DatGuy (talk·contribs) – Hello everyone. I'd like to nominate myself for adminship, because, well, I think I could help out. A bit about me: I run User:DatBot, who has six active tasks and I'm sure any admins who patrol WP:AIV/TB2 are familiar with. I've created a few articles and helped promote other (mostly Olympics related) articles to GA. You may have seen me around on some seemingly random places, from AIV to ITN to EFN, as I generally prefer to contribute wherever I can rather than place myself in one specific spot.
One thing I'm sure people will be concerned about is my inconsistent activity, or lack thereof. To be 100% truthful, I don't think I'd ever get back to 3000 edits per month that I used to do, but in my opinion my edits now are of higher encyclopaedic quality and contribute more overall. I would also like to mention that when my activity levels were lower, I still mostly responded to anyone who looked for me on my talk page or pinged me.
Dear candidate, thank you for offering to serve Wikipedia as an administrator. Please answer these questions to provide guidance for participants:
1. Why are you interested in becoming an administrator?
A: The main reason would be to help ease the backlog for the usual admins who spend a lot of time on WP:AIV, WP:RFPP, and WP:ITN. Despite not having participated in many AfDs or CSDs recently, I would make sure I know the policies well and eventually help with those queues as well.
2. What are your best contributions to Wikipedia, and why?
A: Content-wise, I enjoy looking at the before and after of the articles I've helped promote to GA. Some of them already had decent quality and just needed better referencing or a little push, but the entire research process of articles such as Spyridon Louis's before and after and knowing that I contributed is a great feeling. Aside from that, I'm sure the tasks my bot does has saved many hours of manual editing that is then spent on contributing to Wikipedia in different ways.
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: The elephant in the room is probably my block in July 2016. I misused rollback, didn't look at the talk page, and went against many different guidelines. Funnily enough, those same guidelines I went against are now ones I very much adhere to and promote to others, especially edit-warring which I occasionally see in a page history and think to myself 'what are these people thinking?' An essay I like and took to heart in particular would be WP:BRD, with the D being especially important!
I realise my answers are shorter than most RfA answers, but feel free to ask any follow-up questions and I'll respond to them.
You may ask optional questions below. There is a limitoftwo questions per editor. Multi-part questions disguised as one question, with the intention of evading the limit, are disallowed. Follow-up questions relevant to questions you have already asked are allowed.
4. I'm not that great with technical stuff (so I'd appreciate if you kept that in mind in a reply to this question so I can understand what you're talking about) but since you seem to be interested in technical areas, I was wondering if you have any plans to eventually being an interface adminstrator since you need to be an admin to be one? Clovermoss(talk)17:12, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
A: I don't think IA is a very frequently used permission on enwiki, and it seems xaosflux and the others have the noticeboard under control. If there is a sudden reason for more interface administrators, I'd be willing to help out, but it seems that right now at least there's no need for additional ones.
Thanks for answering my question. Since only 12 people have it, I'd agree it's not a very frequently used permission. I just had a vague recollection that someone who runs a bot has it and you have experience running bots, so I was curious if this was something you had in mind. Clovermoss(talk)17:47, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
A: Regarding good articles, I'm hoping to complete Austria at the 2016 Summer Olympics soon which I've been working on since 2017. After that, Butterworth Squadron and Seven (1995 film) seem like they need a little push to be good articles too. As for article creation and general editing, I don't have a particular topic that I stick to - usually, I see something interesting while browsing, go to its Wikipedia article, and if I see any possible improvements I try and make them.
7. Thanks for running. Overall, would you say that your fluctuating activity levels have affected how in-touch you are with the community? Or are the two not correlated? Giraffer(talk·contribs)18:30, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
A: Depends on how deep you consider in-touch to be, but I wouldn't say so. Wikipedia's five pillars have existed since 2005 and have mostly stayed the same. I do however usually see on my watchlist the administrators' newsletter, which contains the smaller changes that I should know about in the 'Guideline and policy news' section. If you're asking about the more personal side with ArbCom cases, ANI epics, and WMFOffice blocks, If I'm uninvolved I usually take a seat but the gist of it always somehow makes its way to me.
