Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Elli
Voice your opinion on this candidate (talk page) (0/0/0); Scheduled to end 16:53, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
Nomination
Elli (talk · contribs) – Hi everyone. I'm very happy to be back here to nominate someone I think would make a great admin: User:Elli. She's one of the few Wikipedians I've had the honour of meeting in person and I think she'd be a great addition to the admin corps. Elli has technically been a Wikipedian since 2014 but did not become consistently active until 2020. I believe this is more than enough time to learn the ropes of the project – despite how close that date feels sometimes, it was indeed four years ago. Elli has also accomplished something I have not: an FA (1964 Illinois House of Representatives election). She has also created 2 GAs and numerous other articles. My point is that she's clearly here and dedicated to the project. In regards to the more technical side of things, Elli is an experienced page mover and template editor – user rights where it's important for one to be able to follow instructions, not mess things up (or at least fix mistakes when they happen), and require good judgement. I strongly believe that Elli is well-qualified and passes what I look for in an admin with flying colours. I hope others agree. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 17:01, 19 May 2024 (UTC)
- Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: Thanks for the nomination; I accept! Never edited for money and never will, and my alternative accounts are listed here (permalink). Elli (talk | contribs) 16:48, 31 May 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: I enjoy closing discussions and working in technical areas; my capabilities to do both of these would be significantly expanded with adminship. I'd also like to help deal with backlogs in other areas, such as unblock requests, once I'm more experienced and confident as an administrator.
- 2. What are your best contributions to Wikipedia, and why?
- A: My featured article is definitely my best writing. I also am proud of my more behind-the-scenes edits; for example, I often help with editing protected templates as a template editor. I like being able to help people do things on the project they can't do on their own, in pursuit of making the editing environment more egalitarian: we should ultimately be equals here, even though some actions need higher levels of permissions than others.
- 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: Yes, but not recently. A few years ago, I got into a dispute with an editor that got quite heated (the dispute was over the details of how a particular template should work). After sleeping on it, I realized that having such an attitude would get me nowhere, and that I wasn't recognizing the other person behind the screen. I changed my attitude accordingly, we both backed down from the dispute, and now I consider myself on good terms with that editor (and I'm pretty sure they think similarly).
- Nowadays, I generally disengage from disputes after a few comments; if my opinion is likely to gain community consensus, then I don't need to badger people into it, and if it isn't, then arguing just wastes time for no benefit. I'm not perfect, but I've avoided getting dragged into anything particularly messy or stressful.
You may ask optional questions below. There is a limit of two 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.
Optional question from Gog the Mild
- 4. What went well or not so well when you took an article through FAC? What was easy or difficult? What, if anything would you change?
- Thanks for the question! FAC was overall a smoother process than I had expected. I was worried that people would be rather strict and nitpicky, but while people gave my article tough and honest feedback, none of it felt unreasonable and the reviewers were quite willing to listen and understand my perspective on how I wanted to present information in the article. My experiences with the GAN and FAC processes (both in nominating and reviewing) inspired me to write this (tangentially related) essay about some challenges in writing good/featured content. I don't have particular changes to suggest for the process at this point, though; I'd like to take another article at FAC first (hopefully soon, though it is a good bit of work). Elli (talk | contribs) 17:57, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
Optional question from Toadspike
- 5. Briefly, could you explain your massive spike in edit count in 2021, and the subsequent drop off?
- A: Yeah. I didn't have much going on in my life in 2021 due to the pandemic, so I got quite into Wikipedia then. I started college in 2022 so I've had significantly less time and energy to edit (though I still care a lot about Wikipedia and spend a significant amount of time editing). Also, I've tried to split off some of my semi-automated edits to ElliAWB (note: the name is a bit inaccurate as I use it for other types of semi-automatic edits as well), so that makes the activity on my main account look a bit lower. Elli (talk | contribs) 20:04, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
Optional questions from Conyo14
- 6. Hi there, since the last few RfAs have felt like job interviews, I shall ask a normal, easy question done in an interview. Do you have any hobbies outside of Wikipedia?
