User talk:Buster Spade

Idea
Just thinking out loud.... I roam around a lot in my free time (?) looking for candidates. When I find one, I'm always tempted to get someone that has worked with the editor to make the nomination. I usually do it via email. Of the perhaps 12 attempts I've made to get a wiki-friend to make the nomination, maybe only 4 have worked out perfectly. The others didn't go the way I had planned and I wound up making the Nomination. Or the nominee got wind of it and the surprise elememnt was ruined. If you look at the history of "who" nominates you will find many repeaters like and me,, Khazar2 before he retired, ,. My idea is to create a separate, well-hidden page somewhere in WER-World (This is that palce) where we (Us and anyone else that wants to) could list the editors we have discovered and see as good candidates. We can then discreetly make contact with a wiki-friend, they come here and get the idea of what is suggested and ....Bob's your uncle. Maybe they sit there for a month or two or longer...waiting for someone with the free-time or someone new to EotW to grab the incentive and nominate. One of my goals is always to "widen the circle" of editors that are active participants in the many processes at WER. I can inform the other co-ordinators Via e-mail of this pages whereabouts. I'm sure we all see candidates but we just don't take (or have) the time to act. . Buster Seven   Talk  13:41, 9 February 2015 (UTC)additions dated and signed for "echo". Buster Seven   Talk  02:12, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Example of email contact I have sent to a potential nominaTOR
As a clerk at WER/Editor of the Week, I am always on the lookout for candidates for the award. Your comments on your talk page regarding Editor SoAndSo struck me as a "ready-to-use" nomination. Can I nominate SoAndSo as a proxy for you (basically using your talk page comments) or would you prefer to nominate him yourself. The Award is so much more rewarding when received from a co-worker. Here is a link to the nomination page. Buster Seven   Talk 

Thanks
− for visiting the Spade Page and adding your suggestion. It's a work in progress. No emails or "call-outs" have happened yet. At the moment its a collection of potentials. Maybe some passersby will see someone they know and grab the ball and run with it. The object is to get a "friend" to do the nomination without of course spilling the beans to the Awardee. That's what has happened B4; the potential EotW got wind of it and was not surprised. Happy...but not surprised. I'm open to suggestions. Email is the obvious answer but I want it to be a successful answer. Maybe Email the wiki-friend and ask them to come to this and see if there is anyone here that they would like to nominate. I'm open to ideas...... Buster Seven   Talk  21:00, 26 February 2015 (UTC)
 * moved from John Carters Talk page w/ his OK:
 * One thing that comes to mind is maybe making joint nominations. From what I can see, the first prospect listed is someone I could add some data to, but is also someone I haven't had a great deal of direct contact with lately, so the amount of first-hand information I can give would be limited. I could of course nominate with the information given there as well as my own less current data, but maybe it might be possible to more clearly allow for forms of "joint nomination" in some way? And, maybe, if there is some way to "noping" this entire page, that might work too. John Carter (talk) 21:09, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

Hey Buster7 and User:John Carter, hope you haven't forgotten this page... see below for a trial joint-nom? (As an example) --L235 (t / c / ping in reply ) 06:02, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

