Wikiversity:Probationary custodians

The following discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

I nominate User:Ottava Rima for custodianship. Ottava Rima is a relatively new Wikiversity participant, but has a long history of constructive editing at Wikipedia. I have full confidence that Ottava Rima will continue to demonstrate high standards Wikiversity scholarship far into the future. In the past, I have mentored other custodians who had little interest in page deletion and blocking users; Ottava Rima is another of these gentle souls. However, he is willing to block vandals and delete pages created by vandals. Mainly, I expect Ottava Rima will function as a scholar and a moderator of disputes. Ottava Rima has experience working in heated topic areas at Wikipedia, and that experience will enrich Wikiversity. Also, I hope that some day Ottava Rima will become a Referee, a position he is also highly qualified for. --JWSchmidt 01:20, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Ottava Rima, accept/decline nomination below. If you accept, please tell us a little about yourself:

• Accept. Now, a little about me. Most of my work here has been off of the pages. Mostly, I have been helping people edit, craft, and understand how their language may be viewed by others. I have kept it off the board and to emails or other types of equipment for only logistical reasons. I have been here for a while mostly as an observer, then as a full member when I was able to figure out the universal account set up. I was asked to come over to help with ethical problems, and mostly with how people interact with others. I have a background in mediating and ethics in real life and online. I try not to take "sides" but to help each side understand the other, and try to tone down the language between parties. I try to be welcoming and forgiving. I feel that blocks should only be given to clear cases of vandalism and a complete inability to contribute. Sometimes, I believe that members should be temporarily blocked when a situation has become excessive, but I believe that the best way to approach this is not in a unilateral way, but through discussing with the individual first. I strongly believe that all people can be brought to understand each other, as I believe that empathy is what makes us human. I also believe that when one understands another, there is less desire for strong incivility. Our core desire should be discussion, and we should try to respect each other at all times even if we oppose each other philosophically. If there is anything else, please feel free to ask. If you need to know my personal identity, and my background (especially my educational achievements), please feel free to email me. Ottava Rima 01:35, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Questions for the Candidate

Support Is this thing on? Salmon of Doubt 01:21, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Questions from Dark Mage

Since you're new to wikiversity, and have been with us for some time, what is your purpose for being here - we run things differently on this site than our Wikipedia Counterpart. Have you had experience on other wiki-sites expect for wikipedia like you've mentioned, if so and if you had run into problems on occasions how have you handled them was it through civility or uncivil responses e.t.c . Do you have experience with using the Mediawiki feature which anyone can access if they've got Custodian rights, also how active will you be with us - is it semi-active or fully-active. Dark Mage 14:21, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

I am an "academic" in real life. Although I am primarily a researcher, it is almost impossible to work in higher levels of academia without having exposure to teaching and education. My focus is on Literature (primary - 18th/19th century British, secondary - classical, political, religious). I also work with ethics, and I have an ethics column in which I relate morality to current topics. As such, I was approached to weigh in on a few topics, and I have stuck around because I feel that I could help people come together and broker peace.

For my other experiences - on Wikipedia, I originally had a problem with reverts. I didn't understand the nature of reverts at first, and even though I didn't "breach" the 3RR rule, I didn't realize that there was still a disruption. After running afoul of a few issues, I have since corrected and have developed personal guidelines to ensure that my intentions and actions cannot be mistaken, and these guidelines help me to listen to others and understand their views for the betterment of the project. I believe that all parts of Wikimedia and its sister projects are best served by a willingness to communicate and a willingness to listen. I have since adjusted my efforts (in combination with my own imposed guideline of no longer reverting, but approaching an individual and trying to discuss the issue) and have spent a lot of time contributing content to the encyclopedia, along with commons and Wikisource. I have also helped clean up disruptive bot spam on both.

Now, because of this, it changes my view on the "tools". I believe that people should be talked to directly, and that blocking involves having to talk to the individual throughout. I believe that tools should be used on rare occasions and primarily in clear cut cases of vandalism, important moves, page deletions, etc. I believe that blocking of regular users should involve communication not only with the users, but with the community. I do not like the idea of a unilateral decision, but I will not blame anyone who blocks unilaterally as long as they are willing to discuss it later, at least to the point that the block user can understand why they were blocked and how they can avoid it in the future.

I plan to be fully active on Wikiversity and behind the scenes in discussion and how people interact with others. Although I am not opposed to "gnome work" (and I have cleaned up a lot of bot spam before on various projects), I believe that I can best contribute in the user matters - i.e. problems between users and community wide issues. Although I am preparing to put together a reading group and to share in my knowledge, I also hope to use such projects to give people who are normally at conflicts with each other to have time to work with another in a neutral, safe environment in which they can discuss an issue without worrying about problems or conflicts.