- A: Yeah! In terms of similar projects, I also edit somewhat actively on OpenStreetMap. Outside of that, my primary interests currently are travel and board games. Elli (talk | contribs) 20:04, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- 7. Are there areas of this encyclopedia you favor over others? (i.e. politics, sports, Science, etc.)
- A: I tend to edit about politics, elections, and current events; as a reader I often went to Wikipedia to find out about these topics so I like making sure our coverage on them is accurate, neutral, comprehensive, and up-to-date. However, I don't exclusively edit in those topic areas. Elli (talk | contribs) 20:04, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
Optional questions from Lightburst
- (Note: Q8 and Q9 have been deleted as inappropriate, so skipping them in the numbering scheme. Discuss on the talk page if you must. RoySmith (talk) 22:47, 31 May 2024 (UTC))
Optional question from Hey man im josh
- 10. Every administrator has areas they choose not to work in, and that's perfectly acceptable. Opinions and interests change over time, but as of now, what administrative areas would you choose to not get involved in?
- A: Since I'm not an admin yet, and my interests can often vary, there aren't any areas I can confidently say I won't work in. However, AE is an area that requires a lot of experience, and in which I have none, so I don't plan on making admin actions there without prior experience in user conduct administration. Elli (talk | contribs) 23:04, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
Optional question from CanonNi
- 11. Your top 3 edited articles are 1964 Illinois House of Representatives election, GameStop short squeeze, and Fuck. You created the first one and brought it to FA; you also created the second one; but Fuck wasn't created by you, nor does it align with your interest in politics and current events. Could you expand on your contributions to the article?
- A: Hah, yeah, thanks for reminding me about that one. At the time I started editing it seriously, I thought it was in good shape and close to meeting the GA criteria; I nominated it for GA and tried to improve it along those lines. This was a few years ago and before I understood the effort truly necessary to bring an article to GA, especially an article one that isn't the primary author on, and unfortunately the nomination did not succeed. If you're curious about the particular edits I've made, you can check them here; it's mostly removing excessive and unsourced content, adding additional sources, and copyediting. Elli (talk | contribs) 00:19, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
Optional question(s) from Sodium
- 12. You list your work in technical areas as one of the main reasons for requesting administrative (by extension interface-administrative) rights on the English Wikipedia. Could you give a few examples of your best work in these areas?
- A: Sure. Some of the things I've done include modifying {{Cite tweet}} to check for incorrect dates (based on the Tweet ID), creating and maintaining {{US elections imagemap}} to greatly simplify the process of creating imagemaps for those articles, and editing Module:RfD to make it a bit clearer to newer users what is going on. Much of this work was a few years ago, but I've still continued to edit in technical areas, including helping to implement template-protected edit requests. Elli (talk | contribs) 13:38, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
- Also as an FYI, I don't have immediate plans to request interface administrator, though if I end up editing more in areas where that would be useful, then I would request it. I'd want a bit more experience first, though.
- 13. What are your thoughts on the applicability of the bold-revert-discuss cycle to the technical areas of Wikipedia?
- A: WP:BEBOLD is a good principle for general editing, but needs to be weighed against the far greater importance of maintaining stability in technical areas. For a highly-used template, it's a good idea to ask on talk first if one's edits might be even a bit controversial, as a bold edit being reverted would use a lot of server resources while leaving some pages cached in inconsistent states. It's also important to use a sandbox to test edits, even insignificant ones, before editing the main template. This also applies to modules, and even moreso to parts of the site interface (though I don't yet have experience there). Elli (talk | contribs) 13:38, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
Optional question(s) from Adam Black
- 14. You have quite an impressive history of contributing to articles. Do you plan to continue editing articles alongside your admin work?
- A: Yep! I'll still keep writing and improving articles; it's something I greatly enjoy and don't want to give up. Elli (talk | contribs) 13:38, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
- 15. I noticed you are also a prolific contributor to Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata and have ten or more edits on at least 28 other editions of Wikipedia. In your opinion, how important is it for the various Wikimedia projects to work together?
