Wikipedia:Editor review/ikanreed

ikanreed

ikanreed (talk · contribs) I'm mostly concerned if I could be handling my interactions with other users better. i kan reed 01:00, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Reviews Review by delldot:
Hey ikanreed, I think you're doing a good job overall. I commend you for seeking advice on how to interact better with other users, this shows integrity and humility. From all of your posts that I looked at, I got the impression that you were genuinely trying to resolve conflict positively and get along with others. Some specific points:

• I gave some advice at another editor review to a user who was looking for very similar advice about how to get along with others. Maybe you would find some of the advice there useful too (though I admit it's pretty obvious stuff: be quick to apologize, slow to revert, don't template the established users, find something to praise about someone's work when you have to criticise them, try to think of ways to soften your language so you don't come across as more hostile than you mean to...).
• [1] This is probably the person you were talking about in your answer to Q2. From the number of posts I've seen from you, I think you're a really genuinely nice person, but I also think you're too sensitive. Trolls can detect this and exploit it. You say that you can't accept people saying false stuff about you ("when you start accusing me of mischeif, it is my personal responsibility to hold you accountable to it"). This is unfortunate, because people sometimes will, and it would be a handy skill to be able to not worry about it. I mean, if they know that bothers you, and they want attention, or just to upset you, all they have to do is accuse you of something to keep you engaged in the discussion. If you know a claim of wrongdoing doesn't have any merit, you should be able to ignore it. (If it does have merit, of course, you need to very humbly apologize and rectify it, but you're a good user and I haven't seen any bad faith stuff on your part). On a slightly different note, I don't think you were uncivil in this post (I haven't found any blatant incivility on your part in any of the posts I looked at) but in response to "forcing me to make the most unkind comments" I did want to point out that it's not possible to force someone to make unkind comments; you're always responsible for your own behavior.
• With some users you're not going to be able to make them see the light. My approach to them is (well, primarily it's to stay away from mean people in general, but...) to let the issue drop once I figure out that the discussion is going to go nowhere (unless of course action needs to be taken, e.g. if they're poking me with a sharp stick or something...). I strongly recommend trying the ignoring stuff approach, it's worked really great for me in the past; on two occasions I can think of off hand, I've had folks say something that hurt my feelings, but all I did was leave a really breif apology on their talk pages, and in both cases I can remember, they came back and apologized for their own comments spontaneously and in both cases we're now friends. Of course, these were real sincere users, not the kind of trolls you've been interacting with; the trolls I wouldn't consider it worth my time to interact with at all. You can't win 'em all, right? You are able to cut your losses with discussion after a certain point, as indicated in this post. So that's good.
• As I understand it, no consensus has been reached about a guideline about removing warnings, so it is not currently disallowed.
• I think you handled the thing with Calton well, remaining civil in all posts I looked at. Again, I would have disengaged from discussion with this user earlier, but of course this is a question of personal style. I tend to back down from conflict and that tends to keep me out of trouble.
• <Didn't bother to find the dif for this one> You approached an admin and say, "You defended an accusation of abusing your admin powers by stating that you unblocked a user when they agreed to set their user page to match your perspective on an edit war on it. While your other statements were valid, that particular course of action was totally inappropriate, especially considering you were warring over an undecided policy. In the future please try not to use your sysop abilities in disputes you personally are engaged in." I think it's great that you bring this to their attention; if the situation was as you perceived it, it would be a transgression indeed. I would have worded it more softly to avoid coming off as hostile from the getgo. Maybe commend something that they've done right first, word the criticism more gently. Though it doesn't look like the person took it that badly.
• You're usually quite friendly and helpful with other editors, (e.g. [2]). This is really great, especially important with new users.
• A couple minor things about editing not related to interactions with other users:
  • looks like you could benefit from more use of the "show preview" button.
  • Don't forget to subst {{Welcome}} templates.
  • Good use of edit summaries. To bring your use up to 100%, you might want to set your preferences so that it prompts you if you go to save without one.
• Nice job rv'ing v! I see you also leave appropriate warnings. I commend your ability to not get mean even when you're upset by their actions.
• I think your interactions with other users has largely been really positive. You've had some bad luck with the problem users you've interacted with, but you've also chosen to participate in the discussions longer than I would have (not that I'm the paragon or anything, but it's the only perspective I have to go on). I would suggest trying not to get as worked up about stuff (e.g. if something is getting to you, take a short break, work on something else, ask another, trusted, neutral user to get involved and back down yourself), and considering stayin away from arguments unless there's a concrete need to be involved in them. delldot talk 07:12, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Comments

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Questions

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

   I really couldn't say that there has been anything particularly great in my history on wikipedia, I find myself doing mostly routine maintainance. i kan reed 01:06, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

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?

   I've had one instance of nominating an article for deletion(which was kept and duly so) where the user bitterly hated me for it. Trying to work with them to improve the article eventually drove them off wikipedia. I wasn't happy about that. If I ran into another user who reacted in the exact same way, I can't imagine a better way to have resolved the issue. i kan reed 01:06, 15 February 2007 (UTC)