User:Phoenix-wiki/Coaching

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Hello
Hello,

Just thought I'd tell you the stuff I've already looked at. I've followed most of the links in the Guidelines, help, and resources section of the community portal and I've read everything on my useful links page. I visit the village pump regularly. Thats about it. Can't wait to get started on the coaching--Pheonix15 14:42, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * There are three top-level pages which serve as the apex of the pyramid, and they are all on the main menu: Contents, Community Portal, and Help.  Each of those has a menu across the top.  Those three menus are the keys to the kingdom.  Get familiar with all the pages on those menus, and all the pages linked to from those pages, and you will have a very good understanding of what's on Wikipedia, how it relates to everything else, and how to get there.


 * At the top of subpages like the one we're on now are backlinks. Use the backlink above (at the top of this page) to go to the main VC coaching page.  On there you will find a general assignments area and a classroom discussion area.  Please join in on the discussion, and get started on the assignments.  There are also lots of links to lessons, instructions, and other resources.


 * Concerning the general assignments, I'm very interested in the area of Wikipedia operations you wish to become a resident expert in and write your thesis -- uh, er, wiki-lesson -- on. No hurry with your lesson choice, just keep your eyes and mind open for an area that interests you enough to cover. Somewhere you feel you can make an impact.


 * With respect to the rest of the general assignments, work on them and report your progress and inights to me here. For the class project Meaning of life, use that article's talk page instead.  We're trying to bring it to featured article status, to give us all exposure to that aspect of Wikipedia.  It has become an exercise in hunting down references.  Most of the article is commented out (hidden in the source text by coment delimiters) and can only be unhidden as we find references for each statement of fact.  Basically, we search on Google, and hunt until we find suitable sources (both reliable and mainstream).


 * Okay, that's all for now.


 * By the way, if at anytime there's anything I mention that you don't understand, please ask about it.


 * Welcome to the VC, and good luck.


 * The Transhumanist 23:18, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * P.S.: now I'm off to explore your useful links page. :-)


 * Well, since I accidentaly stumbled across WikiProject Introductions I've been looking out intros ones that need work. I noticed that there aren't many users with skill in this field so I even created a intro writing competition here. It doesn't look like it will be popular so I might have it deleted. I'll have a look at everything you mentioned
 * Had a look around those three pages. Just wondering what exactly is a portal?--Pheonix15 14:14, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * The main ones are listed in the top right corner of the main page. See also Portals and List of portals.  I think they are pretty redundant, and a pain to maintain, but a lot of people like them. So they are pretty important on Wikipedia.  They even have their own namespace! (Click on Special, then All Pages, then select the portal namespace, and click go or enter or whatever).  :-)   The Transhumanist 03:33, 31 August 2007 (UTC)


 * By the way, the ones I designed are Portal:Philosophy (with lots of help), Portal:Thinking, and Portal:Health. The latter two need updating, so if you want to take a crack at those, please do.  And any others that you find interesting.  The Transhumanist 03:35, 31 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Well, I've been having a look at some of these portals. There interesting enough but I felt like I'd been everywhere until I stumbled across one on MFD--Pheonix15 16:59, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Adopt-a-user
Would it be okay for me to adopt a user. User:Earthshift is seeking adoption.

I'd also like your opinion on WP:INDENT. Is it ready to be proposed as a guideline?. There was already a small discussion (4 threadds) about it--Pheonix15 10:23, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

I've adopted User:ArcTech!-- Phoenix 15 20:36, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Wikiquette
Someone posted a note about you on my talk page concerning some incedents you were involved in.

Admins have to be calm and cordial. Wikipedia would fall apart if they were not.

It's easy to jump to conclusions and not assume good faith, but it is extremely important to avoid this. Not only does it hurt the project directly, it also denies Wikipedia the benefit of a valuable resource: you as an admin. Every time you get into a spat of any kind with anyone, or ruffle anyone's feathers, you rack up a potential opposer who may vote against you at RfA. They fulfill a very important function on Wikipedia: they make sure the community does not forget the problems you have caused. They can make incedents very difficult to live down.

I've racked up over 26,000 edits. Far more than one usually needs to become an admin. But because of various incedents I caused, I've been unable to pass RfA. I'm about 1.5 years late on becoming an admin. How many more years will it take? That's up to the community to decide, and upon whether or not I rack up more incedents in the meantime.