8. Hi I notice there’s a whole slew of accounts with very similar names to you - DatGuy0309, DatGuy1011, DatGuy110, DatGuy1576 and half a dozen others. Do you have any connection with any of these accounts?
A: No, totally unrelated. I suppose I just have a desired username.
9. (Sorry for the specificity of the question) With the recent changes in WP:NSPORTS with especially substantial changes to WP:NOLY, how would you close an AFD for an article for someone who does not, per the sources provided, pass WP:GNG and has not been demonstrated to pass the new WP:NOLY but did previously pass WP:NOLY, and there is a comment pointing out WP:BEFORE might not have been properly followed? TartarTorte19:00, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
A: I myself may have created some articles that only fit the previous presumed notability criteria. To be honest, I'm unsure if the change applies retroactively (which I see now was also a question on one of the RfCs) and would right now probably defer it, but I'd assume so. To answer your question: if that is the point made by the delete !voters and no proper reasons have been found by anyone (including me) to keep the article, then I would indeed close the AfD and delete the article.
11. There appears to be some concern over the pattern of you editing for a few months and then remaining off-wiki for a few months. How will you make sure to be accountable for any admin actions you might take, as required by WP:ADMINACCT?
A: I definitely understand the concerns, but I will never shy away from explaining any actions I take, be it admin actions or normal edits, and I will never totally disappear from Wikipedia. In the months I wasn't actively editing, whenever someone edited my talk page or pinged me with a legitimate query, they never had to wait more than a few days for a response, as can be seen in my talk page archives.
12. An editor requests page protection. You review the edit history and see 50 edits going back 4 years. Those edits are mostly back-and-forth reverts between dynamic IPs (v6 and v4), redlinked usernames, and some names you recognize as recent change watchers, but there are some helpful IPs who improve the page every few weeks. The disruptive editing occurs in clusters, and an RC watcher or helpful IP usually reverts the disruption within a minute or so, though on a few occasions the disruption has lasted for up to an hour.
My question: in this situation, whats action would you take, and why? Feel free to ask me for more details if it will help you, but I'm mostly interested in how you would approach the report and weigh trade-offs when acting on a request. — Wug·a·po·des23:41, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
A: To me, the question when protecting pages is the tradeoff between the time saved and the possible impact on the content. Is the page worth protecting, discouraging non-confirmed users from editing (unless through an edit request or PC protection, but still discouraging), worth it to save on the time used reverting the vandalism? In the example case, I wouldn't say so. The article has a good thing going, it's being improved. Considering the page has existed for four years and the rare vandalism doesn't stay long, I don't find it a good idea to protect a page because of vandalism that's existed for 0.00005% of the article's lifespan. There can never be enough people looking to improve articles, and the tradeoff of possible lost improvements isn't worth the protection to prevent rare briefly lasting vandalism. What action would I take? I'd add the page to my watchlist and make sure it stays clean, but I wouldn't protect it.
12.a You have my support, but wanted to examine this a little further. Same general scenario, but the article is a BLP and the inserted material relates to an ongoing criminal matter before a court. Would you respond differently? --Goldsztajn (talk) 01:05, 9 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
13. In light of opposition based on your activity-levels, I wanted to give you an opportunity to talk about how you are able to stay in touch with important developments or be aware of policy changes, despite of low activity-levels: Can you talk about an instance where your response or your involvement — in main space or discussions — showed sentient understanding of policies that relate to administrative work or otherwise? In other words, an instance where you demonstrated a firm grasp of our contemporary policies (or policy changes) that one wouldn't generally expect from an editor with such low activity levels (like yours truly).
A: This really isn't the greatest answer, but I couldn't find a solid real world example. But that's not to say that policy/guideline/consensus changes slip by me. I do see deprecations of certain sources, village pump proposals that pass, notability clauses being modified (as also referred to in Q7). How do I spot them? The admin's newsletter I see on talk pages is one. Seeing an edit on my watchlist replacing a reference and then I dig a bit deeper and see the consensus about a certain website. To my knowledge, I have not made an edit that was problematic due to me being behind on policy changes.
