User:Johnny Au/Coaching

Requests for adminship/Johnny Au

Thank you for choosing me as your coach.

Don't feel bad about your RfA. That happens to a lot of people. RfAs can be extremely self-referential. That is, everything you do there is critiqued as if you were an admin. Makes sense, but it can be very frustrating.

Adminship isn't just about blocking vandals. It is also about helping others. Once you become an admin, people may come to you all the time with their problems. You'll need to be able to help them.

Your first assignment is to participate in the following 3 departments. Please add them to your watchlist:
 * 1) Help desk
 * 2) New contributors' help page
 * 3) Village pump (assistance)

Check your watchlist every time you log on, and occasionally while you are on. Spend some time each time you log on at one or more of the above pages, and answer as many questions as you can afford the time. Don't just wait for a question to come along that you know the answer to. When you go there, try to find the answer to the oldest question that has not been answered. Once you've answered be sure to drop a note on the asker's talk page with a link to the answer.

The help and Wikipedia namespaces have the answers to almost every question imaginable about Wikipedia and how it and its community works.

Before you get started, be sure to read the instructions for volunteers at those departments.

Good luck.

I'll be watching over your shoulder from time to time.

Three or four months of frequent participation there will increase your familiarity with Wikipedia by a magnitude at least.

 Th e Tr ans hu man ist   03:23, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * See the first archive for messages. Thank you. Johnny Au (talk) 20:12, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Panimalar Engineering College
One of the questions you answered at the help desk indicated a dispute is going on. See the edit war going on at Panimalar Engineering College.

Please go there and see if you can solve the problem.

(hints: WP:COPYVIO, WP:BITE).

Good luck.

 Th e Tr ans hu man ist   08:53, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Johnny, when I went to Panimalar Engineering College to see if I could help the poster at the help desk, I found an edit war going on. When you find a dispute on Wikipedia, the best thing to do is to help the editors there work together. I've contacted most of the people working on that article and have made suggestions on how development should proceed at Talk:Panimalar Engineering College.  Th e Tr ans hu man ist    22:07, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Johnny, one of the editors was indefinitely blocked, another blocked for a week. When he's off the block he may return to edit the article. The version he wants displayed is almost entirely original research. How would you work with him to improve the article?  Th e Tr ans hu man ist   05:08, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Is WWE good?
Another option was to provide the link to World Wrestling Entertainment, to help the asker make up his own mind.

True, the user might have been goofing around, but you should WP:AGF and try to help.

I've posted a note on his talk page.

 Th e Tr ans hu man ist   09:06, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Have you read the instructions for volunteers at the Help Desk?  Th e Tr ans hu man ist   05:11, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

About message blanking
It's considered bad manners to blank messages. We keep conversations in place for the benefit of others who would like to read them. When the page gets long, then it is customary to archive the discussion and link to it for easy access.

Just thought you'd like to know.

 Th e Tr ans hu man ist   12:06, 15 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Oh yes, I kept forgetting. Thanks.  Johnny Au (talk) 18:20, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

About archiving
I generally wait until a discussion page has grown to 100k before archiving it. Makes look up of recent messages easier. (Recent = a month or three). Archiving too early runs the risk of burying live threads.

It's not obvious when someone is intending to add comments to an existing thread. It's best not to archive them immediately. The other person may also be waiting for comments in response.  Th e Tr ans hu man ist