GuildWiki:Requests for adminship/M.mendel

=== M.mendel (talk &bull; contribs &bull; edit count &bull; RFA page) ===

I think that he has shown many qualities that a good admin should have. He has shown a great interest in bettering this wiki and putting it back "on top". I think that having mendel as an admin could only turn out great! -- Shadowphoenix  18:23, 29 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here:

I am flattered to be nominated here, after a mere 2 months on the wiki, and my share of raising controversial issues.

However, this RfA catches me unprepared; maybe it comes too early. Today I am still in shock over seeing the wiki through the default skin, and was thinking of announcing that I would refuse to edit any pages that have ads in the page body (banners top and bottom I don't mind, as long as they don't come with a fake header - as the bottom ad currently does -, and a sidebar ad would be ok even if the sidebar has to expand slightly to 300px) because I don't want my work presented that way.

Besides that, I probably could support myself only with reservations: a mere 2 months on the wiki, holding minority opinions on certain issues (how much that'd affect my adminning is anyone's guess), likely to use "undelete" more often than "delete".

I hope you can understand that, on the whole, I wouldn't mind if the RfA was shelved for another month.

--◄mendel► 06:07, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Please discuss the candidate's qualifications on the talkpage, and consolidate the summaries below:

Supporting arguments

 * I had been mulling this over for the last day or so trying to figure out exactly my position on this. I love your diplomacy and the fact that you are very personable, and on top of that, you're extremely knowledgeable of the way things work. You can go in and fix the code, and then later explain with excellent eloquence why the change was made and what exactly was done. You generally do the right thing and make the choice for the betterment of the the unrepresented and timid voices over (occasionally) the majority of the wiki's opinion. It is for these reasons that I support this RfA. However, I feel I must point out the problems I do have with this, and why it took me so long to decide exactly whether or not I would support Mendel. The main reason is that I feel that he point out that policies should be changed by abrasive example. Rather than logically stating his case, he will occasionally seek out the embodiment of the problem and then put up a mock argument (which is by all means believable and might, in fact, be genuine) using points taken from current policies on why the rational decision should be made. The only real example I can think of is the Acorns fiasco. But, as I said, he may have had an entirely different reason for doing such. &mdash; Powersurge360 Violencia   07:16, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Opposing arguments

 * Strongly opposed. While mendel has undoubtedly been extremely helpful and motivated in such mundane and necessary wikitasks as categorizing, cleaning up and formatting, these are not tasks which require admin tools to complete. Glancing over User:M.mendel/Admin_Criteria, I can move quickly through the criteria that he himself urges existing administrators to consider, and find that nearly every one reflects unfavorably upon him.  Deleting?  While mendel deleting pages is not likely to be an issue, undeleting pages that ought not to exist is an easily foreseeable event.  Banning?  Again, mendel is not somebody who seems banhappy.  In fact, he doesn't seem like he would ban errant IP addresses at all, despite necessity.  It is more likely he would unban IPs that have been blocked for disruption or nonsensical edits.  This is not a tool that is necessary in his wiki tenure.  Conflict moderation?  Two words:  Wiki Drama.  Three, if you want to add "Acorns."  Rule enforcement?  In a 1984 sort of way.  Rules that support his arguments are flaunted and rigidly adhered to, and others are ignored.  Community trust and Ability to compromise?  While mendel is willing to compromise, the situations in which he is willing to do so usually should not have become an issue at all, and are blown out of proportion due solely to his GuildWiki Crusades, which makes community trust an issue.  While the breed of wikidrama mendel creates is rarely, if ever, malicious, and is simply time-consuming and pointless, it is wikidrama nonetheless.
 * In closing: Wall of text.  While perhaps in the future a skilled and capable administrator, mendel has within the last few weeks shown many traits that are not benefiting an admin of this wiki. [[Image:Maui_sig.png]] 09:32, 30 July 2008 (UTC)


 * (rebuttals to above argument here)

Neutral/Double-edged arguments

 * It's really hard to decide whether to support or oppose this. While Mendel is a good contributor, he tends to be fairly confrontational. He usually plays the devil's advocate in a conflict, which is probably a good thing to keep us in check, but also does create copious wiki-drama. It could either be a very good thing or a very bad thing if he got promoted, with no way of telling beforehand.[[Image:Entrea Sumatae.png|Entrea Sumatae]] Entrea   [Talk]  04:50, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Some prediction help: having admin tools available would impact my behaviour today in the following ways:
 * Unless there is a clear consensus expressed that we approve of punitive bans (to me, a laughable concept: punishing someone by telling them "you may not edit this wiki" works on very few people), I'd be likely to retroadjust bans that don't accomplish anything (besides "punishment"), so that's an issue that probably needs discussion before I can be trusted with that.
 * I'd undelete more pages to move them to Anonymous pages or the author's space. Probably not a problem.
 * I'd be able to work in MediaWiki namespace. I'm good enough at coordinating changes that it won't likely produce conflict.
 * I think you overestimate how often I play devil's advocate, though. --◄mendel► 07:11, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * (rebuttals to above argument here)