User:Hersfold/Adopt/Audacitor

This page is an archive of discussions relating to an editor adoption program between the adopter User:Hersfold and the adoptee User:Audacitor. Please do not edit the contents of this page. Please direct all new discussions to the adopter's talk page.

Report

Experienced adoptee who has a firm grasp of policies and procedures. All lessons have been completed and he is currently in an observation period pending my approval to take his graduation exam. His activity onsite has been down somewhat lately due to an extensive project he has undertaken to make deletion procedures easier to figure out for new users. We have remained in contact through email, and the project is currently delayed due to a minor crisis, but should be back underway shortly. (Updated 21:38, 13 September 2007 (UTC))
Ready for graduation. Audacitor has been given the link to the main exam page and instructions on how to proceed as of 23:37, 24 October 2007 (UTC).
Final report: Audacitor has not been able to take the exam, leaving me to believe he has opted to drop the adoption program. He has made no edits to the project since September of last year, which unfortunately leads me to believe that he has left the project entirely. Should he return, he has demonstrated sufficient knowledge to qualify as a good editor. It was a pleasure having Audi as an adoptee and I do regret that he was not able to complete the program.

Archive created 21:06, 6 January 2008 (UTC), file closed at that time. Hersfold ^(t/a/c)

Intro Survey

Hello again, Audacitor. If you could, please answer these questions to the best of your ability. The more information you give me, the more I'll be able to help you find a good place to get started. Naturally, don't spill your life story - remember this is still the internet, and anyone could read this page. So, if you don't feel comfortable answering something, don't worry, just skip it.

I've indented and highlighted my responses in blue, so that they could be placed in this original message, instead of in one long reply afterwards. Hopefully, this should make it easier to read the reply and save space on the page. --Audacitor

What subjects interested you in school? History, English, Math, Sports, etc.?

There was very little that interested me in school, mostly because there was very little in school to be interested in. Most of my knowledge base was acquired outside of school through reading books and general experimentation on my own part. It is from those sources that my primary interests were sparked. These include, but are by no means whatsoever limited to: Computers, Software and Web Development, Graphic Design, Math, Science Fiction, and Sleep.

If you currently hold a job, what do you do? If not, what would you like to do?

I am a kennel assistant at one of the local veterinary clinics. The job consists mainly of walking, bathing, and feeding dogs, sterilizing surgical packs, and other cleaning duties. It isn't the job I would prefer to have, but being of 16 years, I'll take most any work I can.

Where do you live? (For privacy reasons, please don't be too specific. I'm just looking for country and/or state/province. If you happen to live in a large city, go ahead and include that if you want, but otherwise don't post your hometown.)

Illinois, USA, North America, Planet Terra, Sol System, Orion Arm, Milky Way, Universe

Are you good at reviewing other people's work (such as for grammar, spelling, style, or for grading)?

I'm excellent at finding and correcting spelling errors, and almost as good at grammar. I'll have to become more familiar with the MoS before I can say I'm even fair at analyzing style, but I do know the basics for formal writing. I've never graded anything, though, and wouldn't want to, since I don't know of any grading means other than extensive peer review that doesn't put some amount of subjectivity on the final result.

How patient are you?

You mean in the sense of "learning this doesn't happen overnight"? No problems there.

What are your feelings about vandalism?

Well, I first can't understand why one would think it worthwhile to do so. I mean, I get the certain glee one gets from causing general mayhem and confusion, but vandalism here doesn't do that. It's usually fixed inside minutes, and fixing it isn't even hard to do. Some mayhem that makes for.

Are you comfortable using Wikimarkup yet, or do you still need some time getting it to work?

I'm fairly competent in general formatting, but my tables could use some work.

Good thinking on the indent there! Ok, the purpose of this was to try and determine where you would enjoy working within Wikipedia. I generally refer to the whole encyclopedia as a "project", as it is one, but it is further divided into groups of editors called "WikiProjects." These WikiProjects focus on a particular topic or task and work to improve articles related to it. For example, I'm a member of WikiProject Articles for creation, which works to review new articles submitted by unregistered users. If they meet Wikipedia standards, we post those articles on behalf of the unregistered user that isn't able to do so. Working in a WikiProject allows you to meet other editors with your same interests and have fun working in the project. If you do something really exceptional within the project, you may be given a barnstar for your efforts. Several of my awards are related to Articles for creation. These awards are not limited to the WikiProjects, though. They can be awarded by anyone, for anything, at any time. Anyway, we've got to get you to start editing before you'll be eligible for any of that, so let's see where you might be interested in helping:

These WikiProjects or maintenance tasks were selected by me based on your responses above, and include anything and everything that might even remotely spark your interest. I am not saying you necessarily will like them, and I am certainly not saying you must sign up for all of them - in fact, I recommend you don't. One or two Projects is enough for a new editor - if you find yourself with time for more, or if you feel like leaving those Projects for whatever reason, then you can sign up for more. I do recommend that you at least take a look at all of these, however, just to see what all Wikipedia has to offer.

