SmashWiki:Requests for adminship/Aidanzapunk (2)

=== Aidanzapunk (talk &bull; contribs &bull; edit count &bull; RFA page) === Candidate, please summarize why you are running for adminship below. Alright, here goes nothing. This is something I have been tossing around in my head for a while, but I think that it's high time that I go through with it.

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Aidan, and I work under the username Aidanzapunk here on the SmashWiki. I've been an on and off user since mid-2013, and have seen this wiki grow during that time. I previously sent out a request for adminship almost three years ago, to no avail. In a bit of fairness and hindsight, it was admittedly rushed, and mostly put out due to a rise in vandals. It failed due to what I believe to be a lack of experience, as well as no need for another admin. This time is different: while, yes, vandals have been and will continue to be present, the issue raised this time around comes from the admins themselves, who have lamented on quite a few occasions about the lack of active admins. Three years may seem like a short time to some, but a lot can change during that period of time.

One of the bigger changes to emerge on the wiki during this three-year timespan was our jump from the IRC to Discord. It was quickly realized that there would need to be more than admins keeping everything in check, so the role of "Chat Operator" was created. Not only did my application successfully go through, but it was the first to do so; as such, I have been a successful moderator (so to speak) of the SmashWiki's Discord server for over a year now. Speaking from a personal viewpoint, I also feel as though I have changed as an editor and a community member over the past three years as well, as I have moderated (and even sometimes run) more personal wikis on my own spare time, and I believe that this time around, I am more suited for the administrator position.

In terms of dispute handling, this is a bit of an odd case, I will admit: in a situation where something is brought up, I will tend to act calmly and try to follow protocol with how certain things are handled. In a typical debate between two users, however, I will admit that I tend to stay out of things for the most part, but still make sure that things don't go out of hand on the sidelines. This, however, can be chalked up to me being on the autism spectrum, which helps in social situations like this. While I am prone to making myself clear in an argument I myself am in, that does not mean that I myself will go over the line, nor does it mean that I don't try to moderate the discussion itself to make sure it doesn't go out of hand. The opposite has held true in the past, but it was usually meant with no malicious intent, and I believe it has been remedied as time has gone on.

As stated previously, I (and plenty of others) have heard firsthand the complaints from the other admins about the lack of active staff, as there are currently only two active admins, and four semi-active admins who do not frequent the wiki as often. If this request were to go through, there would be another active admin to handle problems or other requests on the wiki, and arguably quicker than the others; I don't have a life am stuck in my room 24/7 am on the wiki more often than the other admins, and, at the present point in my life, have much less going on.

The only plausible drawback that I can see being an issue with my position as an administrator is me starting my freshman year of college in about a month (at the time of this writing). This would hinder my presence on the wiki as both a moderator and an editor, but I've found ways to work in free time and still complete studying in the past.

Thank you. Aidan, the College-Bound Rurouni  16:49, 15 July 2018 (EDT)