14. There are a lot of great communities here that work hard to keep wikipedia running for example Articles for Creation and the New Page Patrol. We've seen a really large page backlog with these groups, for example AfC has a 4+ month delay and NPP is nearing 9,700 articles that need patrolling. Do you have any ideas or experiences on how to bring these numbers down? There's no wrong answer to this and I'm not looking for some concrete plan of action or anything just your thoughts. Thank you for your time and good luck with your RfA! Dr vulpes(💬 • 📝)01:44, 9 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
15. I'd like to preface this question by saying I've already given you my support. However, some have expressed concern about you editing on-and-off. Would passing this request for adminship push you to edit more consistently? —VersaceSpace🌃02:59, 9 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support DatGuy has been a long term editor and very helpful in technical areas and I have no doubt about their ability to be a good admin. PRAXIDICAE🌈17:01, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support, long history of productive contributions, with a very useful long-term bot. The silly block was a very long time ago and the issues are clearly in the past. ~ mazcatalk17:35, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Strongest possible support — I've known DatGuy for quite a while now, and they've been on my RfA list since I created it. They are a thoughtful editor with wide-ranging experience, and perfectly suited to being an administrator. The point on consistent contribution is certainly valid, but many hands make light work, any help is still help and the positives certainly outweigh a touch of inactivity — TheresNoTime (talk • she/her) 17:45, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Strong support Not somebody I'm especially familiar with, so I had to a little bit of digging. Alongside clear demonstrated understanding of policy and the technical chops to go with it, I find solid content creation, such as the GAs Edwin Flack and Didier Drogba, and more recently creating new articles such as Not For Broadcast. Most importantly, I'd forgotten that in 2019, I asked him to run for adminship, and he sent me an off-wiki request to do a deep dive that April which I never followed up on. So this RfA is about three years later than it could have been, which makes this an easy support. Ritchie333(talk)(cont)18:13, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support moving to support after reconsidering. While recent activity levels are low, their work in the past has been good, and as TheresNoTime points out, they are still a net positive. >>> Ingenuity.talk();18:38, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support per DatGuy. I'd happily have nominated and I've spoken to a couple of dozen other administrators, functionaries and stewards since this RfA went live who would equally have been happy to nominate. I do think we should have more self-nominations, they're prima facie evidence of a genuine deep-seated commitment to the community. Nick (talk) 18:41, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I have always respected self-nominations over being nominated by someone else, and especially over the "pretend nominations". I am familiar with DatGuy's work, and I have no reservations while supporting them. —usernamekiran (talk)18:54, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support. I've been familiar with DatGuy for a long while, and would trust him to use the tools, and otherwise act, responsibly. -- zzuuzz(talk)19:04, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support See no issues. As always, expect them to start in areas they know. Good icebreaker on the self-nom. North8000 (talk) 20:05, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support per TNT. We need more admins, and I'll take inconsistent assistance over none at all. Thanks for stepping up! --Tavix(talk)21:24, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support Sporadic activity is not my main concern. They addressed this transparently and plenty of admins are inactive here/there. As long as I can rely on them to refresh their knowledge of relevant policies, and to learn, I trust them. ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 22:16, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support While a highly active admin is better than an inconsistently active admin, passing this RfA does not prevent the passing of an RfA for a more active editor. An inconsistently active editor should still be given access to tools if they can be trusted to use them. I don't think the inconsistency is an issue as long as they're able to respond to people when needed. PhantomTech[talk]23:01, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support Fully qualified. As we have never used consistent activity as a metric for determining suitability, I find the opposes unconvincing. Dennis Brown - 2¢23:54, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support I'm of the general opinion that adminship should be no big deal, and this user is clearly a net-positive for the encyclopedia. Unconcerned about inconsistent activity levels - we all contribute when we can. —Ganesha811 (talk) 02:04, 9 