Wikipedia talk:Adopt-a-user/Archive 3

This is an archive of past discussions on Wikipedia:Adopt-a-user. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

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Archive 7

Adopting

I'd like to become available for adopting a user. However, the page says that one of the criteria is that an adopter mustn't have been blocked in the previous 6 months. I have been blocked once for a 3RR vio about a month ago, and since not been involved in any disputes. Am I eligible for adopter status? Sincerely, Sala Skan 15:34, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your interest in the scheme. However, your block wasn't exactly 3RR block as I read it: see talk page here for the build-up; the block reason is here "Continued edit warring over goatse article (and image) despite warnings". Although I wasn't involved in setting the threshold for block-free status, my reaction is to say that I agree with a lengthy period for "rehabilitation" purposes. Your block is less than one month old, which is far too soon for my liking. I don't think WP:AAU can risk adoptees picking up bad habits. Sorry. Come back in 5 months if you are still block-free. Bencherlite 16:04, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, it was a violation of the 3RR, at least. And I got blocked for a standard 3RR time, so the guy probably just didn't include "3RR" in the block summary. 5 months seems a bit exaggerated to me, but alright, I'll spend my time on other things. Sala Skan 16:14, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

A little piece of advice for you: one way to avoid blowing your top and getting into wars on Wikipedia is to stop reading from your watchlist. Whenever you wanna edit, just type the name of a page or crawl through the wikilinks and work. I've tried this a year ago and it cleared me of all kinds of conflicts. And because of that I accumulated reputation across editors from various fields. --Der yck C. 16:27, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm interested in adopting someone, but as the criteria stated "User shouldn't have been blocked in the last 6 months"; I was BLOCKED in January!!!! Am I qualified or do I have to wait a little longer? ThinkBlue (Hit BLUE) 19:28, 07 June 2007 (UTC)

WP:AAU Barnstar proposal

The Adopt-a-User Barnstar

text goes here

Various WikiProjects have adopted their own Project Barnstar to recognize work done for the Project - see here. WP:AAU doesn't have one - yet. That excellent adoptee, CA387, has come up with this splendid effort <lie>representing the culmination of all the work by his adopter in teaching principles of template coding, being bold, WP guidelines and the like</lie> and I invite comments on whether this should be promoted from the Personal User Awards (General awards) area here. Bencherlite 21:42, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Good idea! Well done too. Go for it! --Mschel 22:03, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Oooo, I want one! It's so..., shiny! :-) *Cremepuff 222* "As cool as grapes..." 23:33, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Wow great design! But wait, I'm afraid the people at WP awards will not accept this since the scope is too narrow... But anyways we can have a try. --Der yck C. 09:37, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Err, I disagree. WP:Awards doesn't get to tell us whether they like it or not. This is a WikiProject barnstar, not a "mainstream" barnstar that would go here, so WP:AAU decides whether (a) we want one and (b) this design is acceptable for our use. From the text at the start of the Wikipedia:WikiProject awards page:

A WikiProject award is awarded for work on a WikiProject, or work of substantial interest to those members of that WikiProject. Once the members of a given project have decided on what form their project star should take it can be added here.

Also, you might not have heard, but Wikipedia:Barnstar and award proposals has been tagged as "historical" after the bureaucracy involved was condemned at a MfD discussion. Bencherlite 10:01, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Of course I have heard - I was one of the early moderators of BAP. --Der yck C. 10:29, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, didn't know that - never got involved, but saw that it had gone. Bencherlite 10:51, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Haha... Yeh... Only when things get deleted from Wikipedia do they get full attention... That's why people nowadays say "esperanzify", though the meaning of this term has nothing to do with the old Esperanza group, nor the meaning of the word esperanza. --Der yck C. 10:54, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

<even more off topic>How true</back on topic> Bencherlite 10:58, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

'Tis bittersweet, but I think we should award one to Flameviper for his early work in starting the project. - 2-16 16:57, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Well... then we should really make this up as soon as possible. --Der yck C. 05:36, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm glad everyone liked it so much. I've moved it to the WikiProject Awards from the Personal User Awards. You can use it by typing {{subst:Adopt-a-User Barnstar|message ~~~~}}. Cheers! --CA387 06:49, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Told you he was good. I've added it to the front page too. Bencherlite 08:51, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Merge Discussion:

G1ggy suggested the merge of Mentorship and Adopt-a-user

I support the merge of "voluntary mentorship" only. Since Mentorship is part of the dispute resolution process, having voluntary mentorship still seemingly be part of the dispute resolution process probably makes it undesirable to most users. Adopt-a-user, however, is good for voluntary mentorship. The "mentorship" program should be dedicated to only involuntary mentorship that is part of a dispute resolution. Though adopt-a-user could also be implemented to contain an involuntary program as well. But the merger of only voluntary with adopt-a-user is probably the best in my opinion. --HAL2008 16:41, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I oppose this merge because mentorship is part of dispute resolution, which is when two experienced users cannot get along with each other. Adopt-a-User, however, is for experienced users to help new users learn the ropes. (âzel zany - review) 16:58, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I would oppose, since these two things don't seem to have the same goal at all. However, is this mentorship thing used at all? I can only find two cases in which arbcom used mentorship (based on the inbound links), both from late 2005. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to mark Wikipedia:Mentorship as historical, instead. --Sopoforic 05:23, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

