The following discussion is preserved as an archive of a successful request for adminship. Please do not modify it.

BrianSmithson

Final (44/0/0) ended 04:26 12 November 2005 (UTC)

BrianSmithson ( talk · contribs) – Brian Smithson has been a Wikipedia editor since March 2003, and accumulated 3313 edits in that time—no small feat considering that he spent 26 months of this time in Cameroon, and considering that he can put together an article like Modibo Adama or East Province, Cameroon in five to ten edits. By no coincidence, he's one of Wikipedia's best contributors on all things Africa, but a glance at his user page will show you the range of his interests. He's also active in categorization work and AfD, has uploaded a number of images, constantly reverts vandalism to his watchlist, and helps out regularly at Wikiproject:Countering Systemic Bias, Wikipedia:List of missing Africa topics, Peer Review, and Featured Article Candidates. Brian's extremely easygoing, with a patience and thorough respect for WP:CITE that helps defuse conflicts before they can begin (check out his recent Sam Lucas for an impressive example of his footnotey thoroughness). Ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to present to you, Mr. Brian Smithson. Dvyost 04:26, 5 November 2005 (UTC) reply

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: I accept (though I was only in Cameroon for 24 months. :)). -- BrianSmithson 15:04, 5 November 2005 (UTC) reply

Support

1. Strong West African RPCV Support as nom. -- Dvyost 15:19, 5 November 2005 (UTC) reply
2. Merovingian (t) (c) (e) 15:57, 5 November 2005 (UTC) reply
3. Support Solid contributions. Should make a good admin. -- Pamri ^{• Talk • Reply} 16:18, 5 November 2005 (UTC) reply
4. Privat e Butcher 17:08, 5 November 2005 (UTC) reply
5. Support, unreservedly. -- Jmabel | Talk 17:19, 5 November 2005 (UTC) reply
6. Support Fir e Fo x 18:11, 5 November 2005 (UTC) reply
7. Support. Kirill Lokshin 18:16, 5 November 2005 (UTC) reply
8. Support. No problems here.-- Sean| Bla ck 19:12, 5 November 2005 (UTC) reply
9. Support. PRueda29 | PTalk29 20:38, 5 November 2005
10. Support hope we don't lose a good Africa editor though. Dlyons493 Talk 21:36, 5 November 2005 (UTC) reply
11. Support, confident he will not abuse admin powers. Christopher Parham (talk) 22:02, 5 November 2005 (UTC) reply
12. Support. I like his work categorizing articles and reverting vandalism. Carioca 22:31, 5 November 2005 (UTC) reply
13. Support. Backlogs everywhere - we need more admins. This one will do fine. - Haukur Þorgeirsson 00:19, 6 November 2005 (UTC) reply
14. Support -- Rogerd 04:12, 6 November 2005 (UTC) reply
15. Support - Well deserved. ≈ jossi fresco ≈ t • @ 04:38, 6 November 2005 (UTC) reply
16. Oran e (t) (c) (@) 05:58, 6 November 2005 (UTC) reply
17. Support Brisvegas 06:43, 6 November 2005 (UTC) reply
18. -- ( drini's _vandalproof page ☎ ) 12:51, 6 November 2005 (UTC) reply
19. Peaceful Support. - Darwinek 13:00, 6 November 2005 (UTC) reply
20. On the whole, support, but I'd like to see you being more careful in the future. That, or becoming an alcoholic. fuddlemark ( fuddle me!) 17:29, 6 November 2005 (UTC) reply
21. Support CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 22:41, 6 November 2005 (UTC) reply
22. Support.  Grue  05:20, 7 November 2005 (UTC) reply
23. Support w/ a caveat anyone dedicated enough to work on wiki while in cameroon gets major props. As you've shown a slight bit of "jump the gun"-itis, this support comes with the caveat that you please google anything before you speedy it.   ALKIVAR ™ 05:51, 7 November 2005 (UTC) reply

    Another taquila fan, eh? Actually, that sounds like a really good rule of thumb. I'll be happy to adopt it. -- BrianSmithson 12:58, 7 November 2005 (UTC) reply

