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Revision as of 19:31, 2 May 2011

HJ Mitchell

Voice your opinion on this candidate (talk page) (6/0/0); Scheduled to end 18:51, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

Nomination

HJ Mitchell (talk · contribs) – Ladies and gents, I know this seems like an odd thing to do, but I hope you'll bear with me and understand that I do this with the very best of intentions.

I've been an admin for exactly a year (to the day yesterday). It's been an interesting year. I wouldn't say I've seen it all—the day nothing surprises me on Misplaced Pages is the day I quit!—but I've seen most things. Top give you a brief overview, I've made around 10,000 deletions (most of them uncontroversial) and about 4,000 blocks (90% of which have been vandals and username violations) and 4,000 protections. I'm the second-most prolific responder to requests at WP:RfPP and I keep a close eye on AIV, as well as several other noticeboards. I've dabbled in arbotration enforcement—one of the toughest taks we ask our admins to perform—PRODs and AfD, but the area that I feel has done best from my attention is the Main Page. The Main Page has been referred to as our "welcome mat" and it's one of the most visible parts of this website, but it needs admins to keep things moving. I've racked up 600 edits to T:ITN, over 1500 to WP:ITN/C and, taking my edits to Template:In the news/Last update as a rough measure, posted nearly 200 items. I've also racked up hundreds of edits at DYK, moving things into the queues and helping to keep things running. On top of that, thee are hundreds of edits to WP:ERRORS and around TFA, OTD and TFP, usually just making minor fixes.

I've also made some mistakes—the template protections (for those of you who missed that episode, search my username and "templates" in thae ANI archives) were not my finest hour and I've made a blcok or two that I'm not proud of. I'm sure there are several other moments that will not go down in hostory as my finest and I'm very keen to hear constructive criticism—public or private—on where my mistakes are and where I can be a better admin or a better editor.

I guess I should also point out that I've been making less use of my admin bit for the last couple of months. This is partly because my laptop kicked the bucket recently, and partly because I've been focusing my attention on reviewing and writing more than adminning. Since my last RfA, I've got myself an FA all of my very own (a very special feeling), an FL (With a Little Help from My Friends, to quote The Beatles) and an additioanl four GAs, as well as several DYKs. By all means, peruse the pretty icons at the top of my userpage. On blance, I think my record is a strong one and I think I have been a net positive and, with the community's blessing, I would like to continue being a net positive.

I've surrendered my mop (and wow, it's strange not having all the extra buttons after a year of getting used to them) and so I am entirely at your mercy. I look forward to any constructive comments, pro or con, that people have to offer in the coming week! HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 18:28, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

Questions for the candidate

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

1. What administrative work do you intend to take part in?

A: Well, for the last year, my admin work has been heavily oriented towards the Main Page, RfPP, AIV and some of the other areas that need a quick admin response. I've also dabbled in AE, protected edit requests, ANEW and a variety of other areas. You can access all my logs from the top of my userpage.

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

A: Oh, my first FA, Mike Jackson, I can call my own is really soemthing quite special to me, as are the collaborations on Brad Pitt (where I was involved mostly as a copy-editor) and my only FL, List of awards and nominations received by The Bill. I also have 18 (I think) DYKs fro creation and expansion and several more for nominations and a small collection of GAs, most recently the Tesco bomb campaign. I'm also proud of my reviews at GAN, a dabbling in FAC and MilHist's A-class. Then, of course, we have my admin record. I would like to believe that, on the whole, I have made it a little easier for the content editors to get on with what they do while making it harder for those who seek to disrupt or damage Misplaced Pages. One more thing: the pie chart is a very strange shape because my edits are spread out across the namespaces, but there is more to being an admin than keeping the pie chart the right shape!

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: Many. In a collaborative project with as many editors as we have, we're not always going to agreee with each other and if we did, it would be boring. About a fortnight ago, I blocked a bot which was making inconsequential changes (changes that have no effect on what the reader sees) to hundreds of articles, to the displeasure of the bot owner and a few other editors. Less than a week ago, I was informed by a fellow admin whom I hold in high esteem that a block I'd made a few months ago was unsound. Also, inveitably, some of the editors I've blocked or sanctioned have been less than happy about it. Essentially, I try to handle these sorts of things by admitting when I've cocked up or otherwise explaining the reasons why I did what I did and trying to find some middle ground. I won't name any editors here, bewcause it would be unfair, and instead of giving you a long list of "conflicts" I've found myself in, I invite you to peruse my talk archives, which are here.

General comments

• Requests for adminship/HJ Mitchell
• Requests for adminship/HJ Mitchell 2
• Requests for adminship/HJ Mitchell 3

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

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

Discussion

• OK, yes, this is a little odd. However, I'm not in CAT:AOR and I feel admins should be accountable to the community. I've been at this for exactly a year and so I think I have enough of a record on which to be judged. I've always believed that admins should serve at the pleasure of the community and the idea of reconfirmation is something I've been fond of in principle (though obviously mandatory reconfirmation has its limitations due to the number of admins), so this is putting my money (or, rather, my mop) where my mouth is. Thanks for all your patience and understanding. Harry, aka HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 19:14, 2 May 2011 (UTC)
• A full list of links to my logs, contribs and edit counters:

HJ Mitchell (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · moves · rights · deleted edits · cross-wiki · wikichecker · count · pages created · logs · block log · lu)

Support

1. Strongest Support Possible: HJ is by far the best contributing admin (besides Wehwalt) we have around here (that I know of) and is one of the most helpful. While I am confused by the reasoning behind this, I have no doubt in my mind that HJ should again rejoin the admin fold. Give this guy another mop. :) - Neutralhomer • Talk • 18:54, 2 May 2011 (UTC)
2. Beat the nom support: Oh wait.. :P HJ is a great admin, helpful, and always beating me to WP:RFPP. The Helpful One 19:19, 2 May 2011 (UTC)
3. Total support. As good an admin as we have. GedUK  19:27, 2 May 2011 (UTC)
4. Support, blocked me for 7RR instead of trying to weasel out of it. :-) --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 19:29, 2 May 2011 (UTC)
5. Support one of the good guys. I think the sv.wiki-style 1-year term is a bit short, myself, but I appreciate the motivation behind this RfA Jebus989 19:30, 2 May 2011 (UTC)
6. Support. Absolutely has earned my support. Why is it that the administrators who should do this never do, and the ones who don't need to, by any stretch of the imagination, do. (That's a rhetorical question, so please nobody try to answer it!) --Tryptofish (talk) 19:31, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

Oppose

Neutral