My suggest was mainly based on Sopoforic's comments; it's not being used. If, in the rare case that someone actually wanted mentorship, I'm sure it would be easier for everyone to redirect them to this program, since it's a hell of a lot more active. - G 1 ggy ^Talk/_Contribs 06:06, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

~~I agree; it seems that mentorship is part of dispute resolution, so I must oppose the merge. -- Cielomobile ^{talk / contribs} 09:09, 11 June 2007 (UTC)~~

Actually it seems fine to merge voluntary membership into WP:ADOPT, as long as involuntary membership remains separate. -- Cielomobile ^{talk / contribs} 09:11, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, how about just a note at the top that says new users may wish to look at WP:AAU, and more experienced users may wish to look at WP:ADMINCOACH, then remove the language about voluntary mentorship from that page? --Sopoforic 13:27, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Agree that involuntary mentorship shouldn't be part of AAU. There's also WP:ASSIST {Wikipedia:Editor assistance) for discussion/help for more experienced users with particular problems. Bencherlite 20:10, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Time limit

Is there a time limit as to how long you have to wait until you can adopt someone, if you yourself have just recently graduated from the adoption program? Dreamy 01:38, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

No, there isn't. But make sure you are able to answer any questions etc. - G 1 ggy ^Talk/_Contribs 04:49, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Inactive users

Should we remove users from the list who have not been active in a long time? This could apply to adopters and adopties. --Mschel 00:33, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

I think three edit-less months is good enough a benchmark. --Der yck C. 06:08, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, no. We should only update the adopters' status on Wikipedia:Adopt-a-User/Adoptee's Area/Adopters. Users were in the project once, and they may come around again, it's a bad idea to remove them from the list. Listing them as being inactive is good enough. As for the adoptees, I don't see the advantages of removing their names from the category. Removal would only be necessary and helpful in the future when the category is getting too long, and the editor is inactive for a year or so. Three months is a rather short time. Pea ceNT 09:36, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

The category is already too long to be reader-friendly. --Der yck C. 17:26, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Question: How long is considered too long? Also, it seems most of the users in Category:Wikipedians seeking to be adopted in Adopt-a-user have been offered adoption. There's actually no backlog. Pea ceNT 05:19, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Actually, both problems were recently addressed. Matthew Yeager went through the adoptees list and removed banned and inactive users (not sure what the specific criteria for inactive were), and left messages on the other's talk pages offering adoption. I believe that all those requesting adoption have now been offered adoption except those who added their names after Matthew's message. I see no problem with 'dropping' folks who have requested adoption and then do not respond to two or more offers of adoption after a month or two, leaving them a note explaining why the template was removed from their page and letting them know that they were welcome to replace the template if they still wanted to be adopted.

I agree that the list is too long. Is the current list completely chronological now? That is, is the first person listed the oldest, and are all the newest requestees at the very end? Would it be better to have the users listed by month for greater clarity?

Vishwin60 sent a message to all listed adopters letting them know we were trying to revitalize the project and asking them to comment and/or update their status. The adopters list should probably have some sort of maintainence also, we don't want inactive adopters to be unresponsive to those who might request adoption. Changing their status to inactive and letting them know what we've done and why would give them a chance to opt back in at a future date while keeping adoptees from getting no response to a request for adoption.--killing sparrows ^(chirp!) 22:18, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

The list of users requesting adoption is now totally chronological--I went through a while ago and manually added the date adoption was requested to the template for every user who was requesting adoption; I thought that I had left a note to that effect on your talk page, but I may have neglected to do so. I've also removed a few templates from users who haven't edited since February or so. It'd be good to go through and remove the templates from anyone who hasn't edited in more than two months, I'd think. Of course, we'd want to leave a note explaining that.

I don't think that we should split them up by month. Ideally, we wouldn't have anyone waiting a whole month for adoption anyway; once we get the current backlog cleared (and it is shrinking, slowly), it should always be manageable anyway. The best thing that we can do is to remove the inactive users who are requesting adoption, which will probably cut out 15-20, then just start offering adoption beginning with the oldest requests. I'm not sure how many active adopters we have now, but an additional 10-15 adopters would probably be enough to totally clear the category of users requesting adoption, even if no current adopters helped out. If we can get enough people adopting for the program to be self-sustaining, that'd be best.

Regarding inactive adopters: it's probably possible to have a bot or script or something to look at all the people who are offering adoption and discover when their last contribution was. We could use this to find anyone who hasn't been active in a while and so keep the category (and list) clear of inactive users. Let me know if this seems like a good idea, and I can try to work something out. --Sopoforic 03:32, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Question: What's the purpose of having the list/category clean? The backlog urges people to be more active. About the adopters, I don't see the point in removing their names if they're inactive. As I said, users were in the project once, and they may come around again. People who go taking a three-month Wikibreak wouldn't appreciate it when they come back and discover they've been left out of a project which they were involved in previously. I suggest splitting off the members section to identify active and non-active members, definitely not removing members from the list. Pea ceNT 05:19, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

We want the list of potential adoptees to be clear because we don't want people to be waiting for adoption offers for four months, which is the current situation. Small list -> short wait. Regarding the list of adopters: the purpose of that list is to allow adoptees to choose an adopter that they like. If there are inactive users (and, eventually, we would expect that the list will contain mostly inactive users), then an adoptee will ask an inactive user for adoption, and then never receive a response. This isn't a desirable outcome, so it's to our benefit (since it benefits the adoptees) to keep the list clear of inactive users. --Sopoforic 09:08, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