- A: Collaboration with Commons and Wikidata can be very beneficial, and I've found great value in contributing to both. Sometimes I wish our communities were closer, as we all have similar goals, just different ways of getting there. I will note that most of my edits on other language Wikipedias are due to my work at Commons (renaming files); I am sadly not proficient in nearly that many languages. Elli (talk | contribs) 13:38, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
Optional question from NYC Guru
- 16. Under what conditons would you block a new user indefinitely?
- A: It's important to note for this question that indefinite is not infinite, and while an indef sounds harsh, it does not mean that a new user is blocked forever, with no chance of appeal. Accounts with blatantly inappropriate usernames, accounts that are entirely promotional, and vandalism-only accounts, are all acceptable to indefinitely block as new users (though depending on the severity, some of these accounts may receive a few warnings before a block). However, as they are new users, and might not understand Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, a block appeal they make would likely be accepted, provided they understand why their past behavior was problematic and agreed not to repeat it. In borderline cases, I'd definitely warn first and/or leave the account to a more experienced admin to deal with. Elli (talk | contribs) 14:14, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
Optional question from Robertsky
- 17. In an attempt to close a requested move discussion, you realised that a recently closed RfC that introduced new guidelines to the article title in question, but its closure does not sit well with you as it may potentially be in conflict with established policies or guidelines. What would you do?
- A:
Optional questions from Carrite
- 18. In Question 1, when asked about why you want to be an administrator, you open by saying:"I enjoy closing discussions and working in technical areas; my capabilities to do both of these would be significantly expanded with adminship." What, precisely, will be enhanced for you in which technical areas?
- A:
- 19. Were you shocked, offended, or appalled that someone tried to ask you a question here about one of your userboxes and do you have anything to say about the ones you choose to post on your user page?
- A:
Discussion
- Links for Elli: Elli (talk · contribs · deleted · count · AfD · logs · block log · lu · rfar · spi)
- Edit summary usage for Elli can be found here.
Please keep discussion constructive and civil. If you are unfamiliar with the nominee, please thoroughly review her contributions before commenting.
Support
Oppose
Neutral
General comments
- This is like Ghostbusters II: Elli has come to wash away the negativity of the last three RfAs. Since we're not allowed to !vote at this stage, I'll simply opine that I do not think Elli would not make an excellent admin. ——Serial Number 54129 17:10, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- I'm going to go make some coffee before I try again to parse out this sentence. Just Step Sideways from this world ..... today 17:54, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- It was suitable language for a !!vote. Maproom (talk) 17:59, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- Someone gets it :) ——Serial Number 54129 18:02, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- It was suitable language for a !!vote. Maproom (talk) 17:59, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- I'm going to go make some coffee before I try again to parse out this sentence. Just Step Sideways from this world ..... today 17:54, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- Bro made coffee 🤣 jp×g🗯️ 13:12, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
- I too am excited to see this. I expect to support when the !voting opens (and not only to make amends for the fact that I missed the nominator's RfA so owe her one!). Girth Summit (blether) 17:23, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- Elli has been on my list of strong candidates for a while now. I'm happy to see this. Vanamonde93 (talk) 17:28, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- I have more reading to do but my first impression of this candidate is quite good. I look forward to optional questions to learn more. BusterD (talk) 17:51, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- I know we've been admonished for expressing quasi-pre-!votes, but all the same I'm prepared to say I'll likely support this request. < raps own knuckles > --DoubleGrazing (talk) 18:00, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- I'm willing to comply with the "concerns" requirement. I have a concern about the lack of concern shown thus far by other editors. I also have a concern about Serial Number, but I always have a concern about Serial Number, and if no one gets that, I have a concern about that, too.--Bbb23 (talk) 18:29, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- It's ok, I get it. Gog the Mild (talk) 18:34, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- In the words of Elon Musk: "Concerning." Wilhelm Tell DCCXLVI (talk to me!/my edits) 11:41, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
