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User:The Rim of the Sky/RfA

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This is an archive of past UESPWiki:Administrator Noticeboard discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page, except for maintenance such as updating links.

Request for Adminship: The Rim of the SkyEdit

Our Request for Adminship (RfA) process is based on Wikipedia's policy. An editor, when nominated, accepts and answers questions, which can be asked by any registered editor. Votes and comments can also be left by any registered editor. Daveh makes the call, based upon the community's consensus, after about a week.

The Rim of the Sky (talk+ • contribs • edit count • logs • email)

Hello everyone, my name is the Rim of the Sky, though some of you may know me as Ratticus, big man, Tall Papa, or just Rim. I’m currently a Patroller on the wiki, as well as a Blocker, Mentor, Map Administrator/Cartographer, Interface Editor, plus a few other titles in UESP’s other departments like Explorer (ESO Guild) and Journeyman (Discord). A little bit about myself, I work on a lot of content all across the wiki, with ESO, Lore, General, and Merch being some of my main areas. A significant part of how the ONspace works was designed in part by me when I expanded/wrote new pages and help set/define standards for how pages should look. I’m currently ranked #18 for most individual edits on the wiki, though this accomplishment does not tell the whole story, as many of my edits are large content additions rather than just minor maintenance edits. I've also helped a lot of new users improve their editing in various areas. I have been actively editing since 2011, including other wikis/projects related to TES (having first become a Patroller on TES Wiki in 2015 before migrating here), and today actually marks my 10th year editing here on UESP.

I am applying for admin to help serve the wiki in a greater regard. I’ve done a lot of maintenance work for the wiki over the years, and I feel that having the extra tools being an admin provides would help to simplify the workload and improve the wiki as a whole. I believe that with my long-time editing expertise, content additions to the wiki, and communication with the community, I have an extensive understanding of how the site works that would make me suitable for the role. The Rim of the Sky (talk) 19:00, 6 April 2025 (UTC)

To those unfamiliar with my work, I've put together a list or "CV" of sorts of some my notable accomplishments on the wiki below:

  • Early work on gathering and standardizing basic info across all ESO pages for NPCs, Places, Factions, and more
  • Created/improved various Navboxes, such as the Lore Cultures, Lore Daedra, etc.
  • Helped Daveh compile the year-end review currently displayed on the site, which also includes some of my accomplishments from last year
  • Set up various archives, such as twitter archive, website articles, and other dev posts/pages
  • Helped document a lot of new and old/rare Merchandise
  • Documented info from crossovers which had been absent before, such as Fallout and Fortnite
  • Set up framework for ESO pages such as Collectibles, Golden Pursuits, Endeavors, Events, Styles, and maintaining them with each update
  • Clearing up backlog for broad subject pages such as Easter Eggs and Wanted Pages
  • Proposed/solved various proposals, such as my solution for how to categorize lore interviews
  • Helped users get in touch with admins for help, such as helping a few users from Discord with getting their wiki accounts back
  • One of the chief architects of the ESO Collectibles project, helping design how it would function and maintaining it
  • Mass correction of mistakes and errors (ie. Xivkyn & Xivilai NPCs incorrectly marked as Dremora on the wiki for years, which I later fixed)
  • Reverting vandalism, blocking rule violators, and noticing plagiarism
  • Created the 100,000th article, which received an ESO website spotlight
  • Helped create new naming systems such as ON-statue, ON-object, ON-sky, and so on. Assisted with brainstorming new Mod Header icons.
  • Taken difficult screenshots, like out-of-bounds places and subjects very hard to capture, amounting to hours of work
  • Contributions for social media post suggestions, and input on the yearly UESP calendar
  • Collaborated with external sites, such as setting up an affiliation with the JoJo Wiki, and receiving permission from ESO Model Viewer for hosting certain images

QuestionsEdit

Q1: What do you hope to accomplish as an administrator?

As an administrator, it would be much easier for me to rename and delete misnamed pages. Usually I have to mark the new redirect for speedydeletion and have an admin take care of it, but with the large amount of page moves I do, cutting out the middleman process would help speed things up. For example, I previously helped move lurlock's Infinite Archive images to the proper naming designations when some files with “ON-npc” should have been “ON-creature” instead, and so on.
There are a lot of protected pages I would like to maintain as admin, such as Main Page content like updating FA & FIs on schedule, writing news articles, and documentation articles like the History page. For example, I previously helped improve the Patreon section of the main page before it got protected. I can also do more community outreach by speaking to other sites for collaboration & assistance as an admin of the wiki. I can also undelete certain pages that warrant usage, such as the requests I made for restoring Thir River and M'aiq the Liar, which could now exist due to changes in policy and new information.
With my current blocker perms, I have helped curb vandalism on the wiki in the past by handing out temporary blocks. As an administrator, I can perform longer blocks in cases where it is warranted.
I can also pick up backlog in general. For example, the Marked for Deletion category has currently sat at about ~283 pages for a good while now, and as an admin I could go through these and take care of them. Its been over 4 years since any new admins were appointed and activity from some sitting admins has dwindled, so I believe that with my consistent activity on the wiki I can help take care of things faster and prevent an overflow of tasks from piling up.