(unindent) I made a little program to check the date of the last contributions of a set of editors, and ran it on Category:Wikipedians seeking to adopt in Adopt-a-user. Most have edited in May. Those who haven't are (with date of last edit):

Lethaniol (25 April)
Saturation2 (10 April)
Thatperson (6 April)
Walter_Humala (2 April)
Willscrlt (14 April)
Jfell (12 February)
Avatarfan6666 (30 March)

That's the data. Discuss. --Sopoforic 14:22, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, first off I think it's pretty good that less than 10% are currently inactive. I wonder about the list you used though, I notice I am not in that category, was it recently updated?--killing sparrows ^(chirp!) 16:13, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I pulled it today, right before I ran the program on it. You aren't in that category because you aren't using {{adopting}}, which people who are intending to adopt are meant to use. I suppose that you've put yourself on the list but not in the category, which is unfortunate from the standpoint of automation. In order to test the people on the list and not in the category, I'd have to make the list by hand, probably, which would be a pain.

The low percentage of people inactive is actually quite a surprise, but a welcome one. I'll take a look at the list page and see if it's regex friendly; if so I can re-run my program on it to get the inactivity information for the users on it. I'll let you know what happens. --Sopoforic 02:47, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Template added! I notice there are some others missing from the list but I'll bet the percentages hold. Quite cool. âThe preceding unsigned comment was added by Killing sparrows (talk â¢ contribs) 08:05, 20 May 2007 (UTC).

So, I looked at the list, and it seems that people have signed their names in every inconvenient way imaginable, so I'm not going to be able to easily check them. However, unless for some reason people inclined to use the templates are also inclined to be more active, it's pretty likely that we'll have about the same percentage of users inactive in the list as in the cat.

One question that I should have asked earlier, but didn't: how many adoptees are approaching the adopters and asking to be adopted, as opposed to using {{adoptme}} and waiting? Is it common? Inquiring minds want to know. --Sopoforic 07:08, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

FWIW I haven't had any ask me, and I was adopted after putting the template on my userpage and waiting. I think that at the present time (after a random sample of 20) most everyone on the adoptees list has had at least one and sometimes two offers of adoption. By the way, regarding 'assignments' for adoptees I noticed that User:Cremepuff222 does have a list of tasks for adoptees here, something to think about. I was originally not too hot on the idea but these seem pretty simple and worth a look.--killing sparrows ^(chirp!) 07:26, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

I'd personally go with 3-4 months before you take someone off the list. A user I requested to be the adopter of hasn't been active for 2 and a half months now. Meldshal 42 17:11, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

Question regarding Adoption Vs. Mentorship

This is a question regarding the potential overlap of the two programs above. Personally, depending on how you all feel, I can see adoption, perhaps with a slightly different template, being extended to some more experienced editors in instances where they are now beginning to work in article topics with which they are not familiar. For instance, when I started the WikiProject Oriental Orthodoxy, I have to admit that I wasn't really sure exactly which churches were covered by this term, and that sort of thing (hopefully on a smaller scale) probably happens to other users as well. I can see that if an editor is beginning to devote a lot of attention to areas where they have a lot of enthusiasm, but not much experience, or really have experience in only one or two areas and are now expanding beyond it (like maybe to some of the other wiki entities , i.e. Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikinews, etc. or even if there previous Wikipedia work has dealt with only one subject). Also, and here I acknowledge my own lack of knowledge of other aspects of wikipedia as well, I have seen that there are a number of editors who have indicated by userboxes that they might have a condition which could occasionally result in involuntary problematic behavior. I'm thinking of users who use some of the Wikipedia:Userboxes/Health userboxes, for instance. I can see how, if an editor with a health condition might be considering trying to become a more active part of wikipedia, but think that a condition might cause some sort of problematic conduct, that they might want to have, for lack of a better word, an emergency alert contact person. This could be particularly useful for, for instance, a person whose neuromuscular control occasionally lapses, and they think they might at some point wind up adding incoherent gibberish to an article accidentally. It might also be useful for some of those with mental conditions as well, particularly Asperger syndrome, from what I understand of it. These adoptions would be somewhat different, in that they would probably be rather longer than others, but would still potentially be rather valuable in keeping editors with these conditions active and contributing members of the community. Are there any wikipedia groups which might better deal with circumstances such as these, or would this be the best location for such a support/assistance program? John Carter 20:40, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

(Hullo, John!) That's an interesting thought. I'd be interested to hear what others think of it. The Jade Knight 01:37, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't mean to offend but could you try making your message more concise and/or cut into paragraphs? A wall of text is fairly difficult to read for many people. (I'm not very fond of them myself) - Zero1328 _Talk? 05:00, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

As for the first part ('adoptions' for topics), I think that is more suited to the WikiProjects. A post on most project talk pages should get you any information you need, probably. As for the second part, I'm not totally sure what you mean. Do you mean that the adopter would watch all of the adoptee's edits, in case he adds gibberish to an article? For anyone even moderately active, this would be quite a large task, and I'm not sure that the benefits would outweigh the costs. However, perhaps others will feel differently. --Sopoforic 12:16, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

Basically, I'm referring to maybe creating (if there already isn't one) a way in which an editor who has any of a variety of personal characteristcs which might potentially prove problematic, like some of those at Wikipedia:Userboxes#Health, and is aware of that fact, can indicate that and maybe have someone listed who can be contacted who might be able to work with them productively should related problematic behavior ever arise.