- I like seeing a prolific content creator stand at RFA. I see a long patrol log, 50k edits, 50% main space edits, and a decent AfD history. It looks like the candidate was editing much more during 2021 than any other year 29,560 edits is three times more than other years. But we can probably say that was a covid thing. I hope to offer support after doing more checks but looks promising. Lightburst (talk) 19:00, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- I agree with your assessment. I've asked the edit count question, since it was the only odd thing I found, and I assume others will wonder about it too. I assume the explanation is benign, but the candidate should have a chance to explain it. Toadspike [Talk] 19:40, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- I'm not the candidate but her activity levels do not concern me at all as her nominator. Even after that spike in activity, she's still spending an average of 45 minutes a day on the site for both 2022 and 2023. [1] Also, edit count isn't everything. I think it's important to consider what I wrote here:
If someone in the first group took an average of 15 minutes to make an edit (e.g. reading comments on a talk page before writing a quick reply, adding a citation to a previously uncited sentence in an article, etc) and they made 100 edits a month, they would be dedicating 25 hours of their time every month to Wikipedia. If their edits took an average of 30 minutes, they would be dedicating an average of 50 hours of their time every month to Wikipedia
. I believe that even this level of activity demonstrates active participation and dedication to the project. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 20:07, 31 May 2024 (UTC)- how does it know that... well that's a sobering look in the mirror. theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 20:09, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- Hi Clovermoss, believe it or not I've read over your RfA criteria before and found the whole piece very well put, especially the edit count part. I didn't mean to be aggressive or accusatory towards the candidate, I just wanted to give them a chance to explain the only oddity most voters will come across (which they have now done to my satisfaction). Sadly RfA questions tend to seem pointed, accusatory, or like deliberate traps even when one doesn't mean them that way. Toadspike [Talk] 11:04, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
- I'm not the candidate but her activity levels do not concern me at all as her nominator. Even after that spike in activity, she's still spending an average of 45 minutes a day on the site for both 2022 and 2023. [1] Also, edit count isn't everything. I think it's important to consider what I wrote here:
- @Lightburst: To preface this, it's still a respectable patrol log, but their patrol count (9,008 based on Xtools) is misleading. There's quite a few patrols of non-mainspace pages for some reason which has seriously inflated that number, over 4,000 of which appear to have been marking templates as reviewed. Based on a quarry query, their actual review count would be 1,671 article reviews and 1,174 redirect reviews. Hey man im josh (talk) 21:42, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- Yeah, at times I've tried to help patrol lesser-viewed namespaces. Lots of bad pages (tests, spam, etc) get created there and often avoid scrutiny for a while (you can see some examples at my CSD log). Elli (talk | contribs) 21:58, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- The last is based on quarry:query/83430? It's not accurate. It distinguishes between "article reviews" and "redirect reviews" based on whether the page is a redirect now, not what it was when it was patrolled; reliable data to distinguish redirect/non-redirect patrols doesn't exist for patrols made before November 2023. Worse is that it only counts reviews of page titles that currently exist: total patrol count including now-redlinked titles is 3093 distinct mainspace titles, 10110 in any namespace. (Even that won't see reviews of page titles so horrid that the log had to be revdelled or suppressed, but that's relatively rare.) It's only about an 8% undercount in this case, but could easily be much worse for someone who tags more pages for deletion.As an aside, the second part of that query is even more misleading. It's looking for deletion taggings, but has both of the same problems - so it's not "only 14 articles and 9 redirects marked for deletion", but 14 deletion markings made with the pagetriage tool on mainspace pages that are currently bluelinked non-redirects, and 9 that are now bluelinked redirects. It doesn't even tell us anything about whether those few patrols were correct: the deletion tag could have been rejected (whether as a speedy or at afd/rfd), or they could have been duly deleted and then a non-problematic version created at the same title. —Cryptic 22:42, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for the explanation Hey man im josh. After checking more I think it is still a great body of work. And