It took me a long while not to get (as) emotional over issues concerning articles I'm interested in. But I still do, from time to time. A few days ago it seemed pretty obvious to me that someone had locked a move. Nothing upsets me more. But by assuming he did it on purpose, I made him mad at me. Really mad. So mad he told me never to talk to him again. Even if he did do it on purpose, I fucked up. Diplomacy is the key to making Wikipedia run more smoothly.

The key is to remain unemotional. Look at things calmly and be polite at all times. You have plenty of time -- it's all in print! See WP:FAITH and WP:COOL.

Well, enough ranting. I need to go and apologize to the person I just mentioned. Thank you for making me think about this. The Transhumanist 01:20, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, I've responded on your talk page. After seeing that one of my comments was rmvd I re-added it. After I was complained to I decided to stay away from MFD for a while. I'm quiet sure that leaving comments under what your commenting on is allowed but you can rest assured that it won't happen again--Pheonix15 10:06, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Plus, I was following Talk_page
 * Hey, Is the person you had a disagreement with Lucid (formerly L). I know him well--Pheonix15 13:47, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Comments are fine, as long as they are cordial.
 * Lucid? Sounds familiar.  No, not the one I was referring to.  I went back and apologized, and it turned out that we both had time to cool off.  So everything's cool.  :-)
 * I think you should participate in XfDs again. Right away.  If you'd rather avoid MfD for awhile to let people cool off, you could pick one of the other XfDs, like AfD, TfD, etc.  But overcoming the complaints is high priority.  Bounce back better than ever.  Good luck.
 * Please post the links to the MfDs in question so that I can take a look.   The Transhumanist 18:29, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:Best User Page Contest (2nd nomination). What basically happened is that I added a comment at the top of the discussion commenting on the reason for deletion (It was under the reason for deletion). I was attempting to follow WP:Talk_page. It got removed. I re-added it but it was moved further down the discussion. I was then complained to. Thats about it.--Pheonix15 19:21, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the clarification. The Transhumanist 03:27, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Stuff
Couldn't think of a better title, anyway, I now use irc. I've got to know most of the other irc users well. I adopted User:ArcTech and proposed WP:INDENT as a guideline. Hopefully it'll get accepted. I've actually gotten to know a lot of users off irc pretty well also, even the ones I've had disagreements with in the past. I did a load of WP:MEDCAB work. I succesfully closed one case and I'm going well with two others-- Phoenix 15 20:17, 9 September 2007 (UTC)


 * WP:INDENT was your creation? Whoa.  I posted it as advice to my newest student!  His style of indenting was driving me crazy, and your guideline fit the task perfectly.  Saved me the trouble of having to type an explanation.  Thank you!  You get an A+.


 * How's your adoption going?


 * I'm glad you like IRC. I have only sporadic access to it these days.  Adds another whole dimension to this wiki-culture, doesn't it?


 * I'm especially impressed with your involvement with MEDCAB.


 * When you get time, be sure to get in some writing and editing. You've adopted a user.  At some point you need to adopt an article or two.  No hurry though.  Th e Tr ans hu man ist    02:43, 26 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Well, WP:INDENT was actually BigNate37's (User:BigNate37/Indentation guide) work but I "essayfied" it after a certain MFD war which we discussed before. I thought we needed to clarfy the formatting section of Wikipedia:Talk page and next thing I know, along comes BigNate37 with a link to his subpage. I've been trying to get it guideline status for a while but it was labelled as rule creep so I just tagged it as a supplement.


 * My adoption is going well. I've given him a few links to Wikipedia: pages (WP:MOS, Community Portal, WP:CITE etc) to help him, Introduced him to the deletion debates and some other general help. He's an expert at welding related stuff so he's a great asset to us. He adds the facts rather than just do typo work and stuff.


 * The irc channels are great. I actually get to know users personally rather than just...well...not getting to know them


 * As for adopting an article or two, I know a ton of stuff about the first half of the 20th century (WWI, WWII, Inter war period, post war period, fascism, communism, league of nations etc.) because we're covering it in history at school right now


 * Just some other stuff I have to say; I won't be online on weekdays for a while so sorry if I don't get back to you for a while. I also want to nom a few people for adminship myself if you don't mind-- Phoenix 15 18:25, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
 * It's not my place to mind. I'm surprised you asked.  Go for it. The Transhumanist 20:06, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Update on my work
It's been a while since my last comment. I've kinda adopted Benito Mussolini as my main article. It's a highly controversial article but we studied him in history class recently and I know a lot about him.

