Wikipedia talk:Adopt-a-User/archives/archive 001

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[edit] Initial response

I think this is a great idea, I'm most certainly interested! --Girl-razor 19:21, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

I agree :) Judgesurreal777 22:35, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Some Feedback

Great idea. However, I do wish the adopt templates didn't look like the new messages box. -- tariqabjotu 03:19, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Hmm...yeah, that's understandable. I can fix that. ~ Flameviper 15:09, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
Yes, great idea! Could the template be userbox? NCurse work 19:19, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
Will the Wikipedia:Welcoming Committee let new users know that this sort of assistance is available? I tend to think that it might be one of the few ways that a newcomer would know it is possible. Also, I do have some reservations about the word "adopt", as it could be perceived as vaguely insulting to the newcomer. Maybe "coach" or "tutor" or something like that might work better. Badbilltucker 19:31, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
I disagree. I believe that Adopt is fine... perhaps we should vote! Goiter McWilliostein, P. I. You can't control me! I'm a P. I.! Save Stargate SG-1! 07:57, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
Voting is evil Batmanand | Talk 10:02, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
Interesting idea, it would be nice to see newbies have easier access to personal help. I'm not sure what tone you want to establish, but I have to say that "adopt" did seem a bit inappropriate to me as well. Coach or tutor sounds a little less intimate to me. --Bookandcoffee 16:55, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
I think the userboxes should look more.. uh.. Userbox-y. Maybe add a picture of a baby or something an a slightly smaller font size. - Zero1328 Talk? 11:16, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

You're right. I created a test template, what do you think? :

This user is seeking to be adopted by an experienced editor.

NCurse work 11:31, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Looks quite good in my opinion, but I'm wondering what everyone else thinks of it. - Zero1328 Talk? 12:22, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
It definitely plays up the "baby" aspect of the "adoption" process. Personally, I'm not sure that I'd want to use it myself, as I think I'm a bit more "adult" than the picture is. I still think that something like a "big brother/big sister," "tutor", "coach" or the like might get more newcomers to actually use it. Maybe something like this:
This user is a newcomer to the wikipedia family and would appreciate finding a family of one or more experienced editors.

Yeah, it could use a better image, but that's the idea. And I definitely think that, if this is implemented, the Welcoming Committee should make sure that they tell all newcomers about this option. Badbilltucker 00:42, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

This is a good idea and it should be more publicised some more and expanded. This page could be added to Template:Welcome; you never know. --lEoN2323 21:27, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

Oh, and don't forget this. Goiter McWilliostein, P. I. You can't control me! I'm a P. I.! Save Stargate SG-1! 08:38, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
Could a person have two or more 'tutors' or a 'tutor' adopt two or more people at the same time? Some people might want to coach, say, 3 people (for examlple), or maybe someone wants help from two different users.

Ilikefood 20:52, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

I would hope the answer to this could be "yes". I'm thinking that if someone were, for instance, involved in adding information on insects and the politics of the Ivory Coast, that they might benefit from having "mentors" (I like that word better) from each of the fields in which they are involved, if there is no single person involved in both fields available. Also, it would definitely be useful if someone's designated "adoptor" were to go on an extended break for whatever reason to have someone else already familiar with the newcomer available to step in immediately. Lastly, if we have a true saint who can deal with several newcomers at once, I would definitely want them to be able to do so. Badbilltucker 23:50, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New idea?

Intresting idea but isn't this already being done per most welcome messages saying "if you need any help you can reach me on my talk page"? - Tutmosis 22:40, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

You're right, but Category:Wikipedians looking for help is hard to watch. These templates help us to reach new users much easier. NCurse work 17:23, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
The thing with {{Helpme}}, is that the helper only helps with that one problem. However, in Adopt-a-user, the helper stays helping the user until one person says they want to stop or something. --lEoN2323 21:10, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
{{Helpme}} is pretty much useless; the only thing that happens is that somebody leaves a template on yuor talk page, and if you want to talk to them, they're long gone. It might as well just automatically spawn a template. ~ Flameviper 17:10, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] thoughts - Renaming etc...

Nice effort...but before I decide wether I like this or not I suggest you rename this program. --Osbus 16:52, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

I tend to agree. Do you have any specific ideas? I'm thinking something like "Find-a-Friend", "Find-a-Family", "Big Brothers/Big Sisters" (not word-for-word, copyright problems there), or something like that might work better. Badbilltucker 23:57, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
I have removed the request rename template as obviously no one has been pushing for this idea any more, an the concept of adoption has stuck. So unless anyone wants to bring it up again I have removed the rename template from the project page. Cheers Lethaniol 14:49, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sounds Good

Let me know when it's ready. People Powered 00:47, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Two styles of it?

