Wikipedia:Administrator elections/October 2024/Candidates/Sable232

The following is preserved as a closed administrator election discussion. No further discussion on these pages is permitted. Please visit the voting page for next steps.

Nomination

Sable232 (talk · contribs · he/him) – Hello, I'm Sable232. I've been editing here since 2006. My editing varies and I don't specialize in anything - over the years it ranges from article expansion to fixing MOS and layout issues to article assessment, and no shortage of reverting vandalism and other disruption. I encounter plenty of sockpuppets and LTAs in my normal editing and have become adept at identifying them. My recent editing is probably what most would consider "gnomish".

Please disclose whether you have ever edited Wikipedia for pay.

I have never edited for pay and will never do so. Sable232 (talk) 18:24, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

Questions for the candidate

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: It's well known that Wikipedia doesn't have enough administrators. In recent months I've seen appreciable backlogs at places like SPI, RFPP, and AIV, and it stands to reason that a dearth of volunteers contributes to those backlogs. I know this trial election procedure is one of the ideas being tested in hopes of changing that, so I believe now is as good a time as any to volunteer.

2. What are your best contributions to Wikipedia, and why?

A: In the past, I expanded most of Wikipedia's Minnesota state highway articles from Stub to C-class. In recent years I've focused more on detail work, such as developing a consistent format for section anchors to allow for more easily fixing broken section links and reduce the likelihood of them getting broken in the future. As Wikipedia has become the first stop on the Internet for information for many people, it's even more important to have a level of encylopedic professionalism in article space and ensure that the small details are taken care of, there is a consistent style, and everything works as a reader would expect.

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: I have, as nearly all of us have. I find that good-faith conflicts over content are best handled at article talk pages or those of the relevant WikiProject. I try to keep anything on Wikipedia from rising to the level of "stress" - closing the browser and walking away is often a good way to do so.

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You may ask optional questions below. There is a limit of two questions per editor. Multi-part questions are disallowed, but you are allowed to ask follow-up questions related to previous questions.

Optional question from Z1720

4. In your response to question 3, you gave some information about the process you take in response to a potential conflict. Can you please give a specific example of a recent conflict or disagreement you have been involved with and describe either how you successfully managed the conflict or what you would have done differently? Thanks, Z1720 (talk) 00:24, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

A: One that sometimes comes to mind is an instance where I encountered what I thought were obvious copyvio images - photos taken with a phone of pictures on a computer screen. Too obvious, in retrospect. Copyvio images are a common problem and one that's hard to resolve if let go for too long so it's good to handle them promptly. But in this case, it wasn't; the uploader was the copyright holder, and photographed the images on his computer screen because he had trouble uploading the original files. He was, suffice it to say, not pleased that the images were tagged for deletion as copyvios and removed from the articles he added them to. He considered it "libelous" and commenced with some mild personal attacks towards me. That escalated to AN/I and a brief block for him before everything was sorted out. In retrospect, a deliberate copyright violation would likely not have been that obvious, and I should've engaged the uploader first. 49 times out of 50, what looks like a copyvio is a copyvio, but there can always be that one, and I wish I would've approached this one differently by questioning the uploader as to what was going on rather than taking the standard action of reverting and tagging.

Optional question from Thryduulf

5. Why did you choose to seek adminship via election rather than via a standard RFA?

A: In short, I saw the notice at the top of my watchlist and decided there was nothing to lose by throwing my hat in the ring now.

I'd noticed for some time the mentions of a lack of active administrators and had the thought in the back of my mind of volunteering, but I couldn't find clarity on what specific areas were most affected by insufficient admins nor what qualities were being sought in administrators. I was reluctant to self-nominate for RFA because I had no idea what to expect nor if I would be out of line to do so. After looking at some of the candidates already on the list, I felt my experience and track record were on par, so if I was going to do it at all, now would be the time.

Optional question from Ganesha811

6. Are there any areas of adminship you do not plan to participate in, due to unfamiliarity or lack of technical knowledge? If you later decided you wanted to help in these areas, what would be your plan to become an effective admin in those areas?

A: I don't plan on getting involved with AfD closures because I don't often participate in AfDs - I usually only do so where something appears in the Article Alerts for a WikiProject and I have something of my own to add to the discussion. If I were to try getting involved with that I'd spend more time !voting as an editor, and pay attention to how/when/why discussions are closed. There are a handful of things I see in the admin toolset that I don't quite understand from a technical aspect, and I'll leave those alone (editing JSON, modifying edit filters, editing intricate syntax in protected templates). If there's a need for that, I'm willing to learn, but it's hard to imagine what that would entail without more familiarity with how they work.

Optional question from Thebiguglyalien

7. Your userpage indicates that you participate at Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Roads/Minnesota, though it doesn't seem to be your main area of interest. Was your editing affected by the discussions about notability and OR with roads and the subsequent exodus of several roads editors?

A: Only slightly. I had started trying to work on getting those articles developed further a couple years ago, but I wasn't pleased with the prose I was coming up with and couldn't work around it at the time, so I set that aside. That said, the fact that the existence of those articles may be in jeopardy doesn't inspire me to focus on them anew.

Discussion

• Links for Sable232: Sable232 (talk · contribs · deleted · count · AfD · logs · block log · lu · rfar · spi)
• Edit summary usage for Sable232 can be found here.

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Please keep discussion constructive and civil. If you are unfamiliar with the nominee, please thoroughly review his contributions before commenting.

AfD record: 92.70% match rate, n of 124. 9 keep !votes to 92 delete !votes. Mildly subjective comment: most of this participation is from ages ago; only 7 in the past year (all matches); these are all in their area of editing interest (cars) and have extensive, helpful rationales, eg [1], [2]. -- asilvering (talk) 03:47, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Personal comment: I wrote this before the discussion period opened and am very amused to see the answer to Q6. fwiw, it looks like your experience with AfD is just fine! -- asilvering (talk) 03:47, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

GAN & FAC notes. No activity at GAN. One brief comment seventeen years ago at one FAC, here. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 00:37, 23 October 2024 (UTC)