User:Sharkface217/rfa

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This page is for my RFA stuff. Please do not modify. --Sharkface217 23:06, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Use the following for answering questions.

{| style="border:1px solid #606060" |- | '''A:''' Insert answer here. |}

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

A: There are several areas which I intend to take part in: Vandal Hunting: In order to keep Wikipedia accurate and free of misinformation, vandal hunting is required. I always "enjoy" hunting vandals using Special:RecentChanges while drinking chocolate milk and listening to Pink Floyd. I prefer slogging through the Wikipedia change log manually, as I believe the speed afforded to one by the tools can lead to silly mistakes. Drive-by vandal fighting is not my style. I conduct diligent, methodical, and educated vandal fighting in order to minimize the amount of mistakes I make and ensure that the job gets done right the first time. I also plan on keeping a watchful eye on WP:AIV. Cleaning up CAT:CSD: This page always seems to be slightly backlogged. I hope to help clean it up, as it always seems to be busy, even with all the editors who visit the page regularly. Working at CAT:RFU: As a person who has been blocked twice, I know the terrible feeling a person can experience when making good-faith edits that are against Wikipolicy. I hope to help those who, like myself, jumped straight to editing Wikipedia without first reviewing official policy. I should note that I try to keep WP:AGF in mind at all times. Working at WP:UAA: This place is always busy and could use another helping hand. Speedy Deletion: There never seems to be enough sysops to deal with vandals creating pages that qualify for speedy deletion. I plan on working especially with obvious pages that qualify, such as attack pages or pages that aren't in English. Working at WP:RFP: I plan on keeping an eye on WP:RFP for when articles are reported there and qualify for semi-protection (i.e. constant vandalism, attacks by a spambot, etc.). This page is in constant need of attention and I hope to help alleviate the strain on the editors who are always active here. Working at WP:ANI: As a sysop, I'd keep a watchful eye on this page, as it is the primary place many turn to when in need of administrator help. Working at WP:AN3: Breaking Wikipedia's WP:3RR rule is a serious offense and I expect that I will keep tabs on this page, as it can be busy during certain times of the year (holidays, birthdays, political strife, weekends, etc.). Working at WP:COIN: The Conflict of Interest Noticeboard seems to be a bit understaffed. There are cases of outright vandalism reported here that would receive attention on other boards in a jiffy. I hope to deal swiftly with those who vandalize Wikipedia due to a conflict of interest. Working at WP:SPLICE: I would be interested in helping out here, as admins are the only ones who can cut and paste moves. Working at WP:DYK: Considering the amount of DYKs submitted, the administrators here are hard pressed and the page itself appears to be understaffed. I plan on contributing here in order to relieve the stress on the admins who work here daily. Visiting CAT:AB: There will always be administrative backlogs, and I will do my part to help out in whatever area may require assistance. Work in other areas that I find interesting or that need assistance: I'm always exploring and looking for new things to try out here on Wikipedia. I'm sure I'll find other areas in which I can assist the project. If I am asked to help out in a certain area, I hope I can lend my assistance.

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

A: I am particularly proud of the following Wikipedia contributions: Stevens Institute of Technology: I added 62+ pictures to this article after a tiring day of taking and then uploading photographs. This achievement brings me pride because I was able to properly illustrate (some would say over-illustrate) an article that before had low-quality pictures. A person who visits this article now has a very good idea of what the campus looks like (if I may say so myself). Glossary of philosophical isms: I spent a long time doing research on various schools of thought and I created short blurbs for at least 50 different philosophies. This effort was tedious but ultimately educational and rewarding, as I learned much about different philosophies while at the same time giving back to the Awards Center. Which brings me to my next point... The Award(s) Center: I know that I'm probably going to take a lot of flak for this one, but I consider my body of work for the Award Center to be among my greatest Wikipedia contributions. I am the current keeper and primary sponsor of challenges at the Award Center. Through it, I sponsor challenges for such things as fighting vandalism, article improvement, article illustration, etc. in exchange for barnstars. I consider it to be in the same vein as WP:BOUNTY and WP:REWARD, except no money is involved and the only prize is a little barnstar. I understand the misgivings that one may harbor against such a system. I take a different view to this project: because of the Award Center, literally dozens of articles have been drastically improved. This is not to mention the vandal fighting/projectspace/portal/tagging challenges. The Award Center provides a place where Wikipedians can and do come together and work collaboratively on articles. I take pride in knowing the amount of vandal fighting that came as a direct result of the Recent Changes Patrol. I bask in the knowledge that such articles as The Man Nobody Knows, Heuschrecke 10, Anthony Swofford, O le Ao o le Malo, and Fly pentop computer have all improved due to the efforts of those who contribute to the Award Center. While I don't participate in sponsored challenges as often as I would like (as I am the sponsor of most of the current challenges), I am proud of my administrative efforts in keeping the project (including a newsletter and a new fortnightly article drive) running smoothly. Article Creation: I have created a good deal many articles, a list of which can be found here. While most of them I have not contributed to significantly, the sheer amount of articles created is a testament to sometimes too many hours spent editing Wikipedia. I am particularly proud of articles I started that became great through the contributions of others, including but not limited to Holocaust (sacrifice), Colonial Viper, and Dov Feigin.

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

A: I have had a few major run-ins during my time here, as my Mistakes page can attest to. Rather than focusing on my triumphs, I have found that my mistakes are what help me learn the most. The following two cases have greatly shaped my character as a Wikipedian and as a human: My Second Block: I was blocked a second time from Wikipedia by User:Zscout370 for canvassing the vote at WP:ACOTF for the article United States-Australia relations, which I had created. Not only this, but it would not be unreasonable for one to come to the conclusion that I was attempting to bribe people with barnstars so that they may vote for my nomination at WP:ACOTF. That was not my intention, and in hindsight I have come to regret my mistake here. My ignorance of the rules is no excuse, however, as it is expected that every Wikipedian who wishes to contribute to this project in a meaningful way has read the guidelines of Wikipedia, of which WP:SPAM and WP:CANVASS are major ones. While I tend to be a bold Wikipedian, I try to stay well within the rules due to my past infractions. Blowing off some steam: Over a year ago, I flipped out after a long day of editing (and several days at WP:AFD). I was pretty burned (burnt?) out at the time and in a lapse of judgement I decided to take my anger out on an entire group of editors. In an utterly stupid, anger-driven reaction, I blamed the deletionist Wikiphilosophy and all it adherents for the cutting of what I saw to be "good" articles due to their laziness. I do regret what I said at the time and am deeply sorry for not being civil. I consider this to be my one and only case of incivility on Wikipedia. All my work for Wikipedia since then has been professional and free of rude remarks. If it means anything, I can say that after having spent a good deal of time in WP:AFD since then, I now consider myself to be a slightly deletionist-leaning moderate. I again profusely apologize to User:Pascal.Tesson and especially to the now-departed User:Elaragirl for my outright rudeness, collectivist generalizations, and for being a dick. As I have done since this incident, I will the exhibit the epitome of manners and treat all Wikipedians with the respect they deserve.