Hmm...Well, it technically isn't supposed to be a userbox, it's supposed to be at the top of your userpage. But yeah, if it would be used as a userbox, then it should look more like a normal userbox. It should be more userboxy, if you will. I was thinking that we could go both ways and include two versions of each template; one for the top of the page and one for a userbox.

The "adopt me" and "I'm adopting" templates are supposed to be big and at the top of the page to get your attention, but the "I adopted" and "I got adopted" templates don't neccesitize attention-grabbing tactics; actually, they're kind of annoying. So, hypothetically, the "seeking adopting" templates would be big and the "I'm a happy camper" templates would be nice, non-blatant userboxes (although everyone might not want to conform to that).

Whatever you guys want. ~ Flameviper 17:21, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I'm thinking...

Not something I do often. I am thinking that we should find a way to publicise ( excuse my misspellings ) the whole program. I agree that maybe it could use a new name, although I like the WP:ADOPT shortcut. If we find experienced editors and asked them if they would be interested in joining, and also send new users a message asking them to join, and maybe get one of the welcome templates changed so that it includes something about WP:ADOPT. I think that we need to make the project page more user-friendly before we get it added to a welcome message, as new users inexperienced in Wikipedia will be using it frequently. Also, I think that maybe we should consider become part of Esperanza, as someone suggested on Flameviper's talk page. I will work on making the page more newbie-friendly. Color Me Invisible 14:37, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

I definitely think that, if this idea goes ahead, we might want to talk to the Welcoming Committee and get something about the adoption program included on some of the "Welcome to Wikipedia" templates. We would also probably want to have a sort of "directory" of adoptors, indicating their specific fields of interest and abilies (graphics, writing, referencing, categorization or stub work, whatever). Badbilltucker 23:54, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Interesting idea, but...

...please reconsider the spamming of user talk pages with this idea. It sounds good, but some users object to spam they haven't signed up for and the bandwidth required for creating it saps the project and the reverted spam polutes edit histories. Thanks. ➨ ЯEDVERS 20:28, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

...Wha? I have no clue what you're talking about...it's not like a newsletter, as you're insinuating. It's just another sentence on {{welcome}}, and, um...all in all, your comment makes no sense. Perhaps you could clarify what you were saying? ~ Flameviper 16:21, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bot

Maybe users wishing to adopt or be adopted should have the option of using a bot to give suggestions of who to adopt/be adopted by. The bot would go through userboxes and pick people who match up best. (obviously, it would be the people's choice whether to follow this advice or not).

Ilikefood 20:50, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

Um, yeah. I suppose if Adopt-a-User was something really, really important, we could make a bot...kind of like SuggestBot? You're thinking of something where it would pick users with similar interests? Well, that would be great, but SuggestBot is already popular...another bot that did the same thing for two different people and then took energy to compare the two would require some maverick programming, and a lot of power. But OK. ~ Flameviper 13:16, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Main Page

Try putting something about it on the main page (or at the top of the community portal page). That would get plenty of attention for it. Ilikefood 16:31, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

I think you could get attention for this on {{welcome}} and possibly MediaWiki:Loginsuccess. Otherwise, go for it. Anything that helps newbies is good. >Radiant< 22:12, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
Wow, MediaWiki:Loginsuccess? That's one of the most prominent MediaWiki templates! Gee whiz! ~ Flameviper 20:49, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Capitalisation

Shouldn't Category:All users involved with Adopt-a-User be called Category:All users involved with Adopt-a-user? --lEoN2323 20:27, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

No, the non-capitalised state of "user" in this project page's name was a capitalisation error on my part. Sorry. ~ Flameviper 13:14, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Categories

Do we really need: category:Users adopted by USERNAME? If so, what is the top category? I've categorised Users adopted by Stevenfruitsmaak under "Users who have been adopted", should others do so too? Otherwise it leaves ugly redlinks.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 15:27, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

There is a discussion going on about this at Wikipedia:User_categories_for_discussion#Wikipedian_.22adoptions.22.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 22:03, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
I can respond to that; that whole category thing was a stupid idea that I decided to enact. It was supposed to be a hancy way of doing things, but really, it just wastes category namespace for at most, 3 actual pages. It was stupid to even consider; I'll remove it. ~ Flameviper 13:13, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Users seeking adoption

There should be separate categories, such as 'Users wanting to be adopted', or 'Users seeking to adopt other users'. (I know, the category names are terrible, but I'm sure someone else could make up much better names for the categories.) Ilikefood 22:24, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] IRC Channel