And if there's something you're interested in that doesn't appear here, it doesn't necessarily mean we don't have it. Have a look through the Directory, maintained by the WikiProject Council (sort of the ultimate WikiProject). Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 17:18, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

First evaluation period

Now that (hopefully) we've started getting you settled in, I'm going to step back just a little it and watch what you do around the project. I'll check your contributions at least once a day, and offer some pointers about what you're doing. This is mainly so I can get an idea of what you're already good at doing, and what you could still use some help in. Later on, I'll introduce you to some aspects of the project you may not have looked into yet, but are still important for a well-rounded editor. You have free rein at the moment, so let's see what you can do! Don't worry about messing things up - as you noted before, it's not exactly hard to fix vandalism, so by extension, it's not exactly hard to fix where a new user blew up an article.

Some ideas for where you can get started off:

Your comments here have received a reply, but no action has been done on the page itself yet. Most likely, the other editor is waiting for you to make the needed changes. Since anyone can edit, it's preferred to let the person who had the idea for an improvement take on the task of doing it, so that they get the credit in the page history. (See also: {{sofixit}})
Keep working on your user page a bit. It's looking really good so far, and is a good place to test out new coding without messing up other people. Once you've got it how you like it, a user page can work as an excellent base of operations, home page, or just a showcase of what you've done. For more ideas, check out WP:USER or the jealously-inducing user page design center.
Keep clicking Random article until you find something to do. Warning: You might end up spending an hour or so reading an interesting article you didn't know existed.

So get to it! Happy editing! Remember, I'm around if you have any questions. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 17:40, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Mission Understood

Thanks for reminding me about the For the Record WikiProject. I had some trouble with my watchlist and consequently didn't know I had responses.

In the meantime, I'm gonna finish my user page (could take awhile now that you've shown me the User Page Design Center), upload a new image of a graphite Power Mac G4, as requested here (it needs Photoshopping though, and I've been having problems with it, so it could take a bit), and then check out those projects you listed. --Audacitor 01:32, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Ongoing evaluation

12:55, 19 August 2007 (UTC): So far exceeding expectations. Has already installed Twinkle, a tool which I haven't even started to use yet, having stuck with popups. Might start using it, though, we'll see. Anyway, Audacitor has set up a well-designed userspace, reverted two instances of vandalism with the proper warnings (automated, but still...), welcomed and encouraged an unregistered user, reverted two edits that weren't exactly helpful but weren't vandalism, and is assisting with Requested Pictures. Doing very well so far, but will continue to observe. Hersfold ^(t/a/c)
17:30, 20 August 2007 (UTC): As I watch Audacitor's contributions, he seems to command a firm grasp of how to use Wikipedia, but maybe not so much of the policies and procedures. I'm noticing one odd reversion here that could have caused a bit of confusion had it gone unnoticed. Fortunately, the mistake was found and resolved. Earlier, an XfD was sent to the wrong place - the page fit speedy deletion criteria, so didn't need to be send to debate anyway, and certainly not to MfD. Such mistakes can be understood, as I haven't explained them yet (but are about to) and Twinkle doesn't actually explain what all those acronyms mean. Anyway, I think the review period can safely end for now, and we can enter some instruction time. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 17:30, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Lessons issued

Replies to lessons and resulting discussions are located here.

Vandalism

Issued 18:41, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Nice lesson! I was already beginning to distinguish different types of vandals, but hadn't given the name. One particular instance replaced the name of the principal for a school with the name "Ben Dover". Read only the phonetics of that one if you didn't get it the first time.

All of it seems pretty easy. I might have to test out some features of Lupin before I decide I'm confident with it. Problem is, I'd need a test page that would get Lupin's attention. I'm thinking of creating a page titled "Audacitor's Practice Vandal Target" and just add some dubious content to it. Would that work? I know normal users can't delete pages, so an Admin would have to do it. And would it be clear enough to other users not to touch it? I'll wait for judgment from you before I do it or not.

Finally, I'm probably going to put up pages on my userspace that simplify the vandal clean up process, and this information would be handy. Until I get around to that, can you leave up the Vandalism 221 lesson? Thanks!