The List of potential EotW nominees

 * ...Always uses edit summary, Art= 71%, talk= only 13%, ingenuous use of links to empower or better explain a comment.
 * user:Josve05a}}
 * ..286 articles, 2 1/2 years, Comments about HIM..."epic", "new chapter begins now (APOLOGY), "tks for the warm welcome", "tks for taking the time to give me advice", "you took the time to help", "I thought you were an admin already", "very useful contributor" Rollbacker, Autopatroller, Reviewer of GA's
 * ...no user page (no vanity?), 8-20-2007 but active since MARCH of 2013, 11335 edits, uses summary 87%, Article 74%, he has been blocked,
 * - 1st article, 3/16/2011. Next will be #1085. Improved 100's more. 48% in Article space. WikiProject Horse racing and Boxing. Maintains and updates various templates. Montanabw and Fraggerlaura.
 * - Just discovered w/ co-op mentee. Will vet soon.
 * User:Editorofthewiki - WikiProjects Coll Basktbl and Earthquakes...art/72%, wiki/8%, Sum/91%, 24K, Hubert Maga, Ryan Arcidiacono, 104 DYK's, Dr. Blofeld, EDDY, back in the swing after some lay-offs
 * User:JohnfromIdegon - 35,354, (March 2012), art/63%, sum/99%, Projects:Wer, Schools, US Roads and others, an adamant protetor of the "correct' process regsrding article about schools. And, since that topic is a usuaal "target" of newbie editors wanting to add non-encyclopedic stuff, he guides them and advises them about, not just the school in question, but about "WikiLife" in general. He is an important and active participant in the EotW process as a nominator and takes the time and effort to second other editors nominations.^^^AWARDED^^^
 * User:Editorofthewiki - WikiProjects Coll Basktbl and Earthquakes...art/72%, wiki/8%, Sum/91%, 24K, Hubert Maga, Ryan Arcidiacono, 104 DYK's, Dr. Blofeld, EDDY, back in the swing after some lay-offs
 * User:JohnfromIdegon - 35,354, (March 2012), art/63%, sum/99%, Projects:Wer, Schools, US Roads and others, an adamant protetor of the "correct' process regsrding article about schools. And, since that topic is a usuaal "target" of newbie editors wanting to add non-encyclopedic stuff, he guides them and advises them about, not just the school in question, but about "WikiLife" in general. He is an important and active participant in the EotW process as a nominator and takes the time and effort to second other editors nominations.^^^AWARDED^^^

Nominators
Lixxx235, Buster7 and John Carter state that it is our pleasure to nominate for the Editor of the Week award. Technical 13 is one of our most regular and productive editors in the technical areas of wikipedia. They have created countless scripts saving many thousands of hours, previously maintained a bot with almost 30,000 edits, help run several bots on IRC, and are generally one of the most trusted go-to people for resolving all manner of technical requests. And that is just their technical contributions. Technical 13 offers invaluable insight into many WP:Help Desk discussions, gives clear and easy to follow instructions and has an impressive 34,000 edits on Wikipedia.

This is kind of a new thing. Please copyedit as needed and even do a total makeover of this. Below, I think we should write who is willing to co-nominate for EOTW. --L235 (t / c / ping in reply ) 04:34, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

Nominators

 * Lixxx235 (talk) 04:35, 28 February 2015 (UTC)
 * . Buster Seven   Talk  07:14, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
 * John Carter (talk) 22:30, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Discussion
If there are no objections, I plan on moving this to the main EOTW nomination page tonight (CST). What do you think of this way of making group nominations as a sanity check and a way for multiple people to write a nomination statement that brings in multiple viewpoints and copyediting? --L235 (t / c / ping in reply ) 22:36, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
 * I was just suggesting something of the same but had edit conflict.. Buster Seven   Talk  22:43, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

TYping..... Buster Seven   Talk  22:44, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
 * 1) . Change to include the three names.
 * 2) . It gets moved to the nomination page and then waits for the usual two week seconding period. This Buster Spade page is not official. We need to set this up so as to anticipate any critics (see WER talk). This could be the first and last collective nom and it may be the first of many. I'm not against it I just don't want to complicate the process. Im at work...gotta go!. . Buster Seven   Talk  22:51, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Go for it Li..... <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black">Buster Seven  <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black"> Talk  03:07, 5 March 2015 (UTC)


 * ,, , ...As you all probably know, the whole EotW process was questioned over the past week with what DB called "a faulty premise". I think it was more "shit stirring" than anything (and not worthy of response) but it brings up the need to be clear and have a discussion to anticipate and prevent criticism. The Co-Nomination was not the original idea I had. Mine was more to, in secret, contact a wiki-friend or co-worker on an article so that the Award, when given, had a personal touch and, so, increased in value and importance to the nominee. I'm not sure what the Co-Nominator accomplishes. I'm not against it. Its just that it adds pieces to the jig-saw puzzle of EotW clerking and adds to the potential for future "ass-kissing" claims. For whatever their reasons are, it has become obvious that some editors would like to bring WER down. I don't want to give them ammo.. <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black">Buster Seven  <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black"> Talk  13:54, 5 March 2015 (UTC)