I've seen that we have a large number of editors who use one or more of the userboxes on that page, and that some of them might be for personal quirks which could, in time, be problematic. Asberger Syndrome is one of those that comes to mind. From what I know of the subject, individuals with such a condition can sometimes involuntarily take to using obscene speech for an extended period of time. That behavior could be a problem if it were to surface here. If such a person had a "contact" listed on their page who might be able to address it in a way the party would be most receptive to, someone offended by such speech could contact someone who would, with luck, be less likely to respond with similar obscenities, and maybe, as it were, apologize to the offended party. That party could also maybe communicate with the user in question non-confrontationally and, if required and maybe permitted by the user in advance, either block the adopted user from the problem page or maybe from wikipedia in general without controversy or delay until the problem disappears, when the delay required when going through regular channels might not prevent further negative developments from arising.

So basically, it wouldn't be someone keeping an eye on another user, but someone (or group of people) who would be able to step in quickly and maybe deflate a situation which could become worse without such involvement. I don't know how likely this is, but I do see that {{User Aspie}}, to use the previous example, is used on about 380 userpages, and that might be the condition which might most likely create these situations. I hope that's a bit clearer. John Carter 13:21, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

The term mentoring definitely makes better sense as 'mentoring is a more adult to adult contractual relationship" whereas adoption implies a parent to child relationship. Obviously some people have this huge child in them that wants to be adopted/ parented and some people have this huge parent in them wanting to adopt a child. This is evident by the number of people offering to be "strict" critical parent adopters and i suspect some would even want to spank their adopted kids. Perhaps the wikipedia is not an appropriate place to encourage family games and social games. A more adult relationship like mentoring is perhaps needed to have mature outputs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by crguna (talk • contribs)

Matrix17 (talk · contribs)

As part of an agreement to be unblocked, Matrix17 has requested adoption. If someone intends to accept him for adoption, could you contact Durova (talk · contribs) or me so someone can unblock him? Thanks.--Isotope23 18:54, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

How can a user who has been blocked by community consensus (at the end of the discussion) be offered parole like this? --Servant Saber 15:30, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

It seems as though a chance to get some helpful advice rather than a barrage of blocks is improving his editing. His spelling and grammar aren't great (what do expect from someone whose first language isn't English?) but the content is fairly good. It could take a while, but we'll make a Wikipedian of him yet. Now, if only we could broaden his horizons a little further than Swedish B-list celebrities... Carrot Man 11:08, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Adoption fairy?

I've been a bit of an "adoption fairy" myself, putting short notes on not-yet-offered-adoption users' talk pages that look like this:

User:Example is looking for someone to adopt. Would you like to be adopted by him/her? ~user:orngjce223 how am I typing? 01:30, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm assuming that's fine, correct? ~user:orngjce223 how am I typing? 01:30, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

I think that's just splendid. The Jade Knight 02:28, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

I created a template for that, so it can be done quickly. Template:Adoptsuggest ----HAL2008_TK ^CT 21:59, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Adopt-a-User Barnstar:

I noticed that nobody put the Adopt-a-User Barnstar on the WP:Barnstar page yet, so I put it under General Barnstars. Just to give you guys the heads up. ----HAL2008_TK ^CT 21:47, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, that's because it's at Wikipedia:WikiProject awards, where it shares the company of, err, other WikiProject awards. As the other WikiProject awards aren't also listed at the WP:BARNSTAR page, I have reverted your addition. (Nice idea about the template, by the way, although using "have a nice day" in the text means that I probably won't use it on principle!) Bencherlite ^Talk 01:08, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Ah ha! So that's where it was, Giggy told me it was somewhere, but said to check What links here on it's image, which didn't list it there. Don't worry about it. And yeah, I'll take out the "have a nice day", it seems too store-like... or something. ----HAL2008_TK ^CT 03:42, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

I deny everything! Hal, I told you to check here, where there's a link to Wikipedia:WikiProject awards ;) Giggy _U^CP 03:50, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

BalanceRestored

I've been advised to get adopted by Vassyana as people are finding my edits a bit serious. But before that I would like to understand how this thing works.BalanceRestored 07:36, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

You'll have a somewhat different experience depending on who adopts you. As for myself, I mostly encourage any questions from my adoptees, and occasionally provide suggestions if I notice anything in their contribution histories that wants a comment. Essentially, I'm here to answer questions and help my adoptees deal with any situations that may arise. I believe that there are some others here who take a rather more active approach; I'll let them speak for themselves. --Sopoforic 00:20, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Blocked user seeking adoption

A recently blocked user has requested adoption. I would be willing to lift (or at least lessen) the block should he or she receive such an offer. If anyone is up for it, the info can be read at User talk:ZordZapper. Pastordavid 21:15, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

quick question

My adopter, User:HammerHeadHuman, is a great guy and a solid contributor. Right now, he is on a wikibreak (and has been for a couple months). But previously while on wikibreak, he responded to my and his other adoptee's talk comments. I gave him an update for July awhile back, and up to this moment he has not responded. In mainspace, he has not contributed since June. What is the procedure for graduation, or do I simply have to un-adopt myself and start over again if HHH is incognito? VanTucky ^(talk) 07:08, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh wow, I'm really suprised to see you're being adopted. Anyways, the process is to add {{AdopteeGrad|HammerHeadHuman}} to your userpage (or just remove the "adopted by..." box), and leave him a talk page note or email telling him what you did. Giggy ^{Talk | Review} 22:13, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Criteria

