Battlestar Wiki:Requests for adminship/The Merovingian

The Merovingian

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Battlestar Wiki:Requests for adminship/The Merovingian|action=edit}} Vote here (5/2/1) ending 04:46 18 March 2006 (UTC)

The Merovingian (talk • contribs) – Self-nom.

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: I am the Merovingian, and I accept this nomination. --The Merovingian 15:59, 11 March 2006 (CST)

Support

1. Artlogical 12:08, 16 March 2006 (EST)
2. Dogger 02:41, 12 March 2006 (CST)
3. Mazzy 09:41, 15 March 2006 (CST)
4. Support. It looks like he's got the skiffy vote. He's got my vote too, though the price he'll pay is a thorough explanation of it. I weighed both the pros and the cons carefully before voting this way. Lets start with the cons. 1) Merv can be short, sarcastic, and can generally push peoples buttons and rub them the wrong way. His diplomacy (joke courtesy of Merv, I hadn't caught that until today) has gotten a lot better lately, especially with regards to edit summaries, which were where I think most people were getting annoyed. People DO read the edit summaries, and what you say in those can end up being as important (or even more important) than the actual edit. 2) Merv has a rep for biting newbies. "Noobies are the rungs on the ladder of success; don't hesistate to step on them." Exhibit A Part of this is just how he operates anyway (he's equally short and sarcastic with everyone). However, he has of late made significant strides Exhibit B in both welcoming newbies, as well as calmly discussing issues with them Exhibit C. There still might be some room for improvement Exhibit D (maybe greet them BEFORE assuming bad faith), but nobody's perfect. (And he's been greeting more folks than I have.) Those are the main items I have in the con pile. Now on to the pro's. 1)He's an outspoken advocate of the wiki at scifi.com. Exhibits E and F are present higher up on the page. Whenever a topic comes up that has some coverage over here, you can pretty well count on Merv to provide a relevent link. That leads to more eyes on the subject, and hopefully more contributors eventually. 2)Merv is a zealous fact checker. Anybody can baselessly speculate elsewhere, but Merv holds the wiki to a high standard, ensuring accuracy. (I think he gets frustrated when he realizes that such standards cannot be upheld elsewhere.) If he makes a claim, it's going to be grounded in canon, and if you can disprove it in canon he will acknowledge his error. 3)Merv is a tireless contributor. He spends a lot of time figuring this stuff out, and it shows. His zealous dedication may have something to do with the contempt he has for those who show little thought or effort behind their words (but I'm just speculating). I was tempted to copy an excerpt from an argument he had here to Scifi.com. In it, the person Merv was having a discussion with accused him of not being a dedicated enough BSG fan (having not seen TOS), and therefore of basically having too much of a life outside of BSG. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing, as his biggest detractors over at skiffy usually claim quite the opposite. In the end, this RFA isn't a popularity contest. (Though I may be biased, having been selected as an admin with the fewest popular votes ever.) The RFA is about whether or not Merv will use the mop as it is intended to be used. I believe he shall. That being said, I caution Merv to remember that if he thought he was under scrutiny before, it will be doubly so now. Your detractors/enemies are likely to look for any excuse they can find to try to take your mop away. It is my hope that you don't give them one, and instead crack them over the head with your mace of facts, pin them against the wall with your shield of canon, and then... maybe win them over with that razor wit. So that we can have some more productive contributors here at the battlewiki. --Steelviper 08:11, 16 March 2006 (CST)
5. Grafix 08:51, 16 March 2006 (CST)

Oppose

1. I've found the Merovingian a bit vindictive and superior-sounding. Edit: I'm sorry if this is somewhat biting to read. I know how being criticized, even on the Internet, can lead to hurt feelings.--Noneofyourbusiness 12:16, 16 March 2006 (EST)
2. While Merv has made vast improvements in the past months, I still do not believe he is administrator material. An administrator has many tasks, however, one of the most important administrator tasks is conflict resolution, since is it a task that not everyone can do. I believe that Merv has demonstrated that he has a holier-than-thou attitude, especially towards newbies. He is an EXCELLENT contributor, of that I am more than sure. However, he can continue to contribute in the professional methodology and high-volumes he has shown, without being an administrator. Also, it is not as if we have a shortage of administrators here at Battlestar Wiki. The five we have are fast, fair, and knowledgeable. In short, the powers that would be granted to Merv as an adminstrator would not positivley augment his best qualities (his knowledge of all things BSG, his thoroughness, and his rapidity), but rather would amplify his shortcomings. (his occasional rudeness, and shortness with newbies) I have come to respect Merv as a major contributor to the wiki, but with the desire to uphold the quality and continued prosperity of the wiki as my number one goal, I cannot in good concience vote positive on Merv's self RFA. --Kraetos 15:58, 16 March 2006 (CST)

