User:Peter Chastain/Essay/Questions for administrators

This essay contains the personal opinions of its author(s) and does not reflect Wikivoyage policy.

The Wikipedia administrator selection process includes questioning nominees to determine their motivations, maturity, philosophy, and understanding of policy. The Wikivoyage process has traditionally been less formal, with votes from the community interspersed with comments, sometimes followed by responses from the nominee. So far, this has worked well, partly because most nominees were already administrators in the pre-Wikimedia era. As new people are considered, it might be useful to ask some questions that explore their preparation for the job. The questions posed in this essay could also form a self-assessment tool for potential admins. The questions overlap somewhat, which is OK, because not all of them will be asked in any one RFA assessment.

These questions are designed to explore the nominee's understanding of Wikivoyage. In most cases, there is no single right or wrong answser, and it is not really important that the nominee come up with the same answers that the questioner had in mind when posing the questions. In answering, a nominee should feel free to link to things that he or she has written elsewhere, and to appropriate sections of Wikivoyage or Wikimedia policy documents.


 * 1) Why are you a Wikivoyage editor? What benefits or satisfaction do you gain from your activities here? What do you see as the mission of WV? What would you like to accomplish in the futurre?
 * 2) Why do you want to be an admin? Please discuss why you want to become a Wikivoyage administrator. What administrative activities would you like to do? In what ways would the admin tools or status affect your activities here?
 * 3) What do you see as the qualifications of an admin? Is there a minimum level of experience as a traveller or travel writer, minimum set of language skills, minimum time or number of edits at WV?
 * 4) Why would you be a good admin? Please discuss the strengths and weaknesses you bring to the job. Include technical skills, temperment, availability, or any other factors you consider relevant.
 * 5) How does Wikivoyage differ from Wikipedia? If you are familiar with, or have contributed to Wikipedia, please discuss the differences and similarities between the two projects. Feel free to express your opinions about these.
 * 6) What is an administrator's role in preventing unwanted edits? Discuss the kinds of edits that are considered undesireable in WV, and how an admin should respond to them?
 * 7) What is the copyright or licensing status of Wikivoyage content? What are the rights of WV content contributors? What are the obligations of WV editors and administrators, with regard to material used? Please be as specific as you can, regarding how these intellectual property rights are safeguarded.
 * 8) How and where are images uploaded for use in Wikivoyage? If there is more than one repository, please explain how to decide where an image will be stored.
 * 9) How should content be removed? Discuss the various procedures for deleting content. Compare normal and speedy deletion and when each would be used. When an article is merged into another one, are there any steps you need to take to preserve the rights of those who contributed to the merged content?
 * 10) Example—image licensing: Please discuss the range of things you could or should do in this perhaps hypothetical case: At Wikimedia Commons, you find a gorgeous photograph, which you would love to use in your travel article. It which was put there by a Flickr upload bot. The image has a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license notice at Commons and Flickr. A small caption, at the bottom of the photo but not covering anything important, reads "&copy; George Plotz Photography", and this matches the name on th Flickr account.