Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/CheckUser and Oversight/May 2010 election/Oversight/Lankiveil

Lankiveil
G’Day!

My name is Craig Franklin, and I’m an Australian in my mid-20s. I have been editing since August 2004, and I passed RFA on my first attempt back in August of 2008. My activity here is a mixture of article editing and gnomish stuff; I have contributed a number of DYKs and frequently engage in cleanup and polishing of new articles added by new editors. I also do quite a bit of work around AIV, CSD, and our other various "behind the scenes" processes. I am also a founding member of Wikimedia Australia, and have been involved in numerous outreach activities to museums and educational institutions on behalf of the chapter. I am also an OTRS volunteer and have dealt with a number of cases in that capacity.

I believe I am suited to the role of oversight due to my experience dealing with subjects that require discretion and an appreciation of real-world consequences that might ensue from things that happen on Wikipedia. This experience comes from working with OTRS, long experience as an admin, and from my real-world job, which often involves handling sensitive information. I have in the past made a number of requests for particular revisions to be oversighted, none of which have been turned down.

I’m available pretty much every evening via email, Skype, and sometimes on IRC as well. I’m committed to being as transparent and accountable as possible given the nature of the tools. I would primarily be available between 19:00 and 23:00 AEST (09:00 to 13:00 UTC), although I often find a way to get online at other times as well.

Thanks for reading, and best of luck to the other oversight candidates and the checkuser candidates as well! Lankiveil (speak to me) 00:44, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Comments and questions for Lankiveil
I know it is asked in the questionnaire:
 * Questions from HJ Mitchell
 * 1) If you are granted Oversight access, how do you think that will affect you as an editor and an administrator and do you think that will (or should) affect the way that other editors interact with you?
 * I do not believe so. I've actually become more of a content contributor after getting the admin flag, and I don't see myself getting so preoccupied with oversight that my other activities drop off.  I certainly wouldn't expect other editors to treat me any different as an oversighter, just like how I don't expect other editors to treat me differently as an arbclerk or administrator.
 * 1) Do you feel it's important for oversighters to reply to email requests to inform the requester of the action you've taken or not taken?
 * Definitely yes. It's impossible to know the exact circumstances of every request for oversight that I might receive, but my general policy would be to reply to requesters either thanking them for bringing something oversightable to our attention, or outlining the reasons why their request has been denied.
 * Question from Keegan
 * 1) Q. How will you be willing to respond to saying no to a request, and will you actively do it?
 * Per the answer to the question above, I'm very happy to say "no" to a request if it doesn't have any merit. If you look at my history of admin actions, you'll see that I'm quite comfortable turning down a request for tool use when I don't think the situation justifies it.  The key is to be polite, but not a pushover.  In most circumstances, I would outline my reasons for saying "no" in my reply to the requester (unless it's obviously a bad faith request or similar).


 * Question from User:zzuuzz
 * 1) Other than attempts at outing, what types of revisions should be hidden from administrators?
 * Generally speaking, hiding stuff from everyone including administrators is something that should be done as infrequently as possible. With that said, there are some cases where it might be justified; under a directive from the foundation, information that could be used for fraud or to steal identities (credit card numbers and the like), or situations where there is some suspicion that an admin might be misusing suppressed data (I hope that one does not ever happen on my watch though!).  Without seeing the sorts of requests that get sent in, I'd be extremely conservative with the ability to hide stuff from even administrators.


 * Question from Happy-melon
 * 1) All CheckUsers and Oversighters are members of the functionaries-en mailing list, a forum for discussion and co-ordination of privacy-related issues which affect any and all areas of Wikipedia. What qualities and perspectives would you bring to such discussions?
 * I think that all of the candidates here could bring something new, unique, and useful to the mailing list. Obviously, I don't have access to the list so I'm not certain what actually goes on in there, but I am calm, rational, and as my nominator said on my RFA, "He is capable of explaining his opinion and motives well".  I've also been around for a long time (longer than any of the other oversight candidates), so I have a broad base of experience of the comings and goings of the project to draw upon.