Not sure if I should've or not.. but feeling bold, I decided to :) Hopefully we'll have hundreds of people flocking to #wikipedia-adopt on Freenode — Deon555talkReview 01:18, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Sweet. Unfortunately, I don't have IRC :( ~ Flameviper 15:46, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Category names

Per discussion], I have changed the names of all categories involved with the project to more apprpriate names. I've edited all of the templates and all pages involved (I think). Looks like a good project, I'll join in. --Daniel Olsen 03:56, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

I've also split Category:Wikipedians seeking adoption in Adopt-a-user into

to help facilitate the adoption process. --Daniel Olsen 04:18, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Shweet. ~ Flameviper 16:46, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Adoption complete

I adopted User:PStrait. Hooray for me! The Duke of Copyeditting, Bow before me! You can't control me! I'm a P. I.! 11:44, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Yay! ~ Flameviper 15:15, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Length of adoption

Will these adoptions (with the accompanying adoption notices) be permanent? Maybe we should have something on WP:ADOPT that says: "once you feel that you have learned the ins and out of wikipedia, feel free to remove your adoption tag from your userpage and from you're adopter's userpage, but don't forget to thank him/her!" or something like that. Thoughts?

I hadn's thought about that. Good idea, go ahead and add it. ~ Flameviper 15:52, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Esperanza

I got a link here placed on the Esperanza mainpage. Hopefully this will lead to more participation. --Daniel Olsen 02:59, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Nice going, bud. And happy Halloween! ~ Flameviper 16:13, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
I joined because of it. Good job! Happy Halloween! Randfan 18:46, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is this wrong

I adopted two new users because I've had previous contact with them and after ____ weeks they still haven't done any real edits. Is this wrong? Please respond on my talk page. Randfan 18:47, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm thinking about making an {{template:adoption_congratulations}} (see here) for these people. What do you think? Randfan 18:56, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
okay, I combined the adoptmessage template and the welcome template to create {{this}} ({{AdoptCongrats!}}). Tell me what you think. Randfan 19:59, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
Well, that's OK, but the colours are kind of abrasive. ~ Flameviper 20:45, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
you can edit it. Randfan 22:25, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
We already have {{adoptmessage}} for telling new users they've been adopted. If they haven't edited very much, well, that'll happen, but you should be there in case they have questions. Feel free to adopt another user or two if you'd like to help more. --Daniel Olsen 00:58, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Criteria

Should we make some criteria for you to become an adopter? Like must have 150 main edits and must have been a user for a month and be a member of Ezperenza and the Kindness Comittee. Please respond on my talk page. Randfan 18:47, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

should there be a limit on how many users one can adopt (I say it should be a max. of 3 or 4) Randfan 18:49, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
I was thinking that you should only adopt one or two people. But yeah, there should be a limit. And yes, there should definitely be adoptioner requirements. Probably just being a member of Esperanza, that has its own requirements also. Good idea. ~ Flameviper 20:47, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
I made some rules for entering (currently 8) and we'll need someone to enforce them for those people who want join. I think you, Flameviper, would be the right person for this. Randfan 00:02, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
I really object to these and I've reverted the page until this is discussed further. --Daniel Olsen 01:16, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
The criteria were rather hastily enforced without consensus. I think we should talk about the criteria before slamming them down. After all, they were rather draconian, given that at least 3 of the rules excluded me. I don't think that adopters need to be completely flawless; certainly the "no blocks for a year" rule is going a bit overboard? ~ Flameviper 17:30, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
I agree I've made a new proposal here but I still included the no blocks rule (I hadn't read your thought until after the proposal was made).

[edit] News Letter

Can we make an Adoption Advertisement through a news letter to all members wishing to adopt. It should have a list of all non-adopted adoptees. Maybe we can advertise it at the Coffee Lounge or give it to users who we think are qualified for this but didn't sign up for it/don't know about it. Randfan 18:53, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Excellent idea; I'd be more than happy to help out. Anthonycfc (talk • email) {{subst:CURRENTTIME}}, {{subst:CURRENTDAYNAME}} [[{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTDAY}}]] [[{{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}]] (UTC)

[edit] Esperanza

Since when are we part of Esperanza? Memebers should not need to be part of Esperanza or any of its programs in order to participate here. What's with all of these requirements? "Must have a co-adopter, must have two co-adopters if you want more than 3 adoptees, 6 adoptee limit" Things lke this are why Esperanza's admin coaching is so backlogged. It really only takes one user to help another user, and who says one user can't help many others? And requiring participants to get a certain quota before being allowed to leave?? Please discuss changes like this on the talk page before you slap them onto the project page and semi-protect it for no reason. --Daniel Olsen 01:27, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree. I'm adding a new subpage for the proposed criteria, here. ~ Flameviper 17:31, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
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