User:Akradecki/Admin coaching

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• This is for Esperanza's admin coaching of Akradecki (talk · contribs · logs · block user · block log)

Process: Material is placed and developed here. There may be exercises, things to read, questions posed and answers given, etc. Use the talk page for more ephemeral stuff like process related questions,

Contents 1 Intros 1.1 Lar (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves) 1.2 Guinnog (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves) 1.3 Akradecki (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves) 2 Agenda/Checklist/what you want out of this 3 Admin Reading list 3.1 Reading list discussion 4 Exercises

[edit] Intros

Place introductions here please.

[edit] Lar (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves)

My name is Larry Pieniazek. I've been doing things online for well over 20 years now, and am a keen student of communities and how they do things. There's some bio stuff on my talk page... I live in Michigan (in the US) with my wife and 2 kids and I like LEGO. I've been an administrator in other communities in the past. I have been an administrator here at en-wikipedia since mid May 2006. I am also an admin on commons, and I'm standing for Steward on Meta. As it said in my RFA questions especially #1, my focus is on things other than vandal fighting. I've been trying my hand at just about everything that admins do, though. In real life I work for IBM as a system architect (figuring out how software projects and systems can best be organised and carried out). I think Wikipedia is the neatest and most important thing that has been done on the internet yet! (I mostly cribbed this from a previous coaching page... still true) ++Lar: t/c 03:17, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Guinnog (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves)

I'm from Scotland although I'm currently editing from California. I'm still quite a new admin, having been promoted in late August. I'm a regular vandal fighter. I'm not sure where the main focus of my work is these days; it is undergoing change. I do a lot of spelling corrections and the like, and I am currently working on trying to resolve conflict over date linking (see User:Guinnog/date linking). I want to get more involved in policy and the community here. I also need to remind myself to keep writing and improving articles, and not to get stuck just doing the tidying up. I also regularly welcome new editors to the project. I currently have 6803 pages on my watchlist and have made over 25 000 edits. My interests include aviation (especially crashes), trains, Scottish football, punk music and fiction. Like Lar, I am still 100% convinced that Wikipedia is a great project. --Guinnog 17:41, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Akradecki (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves)

[edit] Agenda/Checklist/what you want out of this

List of things we should try to achieve: (let's jointly develop this list together but here are a few things to think about, we three will restructure this as needed)

• Why do you want to be an admin? You should have a clear understanding of this. It's not all wine and roses, it's hard work... so why?
• What does an admin do and is it interesting to you? what areas are most interesting? what areas are least?
• Some reading to get you started is often helpful.
• exercises - I have seen exercises and will be reusing some of them, things on deletion, on blocking, etc. For the most part it's not that there is a right answer, it's that you are comfortable with why you came up with the answer. Adminship is a combination of the need to respond really quickly sometimes, and the need to be very deliberate and thoughtful sometimes. Part of being a good admin in my view is knowing which is which. How do you tell?

[edit] Admin Reading list

To get you started... Here are a few things to read and think about from Lar (Guinnog may add more)

• User:NoSeptember/The_NoSeptember_Admin_Project is an amazing array of resources on adminship. In that array I would look through a lot of things... browse around! but here is User:NoSeptember/RfA_talk_topical_archive_index a good list of things for further reading
• User:CatherineMunro#Why am I here? one of my favorite essays, period. Think about what it means, think about adminship as merely one thing, one tool, one process that helps us do the overall goal. How does it fit?
• User:Mindspillage/admin one of my favorite essays on adminship. Could you be this good of an admin? I'm not sure I myself am, but it is something to strive for.
• User:Essjay/Neutrality Another take on how to be a good admin. Neutrality, impartiality, fairness. These are so important! Look within yourself and see if you really think you can do things this way. If not, perhaps adminship is not right for you (generic you, no comment on anyone in particular intended)

Out of left field:

• Wikipedia:Tip of the day/July 8, 2006 What does this rule really mean? What is the spirit, not the letter? How do you enforce spirit when trolls and trouble makers are going to want the letter, and then want to twist it around on you and wikilawyer?

Think about some of those and see if any of them color your thinking... You may have read some of them already. You don't necessarily have to read every single one in the entire admin project (although if you want to, you'll be much better informed). What I am interested in is a discussion on what one or two of them meant to you, whether you agree or disagree, and why, and so forth. These can be a springboard for good discussion. ++Lar: t/c 03:17, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reading list discussion

• Wikipedia:Tip of the day/July 8, 2006 - Ok, I thought I'd start with this one. So far, as a regular editor, the closest thing I got to this was 2 in one day, here and here. The other guy was insistent in his edit, and instead of pushing it, we discussed it a bit and I decided that, though I still think it's better the way I saw it, it really wasn't worth arguing over. Some of the things I've learned that might be applied in the future, both with my edits and if getting involved in a dispute between 2 other editors:
  1. Have patience - unless the subject of particular edit is blatant vandalism or somehow genuinely harms the article in one way or another, is it really necessary to settle it in the next two minutes or next two edits? Usually not, and a little patience can lead to heads cooling off, a better perspective and maybe some discussion. Even if the edit is a bad one, sometimes it's better to let it stand, and use it as a means of generating a discussion that (hopefully) will result in a consensus of editors which then will provide the direction and ultimate resolution of the conflict.
  2. Pick you battles, and in doing so, ask oneself, "Am I doing this because I want it my way, or is this something that genuinely is going to contribute to WP being a better encyclopedia?"
  3. Law of the third alternative - sometimes when two people are arguing, they so focus on their own position that they lose mental flexability, and don't realize that there may be a third alternative that works out better than the two in question. Akradecki 04:32, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Good answers especially that last point! Follow up... as an admin you will sometimes find situations where someone is gaming the system a bit... doing 3 reverts, waiting 24 hours, then doing 3 more, over and over and over. When pushed they will claim they are not breaking the letter of the rule. Do you let it be? Counsel? Block? Why or why not? Discuss. (and I'll tell you what I've done and why it has been controversial and not uniformly well received) ++Lar: t/c 09:42, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Exercises

To come: RC patrol, deletion exercises...