The RFA noming business didn't go too well; most of the users I was going to nom retired, got bad editor reviews or couldn't be nominated for some other reason. I was actually wondering whether you wanted nominating.

I found WikiProject History in a very bad state and revived it. I'm the (self appointed and de-facto!) coordinator, which means I organise the project pages, rather than articles within our scope. Added to the fact that I edit WikiProject Biography's newsletter along with Phycless means I have a lot of work to do. WikiProject History only has 8 members so it would be great if you joined. It's huge scope means that it should really be one of the largest projects but unfortunately it's not.

I almost forgot to mention that I'm back editing daily now. The weekday business has been sorted out. I got mobile broadband and cancelled my old dial-up connection that caused me a lot of trouble. I'll email you-- Phoenix 15 (Talk) 19:15, 18 October 2007 (UTC)


 * hmm...I saw Bushcarrot's comments on your talk page about adminship being no big deal. I never knew this was admin coaching! I simply assumed this was to make better and more civil users...must have thought wrong. I was going to mention that it was no big deal in any RFA nomination I made.


 * Also, my adoptee has retired-- Phoenix 15 (Talk) 19:37, 18 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Speaking of RFA, wonder if I nom myself and say that adminship is no big deal. Most of the regulars know me and would vote sensibly-- Phoenix 15 (Talk) 20:29, 18 October 2007 (UTC)


 * You were right, the Virtual Classroom is for coaching in general. Though a lot of students come here from Admin coaching, where I'm signed up as a coach.  I teach all my admin students here as well.


 * On the individual level, adminship is no big deal, because there is very little you can't do without the admin tools. (Also because there is a paranoia over at RfA about people who appear to wish too strongly to become admins.  Excitement is not PC).


 * However, with respect to Wikipedia's health, adminship is a big deal, because Wikipedia could not survive without them. The number of admins is not keeping up with Wikipedia's growth.  Unfortunately, RfA has become a bottleneck.


 * I've nominated 3 admins so far, all of whom were approved. I'd be honored to nominate you once you are ready (remember the terms of your coaching).  I'd like you to not think about adminship at all, and let me worry about it.  Simply focus on making Wikipedia better.


 * Congrats on WikiProject History! Coincedentally, I'm in the middle of reviving WikiProject Geography.  What methods do you plan on using to attract people to your project?


 * Speaking of history, don't forget to have your WikiProject adopt the navigation structure for history, to maintain and develop it. It is parallel with the nav structure for geography.  See WikiProject Geography for info on its nav structure.


 * Keep up the good work, and I'd be honored to join WikiProject history. In turn, you are invited to join WikiProject geography!


 * By the way, thanks for offering to nominate me for adminship. Unfortunately, nominating me would be more involved, because of my previous accounts.  All of the contribution data for each of the accounts would need to be combined for display on the talk page, otherwise people make the wrong assumptions about my contributions.  I already have a nominator waiting, but I'll definitely have him contact you when it's time, so you can co-nom.  Thank you!   Th e Tr ans hu man ist    00:41, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject leadership
I'm happy to see you've taken the initiative to get History going again.

Your biggest challenge will be to recruit active members.

One way to "get the word out" about a Wikiproject, is through its "part of" template. That's the template which is placed on the talk page of articles in that subject area. See Template:WikiProject History.

Note that Template:WikiProject History is lackluster and borrrrrring. You could redesign it to catch the eye, and rewrite it to draw interest. Note that it is an ideal place to put a key announcement for maximum exposure.

Go to the template, and click on "What links here" on Wikipedia's toolbox menu. Count the articles that it is on.

There's a lot more history articles on Wikipedia than that. Each of them could have the template transcluded on their talk page. Do you have WP:AWB? It's ideal for placing templates.

But how to find history articles?

One way is to build an article index. The topic lists serve this purpose. List of history topics is history's index, but it is currently redirected. You should remove the redirect and get the page started.

You could collect links from around Wikipedia, and I recommend that...

...but a complementary and far more comprehensive approach to building a topic list is to collect history terms on the web. There are entire pages of them (glossaries, dictionaries, etc). Gather them, combine them, and strip out everything else but the terms themselves. During this process (look for opportunities to use search/replace to) add article link delimiters to each term. Once they are linkified, create a page on Wikipedia and copy and paste your list of links onto it. You may be absolutely shocked by how many of those links turn out blue! Even more shocking is how fast an almost completely red link list turns blue. It's as if people use the redlinks as a task list for article creation.

