Wikipedia:Administrator elections/October 2024/Candidates/Starship.paint

Nomination

Starship.paint (talk · contribs · he/him) – Hello, dear reader! This is starship.paint here. I joined Wikipedia in 2011 and since then, I have contributed over 64,000 edits. From 2011 to 2016, I mainly edited in the topic of pro wrestling, where I have brought multiple articles (example and example) to Featured Article or Good Article status, (example and example), and having articles featured at DYK (example) and TFA. In 2016, a certain individual prompted me to start editing in other topics, including the contentious topics of recent American politics, gender-related controversies, abortion, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. If elected, per WP:INVOLVED, I will not use the tools in all of the above topics' disputes (except against blatant vandalism). I believe in compromise and working together with editors who may not share the same view, but of course we must still rely on reliable sources. I believe that my record shows that I am here to serve and improve Wikipedia, and I hope that given my contributions, you will lend me your support in this poll. starship.paint (talk / cont) First posted 12:22, 13 October 2024. Last updated 13:51, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Please disclose whether you have ever edited Wikipedia for pay.

I have never engaged in paid editing and I have never had another account on Wikipedia. starship.paint (talk / cont) 12:25, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

Questions for the candidate

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: If elected, I’ll start by hanging around AN and ANI to gain some experience, and after that I will also try to help out at AE (but I will not administrate in involved topics). My work in contentious topics has led me to better appreciate the importance of AE. It is not the solution to every conflict in a contentious topic, but sometimes it is still warranted. Unfortunately, according to an active AE admin, link: there are very few admins doing any sort of AE work and many of those doing that work are doing so intermittently, and hence I believe I can eventually help assist in this area of need for topics in which I am not involved. I may dabble in ITN (judging consensus in ITN discussions to post items in the news on the main page) and branch out to other areas as I go along. I want to help Wikipedia become a more conducive place for editors to work on content.

2. What are your best contributions to Wikipedia, and why?

A: In terms of concrete achievements, I (along with User:Ribbon Salminen) created Wrestle Kingdom 9 (from a redirect), got it through DYK, GA, and FA, which earned myself and Ribbon Salminen the WP:Four Award (and the article got TFA too).

I do have another FA (with TFA), other GAs, as well as around 20 other DYKs, the majority of which are not related to pro wrestling. During the process of attaining these I have reviewed other topics’ articles for FA, and DYK.

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: I have edited in several contentious topics but I do not think many significant personal conflicts arose from these, or from what I recall, any official sanctions for those topics. I try to be civil and even-tempered, I aim to collaborate and I think I have good relations with some editors who have different opinions.

That being said, I must highlight, Wikipedia has not really caused me stress, except for one occasion in 2019 during the Wikipedia-WMF saga WP:FRAM, during which I received my only block (an indefinite one, plus talk access revoked, both lasted for less than a day). During WP:FRAM I helped to chronicle and summarize the events that had occurred. I was blocked due to me asking a named WMF staffer whether they owned a Twitter account with the same name that had been posting about WP:FRAM. I did not know it then, but this was WP:OUTING.

Being indefinitely blocked was traumatic, as I thought I may never be able to edit again. My appeal was quickly successful, after which I went to disengage myself from WP:FRAM and undertook not to repeat the same mistake. It was some time before I eventually edited normally again. After the incident I became more wary of conflict. I reverted less, moved on more, discussed if I wanted to continue the matter. I rarely template the regulars, preferring to write my own messages.

It struck me how one administrator said regarding my indefinite block that he would have blocked for two weeks instead. Perhaps the matter could have been resolved by then. Certainly, that would have reduced the emotional turmoil I had experienced. It was a lesson - behind every editor is a human with feelings. Administrators wield sanctioning powers that may affect people. When people are blocked, sometimes they do not even appeal, sometimes they do not return even after a successful appeal. This does not mean that these blocks were wrong, but this is what we risk when using them, so we must always consider carefully.

As an administrator, one would do well to remember the human behind every username.

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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.

Discussion

• Links for Starship.paint: Starship.paint (talk · contribs · deleted · count · AfD · logs · block log · lu · rfar · spi)
• Edit summary usage for Starship.paint can be found here.

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Please keep discussion constructive and civil. If you are unfamiliar with the nominee, please thoroughly review his contributions before commenting.