User:Bart133/Coaching

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Bart133 (talk • contribs • count • total • logs • page moves • block log • email)

So you'd like a coach, eh? Well, you now have a handful of them. I'll let the others know they have another student to grill.  :-)

To get things started, I have a question for you and an assignment:

What tool did you use to post those notices on all those user pages recently?

Please describe how you fight vandalism.

Glad to have you aboard.

The Transhumanist    03:49, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Tutorials
Introduction to Wikipedia
Introduction to editing
Scartol, on template use and design
Dweller, on Featured Article Candidates
Yuser, on fighting linkspam
Learning the ropes
Elaragirl, about deletion and deletionism
The Rambling Man, on vandalism
Grutness's guide to stubbing
External interfaces - let's compare
Internal interfaces - what do you use?
Getting an article to featured article status
Basic dispute resolution
Adding citations
Reporting and dealing with vandals
Fundamentals of editing
WP:AIV
WP:WARN
WP:RCU
WP:RCP
WP:RPP
WP:RFA
WP:AFD
WP:XFD
WP:DRV
CAT:SPEEDY
WP:CSD
WP:RM
WP:FA
WP:RFC
WP:RAA
WP:ER
WP:TM
WP:LOP
WP:PNT
WP:BACK
CAT:HELP
WP:VP
WP:HAHA
WP:BARN
WP:RD

Contents

[edit] Dweller's "quiz"

Hi. Glad you're here. Your assignment is to answer the following "quiz". Because I'm quirky, there are 11 questions. When you're done, please drop me a line at my talk page. Ta.

  1. How long have you been regularly editing Wikipedia?
  2. Have you had an editor review? If so, please post a link.
  3. Which mainspace article have you (personally) most improved?
  4. Do you regularly contribute at:
    a) WP:AFD
    b) WP:RFA
    c) any other project-space areas?
  5. Do you have criteria for adminship when you assess other editors' suitability? What are those criteria?
  6. Do you pass your own criteria yet? If not, when do you think you will?
  7. Please post two diff links to yourself behaving in an "adminlike manner".
  8. Please post two diff links to yourself behaving in an "unadminlike manner".

Good luck! (By the way, have you added Twinkle to your vandal-fighting armoury? --Dweller 09:22, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Answers

  1. I've been semi-regularly editing Wikipedia since late 2004. However, I haven't been editing with too much regularity. As I am still in school, I can't really edit Wikipedia too often outside of December, April, and the summer. I've probably only been editing with what you can call regularity since mid- to late 2006.
  2. I have had an editor review (link is here), but it didn't elicit many responses.
  3. I'm not really that sure about this one. Since most of my edits are fighting vandalism, I don't contribute content as often. Also, due to my atrocious writing style, I wouldn't improve it that much if I did. However, I probably have to say Siege of Tyre.
  4.  
    a) Yes. I have been regularly contributiong to it since I created my account. My first vote on AfD (VfD at the time) was, I believe, in my first 40 or 50 edits.
    b) Yes, although not so much as AfD. However, I do regularly contribute.
    c) It depends on what kind of areas you mean. I often contribute at AIV, the reference desk, and a few others. I also make some contributions to the village pump and some others. I was a regular contributor to several cleanup-type projects, especially Untagged images.
  5. I do have criteria for adminship, but they are not hard-and-fast rules. I've opposed less than 10 adminship candidates. In general, my "criteria" are more related to whether the user is someone who I think is, for example, mature and experienced enough to use adminship correctly.
  6. Due to the extremely general nature of my criteria, the systemic bias (i.e. the fact that I'm the one answering this question) makes me relatively unfair at judging myself. However, I do think that I pass my criteria.
  7. Could you clarify this question a bit more? The way it's currently written, I can't exactly judge what you mean by "an adminlike manner".
  8. This one and this one (I didn't think to check the history and make sure that I couldn't just revert the childish vandalism).

