Primefac (talk·contribs) – Primefac is a bit of an all-rounder. His speciality is in Templates for discussion, which he has contributed significantly to over the past year. Few admins have been focusing on this area, so it's good to have another one. He's also a regular at Articles for creation, reviewing and tidying up drafts so they can be acceptable encylopedia articles. Elsewhere, Primefac has significantly contributed to a few articles, most obviously Astronomical spectroscopy, but he has also helped quell quite a few unpleasant content disputes. This is a good talent to have and it's always good to have an admin candidate who has the right sort of diplomatic skills.
As some of you may be aware, this is Primefac's second run at an RfA. After the first in 2015, the community felt he needed a better understanding of the deletion policy. Looking at the last 100 AfDs, going back six months, he now has a good score of about 83% called correctly, which shows clear and continual improvement in this area.
I'm pleased we have had so many good admin candidates come forward in the last few weeks, and I hope to continue that trend by introducing another one keen to tackle one of our regular backlogs. Ritchie333(talk)(cont) 20:38, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Co-nomination
I'm thrilled that Primefac is ready to volunteer for a mop. I first crossed paths with Primefac at TfD about a year and a half ago and quickly thought he'd make a good admin. At TfD, he's one of the most productive and experienced non-admins closing discussions, and his efforts there have contributed to the near-elimination of what was once a stubbornly persistent backlog. He's also in second place for total contributions to the TfD holding cell, so he's no slouch at following up on TfD closes, either. As the admin who was most active at TfD when Primefac got involved and who helped coordinate NACs there, I can say I have very high confidence in his judgment - as well as being a consistently good reader of consensus, he's also happy to explain his reasoning when asked and reconsider if circumstances warrant. And to amplify Ritchie's point about improvement since Primefac's first RfA, he's now not only established a much-improved AfD record, but also developed experience with another deletion-related venue where he's shown a strong record of success.
In addition to his TfD work, Primefac is also a prolific reviewer at Articles for creation, a task that often requires good diplomatic skills and sensitivity to the concerns and experiences of new editors. This is another area where admin tools come in handy for cleaning up newbie mistakes like duplicate drafts or copy-paste moves, as well as more serious problems like copyvio.
There's no doubt that Primefac sails over the bar in terms of "having a need for the tools", and he's more than proved himself willing and able to roll up his sleeves and dig in on backlogs. TfD in particular is not a popular admin area and requires some specialized knowledge, so bringing a new admin on board who is already experienced there would be a big benefit to the project. We've seen lots of great candidates step forward recently - I'm very happy Primefac has decided to join them. Opabinia regalis (talk) 04:32, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: I accept. Thanks to Ritchie333 and Opabinia regalis for this opportunity. Primefac (talk) 21:50, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
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. What administrative work do you intend to take part in?
A: I intend to keep working at TFD closing discussions and deleting templates as consensus dictates. In a smaller roll, I see a lot of copy/paste page moves through AFC, so I will histmerge when necessary and delete-and-move when not.
2. What are your best contributions to Wikipedia, and why?
A: My best contributions to Wikipedia come from AFC and TFD. On the AFC side of things (largely through helping in the IRC channel) I assist users who are struggling to get their pages accepted. Sometimes this means getting them to realize that their subject is not notable, but often it's helping them see what constitutes a reliable source or promotional language. It might not increase my edit count, but overall I feel it improves Wikipedia by getting good content accepted and means interested editors are more likely to stick around.
Over the last year and a half I have assisted at TFD, cutting the backlog of old/unclosed discussions down to almost zero and trimming the Holding Cell (where old mergers are listed) down to a third of its size when I joined. Most of these have just been template mergers, but it has also resulted in the creation of a few list articles that were formerly unwanted templates. This is beneficial because it cleans up the template space and in the long run makes maintenance easier.
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've had content conflicts with a few editors in the recent past; both situations were paid/COI editors who were trying to push a particular POV. In the case of Riz Story I chatted with the editor for a few hours on IRC, assisted in cleaning up the article, but ended up taking the page to AFD. They became frustrated and tried to bombard the proceedings with unhelpful content, but I kept trying to calm them down and get them to realize that their actions weren't making the situation any better. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful, but not for a lack of trying.
On the Allen Meadors page I managed to get three different parties together on the talk page and figure out exactly what should and shouldn't end up in the article based on Wikipedia's policies and procedures. Granted, this happened after a couple of 3RR blocks, but sometimes that's necessary. In the end there was a fair amount of compromise, but it's clear the paid editor realized that the rest of us were just trying to do the best we could; since then there's been a lot of constructive dialogue on the talk page. I intend on approaching future content disputes with the same approach - try to get all sides to come to a compromise so that it doesn't explode into an edit war and/or end up at ANI. Of course, some conflicts are unavoidable, but that doesn't mean we can't try to diffuse the situation first.
