User talk:Nidarista/Admin coaching

Introduction

It looks like I've been assigned as your admin coach under the Esperanza admin coaching program, along with User:Kimchi.sg. Probably the first thing to start off with is setting up a user sub-page (for example User:EivindFOyangen/Admin coaching) to keep all admin-coaching things together in one place (when conversation gets spread out over 3 user talk pages and countless archives it gets tricky!). Please do let me know what sort of thing you are wanting out of this. Cheers, Petros471 19:55, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

My goal for the Admin coaching would be to learn more about the intricases of wikipedia, I feel I have a decent understanding of the policies and guidelines, but I would like some feedback on how you view them. I would also like to hear the do's and dont's of adminship, and what you've learned from your experienceses. In the the end I hope to have a succesful RfA some day. --Eivind^t@c 00:02, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

Ok, I'll have a go :) I've only recently become an admin, and I don't claim to be perfect, but I did pass my RfA reasonably successfully and know a thing or two about admin matters, as well quite a lot on the path towards becoming one. So here we go:

For the policy part of the coaching, do you want some of those question and answer sessions? (Where we ask you some questions on policy, potential scenarios you might have to handle etc; you answer as you think and then we provide feedback on what we think.)

Do's and dont's: I've created a section below as a working guide, to be expanded.

What I've learned: Pretty well everything I'll tell you is from that, so won't cover it specifically.

RfA: Nearer the time I'll give you a detailed overview of RfA, nomination etc.

Of course at any time feel free to ask for advice on anything you come across or any other random questions you have. I'll also have a go at giving an initial impression of your edits etc in a bit. You can let me know if you think that is accurate or not! Finally, it might be helpful if you could briefly say why you want to be an admin? Cheers, Petros471 19:54, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm not an admin, but I hope to help you learn everything you will need to know in order for your RfA to be successful. :-) Kimchi.sg | talk 01:58, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

Why don't we start with a Q&A session, and take it from there. --Eivind^t@c 11:42, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

Further Q&A sessions

I hope you found the RC patrol session helpful. Areas that I think should be covered in some way include:

• RC patrol - DONE
• Incident investigation (by this I mean the sort of thing reported to WP:RFI and WP:AN/I).
• Dispute resolution (possibly, technically this is not an admin specific duty, but you will often come across them)
• Deletion
• Copyright
• Blocking
• Anything else?
• Finally the actual RfA process of course.

I started on RC patrol as I saw you were doing some already, and it is something you can do before becoming an admin (just substitute block with WP:AIV, protect with WP:RFPP etc.)

A quick glance at your edits shows a fair amount of AfD voting- do you feel you understand that? I.e. do you want deletion to be covered as a full session or not?

I feel I have a pretty good grasp on deletion policy, so I don't think it's necessary. --Eivind^t@c 12:33, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

For incident investigation do you want me to pick some examples from WP:RFI (I've done a fair amount of work there) explaining what and why I do, and then let you have a go at some of them?

I have no experience at RFI, so let's do that next! --Eivind^t@c 12:33, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Ok, I'll try and pick some examples over the next few days. Petros471 13:04, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

As I mentioned before, we can cover blocking at a later date. I admit copyright is an area I'm a bit weak on, so I could do with learning more on that myself. Finally let me stress, if there is anything in particular you have a question about or want to know what to do in a particular situation do ask- that is what we are here for! Petros471 20:20, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

I also admit I'm weak at copyright. Looking at WP:CP I see a huge backlog but without the knowledge to attack it. (WP:ABL has all the backlogs for admin stuff.) Kimchi.sg 07:49, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Admin coaching to-do

The list from above updated:

• RC patrol - DONE
• Incident investigation (by this I mean the sort of thing reported to WP:RFI and WP:AN/I). - STARTED: I think you could do with some hands on experience.
• Dispute resolution (possibly, technically this is not an admin specific duty, but you will often come across them) - as above.
• Deletion - OK.
• Copyright - TO-DO. Something we all need work on :)
• Blocking - DONE
• Anything else? - Ask any questions at any time!
• Finally the actual RfA process of course. - TO-DO, later.

Just to prove I've not forgotten this :) Petros471 10:03, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

How about usage of the new Wikipedia:Abuse reports? Kimchi.sg 12:16, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Taking on a case there is another thing on my to-do list. We can go through how it works if you want? Petros471 13:08, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

I've ticked blocking off as done, as I think the rest of the art of blocking needs to be leart on the job. Feel free to ask me if you come across a situation (before or after becoming an admin) if you want my opinion on how long (or if) to block. Petros471 16:34, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

So that copyright thing might have to be left, as I haven't really developed any expertise in that area. Just need to read the applicable policies and use some common sense.

Are you ready to start thinking about a RFA? Any questions? Petros471 18:33, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

I feel I'm as ready as I'll ever be , but I've been following RFA and I have serious doubts it will pass, due to my relative short time in Wikipedia. September/October maybe. --Eivind^t@c 00:34, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure, I would have thought around 6 months should be enough (which you're coming up to), unless standards inflation has really shot up. Are there any recent RFA's that you're thinking of were people have been opposed for lack of time when they've been around >=6 months? I think it's more important to have shown experience in a variety of different areas of Wikipedia- both editor and admin things, and I think you've got a good number of edits in both. Petros471 09:15, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Well I hope you're right. --Eivind^t@c 21:23, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

If you don't feel ready, that's fine- I'm not going to force you! I'm planning to nominate Xyrael (talk · contribs) sometime relatively soon, and he has less experience than you, so you can always wait to see if that succeeds. Petros471 21:36, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

I really believe in the wikipedia project and feel I can help it more by being a admin, and I felt that becoming an admin was the right path for me after only a month here. I might have gotten a over-negative impression of RFA since I tend to only read the oppose and neutral votes, support votes tend to be superficial and give me very little information on the candidate. As I said earlier I feel ready, and if you feel it is the right time, I'll trust your instincts. --Eivind^t@c 23:44, 2 July 2006 (UTC)