come through in your responses. You don't need to respond to those that oppose your candidacy, they have a right to vote as they choose. Any patently absurd vote will not get counted in the final tally anyway. Some people might like you but just think you won't make a good admin. Some just hate all admin and only come to oppose all that run. Most !voters are good natured and will give an honest opinion and the benefit of the doubt. This makes it all work out in most cases.

Don't get hung up on the percentages as they will change. You might have 50% one day, and 80% the next. Don't sweat it or react to it. Don't let the process change who you are. The reason you are at RfA is because you want to serve the community, don't let temporary setbacks change your outlook. The reason someone has nominated you is that they think you are an excellent candidate as you are. Just be true to yourself: don't pander and don't get defensive.

The week of RfA, you should check the RfA a few times a day and answer any questions that have been asked. Don't feel that you need to answer instantly. You can research or think about them a bit. Admin typically shouldn't make knee jerk reactions to events, you shouldn't at your RfA either. As for your daily activities at Wikipedia during your RfA, it is best to avoid contentious areas because you will be distracted, making it easy to make uncharacteristic mistakes. Those mistakes will get noticed. Go source some articles, update some facts, or just go read a book when you aren't checking up occasionally on the RfA. Just don't get too absorbed by the process. It isn't healthy, and it won't have you at your best.

If it ends favorably, get ready to do some reading (below). If it doesn't, read the opposing comments and determine why. Often it is something that can be fixed in a few months time. Maybe more article edits, or more experience. Ask for help, keep moving in that direction and you can try again if you like. Regardless of outcome, always embrace those who opposed you with sincere rationales. If you do get the bit, let them know that you take their opposition seriously and will try to address those shortcomings. In other words, start out on the right foot and earn the trust and respect of those with doubts in your ability.

Adminship doesn't mean you are special or better, it means you are accepting an obligation. You are willingly giving up some of your freedom in order to serve the community. You do not Lord over editors, you are here to serve them. A favorable outcome is the community's way of asking for your help and showing trust in your judgement. Always remember that obligation in everything you do.

New admin links

See also

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