You may ask optional questions below. There is a limit of two questions per editor. Multi-part questions disguised as one question, with the intention of evading the limit, are disallowed. Follow-up questions relevant to questions you have already asked are allowed.
4. In your own words, explain consensus and how it differs from traditional voting-based decision making.
A:Consensus is the result of a discussion between multiple parties about the merits and detractors of a given position (be it a deletion discussion, a content dispute, etc). Consensus differs from voting-based decision making because the weight of the argument is taken into consideration alongside the numerical tally. This is why we often use the phrase !vote; six people claiming that "I do/don't like it" will always be overturned by one or two people giving sound arguments for a page to be deleted/kept (respectively), because it is the reasons given that make consensus more valuable (and ultimately more resilient) than just a hard yes/no vote.
5. When patrolling the CSD queue, you come across this. (Assume this page was in article space.) What action would you take?
A: Based on the A1 criteria, and in particular the related RfC, I would remove the CSD tag; the title of the series is rather unique (a quick Google search used to check) and thus there is enough context to proceed. I would probably add a ((notability)) maintenance tag to the page (the Google search didn't turn up too much). I would also notify the user who tagged the article that I had removed the tag, encouraging them to either contact the creator to help them improve the page or bring it to PROD/AFD it (after waiting a few days to give them an opportunity to work on it) if there was no chance at improvement.
6. A new user, A, creates a draft containing, "My girlfriend would be 25 today. Five years ago she got killed by a drunk driver. I loved her and I miss her so much, and want people to know about her. I hope the evil bastard who killed her rots in hell.", and submits it for review. An experienced editor, B, tags the page for G10 speedy deletion, automatically placing ((Db-attack-notice)) on A's user talk page. A reverts B's edit to the draft with the edit summary "Undid trolling", before B puts the tag back and places ((Uw-biog4)) on A's user talk page. A leaves the following message on B's user talk page: "You evil sick bastard! Did you kill her? Go and die, you evil scum!" You are the first admin to notice this. What actions do you take?
A: Undo the post on B's talk page (edit summary: WP:RPA); if requested by B I would revdel. Place a ((uw-npa4)) warning on A's page with a message along the lines that B was only reacting to the statements A made on the draft, that A really shouldn't be making threats on Wikipedia (either in a draft or to another user), and that I'd be willing to discuss the draft further with them. Remove and revdel the "evil bastard" part, removing the G10 in the process (since that's the only part that meets the G10 criteria). I would keep tabs on A's contributions for a few hours to see if/how they respond; continued negative action would result in a short block (24-48hr depending on how severe/quickly they escalated it), conciliatory edits would result in no further admin action from me.
7. At a recent AfD you say "having watched this page go through AFC and helping the creator make changes ... I vetted a few of them on IRC". Please explain this AfC/IRC vetting process. Who is talking to who and what is the general nature of the community there? Andrew D. (talk) 08:02, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
8. Editor A comes to your talk page asking you to take action against Editor B, with whom they have a long-standing dispute about the interpretation of policy. There's already a closed thread on this issue at ANI, started by Editor A, where there was no agreement that Editor B has been doing anything wrong. How would you deal with Editor A's request for your intervention? ReykYO! 11:14, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support - it's difficult writing a well reasoned support with two distinguished nominators taking all the good points. Primefac is yet another editor who always struck me as being an `administrator without tools` - but that's not to say they don't need them! TFD is somewhere which could do with an experienced administrator, and I believe Primefac has taken on board the comments from their previous RfA and vastly improved -- Samtartalk · contribs 21:59, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support as the other nominator. (Right OR, your turn for litter tray duty, that'll learn ya). Ritchie333(talk)(cont) 22:02, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Net Positive, Someone who we can trust with the mop. Would make a great contribution to the list of administrators. --Cameron11598(Talk) 22:07, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Experienced editor with sound judgement. Sn1per (talk) 22:10, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose because we are getting too many administrators. No, I mean Support, and in fact strong support. I supported (or at least moral supported) last time, when the issue was not enough mastery of the deletion minefield. That's readily fixable via experience, and if Ritchie, who opposed last time, and OR say that it's been fixed, then that's good enough for me. --Tryptofish (talk) 22:23, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support - always a good sign when an opposer from a previous RfA is now one of the noms. I looked into some of the opposes from the previous RfA, particularly the AfD actions. While I don't categorize AfD !votes as "correct" or "incorrect," (but I know what you mean, Ritchie) I see rational, policy-based reasoning. I am particularly impressed by Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Comet appearances in china. I have long appreciated Primefac's participation at AfC. 78.26(spin me / revolutions) 22:29, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support I was very close to reaching out to Primefac about a nomination myself (with just having not got around to it being my only excuse), so this is an easy support from me. Sam Walton (talk) 22:40, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support per noms, nothing to add without repeating them. Yintan 