Support

 * 1) Support I've gone through all of your talk page posts of 2018 and took a quick glance at your edit summaries in the other namespaces, and for the most part, what I found isn't all too concerning to me. I did catch the Bayonetta thing that Alex mentioned below before I saw his vote, and I do have to admit that it does bother me a bit. I agree that it was an all too quick jump to anger over a misunderstanding. I understand the frustration of dealing with someone who seemingly has no intention of listening to you but the thing is that being an admin is a frustrating job. You have to be able to deal with it professionally. Now as this is the only thing I found that seems amiss, I think the thing that is bothering me most is how recent it was...but it is something that I am willing to give you a second chance on. Overall, I think you are probably among the few editors here who would be qualified for the admin position. You've done exceptional work in keeping the discord server in line in times of need (and believe me I know what a headache that can be), and that alone proves to me that you have the ability to deal with the stress. You've been editing SmashWiki for longer than I have so there is really no question of experience, except maybe in templating/coding, but these are skills that you can learn as you go along: there's no immediate demand for them.  So with all of that said, have a support from me, and I wish you good luck!  Serpent  SKSig.png  King  18:18, 15 July 2018 (EDT)
 * 2) Support You have great mainspace edits. Aside from the user and user talk, I would say that you are helping the wiki to be up to date. George Jones.jpg George Jones Walls Can Fall.jpg 19:01, 15 July 2018 (EDT)
 * 3) Support That Bayonetta hiccup does indeed concern me too, but it could happen to anyone, really. I still think you are ready. Black Vulpine  of the Furry Nation.  Furries make the internets go! :3  19:10, 15 July 2018 (EDT)
 * 4) Support You're well known on this wiki and I believe you'd do good as admin. Awesomelink234, the Super Cool Sonic Fan  Leave a message if needed 22:02, 15 July 2018 (EDT)
 * 5) Support Not much else to say that hasn't already.  Voqéo T  01:53, 16 July 2018 (EDT)
 * 6) Support I haven't been here long, and we disagree on some minor stuff, but from what I've seen I think you deserve the role. Good luck bro! Dakota.952 04:08, 16 July 2018 (EDT)
 * 7) Support In the same boat as Voqéo. You're honestly a great CO, and you'd make an even better admin. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pokebub (talk • contribs) 04:48, July 16, 2018
 * 8) Support Can't say I'm very active on the wiki itself anymore (where it seems you've kept up with your productive editing, save for the occasional aforementioned hiccup), but you've definitely been a good chat op on Discord for this past year-and-a-half or so, which shows me that you would be fairly capable in this position as well. That, and it can't hurt to have an extra helping hand around during this current shortage of administrators we seem to be having at present. BaconMastre 14:38, 17 July 2018 (EDT)
 * 9) Before I begin, let me just say, yes, I’m still alive. I immensely regret my inactivity and I’m trying my hardest to return. Anyway, so Aidan. I’ll try my best to keep this from sounding biased, but Aidan was one of the first people on this site I considered a friend. I supported his first RfA (although now with a more mature and educated mindset, I honestly should’ve opposed it), but I’ll go ahead and say this one is a huge improvement to the original, and you yourself have also improved. As a partner for some of the personal wikis you’ve done, I can immediately jump in and say you handled them well (even if one of those wikis were admittedly a steaming pile of garbage that tore apart more friendships than Mario Party). Additionally, you’ve done well in helping manage not only SmashWiki’s Discord, but also a couple of my personal Discord servers. Before I prattle on, I’ll end this by saying I Support this RfA. If anyone should be getting promoted right now, it should be you. Disaster Flare  Disaster Flare signature image.png  (talk)  00:30, 19 July 2018 (EDT)
 * 10) Support everyone have brought up some good points so far, and I don't think I can add any more based on what has already been said. Area51Guard.png  A51   Trooper  15:46, 20 July 2018 (EDT)
 * 11) Support Per everyone else. Easy answer. MintyGuy700 (talk) 21:38, 20 July 2018 (EDT)
 * 12) Support since he's a good guy all around, a great contributor and very active user in the wiki, and I don't see him abusing his powers. --BeepYouSignature.png Beep (talk)  19:58, 22 July 2018 (EDT)
 * 13) Support Since the Wiki was red at the time of this RfA, I feel that we need more crowd control as in more admins. Also, I believe you're able to handle disputes. ZeldaStarfoxfan2164 (talk) is made in America 22:04, 22 July 2018 (EDT)
 * 14) Support. I haven't been around lately but can say you've been a good user. I think you have earned it.  MH  StarCraft  Mega Man X SNES sprite.png 15:36, 23 July 2018 (EDT)
 * 15) Support Based on my experience with Aidan here and in other wikis he's administrated, as well as Discord, I can safely say he would be trustworthy as an admin. He's quick to reply and solve problems (befitting of a Sonic fan lol), I have never seen any alarming cases of him abusing his power, and usually he handles his temper well, despite some recent exceptions. He's also pretty active, which would help a lot now that the wiki is in red status and when Ultimate releases. 034.png  DracoRex,  Creator of the Land  14:01, 29 July 2018 (EDT)

