Guild Wars 2 Wiki talk:Requests for adminship/Idris

I guess questions go here?

I'm not a particularly active gw2w user since I don't play GW2. But I noticed that you've invested a boatload of posts into the Konig/Santax conflict taking an exceedingly "neutral" position on the GW2W. Care to explain a bit? I have to admit it has puzzled me in the past. Repeatedly.

And to give you a fair chance, some background info from the other wiki (to help you understand why I'm asking): I know those two guys mainly from the gw1w. Konig has driven away other posters on both wikis. Admins failed to take a stance for years. Auron at least admited that it was a mistake. Konig got banned. He blatantly avoided the permablock for at least half a year. I think I saw you post that you didn't agree with Auron's assessment (I might not remember correctly, so please correct me if I'm wrong).

And during the past few months we had an admin on gw1w playing favourites with another rule-breaking user.

So I basically would like to know (and at the moment that's a bit of a fear) if you'll just be the next admin who'll play favourites and let some users break wikirules and let some posters get away with stuff for which others might get a severe slap on the fingers. Because in my opinion we already have enough of those kinds of admins.

Cheers, Steve1 (talk) 21:24, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

Actions on the other wiki aren't immediately relevant to this RFA since Idris+Inc have nothing to do with GW1W - we shouldn't expect GW2W users to have to answer any questions on behalf of the GW1W.

There isn't any content on GW1W worth actively policing, and there hasn't been any newsworthy admin activity beyond Greener's management of the spambots and Tanetris turning up to block Motoko. If the GW1W admin team has missed an opportunity to take action, I would suggest you haven't brought it up clearly enough. We're easily reachable on the Wiki Discord + have talk pages here on GW2W which are watched and would be responded to. Guild namespace seems to be the main issue and I propose that namespace is locked down to all but admins.

For what it's worth, Konig has asked for his permaban on GW1W to be lifted and I'm opposed to that.

With regards to Idris taking a neutral stance on the Konig vs Santax arguments, nobody wins if we lose both of our prolific lore editors. Trying to make them see reason + detension the conflict is the only way to reach a favourable outcome. -Chieftain Alex 21:44, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

Also I've created a discussion topic on the GW1W community portal which may be of interest. gw1:Guild Wars Wiki talk:Community portal#Proposal to lock down the Guild namespace. -Chieftain Alex 21:56, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

"Actions on the other wiki aren't immediately relevant to this RFA since Idris+Inc have nothing to do with GW1W - we shouldn't expect GW2W users to have to answer any questions on behalf of the GW1W."

I'm well aware of that and that's not what I meant. It's my understanding/impression that Idris isn't active on gw1w at all. I was giving those gw1w examples to help him understand why I'm asking.

"If the GW1W admin team has missed an opportunity to take action, I would suggest you haven't brought it up clearly enough."

I would suggest you spare me that condescending attitude and do some research first.

It wasn't my intention to move gw1 topics here.

"With regards to Idris taking a neutral stance on the Konig vs Santax arguments,"

I was using inverted commas for neutral: At first glance it might look neutral, treating both the same way. But given their history on both wikis it looks a bit like favouritism *to me* (my personal opinion). So my question gives Idris the chance to do away with my personal impression/opinion/fear.

" nobody wins if we lose both of our prolific lore editors."

Yup. That wasn't my intention *at all*. (And I know you didn't say so)

I hope it's a bit clearer now. Steve1 (talk) 22:38, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Thanks for your question! I'm aware that this sentiment about admins coming across as cliquey or playing favourites is a concern amongst some editors, and it's something that's been on my mind so I'm glad that I'm being challenged on how I would address this as an admin.

It's true that I barely have a presence on the GW1W, and consequently have a poor understanding of historical conflicts. I do know that Konig and Santax have a long and toxic history and have been perceived, probably correctly, as responsible for driving other editors away. I'm also aware that Konig has been banned over on the GW1W. I initially decided to involve myself in their conflicts because I noticed that active mediating was not something anyone had tried with them yet, and I feel that, slow though their progress has been, they really have improved a lot and are now doing a much better job of handling their conflicts, which is a much healthier thing for the wiki overall.

Would I have treated K&S like this if I was an admin, or if I'd been around since GW1W? That's hard to say. Maybe not; they've squandered a lot of second chances. But if I'd been around for that long as an admin, maybe their conflicts wouldn't have gotten so out of hand in the first place. Conflict resolution is a vital skill for wiki users, but also a very difficult one that a lot of people fail to develop adequately. I understand the desire to simply boot out any users who stir up drama, but I feel that this does them a disservice. I would rather give people a chance to change their ways, and -- importantly -- provide the support they need to make that change.

This does not mean I would allow troublemakers to roam unchecked as an admin. My goal is to foster a healthy atmosphere for everyone here, and if someone is making the wiki an unpleasant place for well-behaved users, then it's on the troublemaker to suffer the consequences. It seems that striking this balance between giving troublemakers second chances vs disciplining them appropriately is one that current admins have struggled to pull off well, thus the accusations of favouritism. I can't guarantee that I would do any better, but it's definitely something I would like to focus on and try to get right. —Idris 02:58, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for taking the time to respond. Even though you avoided one aspect of my question. ;)

Well, I wish you best of success with your adminship.

Outa curiosity: Do you have a professional background regarding mediation? Steve1 (talk) 18:01, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

Sorry, which part of the question did I miss? If it's about Auron, I don't really remember what he said or what my response was, so I can't comment. (If I had to guess my opinion was probably something along the lines of "he's not a total lost cause, let me help him".) If it's something else I'm stupidly not noticing, it's not intentional. I don't have any kind of training or professional background in mediation, so that's another thing I can't guarantee I'll always get right, though I'm pretty proud of what I was able to accomplish with K&S. —Idris 23:57, 16 October 2019 (UTC)