23:01, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support. No issues from myself. I'm not as active as I want to be at TfD, but every time I'm there I've been impressed by Primefac's contributions. The mop will do nothing but improve the candidate's already substantial work there. --Tavix(talk) 23:06, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support, as a clear net positive and a great editor! Enterprisey (talk!) 23:11, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support because I don't agree that having been wrong on an AfD one time automatically disqualifies a candidate. Also, the candidate isn't a deletionist because of a single delete !vote. Lepricavark (talk) 23:16, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support - Participation with the project is good and no concerns about handing over the tools. -- Danetalk 23:28, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support - I supported the previous RfA, and everything I've seen since confirms my opinion expressed back then. Kudos to someone willing to work on the nitty-gritty technical details. Huon (talk) 23:45, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support more admins is always a good thing. --Bigpoliticsfan (talk) 23:46, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support No problems here whatsoever. I trust primefac enough to have access to the admin toolset. Nothing more matters. --Majora (talk) 00:11, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support I've interacted with primefac before, mostly on IRC, and he's a skilled editor who will be a good admin. ThePlatypusofDoom(talk) 00:14, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Frankly, I trust this user's judgement at least as much as my own, and often more. They're fair to everyone, and building an encyclopedia is their top priority. I have no concerns about their adminship. --AntiCompositeNumber (Leave a message) 00:21, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support. This editor is one of three editors that make TfD work. They've consistently shown good judgement in that area, and it's imperative we give them access to the tools they need to implement their own closes. ~ Rob13Talk 00:43, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support. Clear net positive. The candidate has demonstrated an unusually strong need for the tools, and it's time to give them to him.Tazerdadog (talk) 01:45, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support. Give him the tools. As Ritchie said, another strong candidate in the batch. Likely the best RfA class I've seen over nearly ten years. Aloha27 talk 02:23, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support I'd selfishly like to say I started the rush of great RFA candidates last year. In all seriousness, another great candidate and I feel confident in giving them the tools. RickinBaltimore (talk) 02:58, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Why not? -FASTILY 04:42, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Candidate has sufficient experience, and appears to be level-headed, rational, and overall competent. The one noteworthy problem area in the original RfA (a deletionist bent regarding WP:CSD and WP:AFD) appears to have resolved itself, as promised. A candidate who admits and learns quickly from past mistakes (as in the Q&A at and withdrawal of the too-early first RfA) displays signs of above-average good faith and willingness to self-moderate. I think Primefac has come a long way in the intervening half a year or so. To the opposers: No one has a 100% spot-on AfD record if they've actually been participating in that process in any seriousness. AfD is a non-trivial discussion involving many factors and perceptions, not a snap judgement. Observations pro and con at WP:ANI are also normal parts of the discussion process; ANI is not a Klingon tribunal and no one is doing the wrong thing in declining to auto-dogpile on everyone who is ever criticized there. — SMcCandlish ☺☏¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼ 05:38, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Good noms, clearly took feedback on board from last time, good amount of experience, works at TfD, generally clueful at AfD. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 06:05, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I went through the history of the candidate's last 12 months of AfDs to get a sense for cluefulness and the evidence is generally very positive. There is the occasional misfire nomination, Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Frances Lowater being one example, but the candidate's response is always to withdraw the nomination as soon as the error becomes apparent. The occasions on which this occurs are not numerous enough for me to draw the conclusion that the candidate acts hastily. To the contrary, most deletion nominations are well-considered and researched, yet also expressed succinctly. Then there are the examples when the candidate was probably right and the outcome probably wrong, or at least highly questionable: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Wasteland (2013 film). That, folks, is why we shouldn't care about percentages as the nominator seems to (I refer to my comment on the talk page of this RfA). If anything, the candidate has an artificially low percentage because he takes the initiative to nominate, which is much easier than cruising along late in an AfD with a contribution that does no more than reflect an already-formed consensus. Conclusion: I've only looked at AfD but I'm happy with what I have seen. --Mkativerata (talk) 07:51, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose The candidate's content creation seems weak but promising. When I browse their AfD record, I find them nominating Comet appearances in china just a few weeks ago. This demonstrates a significant lack of understanding. The topic is really quite notable and anyone with an interest in astronomy should be aware of that. So, this seems to indicate a significant failure to search for sources or consider alternatives to deletion. The nomination is relisted and eventually some editors with more clue reach it and sort the matter out better. During this protracted discussion, the candidate moves a table from the page in question to another page. They do not seem aware that cut/paste moves of this kind will invalidate such deletion because of the need for proper attribution. Overall, this indicates a preference to delete as the first and only option rather than considering gentler and more sensible alternatives such as merger. They need to have created more pages of their own and so have more skin in the game before they are able to delete the work of others. Andrew D. (talk) 22:30, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
