Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/CheckUser and Oversight/2012 CUOS appointments/OS/Mlpearc

Mlpearc

 * Nomination statement (250 words max.)
 * Hello, I'm Mlpearc, I have been with Wikipedia since 2008. My main area of involvement is ACC where I am an tool Administrator and channel operator for the ACC IRC channel and I also administrate the accounts-enwiki-l mailing list. I am normally available 8-12 hours a day. I am applying for Oversight, I'm a user with high integrity who already is handling personal information on a daily basis at account creations. I have extended availability and can handle request through the OTRS mailing list (queue) as I already do with ACC mailing list. I have off-wiki experience with OS on my project. I feel confident I can perform the tasks of Oversight and with my track record to stand for me I think the community will also.

Standard questions for all candidates
Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
 * A: My on wiki experience is limited to requesting Oversight a couple times after editing while logged out. My feelings about the Oversight right is the user is volunteering for more work and no extra authority. I believe if the user has integrity, discretion, an understanding of the processes and a level head they should do fine with a couple extra buttons.

Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.


 * A: I have a four (4) wiki project, two (2) public and two (2) semi-private. In the beginning the main public wiki was being constantly attacked by SpamBots which created many accounts with obscene usernames, links, comments and images, from usernames to whole pages. Oversight was put into action very early in the project, and I quickly became acquainted with the functions.

Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have OTRS permissions? If so, to which queues?


 * A: None at this time.

Questions for this candidate

 * Please describe your familiarity with the Wikimedia Privacy Policy, Meta Oversight Policy, ENWP Oversight policy, and ENWP Outing policy. Also, without breaching privacy, for each of these policies, give an example of a time that you have used the policy when evaluating a situation or taking action. Pine✉ 01:20, 21 June 2012 (UTC)


 * A: The privacy policy regulates what type of data can be gathered and/or retained. The policy also regulates who can access this information and the circumstances in which this information can be released.


 * Oversight is a tool in which defamatory, private information and/or copyright violations can be deleted or suppressed from normal view. The policy governs what information/edits qualify for such removal and to what extent.


 * Outing is a provision of the harassment policy, posting of personal information of an editor in which the editor has not publicly released themselves, example, addresses, phone numbers, occupation or birth dates is a form of harassment. If such information is posted or discovered community members should never confirm or deny the validity of the information and it should be carefully taken to the proper venue for assessment and resolution.


 * With the exception of a couple requests for Oversight to remove my IP after editing while logged out, I have not been in a situation on wiki where I've needed to confer these policies before acting on or in evaluation. I do believe though this is about to change. Mlpearc  ( powwow ) 18:41, 21 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Being the only non-admin candidate for the oversighter tools, you are most likely to have the least experience and/or understanding of the revision deletion/oversight policy. Please can you describe what experience you do have with that policy, without giving personally identifying details: How many times have you requested revision deletion? Have you ever requested suppression of content? Have any of these requests ever been declined, and if so were they declined recently? The  Helpful  One  14:25, 24 June 2012 (UTC)


 * A: Yes, this is true but, as a non-admin, I think that revision deletion, which comes as part of the admin tools is mostly a "first response" action until an oversight decision and action is rendered or refused, so therefore the same understanding and decision making will be needed for each situation even if RevDelete has been used or not. As far as experience outside of what I've already stated above I feel that even if this were an RfA, experience has to start somewhere and be it revision delete or oversight, admin or oversighter I would and will seek counsel and guidance on any situation where I'm not confident, this is where experience with IRC and the use of email will be an asset. To the best of my recollection I have requested Oversight three maybe four times via both IRC and Special:EmailUser, all requests were fulfilled as requested. Mlpearc  ( powwow ) 23:23, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

Comments

 * Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing . Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.


