Wikipedia:Online Ambassadors/Apply/Nerdfighter

The following discussion is preserved as an archive of a unsuccessful Online Ambassador application.

Nerdfighter, you were very close to being accepted this time, and I look forward to seeing another application from you in the future. Regards, The Interior (Talk) 04:34, 16 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Nerdfighter

Nerdfighter (talk · contribs)

Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?
To help students and teachers in need of assistance, on assignments related to Wikipedia and the WikiMedia Foundation.
In three sentences or less, summarize your involvement with Wikimedia projects.
I am a Counter Vandalism Unit Academy trainer (my training page can be found here) and a member of the welcoming commity. I assume good faith unless there is clear evidence that shows malicious intent. I do not bite new users.
Please indicate a few articles to which you have made significant content contributions. (e.g. DYK, GA, FA, major revisions/expansions/copyedits).
PrankvsPrank, TSFF, WP:Wikiknight.
How have you been involved with welcoming and helping new users on Wikipedia?
I am a member of the welcoming comity, and I am frequently watching the new account feed. As I said earlier, I run a CVUA school to train new users to be recent changes patrollers.
What do you see as the most important ways we could welcome newcomers or help new users become active contributors?
Offer them new opportunities to do things on Wikipedia. From my experience, the main reason people leave Wikipedia is out of bordom, so if we offer them opportunities to get engaged they will likely be retained.
Have you had major conflicts with other editors? Blocks or bans? Involvement in arbitration? Feel free to offer context, if necessary.
None of the above.
How often do you edit Wikipedia and check in on ongoing discussions? Will you be available regularly for at least two hours per week, in your role as a mentor?
I'm sometimes old that I am on Wikipedia too often. Not so much that it interferes with my everyday life, but in my free time. I will easily be available for 2 hours a week.
How would you make sure your students were not violating copyright laws?
Bookmark their contribs pages, and their talk pages. Most issues would show up on their talk pages, but watching their contributions would also help.
If one of your students had an issue with copyright violation how would you resolve it?
I would first of all I would see if the concern is legitimate. If it is, I would let the student know on their talk page know what a copyright vio is, and how to avoid them.
In your _own_ words describe what copyright violation is.
Whenever one uses another person's, company's, or organisations work without permission, and not in fair use.
What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?
Not really. Feel free to ask me questions though!

— nerd fighter^(academy) 20:43, 22 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Additional questions

Hey Nerdfighter, thanks for applying. I've been going through your contribs, and I see good work there, but I'm a bit concerned about lack of edits in the mainspace. Students often have complex questions about content issues, and even experienced article writers can have trouble answering them. If you don't mind, I'm including a couple hypothetical questions from students here to get a better idea of how you would field questions about content. The Interior (Talk) 22:19, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Q1 Hi Nerdfighter. For my project I want to add content to Alzheimer's disease. There is some brand new research I want to add about the topic. Are there any issues I should look at before editing this article?

You can only add the information about the new research if you have third party (outside) sources that talk about the research in more than passing mention. Also make sure that you do not infer anything in the text that was not stated in the research, or the reliable sources. Don't say "this could save lives" unless the research or the reliable sources state that claim. This is because inferring anything not stated by the source counts as synthesis.

Followup: The article has a little gold star in the corner. What does this mean? Are articles with little gold stars good places for a first editing experience? Also, are there any special rules for sourcing on medical articles? The Interior (Talk) 23:01, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The star means that it is a featured article. If a user wants to experiment, they should always use their sandbox. If they know how to edit, and they want to expand a featured article, I would discuss with them the changes they want to make. I would make sure that the changes are sourced, and have a NPOV. There is of course a possibility that they will do something wrong, but Wikipedia is hard to break. If the article is usually subject to vandalism it will be protected anyway.

Hint, you should see WP:AFSE for one of the answers and Wikipedia:Training/For students/Choosing articles 2 to improve the other, in my opinion. =) Biosthmors (talk) 02:06, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This wasn't an easy one, and there's no right answer. But my response to this student would explain that because featured articles are considered to be comprehensive, it might be an uphill battle to get content that stays. I would direct them to a related but underdeveloped article. The other bluelink I was fishing for was WP:MEDRS - a very important page for any student or professor working on medical content. The Interior (Talk) 03:20, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Q2 My classmate said that adding copied text to Wikipedia is okay if I use a proper citation to the webpage I got it from. Is this okay?

No because that would likely be a copyvio. However, you may add the information in your own words, and use the website as a citation.

Tru dat. The exception here is PD content - WP:PD. The Interior (Talk) 03:20, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Endorsements

(Two endorsements are needed for online ambassador approval.)

Endorse- Nerdfighter taught me much of what I know about Wikipedia. Through the CVUA program, he guided me through Wikipedia policies and guidelines, general editing tips, counter-vandalism, and numerous other components of this wonderful collaborative encyclopedia with the eventual end result of my receipt of Reviewer and Rollback rights (which I now know how to use effectively, thanks to his help) and deeper connections with others in the Wikipedia community, including administrators and other advanced editors. I continually rely on him for guidance and support. However; more importantly, he has displayed a constant support of every user who has approached him for help. As a current "student" of his, I have absolutely no reservations about recommending him highly for this position. However, even more so, as an instructor, I would love to have his support in the Education program. --Jackson Peebles (talk) 01:54, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Neutral. Nerdfighter, you have the right spirit and energy! I like it! But to be an ambassador, it seems you might need to learn a bit more to be helpful to classrooms with diverse and difficult questions. WP:AFSE mentions the importance of MEDRS, but more fundamental to the needs of being a good ambassador and communicator of Wikipedia norms, your link to NPOV is still red, despite you having made subsequent edits to this page. To me, this suggests it might be best for you to learn more and reapply next semester. Please let me know if you have anything I can help you with at my talk page. I hope my comments here help make you a better editor. Thanks for all of your contributions. Biosthmors (talk) 18:45, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Weak Oppose You're headed in the right direction, but you're not there yet. The program is largely based around content contributions. Please consider gaining content-building experience by expanding/creating a course-related page.Smallman12q (talk) 15:23, 28 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]