The above method is how List of psychology topics was created. When it was started, it was almost entirely red. Now look at it! :)

A closer look at that list will reveal that some of the links are simply misnamed, such as the plural terms. As the list turns mostly blue, it becomes more and more feasible to check each redlink for correction (see if each topic referred to has an article with a slightly different name, and then correct the link to point to it).

After you are done building your term list from the web, you could gather links from around wikipedia that would unlikely be found in glossaries on the web, like Wikipedia's "timeline" and "history of" articles. Google is good for finding those (use it's domain specific advanced search feature). You'll most likely find that your list is far more comprehensive than Wikipedia's categories, but a comparison may turn up some terms on there that aren't in your list. Of course, add them in. ;-)

And now for the punchline...

Copy and paste the page to a wordprocessor, and using search/replace, change "" to "[[Talk:" and then plug your huge list into AWB, and use AWB to semi-automatically add the history project's template to each article's talk page. That will boost exposure of your project from about 350 articles to thousands.

I hope the above tips help.

Good luck.

 Th e Tr ans hu man ist    06:06, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

P.S.: Be sure to run the list through a sort program. The Transhumanist 06:10, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

The template has been fixed by Kirill Lokshin (You know you're doing well when you get arbitrators to do stuff for you!). As for me being the, ahem, "Head Honcho", My work with Kirill at WikiProject Military history has taught me coordinatorship is even less a deal than adminship. It's onee of the less-enviable jobs around. It doesn't mean I have any power but means that I organise the project, rather than work on articles.

The current format of WikiProject History is a compromise between many different ideas thought up by the coordinators of WikiProject Military history, people from irc and other contacts of mine. I'm going to ask for a wikipedia ad, like I did with WikiProject Introductions. won't do it yet though because I'd like to finish everything before I start recruiting.

You might want to ask User:Kirill Lokshin to make a banner for WikiProject Geography, he's brilliant with those intricate parser functions-- Phoenix 15 (Talk) 17:28, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Another update...
Hey again!

I've set up accounts under my new name on all of our sister projects:

I've started working on List of history topics and hope to get it to featured status. It'll take a while because the list should be huge. I've also joined your wikiproject, List of basic projects.

Speaking of projects, I've expanded WikiProject History onto Wikibooks. I think we're one of the first ever cross-project WikiProjects.

I forgot to tell you before that I'm on the mailing list. I've been on it for about a month now and it's great for news and events happening on wikipedia--Phoenix-wiki (talk · contribs) 12:39, 28 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I've also installed Twinkle, Friendly, wikEd, Lupin's anti-vandal tool, Navigational popups, a new page patrol script that enables a bar above the searchbox that shows the most recent new pages and a rollback script. There great for doing various work. You should install them. See the linked pages for instructions. see my Monobook.js.--Phoenix-wiki (talk · contribs) 12:49, 28 October 2007 (UTC)


 * As for advertising my project:--Phoenix-wiki (talk · contribs) 23:16, 31 October 2007 (UTC)



Who is coaching who here!? :-) I've followed your example, and have secured my account name on the other Wikis, just like you have above.

Nice job so far on the List of history topics. I've changed it's link on Lists of topics to point to it now. It's nice to see history represented on there with it's own list (it used to lead to List of basic history topics.

On the building of major lists, keep in mind that sorting programs are your best friends. There's one that comes with Window's command shell, called "Sort". Click on command prompt from Window's accessories menu, and then type  for the syntax guide on the command. Unfortunately, you'll have to place headings and entries with piped links by hand, so to avoid doing that more than once, it's best to build the list to as large as you can first, then sort it, and then edit the order of entries for final placement.

Since your list will be too large to be a single page, be sure to study how the List of mathematics articles has been expanded/constructed as multiple pages. Mathematicians were separated out from the rest of the topics, because there were so many of them. So you'll probably want to save historians to a seperate text file during your link hunt (see below).

So your first step is a link hunt, where you cut and paste key terms from every place you can possibly imagine to a text file (word-processed document) (in another window). Glossaries on the web are a good source for entries to a comprehensive topic list, though you'll have to strip out all extraneous text and add link delimiters to the remaining entries to linkify them. But also keep in mind that you should grab links from everywhere on Wikipedia as well. WP:AWB is extremely useful for lifting links off of pages. It can build link lists from almost every type of page. You'll want to use it on List of basic history topics, and every page on history in the category system that you can find. Cut and paste them from AWB into your text file. Don't worry about duplicates in your link list -- you can strip those out after you have sorted the list. My guess is that there are north of 150,000 history topics on Wikipedia.