Neutral

 * Neutral. I can see an argument both for and against you being an admin. On the plus side, you have been a chat op on the discord server for a long time, and (in my opinion) you are one of the most responsible and level-headed chat ops on the server. In addition, you have been a long time valuable contributor to the wiki, and could very well go on to serve the wiki even better as an admin. However, I haven't really seen any particularly compelling evidence on the wiki itself of your capability of fully handling the roles of an admin, nor have I really seen any enthusiasm or eagerness from you to do so. In addition, there exist some troubling and aggressive responses from you on talk pages, and an aggressive personality is something which could be very problematic for a prospective admin (which incidentally is a major reason why I opposed Vulpine's RfA, although I will say you are noticeably better than him in that regard).
 * Overall, I could see both this request and your potential adminship going either way, hence why I am currently neutral on the matter.  Alex the  Jigglypuff trainer  17:03, 15 July 2018 (EDT)
 * With the Bayonetta talk page thing, the only aggression that showed was due to what I perceived as a complete ignoring to what I was saying in the discussion, and instead focusing on another point altogether that was only vaguely similar to the point I was making. To be clear, I am not sure whether a resolution came about because of a misunderstanding between either party (as I admitted to not fully realizing something), or because one side wasn't clear to the other with what they were saying (as I will admit right now that both me not being clear and me not interpreting things correctly are a possibility, knowing myself as a person). Aidan,  the College-Bound Rurouni  17:20, 15 July 2018 (EDT)
 * Well, from looking at the discussion and the page edit history I think you were a little to quick to jump to anger and cursing, and it later turned out that you yourself had also made a misunderstanding. I only think this is a problem because admins essentially represent the site, and if it appears as though some admins are potentially irritable, then at best it could reflect badly on the wiki and at worst it could lead to potentially poor or rash decisions being made by said admins. As I stated though, this is not as bad as the case with Vulpine, and so I do not see it as grounds to outright oppose your proposal. Alex the  Jigglypuff trainer  17:25, 15 July 2018 (EDT)
 * Being the person some of that conversation was directed to (not the original post but the edits made later on), I found the outburst to be uncalled for as well, however I will agree that other than that in the short time I've been on this wiki editing instead of lurking I see little to no other problems. Their edits are usually clean and concise and they settle most disagreements besides the Bayonetta exception well. Shimesa (talk) 18:05, 16 July 2018 (EDT)


 * 1) Neutral, leaning very slightly towards oppose. Alex summarized my thoughts pretty well (except for the chat thing, I haven't been on there so I wouldn't know). My first thought was a full oppose; but, seeing as how every single one of our regular admins is currently "semi-active", it probably would be nice to have a fully active one so that the 'crats don't have to handle everything. And of the most active and reliable editors currently on the wiki who I could see applying for adminship, you're probably the only one I would be most okay with. That said, I am still a bit concerned about your attitude, although it's based mainly on past experience and not recent experience as I haven't been paying as much attention to the minute interactions between users. I'll try to focus a bit more on that over the next couple of days and might change my vote based on that. TheNuttyOne 18:52, 15 July 2018 (EDT)

Comments
Iron Warrior sends you his regards and wishes you the best of luck. Black Vulpine of the Furry Nation. Furries make the internets go! :3 03:53, 16 July 2018 (EDT)

Aidan, I am going to give you a few scenarios, and I want you to tell me how you would resolve them. Keep in mind that "do nothing" is not always an incorrect answer.  Serpent   King  20:07, 22 July 2018 (EDT)
 * 1) Long time user gets in a content dispute with an IP. The IP is obviously wrong, but the user begins to needlessly berate the IP until they get frustrated too, and an edit war breaks out.
 * 2) Flare and I have a civilized disagreement on how to display a piece of information.
 * 3) Same as above, but I call Flare a poo poo head.
 * 4) 2 longstanding users have a personal user dispute that spirals out of control and results in personal attacks. Warnings have been issued, but the problem shows no sign of resolving.
 * 5) User misuses rollback and ignores warnings.
 * Instigate a warning to the user about personal attacks and edit warring, and probably throw in some "there's no need to overreact" bits too.
 * If it's civilized, then, knowing the two of you, I personally don't think it'd be out of place to do nothing, but I would still keep an eye on the off-chance that things do take a turn for the worst. This is specifically talking about the two of you, however; if given two other admins (or any two users, for that matter), then I would probably be a bit more active in the discussion to make sure things go smoothly.
 * See above, but with an added "watch it" specifically being said.
 * If there is a situation where two users have created a dispute that has gone completely off the rails, then, calmly but firmly, I would likely put banning one or both of them for disruption at stake unless they can shape up. (Wouldn't be the first time that that would be used to handle something.)
 * If they're ignoring warnings, then I would probably take away their rollback (that's a thing, right?), and give them another chance to reapply should they show that they're capable of handling it. If that fails, then a minor ban would probably have to be done.
 * Aidan, the College-Bound Rurouni  20:37, 22 July 2018 (EDT)
 * Only thing I am seeing wrong with this is that you as an admin cannot give or take rollback privs. That's crat only.  Serpent SKSig.png  King  20:41, 22 July 2018 (EDT)
 * I wasn't sure of that, thanks for the clarification. Still, misuse of rollback is a valid reason for a small ban, right? Aidan,  the College-Bound Rurouni  20:46, 22 July 2018 (EDT)
 * Depends on the situation, but I'd most likely just take the rights.  Serpent SKSig.png  King  21:01, 22 July 2018 (EDT)
 * Well, you're a crat, so you can do that. :P Aidan,  the College-Bound Rurouni  21:04, 22 July 2018 (EDT)