Wikiversity:Candidates for Custodianship/Mike.lifeguard

Mike.lifeguard (talk • email • contribs • stats • logs • global account)

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I'd like to nominate Mike to become a probationary custodian. Mike has a long history of helping out on multiple Wikimedia projects, and would be a great asset to us both as custodian and checkuser (explained below). One thing in particular he can help us with is fixing the IP and range blocks that have been put in place over the past several weeks, since many are of the wrong type, probably hit too much of the ranges, etc. He is also very good at technical issues, and can help with fine tuning the mediawiki bells and whistles (including bugzilla requests or just modifying the local .css, .js, and other Mediawiki files). I'm happy to mentor, though I've asked Jtniell to give it a go instead, since he's more aware of some of our technical needs. --SB_Johnny ^talk 14:25, 11 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Mike.lifeguard, accept/decline nomination below. If you accept, please tell us a little about yourself:

Thanks, Johnny. I want to start out by addressing my mantra of "I'm not a part of this community" - it's unusual for someone to go from saying that to being an administrator, so I think some clarification is in order. It's clear that I don't contribute content here, however I do have experience on several wikis (English Wikibooks, Commons and Meta) as an administrator, and I don't think the management of Wikiversity is so different from other wikis that I can't to the job effectively.

When Johnny approached me regarding this, I was initially reluctant. However it struck me that Wikiversity in particular understands that administrators have a mop, not a badge - and used the term "Custodian" to reflect that. I think that spirit is right on the money, so after some consideration, I felt more comfortable with this. If the sysop tools are about cleanup (as opposed to other wikis which see things quite differently) then I think I can do the job well. Since I may be less well-known here than other wikis where I am active, I expect there'll be questions for me and I'm happy to answer them as they come along.

– Mike.lifeguard | ^@meta 15:10, 11 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Questions for the Candidate

Would this violate our "One Mike Custodian Policy"? Haha, I'm just kidding. I think this would be great. So my questions are - "How are you doing? How has your time here been so far? What areas are you most interested in?" Ottava Rima (talk) 15:24, 11 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I've had mostly positive experiences here (the ones that were not are easy to find). My interests are mainly maintenance-oriented. I'm involved in cross-wiki work (hence my >>700 accounts) and I expect anti-disruption will form a part of my role here. Beyond that, I'd be interested in exploring how Wikibooks and Wikiversity interact (or not). For example, I was the main author of b:First Aid, and I've been thinking about what I can do on Wikiversity in that vein. As a first aid instructor, I believe hands-on instruction is key - but exploring whether some material can be covered adequately in an online environment (especially a highly interactive one like a wiki). – Mike.lifeguard | ^@meta 15:36, 11 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Custodians willing to mentor

--SB_Johnny ^talk
-- Jtneill - Talk

Candidate, please indicate here if you accept one of the above custodian mentors:

Either mentor would be fine by me; I'll allow them to decide between the two of them. – Mike.lifeguard | ^@meta 15:10, 11 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Done - good luck! Cormaggio ^talk 16:43, 11 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I will mentor, but really this would be good as a team effort - I think there is a general understanding that this should be case anyway with mentorship, but since this is the first time I've mentored and ML is so experienced technically and on other projects, there are I think particular reasons for a team approach :) However, I'm also happy taking the responsibility. So, welcome aboard, Mike.lifeguard! -- Jtneill - Talk - c 01:42, 12 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's a fine approach, James. I also like to think of mentorship as a team effort - and this paves the way for community discussion when you, the (co-?)mentor, evaluate the probationary period. Cormaggio ^talk 13:35, 13 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]