 * I've worked long enough at ACC and seen every example of clue and masterful tact. If there was to be only one non-admin able to serve, and the choice was either him or me, I would recommend Mlpearc. And not because consensus consistently aligns to my opposite camp. My76Strat (talk) 01:10, 25 June 2012 (UTC)
 * ArbCom once appointed a non-admin to AUSC and he was at RfA virtually the next day. My concerns with that are twofold: that the functionary appointment becomes a stepping stone to adminship, and that a non-admin functionary is about as useful as a chocolate teapot (an analogy I have been told is too kind). Both prospects make me uncomfortable, and neither prospect is fair on the community (who are backed into a corner with a choice of promoting him so he can perform in the role he's been appointed to or going against ArbCom, having to make do with a chocolate teapot, and looking silly) nor the candidate (who looks like he is forcing the community into that corner). I think there was an element of ArbCom trying to prove a point last time, and I hope they will resist the urge this time. For the avoidance of doubt, I have nothing against the candidate, and I am not for a moment suggesting that he or any other non-admin functionary hopeful might have acted in bad faith. HJ Mitchell  &#124;  Penny for your thoughts?  08:28, 26 June 2012 (UTC)
 * The userright contains the necessary flags to do the job, correct? (since last time, an RfC was done to add those rights) So I don't see how the community can be backed into accepting ArbCom's appointment and forcing an RfA to be passed. -- DQ  (ʞlɐʇ)  20:06, 26 June 2012 (UTC)
 * In comparison to hundreds of administrators and thousands of adminship candidacies, there has only been one successful non-administrator functionary RFA. The oversight right has been independent of adminship since April 2011. AGK  [•] 00:43, 27 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I concur that the latter concern is no longer an issue with the subsequent change to the oversight package. Moreover, the last thought in my mind is that Mlpearc's intent here is to place himself on a fast track to adminship. He should not be slighted simply because others may use the position that way. Upon meeting Mlpearc several weeks ago, I was struck by his authentic character; I have no doubt that he'll use the tools in the sincerest interests to help. NTox · talk 02:51, 27 June 2012 (UTC)


 * I do not believe that a user should be entrusted with the oversighter package if he is unwilling to undergo community scrutiny to become an administrator or if the community is not willing to entrust them with that permission. The oversight permission is effectively an extension of the admin toolset, unlike checkuser, and should not (and to my knowledge it has never been) granted to users not already entrusted by the community with the simply admin toolset.  Snowolf How can I help? 05:24, 28 June 2012 (UTC)
 * If the community at large entrusts Mlpearc with OS via this appointments round, then the community must trust him with it. Certain parts of the RfA-centric part of the community can be rather... sharp-tonged. RfA was stressful enough when I went through it in '08, but I can't think what it would be like now. I fully understand why almost nobody would want to subject themselves to RfA at the moment especially after a number of decent users who would have suited the tools found RfA way too stressful and retired. However, this is not a discussion about how RfA is broken. Technically speaking, +sysop is not a prerequisite to OS anyway. In my mind, if anybody is actually willing to go through RfA in it's current state, they are either a) incredibly brave b) incredibly thick-skinned, or c) insane.  &#91; stwalkerster &#124; talk &#93;  13:50, 28 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Sorry if that's a little "sharp-tongued" too, I don't mean to insult anyone, or anything like that - but my point stands. :)  &#91; stwalkerster &#124; talk &#93;  13:54, 28 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Neutral Mlpearc holds many basic user rights on some Wiki's and seems like a fine candidate. But unfortunately if a user doesn't have the necessary experience with Revision deletion which is a part of Administrator tools then it is quite difficult for me to evaluate them for this work which is very much related with the use of Oversight permission. At the same time i trust the user's good intentions and dedication to work for the betterment of the project and because of this i can neither support nor oppose the candidate for this. I'm sure and confident that the Arbitration Committee will make the right decision. All the best Mlpearc! TheGeneralUser (talk) 18:52, 28 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Support, he has changed especially since he is ACC tool admin a clue and would use the tool only if it is really needed... mabdul 21:25, 28 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Support Although I understand the concerns that have been raised with regards to a lack of experience, indeed I did ask this question myself, there is an agreement that the RFA process is broken, hopefully it will be fixed soon, but Mlpearc's answers reinforce my trust in him to learn the ropes very quickly if ArbCom will consider the appointment of a non-admin oversighter. The  Helpful  One  22:24, 28 June 2012 (UTC)