--Audacitor 19:04, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Lupin's attention", but you're more than free to set up a sandbox page in your userspace for testing. I use mine all the time. Just slap up a notice asking people not to edit like I've done on mine, and nobody's going to bother. It's generally expected that you don't edit another user's userpages unless there's a reason to do so anyway. And if you ever need a page in your userspace deleted, just tag it with {{db-user}}. That puts it up under one of the criteria for speedy deletion (which we'll cover soon!) and an admin will come delete it.

As for the lesson, glad you enjoyed it. I'll leave it up until after you graduate. Just so you know, the page at WP:UTM is designed to be transcluded as a template if you want to - the code's {{Wikipedia:Template messages/User talk namespace}}. If you're ever not sure what one of the templates says, just hover over the curly braces and you'll get a little tooltip summarizing it - most added by yours truly. :-) Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 19:23, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Okies, I'll do that once I finish round out my userboxes sections. Should take me about another 45 minutes, including breaks to ready your lessons. --Audacitor 19:34, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Prepared for lesson "Deletion Policies". --Audacitor 19:36, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Ok, it'll take a little while for me to get organized for it. I'll let you know when it's ready. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 19:40, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Deletion policies

Issued 23:47, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Note: While I am online, I'm accessing the project from a third-party computer, so I can't get into anything too. I'll read this in full when I get home (hopefully in less then an hour). In the meantime, the cross next to my talk page is just there because I couldn't find anything better for it. The Crystal Clear icon set is pretty big though; I'll find something. --Audacitor 23:58, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Okay, I've had a chance to read it all, and it's made things ever so much easier. I think I'll start working on flow charts that detail what to do for each situation. Maybe the whole community might be able to use them or something. I guess go ahead and add another lesson in the meantime. --Audacitor 02:19, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Side note: At last report, Audacitor was working on a flow chart for deletion procedures. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 21:06, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Templates

Issued 03:57, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Got it. I had a hunch oh what subst'ing did, and no you've proved it right. The timestamp}}, and then call that template, the template would display a subst'ed timestamp when I saved it. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 20:19, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Cleanup patrol

Issued 21:38, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Copyright on a free Wiki

Issued 17:09, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Got it. Basically, all content uploaded and used on Wikipedia needs to be licensed under either a GPL (if it's an image, sound file, or other type of non-textual media), a GDFL (which applies to all text written by Wikipedians), any one of several Creative Commons licenses (which basically let the author decide exactly what they want other people to do or not do with their media), released to the public domain (as in, no one owns it now), or finally, if it is copyrighted work that can be gotten by any other means, under fair use terms (such as low resolution versions for copyrighted images, like a movie poster of LOTR). Awesome! Ready for next lesson! --Audacitor^{(t $\bullet$ c)} 18:00, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

We actually use the GFDL for pictures and media files as well. The GPL is more intended for software and such. But you've basically got it, yeah. The important thing with copyright is to make sure you WP:FUC it up, if you'll pardon the somewhat obscene pun. Good news - the next (and possibly last, we'll see) lesson actually involves some hands-on stuff and less reading my boring lectures. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 20:38, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Reviewing articles

Issued 16:57, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Audacitor's responses:

WED-15-77 is a start-class because it's very short (fits on my screen), provides only basic background, and contains no links to other related articles, but does tell the reader about things they might not have known before.
Edgar Allen Poe is an A-class because it provides extreme detail, includes just under 60 references to outside works, provides 16 external links, links to other articles related to his works. I wouldn't be surprised if this was previously a featured article.
1986 Individual Speedway Junior European Championship is a ???-class because....
Battle of Stillman's Run is a stub-class because it's a table. And that's it. However, it is one in many that are design to be seperate from each-other. They won't ever be start-class articles, but they could still use some fleshing out.
Pitkin (film) is a stub-class because it looks more like a definition than anything else.

Correct responses: (Note that this is by my assessment and those made by WikiProjects and official reviewing processes. I tried to choose articles that had been reviewed by several WP's so there was some established consensus.)