24. Support, polite and lots of great edits. -- MPerel ^{( talk | contrib)} 06:48, 7 November 2005 (UTC) reply
25. Support, Tony the Marine 06:54, 7 November 2005 (UTC) reply
26. Support Seems to be a mature, experienced editor who wants to help with requested moves, and answered the questions very well. Turnstep 14:52, 7 November 2005 (UTC) reply
27. Support - excellent work on Cameroon-related articles, definitely a trusted contributor. Warofdreams talk 14:57, 7 November 2005 (UTC) reply
28. Support. Good edits, will use tools well. Jayjg ^(talk) 22:38, 7 November 2005 (UTC) reply
29. Definite support Proto  t  c 12:22, 8 November 2005 (UTC) reply
30. Support. Great editor, more admins watching over Africa articles (and all of wp) won't hurt a bit. I'm sure he'll continue making excellent contibutions, too. Smmurphy 15:19, 8 November 2005 (UTC) reply
31. Support. Hall Monitor 18:47, 8 November 2005 (UTC) reply
32. Support. Looks good! Linuxbeak | Talk 19:15, 8 November 2005 (UTC) reply
33. Support. Nothing really necessary to add. I think he'd make a great addition to the Admin-corps! -- Martin Osterman 14:06, 9 November 2005 (UTC) reply
34. Support per above. Briangotts (talk) 14:53, 9 November 2005 (UTC) reply
35. Support, looks like a trustworthy contributor. Silensor 22:30, 9 November 2005 (UTC) reply
36. Support. Am I too late to make a difference.--May the Force be with you! Shreshth91 ($ |-| r 3 $ |-| t |-|) 12:25, 10 November 2005 (UTC) reply
37. Support. Thunderbrand 17:40, 10 November 2005 (UTC) reply
38. Support, of course. - Mailer Diablo 19:14, 10 November 2005 (UTC) reply
39. Support. Conscientious, polite, reasonable, highly knowledgeable.-- cjllw | TALK 01:34, 11 November 2005 (UTC) reply
40. Support. Will wield the mop well I believe. Alf ^melmac 02:09, 11 November 2005 (UTC) reply
41. Support Looks like a good user to me KnowledgeOfSelf | talk. 19:57, 11 November 2005 (UTC) reply
42. -- JAranda | watz sup 21:01, 11 November 2005 (UTC) reply
43. Support. Sarge Baldy 22:43, 11 November 2005 (UTC) reply
44. Support for a mop-worthy candidate. Sango 123 (talk) 01:16, 12 November 2005 (UTC) reply

Oppose

Neutral

Comments

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

1. What sysop chores, if any, would you anticipate helping with? (Please read the page about administrators and the administrators' reading list.)

A. As Dvyost said, I'm involved in articles for deletion, so I would definitely keep working there, but I'd also be able to close out discussions and carry out consensus. Similarly, I'd like to help out on requested moves; I haven't been very active there, but with admin abilities, I would be able to be. Then there's the old standby of vandal thwacking. My watchlist is growing pretty large, and I'm always keen to revert malicious changes when I spot them. I also do recent changes patrol from time to time. Probably most importantly, I'm quite eager to continue to help out new editors. I know that this doesn't require admin powers, but sometimes that extra "title" seems to serve as an extra level of reassurance to a newbie that the person helping them does, in fact, know what he or she is talking about.

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

A. Most recently, I greatly expanded minstrel show. I had written the original draft of that article back in April 2003. The article was later criticized for being too whitewashed of an account. Well, I was in Cameroon when this point was raised and was thus unable to respond to the criticism or help correct the problem. Upon my return from Cameroon, expanding that article loomed large on my to-do list, and I think my recent efforts have greatly improved the piece. (In my defense, the original article was written with little else in mind but to kill a red link). Speaking of red links, I'm also happy with the supplemental articles I've written to kill minstrel show's red links. There are a few left, but I should have several of those thwacked in the next couple of days.

I'm also quite proud of the Cameroon-related articles I've done. One goal of Peace Corps is to increase awareness of the developing world in the developed, and Wikipedia has been a wonderful vehicle to do that. I've done several province articles (see, for example North Province, Cameroon or South Province, Cameroon), and I've done some ethnic group articles, as well (see Duala peoples). More tangentially related, there's Mami Wata and my photos.

Then there are my Featured Articles. Felix the Cat was the first of these. It was randomly up on Featured article candidate one weekend when I came into Yaoundé, so I was able to help it achieve Featured Article status. More recently, Lakitu was promoted.

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. I've been fortunate in that I haven't encountered much in the way of edit conflict. My favored corners of Wikipedia tend to be lightly trafficked and populated by very mellow editors. However, I have dallied in video game and other "fandom"-related articles. The angriest I've ever been is probably in the dispute visible at Talk:The Star Wars Holiday Special. Note that the user I was addressing was an admitted vandal; see his userpage. More typically, my "disputes" look like the discussion at Talk:Minstrel show. I try to be very transparent in my edits, especially when someone else's work is being removed.

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the discussion. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page. No further edits should be made to this page.