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support, largely per Ritchie. Yes, ideally admins would have consistent activity, but we don't have an overabundance of admins, and I think we should extend a very helpful contributor the good faith that he will not abuse his activity pattern to be unaccountable. Vanamonde (Talk)02:10, 9 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support Looks like a good candidate whose contributions are overwhelmingly positive. I am unconcerned about the lower activity levels in some months.To the contrary, I'm more wary about someone making hundreds of edits per day than someone who apparently has better things to do than be glued to their devices doing nothing but editing here all day and night. Banks Irk (talk) 02:22, 9 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. I hate to be that guy, but I'm concerned about the candidate's inconsistent activity levels. According to xtools:ec/en.wikipedia.org/DatGuy#month-counts, DatGuy shows up to make a handful of of edits, only to disappear for months at a time. To be clear, I think DatGuy is a great editor & bot-op and I understand that RL gets in the way, but I'm not convinced these activity levels are compatible with adminship. -FASTILY21:09, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Hey, Fastily, I hope this'll feel productive rather than otherwise. To me, the xtools count looks like someone who comes in to be helpful when they have time and energy. That looks like the opposite of those who edit furiously for a year, run RfA, then peter off and quit altogether, coming in once a year to make sure they tick the box to keep the hat. To me this editor looks like they're editing enough to keep up with policy, and they also look like they aren't just hat collecting. JMO, obv. Valereee (talk) 21:30, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
We don't have an option now - there isn't a couple of dozen candidates coming through RfA each month, such, that we can choose to say "thanks, but no thanks" to great candidates who are less active. If someone is capable, as DatGuy is, then we need to gratefully accept their offer of service. Nick (talk) 21:40, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with the other two commenters. RFA appears to be already nitpicking enough, so I'm willing to support a candidate who has some minor issues on activity. Despite that, I'm also considering this proposal as a possible alleviation towards the backlogs at AIV that the candidate mentioned. Since there are less candidates running, creative solutions are in dire need of implementation. CollectiveSolidarity (talk) 00:41, 9 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose: I've been thinking about this for some hours now. I was considering neutral, but decided on oppose. I did look at the areas where DatGuy wants to work (AIV,RFPP). There hasn't been much activity in those areas this year, but what activity there is were correct. That's a plus. I don't doubt DatGuy's intentions. I do see a lack of participation in the Wikipedia talk namespace [1], with 50 edits in that name space taking us all the way back to 2016. This concerns me, as activity in such areas shows an understanding of the role of an administrator and a knowledge base that is keeping up with the times. We have recently seen some administrators lose their bit because they were using there admin tools in ways that were no longer in keeping with community standards. This had me neutral, leaning oppose. Fastily's comment brought to light another concern; administrators don't have the luxury of taking an admin action and then disappearing. Administrators are required to be accountable. It wouldn't do for DatGuy to take an administrator action and then unexpectedly leave for weeks at a time. A consistency of editing would alleviate such concerns, but I don't see it here. DatGuy, I think your intentions are in the right direction, and I think you're capable of being an administrator, but barring activity levels that can support being accountable and activity levels in Wikipedia talk areas that show a consistency of knowledge in how the project is managed, I just can't support at this time. It would be ill advised for you to use the tools if you get them without increasing your activity levels and being consistently present. Given your track record here, as others have noted in the support section, I think it very likely this RfA will pass. Please, even if only to prevent yourself being embroiled in administrator missteps, be extremely careful in using the tools and absolutely do not use them if you're not going to be around for a few days. Regardless of the outcome here, please keep up the good work! --Hammersoft (talk) 22:18, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose The low and infrequent level of editing do not demonstrate to me a need for the tools. The inconsistent editing does not reassure me that this editor will be up to date with current practice and policy or be readily accountable to the community. DatGuy fails the expectation for RfA candidates to generally be active, regular, and long-term Wikipedia editors. I also do not think that it is possible for an editor to have gained the general trust of the community with such intermittent editing activity even with AGF. This is not to disparage this editor or their work at all but there is a high bar with a for-life appointment. Vladimir.copic (talk) 22:50, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. Candidate regularly disappears for between 3 and 12 months at a time. He virtually disappeared for an entire year between July 2021 and July 2022, only showing up for regular steady activity again on July 15, 2022, 3.5 weeks before filing this self-nomination. Hmmm. I'm not going to support any admin candidate who has so little interest in Wikipedia. Softlavender (talk) 01:00, 9 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