Q2: What do you see as the UESP's main challenges in the near future?

One big challenge would probably be having to update to keep up with the times, while also ensuring we stay in touch with our roots and that we don’t lose the core values that make the wiki appealing. UESP has existed in wiki form since 2005, and while our seniority grants us wisdom, it can also result in a lot of how the site works being outdated and in need of reform, especially compared to some newer wikis. In some cases its good to modernize, and in other cases its good to follow the philosophy of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, so its usually best to decide on which path is best to take in various scenarios to ensure the wiki does not get left behind in the ever-changing internet.
Another big challenge would be maintaining the documentation of new releases on the wiki. While we have a decent handle on editing pages for new ESO DLCs, boardgames, mobile spin-offs, and so on, it is often reliant on a handful of editors and documentation can suffer a dramatic loss in content if even one of those editors goes inactive. Given that its been 14 years since a main title game has come out, this sort of decline in activity is to be expected, despite there still being a lot of new TES franchise content every year. By helping new editors learn how to improve their editing and giving active editors positive encouragement, I feel that we can stave off an editing drought.

Q3: How do you interpret the balance between enforcing policies and being innovative when policies prove to be problematic?

I find that its important to understand why a policy exists in the first place and see how it can be applied to a situation. It is also important to remember that the rules are principles, so policies are meant to help us better understand how to edit, not to dictate what we do. Sometimes policies can be vague and subjective, so its best to have the wisdom to know when and where it is applicable, and when it is not. Policies have a history of reasons for why they are in place, but things change, and sometimes policies can become outdated. If a lot of long-time editors gradually stop following a policy, it is a good time to review whether that policy needs to be updated or reformed entirely.

Q4: What is your strategy for handling disagreements with editors and other admins?

I like to take a good faith approach to editing and be friendly to other users. Even when someone is vandalizing, I tend to calmly explain to them how the rules work and why what they’re doing is wrong, rather than assume they already know. Its always good to remember that everyone on the wiki volunteers to edit in their free time, and that being unnecessarily rude is not going to be of help to anyone. When I have disagreements with other editors, I keep it civil and hear out their reasoning, while also explaining my own. Most often, one party is either swayed into agreement, or both parties raise valid points and can decide on a compromise for the best benefit to everyone. If need be, a third party can be brought in to weigh in and give a more neutral opinion. If something can’t be decided on, its best to take it to a talk page to turn it into a larger discussion.

Q Ilaro 1: I'd like to congratulate you on your 10 years milestone and I have to say that it is quite a symbolic (and bold) move to create an RfA on that day. To stay with the topic, I have to ask some questions before giving my vote. In the past, I've known you as someone that likes to make some playful edits. The wiki is sometimes a bit heavy on rule lawyering and strictness, so it's not necessarily a bad thing. Keeping editing a bit light-hearted now and then is good for motivation. However, I did come across this edit. One concern is the removal of the critism while using a seemingly unrelatable edit summary, which can be seen as trying to hide the removal. Furthermore, the content of the talk page concerned adding questionable content, which in this case, I agree with. As I didn't scour through all your edits between now and then, I'd like to ask you how you can reassure me that those kind of edits didn't happen in the meantime or won't happen again? --Ilaro (talk) 21:30, 6 April 2025 (UTC)

Hi Ilaro, thank you for wishing me on the 10 years decennial! In regards to "playful edits", while I used to do them here and there in the past, I've toned them down a lot throughout the years and don't do them any more than the average editor would nowadays. The older parts of the wiki like Daggerfall and Redguard have a lot of jokes and humorous tone sprinkled in on pages like walkthroughs, and my opinion is that as long as its kept to a minimum and it doesn't detract from the information of a page, its usually fine to keep (barring Lorespace, which should keep its in-universe tone). Humorous image captions are sometimes done by other editors and admins (example) so I don't see it as something worth cracking down on (the talk page message mainly being critical about image captions or editor-only comments not visible to readers), sometimes light-hearted jokes help us to not burn out. The old warnings removed from my talkpage were all from last decade, and were all sorted out in a civil manner, so per OwnTalk rules that users may freely remove comments from their own talk pages, I felt it was fine to remove them given I had acknowledged them + their incredibly old nature, and them no longer reflecting my current activity. The edit summary was not intended to hide anything, as the page history makes it clear something was removed, I was just doing two things at once, and since I was keeping in line with the OwnTalk rules that I can choose what to show on my talkpage, which as far as I'm aware wouldn't require an edit summary, the edit summary was just to let people know I had added the unsigned template. We have known each other a long time, and I feel that I have matured a lot throughout the years since then, and given these edits were all from last decade you have my assurance that this type of stuff has not happened in a long time and won't happen again.

