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Bellhalla

Voice your opinion on this candidate (talk page) (5/0/0); Scheduled to end 17:12, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Nomination

Bellhalla (talk · contribs) – I would like to nominate Bellhalla for adminship. This is my first nomination at RfA, and indeed, I suspect many of the regulars here are wondering who I am. I have been an administrator myself for almost 3 years, and have thousands of admin actions, but most of those are "under the hood" work instead of the more visible administrative work at XfD, AIV, ANI, etc.

And that is precisely why I am making this nomination. Trusted editors should be able to use admin tools where necessary to be more effective with their work. Not every admin has to be involved in the usual places. I believe Bellhalla would be another "under the hood" administrator. He has been here for almost 5 years, has about 80,000 edits (!), and has never been blocked. He clearly has the respect of his peers; he was an elected coordinator of Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Military history earlier this year. One look at his contribution history (including a significant amount of featured content and DYK contributions) and his talk page interactions (including many messages of thanks and barnstars) will tell you that he is a valuable contributor to this encyclopedia.

A few weeks ago when I first started doing some work with Bellhalla, I had noticed that he had written on his user page (since then removed): I am not an administrator and don't really see a need to be one at the present; between family, work, school, and writing for Misplaced Pages, my time is pretty well occupied (and I certainly don't need the stress or drama). That gave me reason to pause, as I really don't think that adminship ought to equate to "stress or drama". Certainly, there are many admins whose main contributions to this project are the difficult, thankless tasks, but there is room for other types of admins as well, so I decided to approach Bellhalla about RfA anyway.

I believe there is a large amount of "gnomish" work that is much easier to take care of when you have the bit yourself: maintenance of protected (high-use) templates, speedy deletion of empty catgories, page moves to existing targets (with history merges or deletions as appropriate), etc. Yes, a lot of those activities can be done by using {{editprotected}}, {{db}}, etc. to attract an administrator's attention, but it is certainly more efficient to do those things yourself if you can. I believe that Bellhalla has demonstrated the need for some of the admin tools in his areas of editing interest, and has earned the trust to use them properly. And that alone should be the focus of discussion about this candidacy. — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 20:06, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Candidate, please indicate acceptance of the nomination here: I accept the nomination. — Bellhalla (talk) 15:38, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Questions for the candidate

Dear candidate, thank you for offering to serve Misplaced Pages as an administrator. It is recommended that you answer these optional questions to provide guidance for participants:

1. What administrative work do you intend to take part in?

A: If so granted access, I intend to use the tools to allow me to continue effectively improving the encyclopedia without having to resort to {{editprotected}} or bugging ever-so-patient admins. As examples of work I've done recently that would be eased with access to the tools, a minor change recently in Template:USN flag (which makes the border around the displayed flag optional). One can also look at User:Andrwsc's talk page for nine different appeals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) for edits to protected flag templates since mid-September.

2. What are your best contributions to Misplaced Pages, and why?

A: Although I haven't had as much time to do so recently with family and school commitments, I feel article-writing has been my best contribution to Misplaced Pages. I enjoy writing articles, and feel a sense of satisfaction when I have been able to successfully shepherd one through WP:FAC. One example I'm particularly proud of is USS Princess Matoika (ID-2290), an FA, and two related articles: Mutiny of the Matoika, a Good Article, and American Palestine Line, an A-Class article.

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: One situation that caused me stress was a dispute with an editor over the use of automated tools for what was effectively subst'ing a particular type of unit conversion performed with Template:Convert. I was, perhaps, a little heated in a posing a question (diff) on that user's talk page as to why they had continued to make the same change even though asked to stop. In this situation, fortunately, the user in question stopped making those types of changes. As for handling future situations, I'll continue to do what I currently do: when a stressful situation arises, I step away from the computer long enough to ensure that I'm approaching the situation with a level head, be mindful of the other person's point of view, and attempt to address the situation in a constructive manner.

RfA Question

Additional optional questions from Bwilkins

4. Would you be willing to advise bureaucrats in private of any alternate account that you may have, or may create in the future if you become an administrator?

A:

General comments

• Links for Bellhalla: Bellhalla (talk · contribs · deleted · count · AfD · logs · block log · lu · rfar · spi)
• Edit summary usage for Bellhalla can be found here.

Please keep discussion constructive and civil. If you are unfamiliar with the nominee, please thoroughly review Special:Contributions/Bellhalla before commenting.

Discussion

Support

1. Obvious support as nominator. — Andrwsc (talk · contribs) 17:16, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
2. Strongest support - amazing work with content and categories, from a guy who is one of the most polite editors I have ever met. If Bellhalla doesn't deserve the mop, then I don't know who else does. —Ed (talk • contribs) 17:06, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
3. Support per Ed. --RegentsPark (sticks and stones) 17:19, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
4. Support Elected as a coordinator of WPMilHist is pretty much all the nominator needed to say. Still, Bellhalla's contributions show a deep, deep commitment and understanding. I for one don't believe that nonsense about "not having the time" so I see no reason not to push this through. My words of praise are failing me atm, but... hot damn! ~ Amory (u • t • c) 17:51, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
5. Support - per Ed.--Unionhawk 17:58, 2 November 2009 (UTC)