The third criterion, "[a]dopters should not have any recent blocks (last 6 months) or vandalism (last 3 months)," seems a bit silly to me. Could I suggest you try to readjust this criteria to be more realistic? Not blocked in the last six months would, for example, disallow Jimbo... maybe "is a user in good standing" instead, to eliminate numerical barriers and the potential for lawyering over eligibility altogether? Picaroon (t) 04:03, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Jimbo is special - most users are blocked by rouge admins. Giggy ^Talk 04:50, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

adoption tasks

i adopted my first user yesterday. i have seen on a few pages that people have tasks for the new users but i have nothing. all i have been doing recently is answer questions for the person. do i need a list of tasks for the user to graduate or is it recommended. please reply to my talk page. Smithcool 20:34, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

(also copied to User talk:Smithcool)

You needn't have any tasks for your adoptees. Some adopters have a rather structured approach to adopting, and some (including myself) do as you do and simply answer questions and offer advice. You should do whatever works best for you and your adoptees. --Sopoforic 01:39, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Possible problem

Holmes.sherlock has been offering adoption despite not meeting the criteria and despite requesting adoption himself. For other issues, see his talk page. I have removed him from the list of potential adopters. Perhaps others could keep an eye open as well. Thanks, Bencherlite ^Talk 07:41, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

I just offered him adoption then. CattleGirl ^talk 08:18, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

I saw. Thanks! You're braver than I am. Having an admin paying close attention to him is probably no bad thing either... Bencherlite ^Talk 08:21, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Recruitment

A mentor needs to be found for PalestineRemembered. This user has experienced many hardships in his time here, and has had a controversial editing history. The most recent discussion about him ended with a consensus that he should go through mentorship. Unfortunately, a person who volunteered for this task [1] has recently turned out to be a sockpuppet and was indef blocked [2]. So would anyone like to take on this task? There is some discussion already at WP:AN#PalestineRemembered (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log). 20:26, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Question

Does anything ever happen here, or is it like so much of wiki[??]: more advertizing & promises, rather than reality, truth, results??

[[ hopiakuta | [[ [[ %c2%a1 ]] [[ %c2%bf ]] [[ %7e%7e ]] ~~ -]] 07:00, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean here at Adopt-A-User or at wikipedia in general? Urbane (Talk) (Contributions) 22:15, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Can I?

Can I adopt? Here's my history. -- ThinkBlue (Hit BLUE) 00:20, 01 September 2007 (UTC)

So long as you can get on often to check your messages and are willing to devote time to your adoptee if necessary then you seem to meet all of the requirements. I can see no reason why you should not adopt. If you need any help putting this into practice then please drop a note here or contact me personally and we can sort something out for you. Urbane (Talk) (Contributions) 22:33, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Yeah I'm on Wikipedia almost everyday. Yeah, I wanted to know first hand before I did anything. Thanks, if I need anything I'll make sure to drop a note. -- ThinkBlue (Hit BLUE) 00:38, 02 September 2007 (UTC)

How to??

I am realy new and i've been looking everywhere on this site to find out things and i cant even find an adopter and i realy need help with this i dont know anything about this.Oh and also contact me my name is Goldxeagle on this thing.

Contact one of the users listed here. Dihydrogen Monoxide (H₂O) 00:21, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

More boxes?

Could we have some more boxes for our adopt a user status. maybe something like 'This user can adopt {{1}} more users' where {{1}} is a paramete liek adoptnum|1 . or a box adoptfull with text like 'This user has current adoptees but can not take anymore for the time being' Blacksmith^talk 00:28, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

Well, I find that some adoptees take more time than others, so I don't think that specifying a particular number would be especially useful. What are the adoptees meant to do? Check the number, check the adopter's contribs to see if they have offered adoption to more than n users so far... something? And, I think that just removing {{adopting}} should be enough if the point is to discourage new users from requesting adoption--it will remove the adopter from the category, after all, if they remove the template.

Incidentally, paramete liek adoptnum sounds like scary latin. I like it. --Sopoforic 11:32, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

whoops that was a typo i meant 'parameter like adoptnum,. l like it toBlacksmith^talk 12:20, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

Looking for a special adopter

Hi all! We have a user that seems to be autistic who is having trouble communicating and properly contributing. He has made some good contributions, but we fear he may be banned if we cannot find a way to help him because many of his edits could be seen as disruptive, although not intentionally. A few other editors and I have been discussing his case on my talkpage and have decided that his best bet is a one-on-one mentor or adopter who can read through his edits before they are posted. A potential adopter should probably have some experience with autism, and possibly talk to this user over the telephone. We realize that these are rather specific criteria and we probably won't find anyone who has the time to deal with this, but I really feel that we should do what we can to help someone who has good faith try to get his bit in. After all, this is the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. : ) If anyone is interested, you can join our conversation, it is at User talk:L'Aquatique#Hopiakuta. Thanks! L'Aquatique ^talk^to^me 19:28, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Candidate?

Durova has suggested that I should look in to being adopted. I'm not sure exactly what issues she feels I need to work on, so I'll just give a quick background/overview. I've been editing since January 2007, but had been watching and reading WP:POLICY for about a month before. I thought this program was more for people who are not very good at or don't want to read the rules here.