I haven't added Twinkle to my vandal-fighting armoury. Does it work on IE? I didn't think to install Mozilla as well. Bart133 (t) (c) 16:39, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Hi. I'll get back to you in detail when I can. Thanks for the answers. I'm told that Twinkle works with IE, but it didn't for me. I installed Firefox and it worked like a dream. --Dweller 16:43, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Dweller's analysis

  1. Time-wise, you're certainly an appropriate candidate for adminship.
  2. Run again. I don't think you really entered into the spirit of editor review... you reaped what you sowed.
  3. I strongly recommend you take an article to FA or at least GA before running for adminship. Not just because it's impressive, nor just because we desperately need more FAs and GAs. But because you'll inevitably learn lots of policy along the way. It needn't take a long time and if you find a couple of useful collaborators, it's not as arduous as you might think.

  4. a Great
    b Not as important as a, but useful to do, not so much for the routine of !voting, but to see what issues are raised as questions, answers and opposes.
    c Exactly what I meant. Great answer. Image work is particularly valuable.
  5. Fair enough
  6. Good answer
  7. A useful motto to bear in mind is that the best admin candidates are behaving like admins before they get the mop. Solving disputes. Gently (appropriately) admonishing (and not just through templates), cleaning up messes etc. You can behave like an admin, without the powers. Cite a few examples where you have.
  8. I'll check those links presently... in the interim, worth remembering that even the best admins make mistakes, so humility is a great virtue, particularly when you can display that you learned from your mistakes. --Dweller 10:08, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Re 8 - any more recent skeletons in your closet? --Dweller 10:13, 19 July 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Reply


  2. I just ran again. See Wikipedia:Editor review/Bart133 2.
  3. I certainly want to take an article to FA or at least GA. However, as I said, I am not any good at writing.



  7. By cleaning up messes do you mean vandalism? If so, I have about two thousand. Otherwise, would my edits to User talk:Vandalfighter101 count?
  8. As far as I can remember (which is about 20 minutes), there aren't really any very recent bad edits by me (unless you count accidental bad reverts and typo fixes). Remember that I'm biased, though.
#3. There's a lot more to writing in developing articles to FA and GA status. One of the main chores needed in such projects is to track down and cite references. I've taken the plunge and am working on an article in the hopes of improving it to FA status. Almost every sentence has been marked with a citation or attribution tag! I need help! Please feel free to join me in this endeavor. Getting an FA under our belt might be easier if we work together.  ;-) The article is the Meaning of life. The Transhumanist    00:20, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

After thinking about it more, and upon learning that the other students are also seriously lacking in WP:FAC experience (myself included), I'm making the development of the article meaning of life to featured article status a classroom project. It is mostly an exercise in reference citing, and therefore won't require much writing skill. Just browsing and reading. The article is in danger of having most of its content removed (if it doesn't get referenced soon), so working on this article has additional significance than merely improving it. Wikipedia policy, especially WP:A, can be very unforgiving and seemingly ruthless. But it's all for a push to make Wikipedia a reliable source of information, so in the long run this is good.

So, I'll see you on the meaning of life's talk page. Let's get started! The Transhumanist    20:07, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Writing skill

Bart, you mentioned above that you can't write well. Let me tell you something. You can write. Man can you write. Your post to the current VC discussion was a very skillful and clear explanation of how you feel on the topic. You know the descriptive style very well, which is exactly the type of writing required in an encyclopedia. Combine that with the ability to research notable topics (and cite references), and that's all you need to write about anything on Wikipedia. You can think (articulate) well, therefore, you can write well. Keep up the good work. The Transhumanist 20:32, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

  • You're probably right. I was just thinking of my fiction writing skill, which is bad. Bart133 (t) (c) 23:01, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] July edits

For one thing, my July edits were mainly vandalism reverts. Using Lupin's anti-vandal tool on "Filter recent changes" with popups, it's possible to find vandalism at an incredible rate. I also spent more time on Wikipedia than I usually do (multiple hours each day). The remainder of my edits were mostly AWB edits and work on fixup projects, as well as fixing category redirects. AWB edits can be made at a high rate while I'm working on other stuff. Fixup project work and category redirect fixing is somewhat mechanical. I'm okay at normal editing, but I can make a very large number of mechanical edits very quickly. Bart133 (t) (c) 23:09, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Discrimination

I believe there was unfair age discrimination exerted against you at your RfA, and I believe it will continue to be a problem. Keep in mind that you have the Wikipedia:Right to vanish and start over. If you do, don't mention your age. Whatever you decide to do, good luck. The Transhumanist 03:29, 27 December 2007 (UTC)