For now it would be best to keep the name List of history topics, and not use List of history articles, because you will have plenty of redlinks. Redlinked "topics" are fine, because they reveal Wikipedia's coverage of the overall subject and because they represent tasks (for the creation of those pages), but redlinked "articles" are just dead links. Don't you love semantics?

Kudos on the cross-wiki project. Be careful that other projects don't lose their own identity by becoming Wikipedia-ized. The tendency is for Wikipedians to assert the policies of Wikipedia on other wikis, even when they don't fit the objectives of those wikis. For example, while allowing original research might be detrimental to Wikipedia, disallowing it from Wikibooks would be a major mistake, as the best how to books are written from personal experience by master craftsmen who learned their trade hands-on. Each wiki has its own mission, and their policies should reflect that.

Nice tools list. There's 3 on there I haven't used yet. I'll be sure to check those out when I find the time.

Did you create that banner? I'm really interested in how that was done.

 Th e Tr ans hu man ist   18:00, 1 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the tips. I got authorised to use AWB but can't use it now because my computer's moniter is broken and I'm using someone elses. I should be able to use it on Monday, when I get my moniter back--Phoenix-wiki (talk · contribs) 18:36, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject Technology
I've sorta adopted WikiProject Technology now--Phoenix-wiki (talk · contribs) 23:23, 31 October 2007 (UTC)


 * If you find that you've bitten off more than you can chew, or no longer have the time to do either of your WikiProjects justice, rather than just leave a WikiProject hanging and leaderless, please find a successor to pick up where you've left off. One approach is to ask a candidate directly, moving on to another candidate if he or she declines.  If that approach doesn't work, then a notice to WP:CBB might help.  Make sure to ask your successor to pass it on, so that he does the same thing when he steps down, and so on.


 * Are your WikiProjects listed in all the right places? There's a shortcut page for projects, a project directory, and WP:CBB has a place for announcing new (and revamped/restarted) WikiProjects.  On the CBB, maybe try a parenthetical note attached to the name, like "WikiProject Technology (under new management)."  Anything that catches attention.  Draw as much attention to your WikiProjects as possible!


 * On WikiProject History, keep in mind that AWB has a skip feature. So you can use List of history topics as your link list multiple times without worrying about sifting through it.  Search/replace the link list (in a wordprocessor) to convert the article links to talk page links, then use the prepend feature in AWB to add your fancy history banner to the top of them, and the skip feature to skip pages that already have it from previous passes.  Some pages already have the old WikiProject banner for history on them, so you'll want to build a link list from "what links here", from the history Wikiproject page -- this should be done first -- and swap those out with the new banner using AWB's search/replace feature.


 * I hope these tips help.  Th e Tr ans hu man ist    18:04, 1 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks, they do. I think I can manage for now but I'm planning to...well, I dunno if you think this is a good idea, it might be too much for me to manage...I'm planning on reviving all of the WikiProjects on core topics, except biography and geography of course, they're going well. I'll have to wait untill I get my current projects up and running before I move on to the rest. It'll take a while and a lot of dedication on my part but there'll be massive benifits for the 'pedia. One of the reasons I expanded onto Wikibooks was because of original research being alowed, massively benifitting the work here as we can use that for sources. I've gotten to know and {User|Warlordjohncarter}} well and regularly work along side them. They're into WikiProject work too--Phoenix-wiki (talk · contribs) 18:48, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Be careful not to spread yourself too thin. Two WikiProjects is plenty to handle.  By the way, WikiProject Technology still has an "under construction" tag on it.


 * What are your plans for Technology and History?


