Wikipedia:Editor review/Ryan Postlethwaite 3

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[edit] Ryan Postlethwaite

Ryan Postlethwaite (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) Well, I'm Ryan, an administrator here since March 2007. I'm just looking for some general feedback from the community. I do a bit of everything really; I edit (occasionally!), vandal fight and get involved in various administrator tasks such as dealing with users that come through AIV and UAA. I've got a portal which I've been working on up at featured portal condidates at the minute. I'm very open to what people wish to review me on, and I'm looking forward to a lot of constructive critisism. Anyway, do your worst :-) Ryan Postlethwaite 23:21, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Comments

Questions

  1. Of your contributions to Wikipedia, are there any about which you are particularly pleased, and why?
    I'm probably most proud of my work with Portal:Tennis, it's currently a candidate for featured status. I think I did a good job getting it up there, and I'm looking forward to maintaining it as the months go by. Article wise, I probably like my Football referee (England) article the best as it's close to my heart. Ryan Postlethwaite 23:25, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
  2. Have you been in any conflicts over editing in the past or do you feel other users have caused you stress? How have you dealt with it and how will you deal with it in the future?
    Don't we all?! There's plenty of situations out there that people would consider disputes, I think I generally handle them well and keep my cool. Ryan Postlethwaite 23:25, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
Yes, agreed - I have absolutely nothing to bring up in the many situations where I have seen you dealing with difficult issues. Well done, and you have my support, even when I do not "support" your opinion on occasions. docboat (talk) 14:17, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Reviews

Hi Ryan. I have often seen your name - you are a busy admin! So I was a bit surprised (and pleased) you seek a review. As far as reviewing your actual mainspace edits, I am unable to say much, because I could not find lengthier sections to review. Mind you, 16,000 edits were not all searched. But I have seen quite a lot of your admin activities on AIV and the like. Unable, therefore, to comment on style. As to how you react to unpleasant confrontations, I note a steady, non-confrontational approach, with adherence to guidelines and an open mind/flexibility. It is also worthy of note that even when you stand in opposition to my own feelings, I can see the point you are bringing, and that is a good thing in fostering understanding and co-operation. Constructive criticism? None, but I would like to bring this point up on your user page when/if I see issues to be discussed. BTW, I will not remove the asterisk - I would like someone else to give a review too. docboat (talk) 14:17, 22 December 2007 (UTC)
Hi Ryan! I'm a bit surprised you're asking for an editor review, as you really haven't contributed to articles much. My advice is very simple - write articles, it won't hurt you, and if I have the time to write a bunch of articles and sweep through C:CSD, so do you, I think. ;-) --Maxim(talk) 14:50, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Cheers Maxim for the review. To be honest, with respect to writing huge articles, that's not what I'm good at - I prefer to make smaller articles on subjects that interest me - but often there aren't enough sources to make them good or featured. I spend time on portals now however, they open up subject areas to the wider audience and can be really useful - maybe not the most important part of our encyclopedia, but it's certainly better than meta-discussion. Ryan Postlethwaite 18:25, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
Try some. I'm not a native speaker of English unlike you, but I'm still able to completely write articles, almost from scratch, see Jacques Plante for an example. Maxim(talk) 19:47, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
To be honest, with respect to writing huge articles, that's not what I'm good at - you never know until you try, and I'd encourage you to give it a go. Several small additions can blossom into a comprehensive treatment of a subject. Football refereeing in England is a solid description of the structure of refereeing, but could be more. For example, it could have a History section covering the development of the role, from the ad-hoc nature of refereeing in the Victorian era to the advent of professionalism for Premier League referees. Oldelpaso (talk) 15:14, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
  • Well Ryan, here's my review: to start with, you're easily one of the best administrators and Wikipedians we have here: you're always very civil, very calm, you assume good faith as much as possible, you're helpful, and whenever newcomers come to you or you encounter them you always give them a hand. Also, you're respectful of other people's views, and don't hold grudges against people who disagree with you. If someone's in trouble, you attempt to help them (within reason, of course: if someone is a vandal, you help them by encouraging them to edit constructively, not to vandalize more). With your recent ArbCom candidacy, it was a shame you had to withdraw it, but I hope you'll run again in the 2008 elections and have more success. You've also brought us many fine admin candidates too, so thank you for them. Finally, you have a great sense of humor, a huge plus in my opinion, and you may remember that I said in Alison's RfA from nearly a year ago now that a sense of humor is something more administrators (and Wikipedians overall, I should now say) should have. If you have any questions about my review of you, let me know. Keep up the good work, Ryan! Acalamari 20:23, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
  • Ryan, you saved me from committing hari-kari when I crashed the wikipedia database server 10 times in 10 minutes while blundering a histmerge of Michael Jackson articles. I was getting a barrage of complaints and scolding while cursing myself when you came along and told me to take a break because you contacted a developer and the problem would be fixed soon. Thanks for being there for me! I also note that I very frequently see your signature and always note that it is preceeded with something brilliant. Keep up the excellent work! JERRY talk contribs 16:03, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
  • Hi Ryan, I found this whilst wondering if ER would be useful for me and seeing this sitting here three months later with 3-4 comments doesn't encourage me ;( Leaving aside your work as an admin (which I would say is pretty darn good), although my contributions are small beans compared to yours, I notice that while your total contribs beat me 10:1 and your mainspace edits beat me 5:1, when it comes to article-talk space, you're at 2:1. That could be down to anti-vandalism, except a whole lot of my edits are "rvv"'s too. If there was any suggestion I could offer, it would be that you could bring the same intelligence, analysis and prompting that you offer in admin matters to the mainspace articles, not necessarily by writing, but by making contributions to the discussions on things you're interested in. That's all I can offer to your review, other than keep up the good work, and maybe, how long are you going to keep yourself part of this backlog ;) Franamax (talk) 10:30, 29 March 2008 (UTC)