I hope that I will make it clear to the community that I am open for everyone to talk to, to express their views and opinions, and that I will not judge them, but instead help them try to understand others, and to understand how they can communicate with others to express their feelings. Ottava Rima 15:56, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Very well, thanks for answering my comment - Good luck with the Probationary period. Dark Mage 16:06, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Custodians willing to mentor

• I will mentor on one condition: 1) you will leave an edit on my user talk page giving me clear authority during your probationary period to ask a steward to revoke your tools without discussion. If I have to do so, I will provide a full explanation to you. --JWSchmidt 01:54, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
• A number of mentors have offered themselves as replacements. Ottava - when you're ready to switch mentors, please state your choice below. No hurry. --McCormack 08:18, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Candidate, please indicate here if you accept one of the above custodian mentors:

• I accept JWSchmidt's kind offer. I have made a statement on his talk page granting him permission to revoke my tools. I also welcome any questions above, and I would be happy to provide any answers. Ottava Rima 02:49, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Done, welcome aboard! --SB_Johnny ^talk 10:24, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Stewards, please note this

• I would like to accept McCormack's kind offer, and also open myself up to other custodians who want to offer me advice, point out things, or just generally discuss. I don't want to make it seem like I will only listen to one person. :) Ottava Rima (talk) 23:30, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page, such as the current discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The following discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Ottava's probationary period will end in a couple days, but I think he's quite ready to receive confirmation as a full custodian. He has shown himself to be both trustworthy and considerate, keeping his cool under circumstances where that can be a bit difficult :-). I think Ottava will be of great help to us as we continue to build our community and our Wikiversity. --SB_Johnny ^talk 14:30, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Accept/decline the nomination

Can I skip ahead and jump straight to steward? lol. I would definitely accept. Otherwise, it would be hard to do the Recent Changes sweeps. :) Ottava Rima (talk) 15:17, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Voting for full custodianship

Please enter vote and a brief comment here.

• Support Ottava Rima seems to have kept his cool and maintained a positive, collaborative, custodial focus during the probationary period. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 02:49, 14 October 2008 (UTC)
• Support Full support - Ottava has been consistently positive and level-headed during a difficult period for Wikiversity. Cormaggio ^talk 10:19, 14 October 2008 (UTC)
• Support --mikeu ^talk 11:21, 14 October 2008 (UTC)
• Support He has demonstrated that he has a steady hand, despite the probationary period occuring during rocky times. John Vandenberg ^(chat) 00:34, 15 October 2008 (UTC)
• Support Keep up the good work -- Thuvack | ^{talk | Blog} 08:08, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page, such as the current discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The following discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

I'd like to nominate Mike to become a probationary custodian. Mike has a long history of helping out on multiple Wikimedia projects, and would be a great asset to us both as custodian and checkuser (explained below). One thing in particular he can help us with is fixing the IP and range blocks that have been put in place over the past several weeks, since many are of the wrong type, probably hit too much of the ranges, etc. He is also very good at technical issues, and can help with fine tuning the mediawiki bells and whistles (including bugzilla requests or just modifying the local .css, .js, and other Mediawiki files). I'm happy to mentor, though I've asked Jtniell to give it a go instead, since he's more aware of some of our technical needs. --SB_Johnny ^talk 14:25, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

Mike.lifeguard, accept/decline nomination below. If you accept, please tell us a little about yourself:

Thanks, Johnny. I want to start out by addressing my mantra of "I'm not a part of this community" - it's unusual for someone to go from saying that to being an administrator, so I think some clarification is in order. It's clear that I don't contribute content here, however I do have experience on several wikis (English Wikibooks, Commons and Meta) as an administrator, and I don't think the management of Wikiversity is so different from other wikis that I can't to the job effectively.

When Johnny approached me regarding this, I was initially reluctant. However it struck me that Wikiversity in particular understands that administrators have a mop, not a badge - and used the term "Custodian" to reflect that. I think that spirit is right on the money, so after some consideration, I felt more comfortable with this. If the sysop tools are about cleanup (as opposed to other wikis which see things quite differently) then I think I can do the job well. Since I may be less well-known here than other wikis where I am active, I expect there'll be questions for me and I'm happy to answer them as they come along.

– Mike.lifeguard | ^@meta 15:10, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Questions for the Candidate

• Would this violate our "One Mike Custodian Policy"? Haha, I'm just kidding. I think this would be great. So my questions are - "How are you doing? How has your time here been so far? What areas are you most interested in?" Ottava Rima (talk) 15:24, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

  I've had mostly positive experiences here (the ones that were not are easy to find). My interests are mainly maintenance-oriented. I'm involved in cross-wiki work (hence my >>700 accounts) and I expect anti-disruption will form a part of my role here. Beyond that, I'd be interested in exploring how Wikibooks and Wikiversity interact (or not). For example, I was the main author of b:First Aid, and I've been thinking about what I can do on Wikiversity in that vein. As a first aid instructor, I believe hands-on instruction is key - but exploring whether some material can be covered adequately in an online environment (especially a highly interactive one like a wiki). – Mike.lifeguard | ^@meta 15:36, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Custodians willing to mentor

• --SB_Johnny ^talk
• -- Jtneill - Talk

Candidate, please indicate here if you accept one of the above custodian mentors:

Either mentor would be fine by me; I'll allow them to decide between the two of them. – Mike.lifeguard | ^@meta 15:10, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

Done - good luck! Cormaggio ^talk 16:43, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

OK, I will mentor, but really this would be good as a team effort - I think there is a general understanding that this should be case anyway with mentorship, but since this is the first time I've mentored and ML is so experienced technically and on other projects, there are I think particular reasons for a team approach :) However, I'm also happy taking the responsibility. So, welcome aboard, Mike.lifeguard! -- Jtneill - Talk - c 01:42, 12 October 2008 (UTC)

That's a fine approach, James. I also like to think of mentorship as a team effort - and this paves the way for community discussion when you, the (co-?)mentor, evaluate the probationary period. Cormaggio ^talk 13:35, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page, such as the current discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.