 *  Th e Tr ans hu man ist   21:57, 21 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Well, I've got History back up and running, it's going great. We're plannning on haing a coordinator election soon, and I won't run so I can hand ovver to someone lse and I can work on technology--Phoenix-wiki talk · contribs 22:51, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Ready or not?
Hi everyone, I'm thinking of nominating Phoenix for the mop. Is there anything he needs to touch up on before I do?  Th e Tr ans hu man ist   03:27, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
 * The low number of mainspace edits might put some people off. Smokizzy (talk) 04:08, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Wow, thanks. I was thinking of getting a featured article before I was nominated, like Smokizzy said, I don't have many mainspace contributions. I'm working on Command & Conquer at the moment and I'd like to finish that before any nomination takes place. already offered to nominate me and I'm sure he'd co-nom.--Phoenix-wiki talk · contribs 12:10, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I see no worries here. RfA tends to be fine with candidates like this: not going to turn out the most busy-body Administrators out, but they'll chip in and use their tools. I'm not a master at judging somebody's suitability for Adminship, but I see no problems here. Anthøny 12:20, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
 * As soon as I went to his page I was greeted with a "Say No to Fair Use" banner. That's a lightening rod for some folks. I did not peruse his edits on the privatemusings arbitration case but would suggest that there could certainly be fodder there for someone wanting to oppose. There's a comment at at user page, Alvin??? I think about original research; probably minor but worth being ready for questions. The mainspace edits will trouble some folks - always does. If he is serious about having a Featured Article soon I would sure wait as that would go a very long way toward discounting any editcountitis people. His interactions with other users seem to be very positive, good with the civility and such, personally that's a big one for me. Also, perhaps I overlooked it, were there any edits to AIV? I'll be watching for it to transclude and will support assuming there are no deep and terrible items out there I missed. Good luck! -JodyBtalk 13:28, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry, but I've came across several problems. For example, taking a Wikibreak over a comment made by a vandal trying to convert you to christianity or some other religion, then beginning a new thread at ANI about it, It just demonstrates a lack of ability to deal with stress, especially as vandals will do a lot worse than that to admins. Also, the lack of maturity as demonstrated on Help wiki (I'll find the link if necessary) which consisted of replacing Mediawiki:Delete with destroy this page!!!, I just feel as if I'd have to oppose if you had an RfA; sorry. Qst 14:28, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Qst, please provide links. Smokizzy (talk) 21:58, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I've removed that fair use banner, and the only thing that I can do about the rest is wait a while, maybe three months, till everyone forgets about it. As for Qst's concerns, that wikibreak was not taken because of that, though I will admin I overeacted somewhat to that post. As for that helpwiki thing, may I remind you that you actually had your adminship removed for wheel warring.--Phoenix-wiki talk · contribs 22:32, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

(outdent)I would wait awhile but don't be deceived, people will not forget. What you will have to do is overcome any possible negatives with plenty of positives. We all have some things out there that are less than wonderful, but you just have to be able to say that the bad was in the past and look at all the things that I have done since. Above, Qst was pretty firm with you but your response about his adminship was unnecessary and argues against your qualifications. Very thick skin is essential. I'm not sure if there is some history between you guys but I would suspect he was invited here as was I. It might be in your interest to tighten up a bit and let the comments roll off. Just my thoughts. -JodyBtalk 22:54, 27 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes, okay, though I don't see myself requesting adminship before easter, probably long after.--Phoenix-wiki talk · contribs 00:12, 28 December 2007 (UTC)


 * No, I didn't invite, Qst, but all feedback is welcome. And I agree with JodyB, people do not forget easily around here.  :-)  I recommend that you Phoenix, and you Qst, make amends, pick a task to work on together and put your differences behind you.  Qst, what would you suggest Phoenix do to prepare himself for adminship?  Do you think mediating at the Mediation Cabal would help teach him the right attitude?  Qst, perhaps you and Phoenix can work on becoming admins together?  Just a thought.   Th e Tr ans hu man ist    03:16, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

(copied from my (TT's) talk page):

Hmmm... not sure. There's been an awful lot of what looks like botwork on his account. If it's not a bot, it's still artificially inflating the editcounts, making this candidate very inexperienced from an editcountitis perspective.

My suggestion is that you invite him/her to contribute to a bunch of XfD debates, ensuring they're the first respondent and continuing to contribute to some of the more difficult debates, as well as some PRs and FACs. That'll help demonstrate understanding of policy and what Wikipedia is really all about, regardless of any editcount.

Theoretically, (yes, bear with me) a candidate with 0 mainspace edits could pass RfA if they could only persuade those not fixated on counts that they understand the issues. It seems this person's just about ready, but you want them to show it.

Incidentally, I see they're thinking of getting an article to FA. That'd do nicely. (with the XfDs) --Dweller (talk) 12:41, 27 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Thank you for the critique, I'm sure he'll find it useful.    Th e Tr ans hu man ist    03:16, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Based on the above comments, and my own observations too...
First, I'd like to thank Qst for coming forward. That type of feedback is very helpful. Thank you Qst.

Phoenix, you should consider apologizing to each person you've been in a conflict with, especially recent conflicts. You should also seek further feedback, and advice, from Qst throughout your preparation for adminship. If you can convince him by your actions over the next few months that you are ready, then you probably are. I recommend you invite him to be one of your co-coaches.