Neutral

1. Peter Farago 23:19, 15 March 2006 (CST)

Comments

• Merv's behavior and contributions have been excellent lately, but given his sometimes mercurial disposition, I would feel more comfortable supporting his RFA if it were taking place in a few weeks' time. I will not oppose it, but I will have to contemplate the matter more before I can decide whether to support or cast my vote as neutral. --Peter Farago 18:12, 11 March 2006 (CST)
  • Nonetheless, I have chosen to make the vote now. Vote what you want.--The Merovingian 18:14, 11 March 2006 (CST)
• Why is it that I cannot vote on this page? I have been registered for months and my email has been authenticated since November, but whenever I click the Vote Here link I get an apparently illegal url that includes an unresolved subsitution (FULLPAGENAME), and it comes up 'Bad Link'. I tried in Safari, in Camino, in Firefox, and in Internet Explorer for the Mac. No dice. Can't vote.--Dogger 23:39, 11 March 2006 (CST)
  • Okay, I just voted by using the 'Edit' link and adding my name to the list, instead of by using the nonfunctional 'Vote Here' link. I hope that is acceptable.--Dogger 02:39, 12 March 2006 (CST)

In order for the "Vote here" button to work, you have to paste in the full wiki page name where the FULLPAGENAME was. I fixed the link (for those that don't want to just "edit". I also updated the vote count to reflect Dogger's vote (which was perfectly acceptable). --Steelviper 07:48, 12 March 2006 (CST)

Questions for the candidate
A few generic questions to provide guidance for voters:

1. What duties, if any, would you anticipate helping with? Please check out Category:Project Pages for a list of projects.

A. Episode Summaries, episode analysis, episode questions, episode notes. Character bios. Cylon series. Spearheading the Writer/Director category project. Furthing the Timeline project (and fighting the grave threat posed by the Season two timeline discontinuity). The Battles series. Going through every source of information available, be it GalacticaStation, GateWorld, NowPlayingMagazine, Lucy Lawless fansites, Ron Moore's blog, the official messageboards, several shadowy rumor mills which I cannot disclose, and the podcasts, in order to obtain, analyze, developed and post as much information as possible on this Wiki, and turn it into a truly reliable "go-to" site for up to the minute BSG information.

2. Of your articles or contributions here, are there any about which you are particularly pleased, and why?

A. The battles pages, all of which were of my own design (I made the battleboxes for Lord of the Rings battles on standard wikipedia, and when these were done, I wanted to keep doing something like that so I created the battles series here); secondly, due yo my vast knowledge of BSG trivial facts and analysis, I have made great contributions to the episode guides, and as it's not like I have a life outside of this :) I'm usually the first to post notes for an episode up after it airs (though this is not a rule), and I'm really happy with the episode guide stuff I've done (check the history tabs, etc). I guess a random sampling of some of my better works would be Downloaded, Cally, Uniform, Fall of the Twelve Colonies etc., my great contributions to Life Forms of the Twelve Colonies (ever vigilant), and pretty much the entire episode guide. I spearheaded the most recent movement (after debate for months) to give Cylon copies who have become individuals their own character pages, and to consider them separate characters.

3. Have you been in any conflicts over editing in the past or do you feel other users have caused you stress? How have you dealt with it and how will you deal with it in the future?

A. They are beyond count. Yet of late I have met these challenges with firm determination and responsibility.

User:The Merovingian I think I'd be good for administrator because of A) My stagering knowledge of all things BSG (haha), B) my extensive body of work here notably on the episode guides, battle pages, and C) My good looks. I'm formally putting myself up for nomination, etc. --The Merovingian 22:46, 10 March 2006 (CST)

My campaign music: enjoy --The Merovingian 18:31, 11 March 2006 (CST)