It strikes me as unfair to the candidate to assume that they have very little interest in Wikipedia based on activity levels; activity != interest in wikipedia. Perhaps real life got in the way for a bit. Perhaps they don't have the "time and energy" to edit all the time (quoting Valereee above). —Danre98(talk^contribs)01:33, 9 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. (Moved from Neutral) I'm really sorry that I can't bring myself to support, it's extremely rare that I oppose an RfA of a candidate who has done nothing wrong. However, my concerns are not only the same as Fastily's, but the opposes of Softlavender and Hammersoft and others have reminded me of WP:ADMINACCT which I hadn't thought of mentioning. Taking on the responsibility of adminship means having an impact on areas that need the skill and discretion of the role and being around when required, but already only a fraction of the 1,000+ admins are doing that. The very low and inconsistent editing for 5 years doesn't demonstrate a need for the tools. I'm fully aware that we need more admins, but we need truly active ones, and that's mainly the problem. I'm convinced that this is not hat collecting and that there is a genuine desire to help and if there were 12 consecutive months of solid participation, I would support in a flash. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 02:42, 9 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Neutral
Neutral, I see no real concerns about the candidate's ability to undertake admin tasks, though i'd have preferred to see some more regular commitment to the project as noted by Fastily. With that said, I don't think it's necessarily a reason to oppose the candidacy, as an effective part-timer in a volunteer project is still a net benefit. I don't think our paths have crossed before, which is probably unsurprising given the not-so-significant levels of activity. Kudos for the self-nom though. Bungle(talk • contribs)21:38, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Neutral'. (edit conflict) I'm really sorry that I can't bring myself to support. Unlike Fastily, I won't oppose, but my concerns are the same. Very low and inconsistent editing for 5 years. This doesn't demonstrate a need for the tools. I'm fully aware that we need more admins, but we need active ones, and that's mainly the problem. I'm convinced that this is not hat collecting and that there is a genuine desire to help and if there were 12 consecutive months of solid participation, I would support in a flash. I claim to be a semi-retired editor and compared to my previous participation, I am, but I'm still more active than the candidate. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 21:45, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Neutral. I just wanted to comment on Hammersoft's concern about hit-and-run adminning, which to a certain extent, I share. We've had a number of arbcom cases this year where admins got whacked because they were unresponsive to questions. Don't be that guy. I'm fine with a part-time admin, just make sure you're not so out of the loop that questions go unanswered. Make sure you've got email set up (if that's not a requirement for an admin, it should be) and then go into Preferences/Notifications and tick the boxes for "Notify me about these events ... Edit to my user talk page" and "... Mention". So, even if you're away from the wiki for a while, you'll know when somebody is looking for you. And if you're not able to respond in a substantive way right now, at least drop a quick note, "I saw your ping, but I'm sailing around the world right now, I'll get back to you in xxx amount of time". Everybody understands that IRL trumps wiki and sometimes delays are inevitable. It's when you go dark that people get freaked out. -- RoySmith(talk)23:12, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
For anyone concerned about the edit-warring block I issued to DatGuy in 2016, I would note that the following year, I said "I placed the block, primarily to show you that our edit-warring policies apply to you too - and it's done the trick as I think you've improved greatly as an editor since then ... I personally won't hold the block against you. In general, I think a minor EW block from a couple of years ago is excusable as having "a bad day"" [2]Ritchie333(talk)(cont)17:39, 8 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I would like to second Deepfriedokra. I have asked the candidate a question relevant to some of the opposers' rationales. To anyone thinking of opposing, please consider asking a question of your own. Thanks, ☿ Apaugasma (talk☉)00:02, 9 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