Qst, I hope you accept Phoenix's invitation.

Phoenix, I'm not quite sure what to make of your mass creations of one-line village stubs. I think there are better uses of your time. I daydreamed what it would take to create such a stub for every village in the world, and began to wonder if that would really be worth it. The only piece of information that each one presents is the general location of the place. It would be a lot faster to just include village names/links on a list for the country they are in (under regional headings) - this would also reveal where they are, without having to repeat it for each. A one-line stub defeats the usefulness of bluelinks and redlinks: users are expecting to find an article when they click on a bluelink, but such a stub is closer to having no article at all, and a redlink may have been better. Just my impression. With lists, you get the benefit of presenting the location while retaining the redlinks for those for which we have no further information.

Good work on the History WikiProject.

I believe if you divide your time roughly equally between article development (content contribution and copy-editing) and administrative work (XfD participation, closing deletion discussions, reverting vandalism and warning vandals (along with WP:AIV reports), reporting bad usernames at WP:UAA, helping at request pages, and participating in dispute resolution) you'll be ready for adminship fairly soon (maybe 3,000 more edits, and 3 to 6 months). And one thing is for sure, such a variety of activities won't be boring. :-)  Th e Tr ans hu man ist    03:16, 28 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Before I give my advice, I'd like to comment on the above suggestion to apologize to everyone... I don't think going all My name is Earl for the purpose of mending broken bridges for adminship is necessarily the best way to go. That said, more mainspace edits, for sure. I'm not a biggy on requiring a bunch of edits in any particular admin areas&mdash;I got admin with fairly low AIV count and practically no XfD experience, and I block occasionally and continue to practically never participate in XfD, so it's worked out&mdash;but there are plenty of people that do require such edits to get their support. I think if you build from now and run after Easter, as you stated above, you'll have no problems. Any negatives from 2007 should be flushed out by all the positives of 2008.  Lara  ❤  Love  04:51, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
 * It's not that myself and Phoenix-wiki don't get along, rather I just have some concerns and possibly came over as strict :) Qst 14:42, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, we generally get along well, and we talk regularly enough over irc. I shouldn't have done that--Phoenix-wiki talk · contribs 20:06, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for the coaching TT, I've learned a lot. I'll have to work on controlling my temper, but apart from that I think I've made a lot of progress. I'd like to get involved in the coaching of another student here at the virtual classroom. Maybe I could take our next applicant? I know you're really busy with 6 other students and all. That would really complete my coaching here.-- Phoenix -  wiki  01:45, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
 * That's an admirable stance to take. Patience is a virtue, and you'll benefit from it: if only I had more patience (TT knows all about that ;) However, I have noticed one thing that concerns me: you have only been on Wikipedia for 5 months? Even the very best newbies have struggled on RfA because of a perceived lack of experience. I use here as an example: a great Administrator, and nearly a Bureaucrat (twice!), who just scraped RfA because he nommed at around 6 months. Just be careful, Phoenix. If you listen to Transhumanist, he'll guide you right. Anthøny  20:29, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Oh, I'm not planning on requesting adminship any time soon. Maybe April or May, but I'd like to take part in the coaching of someone here at the virtual classroom. ;-)-- Phoenix -  wiki  22:45, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
 * That's okay then :) it just sounded as though it was an immediate thing, in that TT was talking about nominating you. Anthøny 12:47, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Just in response to that, I think I took on my first adoptees about 8 or 9 months after commencing as a named user on here. I also ended up becoming part of my local wikiproject where each person had their own area of expertise so we'd often refer questions to each other. I was approached to run for adminship by one of them but declined, at least in part as I couldn't think of any reason I'd need the tools - then upon getting my first FA 2.5 months later, accepted the nomination (partly as my lack of them to do wikiproject stuff had started to become frustrating) and got through the process unopposed. My 2-year user anniversary and my 1-year admin anniversary are both coming up in March. Even months after I became an admin, even now in fact, I'm still learning stuff and there's still a lot of little areas around the place I don't know. I'm seeing a lot of good advice being given to you here, and you seem to be acting upon it well, so just keep it up and be consistent and you'll have no problems. But be careful about managing community expectations - in the vein of what several other people have advised you above. :) Orderinchaos 18:50, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Oh, and re RfA's, it's a bit of a myth in my opinion that people expect to see loads of admin-like activity - in fact, any mistakes made can seriously come and bite you in the form of oppose votes. I hadn't made a single AIV report, I stuffed up my one and only 3RR report, and my only real action in Wikipedia space was in voting on AfDs and WikiProject work including helping to set one or two up. I also managed to insult one of the FA helpers (who however was extremely gracious in accepting my apology) and respond out of turn to workshops at several ArbCom proceedings, although noone seemed to mind as my suggestions/opinions weren't of a radical nature. All of the good content contributors I know who've gotten through have done so unopposed - they haven't had a reason to come to the attention of the admin patrollers and are known mainly to their own editing community as fair, diplomatic and reasonable, which is the impression any neutral reviewers (a suprising percentage of whom are other admin candidates!) are likely to obtain upon looking at contribs. Orderinchaos 18:54, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Phoenix-wiki,