You declined to mention that the candidate withdrew the nomination. --Izno (talk) 22:53, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
That close was technically quite sloppy. It was improper to make the close because the candidate was involved and there were delete !votes which had not been withdrawn. And it was described as a "Speedy Keep" when, in fact, it was over three weeks since the nomination. Overall, my impression is that the candidate still doesn't have a sure grasp of deletion policy and proper procedure. Andrew D. (talk) 23:18, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose based from contributions which are still not in a convincing capacity of needing adminship, Draft reviewing is not as impressive and especially not the bias against declining or nominating WP:PROF articles for deletion: Nearly any WP:PROF nomination was closed in either withdraw or keep. That therefore puts genuine concerns what a user with adminship would nominate or delete against genuine articles simply because of a self-imposed understanding of WP:PROF, which is one of the exact notabilities we have. Contributions also show a temper against other users including rollbacking a user's Draft review simply because they disagreed with the decline nomination. Along the same lines, the recent comments at a user's ANI supporting their actions make me concerned about the behavior imposed should there be adminship. This all is something that any Supporter should carefully examine in contributions, and Note all of these things have happened in the last months thus both easily findable and easily noticeable. Better is expected from a user who contemplates adminship and close examination of their contributions and temperament is something not taken lightly. Diffs can also be shown about this. While temperament can be changed, I see nothing to forgo that in exchange for adminship. All in all, that's not something convincing in an admin and not something I can support. SwisterTwistertalk 23:01, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I'm struggling to understand this - it seems unduly verbose just for the sake of being verbose. What I would appreciate is diffs demonstrating the behavioural issues you cite. Nick (talk) 00:05, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I am unfamiliar with the candidate's work and so am not yet sure whether I'll be either supporting or opposing, but I believe SwisterTwister is referring to this AN/I he started at the end of December, where the candidate was the first to point out what he saw as a possible extenuating factor. I see also that it was the candidate who noticed SwisterTwister had started several other AfDs without notifying the article creators and had himself remedied that, which impresses me as the kind of initiative and helpfulness I like to see in admins. Yngvadottir (talk) 05:28, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Neutral
Neutral for now. I like the apparent efforts in creating articles since the last RFA, and the candidate appears to be quite civil. Also, the candidate's work at TFD and AFC seem great. And the CSD log looks significantly better since the last RFA. But the primary basis for opposes in the last RFA were related to AFD. The AFD stats definitely show improvement, as User:Ritchie333 showed 83% in the last 100. But there are a few things that I noticed. WP:WDAFD says "If no-one else has supported the deletion proposal and you change your mind about the nomination, you can withdraw it." In the Mario Luis Small AFD from December, the candidate closed and wrote "Withdrawn under protest; a low-level "named chair" should not automatically mean PROF is met, but I am clearly in the minority." So it appears that without changing his mind, the candidate chose to withdraw and close the AFD while still arguing an interpretation of wp:prof? I don't get it. As User:Andrew_Davidson noted, the candidate withdrew and closed the Comet appearances AFD(also from December) as speedy keep despite multiple delete !votes. He wrote "...relatively large number of delete !votes, but almost half of them have changed their opinions...", indicating an awareness of the delete !votes, and that half had not changed their !votes. There was also the Mahmoud Hessabi AFD from November, which the candidate also withdrew while there had been two delete !votes. And there was the Pen Pineapple AFD nominated and closed by the candidate in October as withdrawn despite 2 delete !votes. In this one the candidate wrote "Delete !votes not a significant proportion of the total." These seem like a either very careless mistakes, or indicate a lack of understanding a rather simple part of WP:AFD. I am curious about the use of "TL,DR" in nominating Mahmoud Hessabi. I believe it means "too long, didn't read", which would seem troubling in the context of an AFD. I think that a good RFA candidate should have demonstrated understanding of policy, but also an attention to detail. Assuming "TL,DR" had the meaning previously indicated, should an editor read things thoroughly before going to AFD? Should someone who uses "TL,DR" be trusted with the being an admin? Perhaps it is only this instance. I don't know. There also is the Frances Lowater AFD, nominated and withdrawn by the candidate in March. And the Wasteland AFD nominated and withdrawn by the candidate in May. User:Cryptic commented the candidate "should be doing more WP:BEFORE". Perhaps this is still the case, but are AFD issues still a valid and sufficient basis to !vote oppose? B E C K Y S A Y L E S 10:41, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Not to put words in the candidate's mouth, but that "TLDR" you take such exception to in Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mahmoud Hessabi is clearly a reference to his own nomination statement, not the article he nominated. It could've been phrased without changing the meaning at all as "To summarize,". —Cryptic 11:58, 10 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]