Wikiversity:Candidates for Custodianship/Jorge Louçã

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Jorge Louçã (talk • email • contribs • stats • logs • global account) edit

Hello, I would like to be a Custodian for managing the new project Complex Systems Digital Campus. This is a new UNESCO network for education and research. I'm predicting that many new users will create and use contents in this project, and that I will need to manage and orient their activity. Thanks -- Jorge Louçã - Talk - c 8:37, 10 October 2013 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikiversity! You don't need to be a custodian in order to lead a learning project. You shouldn't have any difficulty in assisting users and orienting their activity. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 14:50, 10 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Dave, thank you for your welcome. Actually I believe that practice will show me if I need to be a custodian or not. I hope not! We are a large group of university labs aiming to share scientific and educational knowledge, potentially with many professors and students. Let's see how it goes. So I withdraw my request to be a custodian. Jorge Louçã (discuss • contribs) 22:47, 10 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I formally welcomed the user on his Talk page today, and made some suggestions there. This could be a highly productive user. Dave is correct, he does not need custodial tools to manage the resource, and, in fact, actually using them could involve a kind of conflict of interest. I've been managing Cold fusion here for years, without incident, even though this topic is highly controversial on Wikipedia, and I was essentially banned there with cold fusion involvement as an excuse. I did have tools for a substantial period, here, and had I used them for the purpose of managing the resource, I'd have easily gotten into hot water here! I got in trouble here over entirely different matters. I have never needed custodial assistance to manage that resource, except occasionally I drop a speedy deletion tag on a page not needed. If I need help, I know where to ask. I'll assist Jorge if he asks for it.

Meanwhile, I recommend that Jorge withdraw this request, precisely because his interest here is, so far, narrow, and what he has requested custodial tools for is more-or-less contrary to defacto policy. To satisfy policy here, he needs to engage and develop voluntary cooperation among those who participate in his resource. Holding a "banhammer" can affect this negatively.

Campus police may carry guns. Teachers and administrators don't. They can call the police if they need to. As can a student, by the way. --Abd (discuss • contribs) 15:49, 10 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Abd, good to know that you are here. I will ask your help if I need it! Thanks. Jorge Louçã (discuss • contribs) 22:47, 10 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You need to have a lot of (quality) edits, and show continued good faith first. If you need custodial help, just ask. - Sidelight12 ^Talk 22:52, 11 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Added after withdrawal. Newcomers to Wikiversity may request custodianship, and it has been granted without substantial editing history here. Normally that happens when a user is clearly experienced, and also where the user is a known editor, is considered not likely to cause disruption by use of tools. My opinion is that custodians here should not be anonymous, but that's just my opinion, and I know counter-arguments. If actual editing of this wiki shows that Jorge having the tools, as an example, would enhance Wikiversity, or improve efficiency, it's easy to request this again. Otherwise, he may find, for what he wants to do, it's better not to have the tools, as I pointed out. If what he wants is uncontroversial, there is zero problem. If it's controversial, he is free to advocate for what he needs, and his arguments will be heard and respected, and existing permanent custodians will make the decision -- it only takes one to mentor --, and, if needed, the community will review that.
As users discover what is possible on Wikiversity, the kinds of conflicts that tear Wikipedia apart, on occasion, do not need to exist here. We build resources here, and tolerate and support others in doing so. Custodians only sweep up the mess. If anyone thinks a page is not "mess," there is almost always a way to keep it here. Subpage essays, user space content, fixing content problems, etc. It takes no more time to drop a speedy deletion tag on a page than to actually delete the page. I discourage filing Requests for Deletion when it's not necessary, because they waste time. Instead, I simply take editorial action to fix the problem, i.e., to move inappropriate mainspace pages to user space, or to subpages as essays, properly attributed, etc. Affected users, so far, have almost always considered this helpful rather than oppositional.
I encourage users to take responsibility for resources, to act as a quasi-administrators for them. With care to ensure overall neutrality, this is possible on Wikiversity, and the community will support it. If the quasi-admin respects other users, and collaboratively incorporates what matters to them, problems will be rare. I've done this now for two resources, Cold fusion and Landmark Education, which are highly controversial on Wikipedia, but not a problem here. See the Landmark resource for how what could have been particularly intractable on Wikipedia was recently handled. Neither resource is complete, but they are becoming what could be the deepest educational resources on the topic on the internet. More is coming. -Abd (discuss • contribs) 14:59, 16 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

N Not done too early. --Golden_burg111 20:57, 1 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]