 * IDEA...I was investigating my next nominee, Editor Intothedarness, which amounts to reading comments about him on his own talk page and other editors talk page and using the edit count tool to see his editing history and interests, and in general get a feel for who they are as editors and where to look for informative comments about him. If I get an inkling of an editors gender that's a plus. It makes languaging the nomination easier. So...I notice that Ched and Montanabc (sp) communicate with him and I want to involve them in the process of constructing the nomination. But how do I do that and not risk spilling the beans. I don't really like E-mail because it seems subversive (wrong word but you all understand) or something. There should be a history of the pre-nominating process in case anyone has a problem down the line. Then....lightbulb!....I can use the Echo notifier and bring them here....or somewhere else that is created for the purpose of engaging wikifriend and cohorts and personalizing the Eddy Award. . <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black">Buster Seven  <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black"> Talk  15:06, 5 March 2015 (UTC).
 * so far Ive only pinged those of us "behind the curtain" (BtC), waiting for some of you tech guys and gals to give me advice. Can echo work to attract Ched and Montana without spilling the beans???? . <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black">Buster Seven  <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black"> Talk  17:25, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

Invisible pings

 * User:Buster7 Feel free to ping them here. You can use invisible pings like I did with this edit, if you want that. --L235 (t / c / ping in reply ) 14:35, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
 * User:Lixxx235 Ah! Invisible is good. Busy today but will work on it later. Thanks. One more thing. Any thoughts on creating a couple of new WER pages. One for co-nominations and another for my idea of contacting cohorts/friends. They really should be under the Project-WER umbrella and I think separating them will forego any confusion. . <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black">Buster Seven  <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black"> Talk  14:56, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
 * User:Buster7 fine by me; I'm not going to be too active in ER for a while. --L235 (t / c / ping in reply ) 20:35, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Just wanted to give you a heads up on this idea for co-nominations and asking wiki-cohorts to make the nominations. I really don't want this side page to be a problem. If you could familiarize yourself with the above and create the two pages per above, that would be great. If you foresee a problem, lets discuss. . <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black">Buster Seven  <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black"> Talk  13:47, 10 March 2015 (UTC)
 * I don't think there is any negative aspect to having two additional subpages under WER, but I'm not sure they would accomplish the desired goals: once there is an official page that editors may watchlist, perhaps because they participated on it, they will be notified about edits on it. Perhaps we can recommend to potential nominators who want to collaborate for a co-nomination or otherwise solicit input that they create a subpage underneath their own user page, and ping the appropriate people to that page. isaacl (talk) 16:21, 10 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks Isaacl. Nothing needs to happen right away. I'll put this on the back burner to simmer and maybe re-visit after DB makes his projected Renovation of WER. . <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black">Buster Seven  <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:black"> Talk  19:48, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

What is editor retention?
iWER is a group of farmers. Like all farmers, it isn't a binary job, but rather one in which you do good work and you will get good results. Put a little more effort into it, and you will get better results, etc. Our first focus is on the soil, the medium in which our crop grows. We try to give Wikipedia better soil, a better environment, so that good things will grow from it. We do this by encouraging policies that help new users, and ones that make it possible for blocked users to come back if we reasonably believe they will be an asset. We improve the soil by helping out in dispute and content resolution, by welcoming new users, and taking the time to help someone. It all starts with the soil, the foundation, the overall environment at Wikipedia. The more people you have working the soil, the better that soil is likely to be. Editor of the Week and other programs like the T-shirt giveaway (which isn't WER but does the same function) is like fertilizer. it takes existing editors and makes them stronger, more vigorous. This has additional benefits, we have learned, in that it helps us identify new leaders, as we have several admin come from the program. The crop is articles; the primary product that Wikipedia produces, and the only reason it exists. Reading is the harvest. The beautiful part is that the crop is infinite. It is literally like an apple tree that never runs out of fruit. Once we have retained excellent editors, and they produce well written and sourced prose, it is available to be enjoyed by 1 person or 100 million. The most important Wikipedian IS the reader, and they reap the greatest reward from a competent editor retention program. Keeping high value talent here means better accuracy and sourcing, more readable prose, all on a well maintained page. While it is easy to think about the individual editors we try to assist so they can be happy, productive members of Wikipedia, it is important to remember that all our work here at WER, just like all the editing, admin'ing, coding and even the people running payroll at the Foundation, is all about and for the reader. From Dennis Brown - 2¢ 00:41, 26 March 2015 (UTC)