April/May sounds about right. My guess is that you should at least double your contributions (edits) before your next RfA (maybe even tripple or quadruple your article edits). Many participants at RfA would consider your current main namespace contributions too low.

You should also post yourself at WP:ER.

Though I hate to distract you from your article editing, you should take a look at my coaching page. Anthony posted his advice for me on prepping for adminship. It looks like his wise advice applies to you as well.

Teaching is one of the best methods of learning. I highly recommend that you coach. Note that the coaching here isn't exclusive, that is, it's all co-coaching (though most of the VC coaches have been rather inactive lately). Feel free to participate in the coaching of any or all of the students. The two students I recommend you help with are Juliancolton, and me. I've failed 3 RfAs so far, and if you want a tough case, I think I qualify. The main objections at my last RfA were that I'm "too bureaucratic/formal" and that I haven't addressed the concerns of the previous RfAs. How do you think I should go about addressing them? I look forward to your comments on my coaching page.

Also, feel free to bring in new students of your own. Users request coaches at Admin coaching/Requests for Coaching and sometimes at User:The Transhumanist/Virtual classroom - by coincidence, there's one there now! Remember, you will be accepting coaching assignments on behalf of all of us (we work together as a team). See the suggested instructions at Admin coaching/Coaching methods.

 Th e Tr ans hu man ist   21:42, 4 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I've had a look at your page. I think I do most of things there already &mdash; I comment on XFDs daily, I close loads, I comment on AN and ANI threads daily, I have lupins anti vandal tool installed and use it fairly regularly, though I think that's where I can improve if I do some daily. I'm always on irc when I'm logged in so I can get admins advise on things. I definitly need more mainspace edits though, yeah.-- Phoenix -  wiki  22:26, 4 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Alex_Roggio is looking for a coach. First see the coaching instructions over at WP:ADCO.  Then, why don't you contact him and offer your/our services as his coach(es)?  Be sure to present the terms provided at WP:ADCO like I did when I contacted you.  If he agrees to the terms, set up his VC coaching page, add him to the template:VC lessons and coaching lists on the VC page, and...

...good luck. :) I'll be sure to jump in too, so don't worry.  And when the time comes, be sure to contact all the VC coaches for an RfA consultation to decide whether or not he's ready to be nominated.     Th e Tr ans hu man ist     05:03, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Okay, I've created his coaching page and will take hikm.-- Phoenix -  wiki  20:06, 6 January 2008 (UTC)


 * No one has contacted him about this. I'm leaving that up to you.  (See the suggestions above, and don't forget to cover the terms when you make your offer to him).  He's been waiting at User:The Transhumanist/Virtual classroom for three days.   Th e Tr ans hu man ist    11:09, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I'll do it today, within the next few ours.-- Phoenix -  wiki  18:14, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

That's a lot of tutorials!
I noticed you signed up to write 5 tutorials for the Signpost Tutorial project.

Wow.

What inspired you?

Once you're done with those, you'll be way overdue for RfA.



Good luck.

 Th e Tr ans hu man ist   11:26, 12 January 2008 (UTC)


 * The Placebo effect was asking for volunteers on IRC and I thought I'd help out. That's how Johnathan heard about it too. It looks like a good idee anyway. I gotta go and write m,y first one...-- Phoenix -  wiki  13:54, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

Collaboration
I'm pushing a collaboration to complete the list of basic space exploration topics.

Should be fun. Drop on by. ;)

Also, see my post to User talk:Quiddity if you want to delve in deeper.

 Th e Tr ans hu man ist   09:10, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

FYI
I resign.

I've moved this page to your userspace for safekeeping.

 Th e Tr ans hu man ist   09:10, 6 February 2008 (UTC)