I'm sorry I don't have more specifics, but because Durova could be right I thought I'd see if my questions could get answers here. Anynobody 03:26, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
Anynobody (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) Anyeverybody (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) (I had a password issue, which is why there are two accounts.) It occured to me it'd be easier to review my appropriateness for ADOPT if I made it easier to see my history. Anynobody 22:30, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi Anynobody, did Durova say exactly why she wanted you to join the adopt-a-user program? Maybe you could ask her or get somebody else to ask her. I do believe thta you have missed the object of the program somewhat however. It isn't some kind of probationary process for disruptive or 'bad' editors. It's simply a way for user's to develop their skills with the close help of a more experienced editor. I myself was adopted. I have seen users with literally thousands of edits request adoption in order to learn things that they did not already know. It is no shame whatsoever. If you would like help contacting Durova about this please leave a message here or at my talk page. Urbane (Talk) (Contributions) 22:55, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

I recommend WP:ADOPT to editors who are in arbitration and could use some guidance, especially if they've made mistakes and want to turn things around. Hope that's not a problem over here - I haven't received any complaints if it is. Durova^Charge! 03:13, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Please don't think that I don't think this program couldn't be useful. I also fully believe Durova wants to help me, but she wasn't very specific about what I need help on as she sees it. (She can vouch for me, I asked quite a few times.) I'm theorizing she doesn't want to offend me which is why she wasn't specific, because I promise it did occur to me that any potential adopters would want to know what's wrong (Durova this is exactly what I was afraid of, by not having anything specific to address I feel like I'm "teasing" the editors here.) I feel no shame in posting here, except for the not knowing why part, nor should anyone else who takes advantage of the opportunities provided by ADOPT.

It's just that when you went through the program I'm sure you knew what or why you were doing it. I've been referred here by a person who truly wants to help me, just without saying how. I decided there must be something so obvious anyone could tell, which is why I went ahead and posted here. Anynobody 03:36, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Don't worry, no offence was taken. It seems that Durova has referred you because you hae been in arbitration. If you would still like to take part in the porgram (what with it being voluntary) then you would be more than welcome to do so. It seems Durova would like you to. It sounds like you could just do with someone to watch over you, intervening if things get too heated, assuming i have not misread the situation.

If you do wish to partake in the program then you can either select an adopter from the list of available adopters, or i can watch over you. Do not be put off by my lack of edits on this wiki, i have more than sufficint experience for the role.

Let me know what you decide, either here or on my talk page.

Regards -- Urbane (Talk) (Contributions) 18:05, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

I'm so sorry not to have responded sooner, stopped watching the page around the 11th. The truth is that I'm a victim of human tendencies when dealing with disputes between someone known and relatively unknown over garden variety Wiki issues. Since it seems like everyone who disagrees with pretty much anything an admin does, says the admin is abusing the tools or screwing up when said admins are obviously not. So like a person in a prison who insists they are innocent, I have an uphill battle.

I honestly don't feel any additional stress by this difficulty. Anyone who would intervene on my behalf could be making themselves look as "bad" as I do, which actually might start causing stress because I have no emotional stake here but a mentor might. If I get in trouble, or banned (which I seriously doubt would happen) I'll just keep making images on the commons and maybe write an amusing e-book on why Wikipedia is doomed by the negative human tendencies which usually eliminate the positive ones in optimistic notions. I don't wanna feel guilty about tarnishing a good editors reputation if that worst case scenario happens. Anynobody 23:58, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Don't worry about the lateness in reply, people have taken longer before. You seem have a good grasp of things, and a good working ethic. I don't think you need the mentoring to be honest, i don't think that you would benefit from it. If you do run into trouble in the future don't hesitate to ask for help though, it's here for you if you need it. Urbane (Talk) (Contributions) 20:07, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

I think this is a great program so if indeed persistent trouble finds me, I've not taken it off my list of options. Thank you very much for your time, and once again I'm sorry to make the original request sound so vague. I feel like Homer Simpson might have when trying to get a letter he wrote to his boss back from the post office:

Clerk: Can I help you?

Homer:Yes, I believe you have a letter for me. My name is Mr. Burns.

Clerk: Ok Mr. Burns, what's your first name?

Homer: I don't know.

Asking why I need mentoring is a fair question,

Me: Hi, do I need mentoring?

You: Why?

Me: I don't know.

Anynobody 05:26, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

hi adopters!

it could possibly be usefull to compare your efforts to the german 'Mentorenprogramm' - at least for those who speak a little german... let's get in touch and exchange our experiences! regards, --Ullipurwin 02:24, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Should there be a central place for prospective adoptees to say something about themselves?

This discussion started on Category talk:Wikipedians seeking to be adopted in Adopt-a-user, which I just know is on everyone's watchlist... as it makes more sense to have the chat here, here it is.