Elli I am going to go sit in the corner now and come back when it is time to support your candidacy. I find your contributions excellent and I am sure you will be a great asset to the project in your new capacity. My questions were not born out of animus - they came from my genuine curiosity. Lightburst (talk) 23:10, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- Oh it's absolutely a good body of work, I don't want to disparage it in the slightest. I just felt it to be an interesting observation. Hey man im josh (talk) 23:15, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for the kind words, and no worries; I didn't think your comments were motivated by animosity. I don't particularly remember why I added that userbox, btw, other than that I was vaccinated and glad to be more protected from getting COVID. Elli (talk | contribs) 23:18, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- I like you already. I am going to leave the discussion but I am glad you were not insulted. I hope you break the 0-3 streak as SN has said above. Good luck! Lightburst (talk) 23:24, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- I was on the fence with Elli, but with your stamp of approval, I feel propitious. — hako9 (talk) 00:55, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
- I like you already. I am going to leave the discussion but I am glad you were not insulted. I hope you break the 0-3 streak as SN has said above. Good luck! Lightburst (talk) 23:24, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for the feedback @Cryptic. I'm aware that there's an issue of "patrol" count on xtools vs actuality, for instance, reviewing redirects left behind from a page move don't add to xtools's patrol count. I also forked the query, but I didn't speak on the deletion aspect of it because I know it's incorrect and only counts deletions via the page curation tool. I personally always use Twinkle, so it counts mine incorrectly as well. I think being so heavily involved in NPP I missed out on providing some meaningful context because it's just so ingrained my mind. I'm sorry for that and I very much appreciate your comment. Hate to ask for anything but I've seen your quarry queries and I'd love and really appreciate it if you could provide a modified query that gives us more accurate information. Hey man im josh (talk) 23:07, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- I used a couple queries equivalent to what I've now put at quarry:query/83443, but this isn't really a good place to discuss it further. WP:RAQ's probably best (it might get seen there by someone who knows for sure what the distinction between those log types is; I don't). —Cryptic 23:35, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- Thanks for the explanation Hey man im josh. After checking more I think it is still a great body of work. And Elli I am going to go sit in the corner now and come back when it is time to support your candidacy. I find your contributions excellent and I am sure you will be a great asset to the project in your new capacity. My questions were not born out of animus - they came from my genuine curiosity. Lightburst (talk) 23:10, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- I agree with your assessment. I've asked the edit count question, since it was the only odd thing I found, and I assume others will wonder about it too. I assume the explanation is benign, but the candidate should have a chance to explain it. Toadspike [Talk] 19:40, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- From what I've seen, Elli's content work is excellent. I've given her some strawberries and she's completed some Challenges. — Bilorv (talk) 19:51, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- You're not an admin?? Queen of Hearts (talk) 19:58, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- Statistically speaking, she's a great candidate and 4 years is a long time, long enough to become an experienced Wikipedian. As a talk page "stalker",I notice she handles things pretty well. And people really seem too favour her as she's friendly. Doesn't look to bad. When votes open, I plan on supporting but a lil' digging won't hurt;). Soapforduck(Say what?)(Did what?) 20:11, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- I'm pleasantly surprised by this candidate's content experience and was very happy to see the anti-vandalism work they've done, including with the semi-automated account ElliAWB. I don't know how to ask about it, but I'm interested to hear more about how this candidate would handle discontent with administrative actions. ~ Pbritti (talk) 21:37, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
- I haven't witnessed Elli but from the little I can now, all I can say is that they are "one whom you think has the mop, but thanks it's near-near". Happy to see this, infact, lemme reserve my !vote for the time frame. Safari ScribeEdits! Talk! 06:59, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
- @Carrite: She already answered Q19 here. Why push it? — hako9 (talk) 15:39, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
- And Q18 could be answered by Q12... –FlyingAce✈hello 15:47, 1 June 2024 (UTC)