WED-15-77 - Y This article rather trounces the above statement, as the only applicable WikiProject hasn't reviewed it. However, I did choose this as a representation of a Start-Class article. It provides a general amount of information, in more than one topic, but doesn't have a great amount.
Edgar Allen Poe - Y E.A. Poe is an A-Class article due to the wide range of information in several subject areas and useful range of references for further research. The article has been a featured article candidate twice, but has failed both times. It is currently a Good Article, which does qualify it for GA-Class, but most WikiProjects (8 of 9, including the 1.0 Editorial Team) agree that it is an A-Class Article.
1986 Individual Speedway Junior European Championship - Y This is a weird one, which is why I threw it in. It has qualities of a list, but isn't formatted as such. I'd call it a Stub in serious need of cleanup, due to the minimal amount of information that is mostly statistical.
Battle of Stillman's Run - N I think you missed this one, and accidentally left your response for the previous article here. This is a Good Article, but could also be rated as an A-Class, I think. It provides a wide range of information, but could perhaps be better written or provide more info.
Pitkin (film) - Y As indicated by the tag, that is a Stub, perhaps bordering on a sub-stub. Enough said.
Yellow garden spider - Y You're right, it's B-Class, more or less for the reasons you cited. (Sorry, it's midnight and I'm tired of typing).

That's about it for this lesson, and this is the second-to-last note I had. The final lesson involves permissions - who can do what, and how they get those abilities. This lesson can wait for a while, though. I'm due to move in to UMBC on Saturday, so my editing level is about to drop off a bit. I'll still try to check in to see how you're doing with things, and to answer any questions you may have as well as the zillions of others I've suddenly been getting swamped with. My August archive is going to be huge.... Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 04:19, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Yellow garden spider is a B-class because it's good for general information, but if I really wanted to know a lot of stuff about it, I'd buy a book instead.

The Home Stretch

I'm starting to run out of things to tell you about. You pick things up pretty darn fast (possibly too fast, quit being so smart. :-P). Here's what I see as coming up:

I'm going to college on Saturday. Obviously, that's going to get in the way of editing a bit, so starting tomorrow I'll not be as available as I have been. This, however, is a perfect lead-in for another one of those "do your own thing while I sit back and supervise" periods. Go do whatever, get busy, don't screw things up too much. If you do, or just need help, drop me a line and I'll respond when I get the chance. Just be aware the response won't come back to you within five minutes as I've apparently become notorious for doing.
I will eventually (as in, when I have time) have another short lecture on permissions and things. I'd like to do this myself so you don't have to read through the policy pages which are even MORE boring than I am, but if you don't get anything about that within, say, a week, then go ahead and read it yourself. Or just do so anyway if you really get bored. If that happens, I will still give you some additional comments, so don't think you're getting out of the lecture.
After that, another, considerably longer, "do your own thing while I sit back and supervise" period. This will sort of be your unofficial test - me making sure you really, really do know what you're doing and no longer need an official mentor.
Your exam. When I deem it prudent, (and am done adding questions), I will provide you with a link to the exam page. The page is orphaned, so don't go looking for the link, you're not going to find it. This is more-or-less just a formality - there's nothing saying you must take and pass an exam in order to graduate, but it's a way of making absolutely certain that you are completely familiar with Wikipedian policy, guideline, and procedure, including those areas which you may not have been involved in during the course of your edits. Because of this, you are not required to take the exam. If at any point, you believe you have learned enough to remove yourself from the adoption program, you may do so by removing the adoption box from your userpage and leaving me a note to that effect. I won't be overly happy about it, but will respect your decision and nonetheless be satisfied with the fact that I helped you get started off. If you do take the exam, however, there are several benefits, not the least of which is that warm fuzzy feeling you get from actually having achieved something. And I'll be much happier.

So that's really about it for now. If there's more that I think of later, then I'll let you know. For now, though, happy editing, and let me know if you've got any questions or just want to chat. I'll check in when I've got time to do so. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 04:42, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Okay, I got that. Ready when you are! (Audacitor, unsigned)

Permissions

Issued 18:15, September 1, 2007 (UTC)

Other comments from the talk page

Contributions

I notice that on user contributions pages and the recent changes page that for each entry, there will be a green, positive integer or red, negative integer in parentheses. What do these mean? --Audacitor 14:35, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

(I'm ~~removing the header as it doesn't really need to be there, and~~ moving this to talk, as the page is already a little cluttered) The number refers to the number of bytes that you add or remove to the page. Generally this is the same as the number of characters, but when templates are involved the number is occasionally different. It doesn't serve much purpose, but very large red numbers can help indicate deletion vandalism. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 20:22, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

RE: Checking in

They're going slow. I tried to do it as a standard table, but then it turned like before; hard to find what you were looking for. So I'm trying a tree map instead. I'm about half way through setting up the basic layout (there are way more speedy deletion types than I thought there were), and then I have to make it look good (at the moment, everything is either red or black).

I've had to put it at low priority; I have three websites I'm supposed to work on, and I'm chief developer for two of them.

--A ud a c i t o r^{(t $\bullet$ c)} 22:21, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

P.S. This was originally meant to be emailed to you, but it kept bouncing back.