(start of copied chat)

Is there anyway that we could make this page a table such as the one for Adopters? I would do it myself but I do not know how. Alex Barrow 19:22, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

There's no particular need to create a third way for those seeking adoption to seek adoption: (1) they can add the userbox to their page, which will put them into this category; and / or (2) they can go to the list of adopters and ask directly. Having a table as another option would, I think, be redundant to option 1 (and the table would be liable to get out of date very quickly, making it useless for those seeking someone to adopt, who can just go straight to the category.) Bencherlite ^Talk 22:12, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

I think it may be helpful for Adopters to be able to have a bird's eye view of the adoptee's and their devotion, commitment, and goals at wikipedia. For instance, adoptees could list some of their interests or skills so a like-minded adopter could find a good match. Would a table not be able to automatically remove those whose status has changed from adoptee to adopted? Alex Barrow 22:32, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

Alternatively, their could be a template for adoptees to display this sort information in their userpage in a neat and organized manner. Perhaps this will be my first task after finding an adopter. Alex Barrow 22:35, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

This discussion would be better on the main adoption talk page; I'll copy it across now. Bencherlite ^Talk 23:57, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

(end of copied chat)

I think (a) getting adoptees to fill in a table with their devotion, commitment and goals etc is instruction creep; (b) it is information that they can add on their userpage anyway if they want; (c) tables aren't as easy for new editors to edit as a blank user page, and wouldn't update automatically in the way that the category does when the userbox is added/removed; (d) templates for adoptees to use on their userpage runs into similar problems as (c) and possibly (a) too. But, hey, what do others think? And does someone feel like offering to adopt Alex?! Bencherlite ^Talk 00:05, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

I agree that we don't really need a table for this--the user page will work at least as well. I suppose we could add a note to WP:ADOPT mentioning that the potential adoptees can use their user pages to talk about themselves, but I'm not sure there's much room in the current layout. I think I'm going to propose a redesign of our front page to make it more targeted at adoptees. --Sopoforic 00:35, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Upon further review, I agree with you about the redundancy and difficulty of the table and I support Sopoforic's new design. Alex Barrow 15:32, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Redesign

I mentioned above that I think WP:ADOPT needs a redesign, and I've put together a little demonstration of what I think we might do at User:Sopoforic/AAU Redesign. I also redesigned the Adoptee's Area at User:Sopoforic/AAU Redesign/Adoptee's Area. My intent was to make the pages focus more on the adoptees and what they need--after all, the adopters are meant to be experienced users; they ought to be able to follow a link to find further instructions without too much hand holding.

Mostly, I just cut a bunch of stuff that was particularly relevant to adoptees and rewrote the instructions. I've cut quite a lot, so there's room to add some back or expand on other parts if we need it. Of course, none of my prose is final; I just threw it up to demonstrate what I think we ought to be saying.

If we want to make changes like these, we'll also need to move some of the stuff I've cut to the adopter's area. I haven't done this yet, since that's rather less important, and I wanted to see how everyone felt before I invested too much time. So, evaluate it and let me know what you think (even if you think that we don't need to make any changes at all). --Sopoforic 01:59, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, this simplified design is indeed easier for a new user such as myself to follow. I spent too long yesterday searching for Userboxes as I was not sure of their official name. Alex Barrow 15:30, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Details, Help Me!

I don't know how a user adopts another user. I'm in the process of being adopted myself, but I don't know how to reply back and say that I want to be adopted! Help me out here! Pokemon Buffy Titan 12:06, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Replied at your talk page. Bencherlite ^Talk 12:20, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Lost request

_{(I was preparing to link this conversation to one on a talk page, and noticed that a plea for help may have fallen between the cracks so to speak. I'd find out myself if help is still wanted, however time is a commodity which I seem to be short of lately.)Anynobody 04:29, 26 November 2007 (UTC)}

It's very hard to adopt a person or be adpted yourself and its very confusing,so if someone coul help meBrewster 00:19, 26 October 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Afarila (talk • contribs)

Adopter Inactive

My adopter has been inactive for ten days. What should I do? -- Whiteandnerdy111 (talk) 19:16, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Hi Whiteandnerdy111,

If your adoptee has only been inactive for ten days, I would say hold fire for the moment. It's not uncommon for regular editors to drop off every now and then depending on real life situations. You probably know all this already though. However if in another ten days or so your aoptee has not made any additional edits you could think about suspending adoption. I personally would leave it longer, but that's completely up to you. The best way to suspend adoption if you're going to do it I reckon is to leave a friendly message on the adoptess talk page saying that you are ending their adoption and that if they do come back they can leave a message on your talk page and you will pick the adoption back up. Though you could just end it outright.

Urbane (Talk) (Contributions) 22:14, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Urbane seems to have mistaken your question. My answer is similar to his--that it isn't that uncommon for real life to interrupt people for a little while. If your adopter doesn't come back soon, you can just request a new adopter. If you'd like, you can feel free to ask me any questions you may have while you wait for your adopter to return. --Sopoforic (talk) 05:46, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Apolgies, I'm not sure why I read adopter as adoptee. Things have been really hectic lately. Please don't hesistate to ask for advice again later Whiteandnerdy if you feel you need it, either here or on my talk page. -- Urbane (Talk) (Contributions) 16:51, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

However, the above discussion does raise a question which might show up elsewhere as well. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a few "emergency contact" adopters listed somewhere, for editors who need a bit more immediate response than they might get if an adopter has become inactive for is simply just away for a while. John Carter 17:03, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

This has happened a couple of times in the past, I think, and we generally respond fairly quickly with someone offering to take up the slack. If we had a list of 'emergency contacts', then we'd also have to make sure it didn't suffer from attrition. Our present setup works pretty well--this page is meant to be that emergency contact, as it says on the adoptee's area: "If you have any immediate or urgent queries, or if you are having problems with your adopter, please leave a message on the main Adopt-a-User talk page and other editors will do what they can to help you." Of course, if you think that we could do better, we should consider it, but I think you'd need to make a case for it. --Sopoforic 10:14, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

