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Revision as of 20:53, 11 September 2008

Dougweller

Voice your opinion (talk page) (7/0/0); Scheduled to end 20:09, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Dougweller (talk · contribs) - Doug is an ideal admin candidate. Adult, rational, calm, civil (always), Doug takes no nonsense but has dealing with problem users down to a T, devoting many hours to proving civilly that they have no case. A good anti-vandal fighter and a calm voice of sense at Misplaced Pages:Fringe theories/Noticeboard and elsewhere, Doug is easily in touch with contemporary trends in many areas of academia, thus ensuring that he is able to contribute usefully in many different areas of Misplaced Pages: his article work, particularly when it comes to fixing broken ones, is top-class. His policy knowledge is fine and he possesses excellent clue and intuitive sense. If I had to sum Doug up in one word, it would be "thoughtful": he always analyzes not only the problem at hand, but the best approach to the problem. Exactly the sort of person we should trust with extra sysop responsibilities. Moreschi (talk) 20:09, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: Thanks for the kind words and the nomination, which I accept with pleasure. Doug Weller (talk) 19:25, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Questions for the candidate

Dear candidate, thank you for offering to serve Misplaced Pages as an administrator. It is recommended that you answer these optional questions to provide guidance for participants:

1. What administrative work do you intend to take part in?

A: I do a lot of anti-vandalism work already and shall continue that. It would be nice to have the tools to block repeat vandals. Virtually every article I've edited is on my watchlist (which has a bit over 2000 articles on it now) and I look at it regularly and check for vandalism. When I find a vandal I also check for earlier vandalism. Where it seems appropriate I leave them Welcome messages rather than warning them. I'd also probably get involved in ANI, WP:RFPP, and disruptive user blocking. I've got quite a bit of experience of moderating elsewhere on the Internet -- UseNet, mailing lists and a webforum where I'm a director, focusing on issues of civility, sources and tendentious editing. I shall of course continue to work on improving articles on ancient history and archaeology where I have some background and good resources.

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

A: I'm not sure. Vandal patrol is important, but I get a lot of enjoyment from simply being able to find good sources for un-sourced material in articles on history, pre-history and archaeology and expanding them when possible. I also think I've made some good contributions in removing unreliable stuff from articles. I've only written one article and that was on a family member, Worth Hamilton Weller, so I'll have to put my hands up to COI. It's short but I think ok.

3. Have you been in any conflicts over editing in the past? How have you dealt with it and how will you deal with it in the future?

A: Yes, I have been in a couple of conflicts, but I wouldn't say they cause me stress (you want stress, look at UseNet). I took the initiative in moving Walam Olum from a pretty poor unstructured article to something that I think is structured and better sourced (with help of course). During this there was quite a bit of conflict with another editor which ended up in an RfC . At the same time I came into conflict with the same editor over well-sourced material I had added to Monk's Mound. In both situations I think I acted with patience and attempts to explain WP policies and guidelines (and also, to make sure the information I had was correct, personally contacted various writers and archaeologists not to use the information for the article as it would obviously not be verifable, but to satisfy myself that I was being accurate). More recently I have come into contact with User:SageMab.Again I think I have acted patiently with a very difficult editor who kept telling me I didn't understand OR, accused me of NPOV (yes, accused me!), etc. I made two serious efforts on his/her talk page at reconciliation and explanation. I think it is always important to own up immediately and apologise when I'm wrong no matter what I think of the other person's behaviour.

Optional question from Keepscases

4. How do you envision Misplaced Pages 50 years from now?

A: I'll have a go anyway, although I can't even imagine what the Internet will be like 50 years from now! Well, whatever replaces it, that is. (I'm assuming nothing stops technology based societies from growing and that may be wrong). But as I'm interested in reliable sources, my hope (and I'd like to think this will happen in a lot less than 50 years) is that more and more of these will be online and freely accessible. Editors, Admins, etc will need sophisticated technology themselves to keep track of changes. More intelligent wikilinking. Automatic grammar correction please (or 'grammer correction'. And instantaneous response from servers with no messages that Misplaced Pages is locked. Doug Weller (talk) 20:12, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

General comments

• See Dougweller's edit summary usage with mathbot's tool. For the edit count, see the talk page.

• Links for Dougweller: Dougweller (talk · contribs · deleted · count · AfD · logs · block log · lu · rfar · spi)

Please keep discussion constructive and civil. If you are unfamiliar with the nominee, please thoroughly review Special:Contributions/Dougweller before commenting.

Discussion

• Just to add: I've watched Doug develop as an editor for many months now. I had him earmarked as potential admin material from the first, and he has lived up to all my expectations. I can think of few others more suitable for sysop buttons. Moreschi (talk) 19:30, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
• Look, please. If this RFA winds up as 25 questions of pointless nonsense, 25 questions designed only to increase the reputation of their authors as "wise persons", 25 questions the answers to which no one will read anyway, then it's barely worth the bother. Please, people, think a bit more about the candidate and less about your own egos. A few relevant extra questions are fine. 10 max. Otherwise it's just getting silly. Doug's not a magician - how on earth do you answer a question like "how do you envisage Misplaced Pages in 50 years time"? Moreschi (talk) 19:51, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Keepscases always makes silly questions and he rarely actually votes. I doubt anybody really cares if he answers it. Tombomp (talk/contribs) 20:03, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Personally I quite like Keepcases's questions a lot of the time, they're always quite odd but quite often draw interesting responses out of the candidate that say things that policy-knowledge questions don't touch on. I found the candidate's answer to the question reasonably informative about him. ~ mazca 20:42, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

I liked the question (and the response) too. In some ways, such questions are much better at gauging the type of person behind the moniker than are the usual policy questions. --Regents Park (count the magpies) 20:51, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Support

1. Support Looks like a good mainspace editor with his head screwed on right. --Regents Park (count the magpies) 19:45, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
2. Nominated by Moreschi. naerii 19:50, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
3. He's someone I've had on my list as well, though I didn't follow through. Definitely a good candidate from what I've seen. Wizardman 19:51, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
4. More sane admins in fringey areas are always good. Also Moreschi nom. Tombomp (talk/contribs) 20:03, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
5. Support. No concerns at all about Dougweller from what I've seen so far. rootology (C)(T) 20:14, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
6. Support Thank you for your thoughtful response, you've lived up to the nomination statement. Keepscases (talk) 20:17, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
7. Strong Support - I can't imagine a better candidate. ClovisPt (talk) 20:22, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
8. Support Good candidate. –Juliancolton 20:53, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Oppose

Neutral