User:Deflagro/Admin coaching

Introductions
Add an intro if you want:

Shell Kinney
I've been on Wikipedia for about two years now; I tend to do a lot of cleanup and grunt work with the occasional biology article tossed in for fun. I've helped out a little bit of everywhere - informal mediations, OTRS, copyrights and even had to take a case to ArbCom once. I think civility and discussion are the cornerstones of editing and prefer educating new or problematic editors over formal dispute resolution. My favorite essay on being an admin is by Mindspillage. This style works well for me, but remember, part of the strength of Wikipedia is having people will different talents and approaches working together. Feel free to ask me any questions you want. Shell babelfish 20:05, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Deflagro
I've been on Wikipedia a few months more than half a year. I RC Patrol and revert vandalism using Twinkle. I try to contribute to articles about what I like (and sometimes random articles I stumble upon), but tend to have trouble finding references and information. Deflagro 20:20, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

What you want out of this
Things you want to achieve or learn:
 * How to find more information
 * Learn how to participate more in Wikiprojects
 * Learn more aspects of Wikipedia other than editing (i.e. Manual of Style and such)
 * What it takes to be a good admin
 * What are all the aspects of the admin tools
 * Learn more of the Wiki language

That's a great start. To really help out I'll need a bit more information. What kind of information do you need to know more about finding? Which Wikiprojects would you like to take a more active role in? I'll start putting together some things for you to take a look at and get back with you soon. Shell babelfish 21:24, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

I guess I need more help with references and citations. Right now I am only in the Paintball and Magic wikiprojects. Don't feel like I'm really that involved in them. Deflagro 22:09, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Next Steps
Fair or not, administrators are expected to know their way around every aspect of Wikipedia and know it well. A great place to start is to check out Tips. Take a look over the sections you're interested in and let me know if you have any questions. Shell babelfish 20:42, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Hey it's great to here back from you. I don't know my way around Wikipedia at all so that will help a lot. It's late for me right now so I will look over it tomorrow.  Def lag ro   Contribs/Talk 02:40, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Okay, I looked over it and I don't really understand the tags for images and that sort of thing if you could explain it for me, that'd be great!  Def lag ro   Contribs/Talk 20:37, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Image tagging is one of the more complicated things to learn on Wikipedia (just some of the templates Template messages/Image namespace). Ideally, images on Wikipedia should be copyleft,or what is usually referred to as "free". These are images that have fallen into the public domain or where the copyright holder allows the image to be re-used for any purpose.


 * Image copyright tags/Free licenses - The GFDL and certain Creative Commons licenses fall under "free" as well as images released into the public domain (i.e. the copyright holder releases all rights). These are fairly straightforward as the copyright holder is usually the uploader or has specified precisely which of these licenses to use.


 * Image copyright tags/Public domain - Images that have fallen into the public domain need a bit more scrutiny; some are in the public domain in their native country, but not in the US, others are public domain in the US but not elsewhere. Works of the US government are typically public domain (Image copyright tags/USA) as well as photographs or paintings where the author died more than 100 years ago.  If you browse the list, you can see there are many different variations.


 * Image copyright tags/Non-free - This is the most complex area. Certain images, such as logos or cd covers are integral to an article on the subject but will never be found as a "free" image.  In specific cases like these, Wikipedia allows the use of the images (Non-free content, Non-free content criteria) as long as they are accompanied by a suitable fair-use rationale (Non-free use rationale guideline, Category:Non-free media rationale templates).

There's a good FAQ at Media copyright questions and looking at the talk page and archives there can give you a lot of insight on the kinds of things that come up. This is one category that takes a lot of reading to really get a good handle on - feel free to ask any questions you think of! Shell babelfish 21:41, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Okay now. I have three questions:
 * 1) Can you check my images and see if I did the Free Use Rationale right? (they are both logos, I never added a free use rationale.) Image:Evangelical_Christian_School_logo.JPG and Image:WMFS.jpg
 * 2) How do you review/put up an article for review to make it a Good Article?
 * 3) Is the coding in my signature too long?

There was some good posts on the Media copyright Questions. Found one on what to do to about the logos of schools which one of my two pictures is! Thanks for all your help!  Def lag ro  Contribs/Talk 00:49, 10 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Those are both excellent rationales.
 * Both are done in the same place, Good article candidates. Articles to be nominated can be placed at the end of the category they fall under, assuming they meet the criteria at What is a good article?.  As far as reviewing goes, there's a great walkthrough at Reviewing good articles and the explanations for what to do if you want to pass/fail an article are on the candidate page itself.
 * For me its 3 lines worth of signature - some people have expressed the feeling that this is long, some say its too long and some (like me) just don't care. Yours falls into that gray area where the community has some serious disagreement; unless you've gotten some complaints, I personally don't feel you should need to change it.


 * Yeah, that is an awesome page when you need to clarify something image-wise. Pretty soon you'll be finding your way around Wikipedia like a pro.  By the way, if you haven't already taken a good look at the Community Portal, its links will help get you to many useful areas. Shell babelfish 02:12, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks! At first for some reason I didn't see the answers and just saw that last paragraph. Anyway yeah, I do go and glance around the Community Portal every now and then. Not too often though. I just went and looked at it and this is the first time I have noticed the Notices part. Might be looking at that more often now. Will look over the Good Article status and such in a little bit.  Def lag ro   Contribs/Talk 23:00, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Anything else with images you have questions about? It can be a rather confusing area to work with. Shell babelfish 13:38, 13 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't have any questions right now on it. I think I have that down. Also the reason I asked about the Good Articles thing is I nominated Francis Drake. Also I think you saw Gazzo Macee was proposed for deletion so I endorsed that and put up the speedy deletion author tag. Couldn't find any sources on him except for places selling his effects. I think that's all for right now...  Def lag ro   Contribs/Talk 22:50, 13 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I gave a quick look for references for Gazzo Macee and didn't have much luck either. I noticed that Francis Drake was also listed as going on the Wikipedia CD, with a note that inline citations would be helpful.  Might not be a bad idea to do that to help with the good article status too. Shell babelfish 14:50, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Yeah I am going to work on that some. It was quick-failed because there was not enough and there was some citations needed.  Def lag ro  C/T 21:32, 14 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I have been working on Francis Drake on and off for a little bit. Can you take a look at it. I converted most of the references to inline citations (except the ones I didn't know about) and added in some other references. Also there are no citation needed tags in there. If you could look through it and maybe tell me some things/tag some places that need citations? Thanks!  Def lag ro   C/T 00:16, 20 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm probably not the best judge of copyediting; you might want to look into the history or biography Projects to see if someone can review, or even submit it for WP:Peer review. Shell babelfish 00:16, 1 February 2008 (UTC)