I need help

like the title says, I need help because I am just . . . confused. Like I have checked out other people's account before, and they have those boxes that say things in them about them, I want to do that. Many more things too. Uzumaki Dude 20:30, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

If you wish, I can adopt you. I am also replying on your talk page. Malinaccier (talk • contribs) 20:35, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. But I want to actually know how to do the userbox thing. I looked at the page for it. Brain hurts. so I did put up that thing so that someone can adopt me. Uzumaki Dude 23:43, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Redesign, redux

It's been a while since I proposed redesigning the AAU pages to make them simpler. I've received only one response (which was positive, and for which I'm grateful), so unless someone objects, I'm going to be implementing the sort of changes I've put on my mockup at User:Sopoforic/AAU Redesign the next time I get a chance. --Sopoforic 10:28, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

I'll aay go for it sopoforic. The design you're proposing is much better and has my support. -- Urbane (Talk) (Contributions) 21:33, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to becomg an adopter

I'd like to adopt a new user and help them with Wikipedia, something I've helped edit since 2005 (but I got an account in 2006 once I got tired of the problems of having proxy IPs). I have a few questions first.

1. I'm not actively involved in any Wikiprojects and have only created a few articles, although I've created a LOT of useful redirects. Am I active enough to be of much help? 2. I have a couple mild warnings from October 2006 for a couple silly edits I made, but no blocks on my record, and haven't made any crazy edits since October 2006. Will this negatively impact my chances of being chosen to adopt a new user? 3. How do I let people know that I'm willing to adopt someone? 4. More importantly, how will willing adoptees know that I'm here?

If anyone could answer these questions, it would be greatly appreciated. MVillani1985 (talk) 06:11, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, you've only got about 250 mainspace edits, spread out over the last year and a few months. The issue with this isn't so much how active you are in editing--as long as you're available when your adoptees need you, that's enough--but rather that it's hard to tell whether you're really knowledgeable enough to help your adoptees.

If someone asked you how to fix a template, or what the copyright concerns were on a particular kind of image, or how our deletion policy works, would you know? Do you know where to change usernames? Where to report vandalism? Do you understand the dispute resolution process?

You don't have to know everything, but you need at least a general understanding of a lot of things, and that is best gained by participating in editing the encyclopedia. So, answer your first question: you might be capable, but it's not possible to tell that from your contributions. We say that adopters should have at least 500 edits, and while that's not a totally strict rule, it is there for a reason. The fact that you have only six edits in project and project talk space makes me doubt that you know the processes well enough to aid your adoptees.

Of course, I don't want you to be discouraged by this! We'll be happy to have you, once you're ready, but you probably ought to try participating a bit more first: find a wikiproject that interests you and see what they're doing; look through WP:AFD and see if you have any comments to add; try fixing up some of the articles in each category at Wikipedia:Cleanup to get a better idea of the editorial process. When you're ready, we'll still be here. --Sopoforic (talk) 21:26, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the prompt reply. I'm very active (I'm on almost everyday), and I do a lot of minor editing, but my biggest problem is that I'm mostly a lurker/reader. I'd love to start a wikiproject for the Altoona, Pennsylvania area which includes Altoona, Johnstown, State College, and surrounding small towns. But I don't know how I'd go about starting a wikiproject. I know about fixing a template, reporting vandalism, and the deletion policy. I don't know about changing usernames and dispute resolution. As you said, I've still got some to learn, so I'll probably put on hold something like adopting a newcomer. Right now I wanna find out how to start a wikiproject and find help from others to work on it. MVillani1985 (talk) 22:55, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Assignment

What are good assignments (if any) to give to your adoptee? Malinaccier (talk • contribs) 00:09, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

Hi Malinaccier,

This is a good question, and definitely something that has provided me with food for thought. Assignments are a tricky concept. First off, be sure that your adopter wishes to undergo such a process, wikipedia is volunteer based after all. If they are up for it then there are hundreds of useful assingments that you could suggest/give. you could set a quiz, or make up a mock-up of an article and let the adoptee go about fixing a set of deliberate errors that you put in, or use a real article (though i wouldnt suggest putting deliberate errors into a real article to practice on!). I know these examples arent great, but the thing to keep in mind if you go ahead is that the assignments should be relatively challenging but not too taxing either. You don't want to scare your adoptee.

Hope this helps, if not let me know :)

Urbane (Talk) (Contributions) 22:21, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

I don't give any assignments to my adoptees (as I mentioned when this was brought up before at Wikipedia talk:Adopt-a-User/Archive 1#adoption tasks), but if you are interested in giving tasks, I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to create artificial assignments. You might want to have a look at WP:CLEANUP, where there are many articles in need of help; you could have your adoptee pick an interesting article (or, if you know his interests, you might pick one for him) to try to clean up. Between the two of you, you might bring it up to GA status, which would be nice (both for the adoptee and for wikipedia). --Sopoforic (talk) 05:41, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Malinaccier (talk • contribs) 23:48, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

As an intermediate assignment, I would recommend the task of adding citations such as references, and sources, to articles, since there are so many articles in need of references that hopefully it should not be too difficult to find topics of sufficient interest to the person to locate references on. Simple use of Wikiproject templates to tag relevant articles of interest to a given main topic (like fashion or psychology or science) is another idea. Userafw (talk) 13:00, 18 December 2007 (UTC)