Q AKB 1: In your growth over a decade of editing, what is something you wish you would have handled differently, and how? --AKB Talk Cont Mail 00:09, 7 April 2025 (UTC)

Over so many years of editing, its hard to remember everything that went well and what could have gone better. I've had my fair share of mistakes every now and again, everyone has, nobody's perfect and messing up occasionally is just part of being human; we learn from our mistakes, and I've learned a lot as time has gone on. I feel I would have liked to have been bold more times in the past, like when I had the idea for a Merchandise namespace years before we made it, but I dropped it after some folks said it wouldn't see much use; if I'd been more confident with it and pushed for it harder back then, we could've had more advanced documentation nowadays. I also should have pushed my standard for how to format Collectible intros early on and corrected deviations other users made, as there's some inconsistencies I should have stomped out long ago that have made their way into newer pages as users copy the old pages as a basis. There's also a handful of articles I only got halfway through writing and a lot of images I never uploaded, kind of like how da Vinci left a lot of works unfinished, and if I could go back I'd liked to have just finished them all in one go. Some days I wish I had started editing at UESP right away instead of TES Wiki so that I could have done more work here, but I learned a lot there about editing and different perspectives that helped inform my work on here and give me a fresh idea of how to do things, and I still cherish all the friendly people I met there that helped me learn to be a better editor, so looking back at it, I wouldn't change a thing about my time there.

Q Dillon 1: If you had to pick just one article you created or overhauled as your favorite, which would it be? —Dillonn241 (talk) 00:12, 7 April 2025 (UTC)

Hmmm, this is a tough one as I've created so many articles over the years, every now and then I come across a lore article and suddenly remember I'm the one who wrote it, so there are likely more I just can't recall right now. I'm really proud of my work with in general with artifacts, Daedra, races, and realm lore pages, but if I had to pick one, I'd have to say Lore:Sanguine. This was a big passion project of mine, and I spent hours searching through sources (items, guides, books, dialogue, you name it) over the years to expand the article, with some of my lore bit compilations making their way into the newest crown crate. However, I like to think my best work is yet to come, as there's always more projects to work on and more pages to write.

VotesEdit

  • Support: Rim has consistently been really helpful to other users and he's also definitely dedicated to the wiki. Many projects and pages wouldn't exist without his contributions. I believe that he's more than qualified to join the admin team. I'm sure that this would benefit both the admin team by offering additional perspective and helping with various backlog tasks and projects. I am positive that would also help the UESP community as a whole.Tyrvarion (talk) 19:14, 6 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim is a fantastic editor and wonderful person. He has helped me an immense deal in my developing skills as an editor and the wiki is all the better for his prescense. He is very balanced on policy and not argumentative in the slightest, but he is patient and good about standing his ground and explaining his stance if he believes something strongly. I legitimately believe he would help improve the wiki for the better as an admin. You'd be hard-pressed to find users as devoted to the series and wiki as him. 100% has my recommendation.-Tarponpet (talk) 19:19, 6 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim's contributions to the UESP speak for themselves. He has a breadth of interests across different areas of TES, but also possesses determination to build up specific topics to their best. He's attentive to policy and style and works reliably within a complex editorial environment like the UESP. Personally, I've worked with Rim on TES documentation projects since 2015, throughout which he has consistently demonstrated initiative, commitment, and good candor. He's generous with his time, contributes meaningfully to discussion, and is a joy to collaborate with. I'm happy to support his request for adminship. —Atvelonis (talk) 19:56, 6 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim has been a beacon of positivity and good vibes on the community side for years. And on the wiki side he has made innumerable valuable contributions in the lore space and elsewhere. He is very committed to building and broadening this community and an adminship in the Uesp would be a net benefit for both parties. He has my full support! Dcking20 (talk) 20:20, 6 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim is very active, very knowledgable and of great counsel in UESP, yet he is very approachable and fair. For a while I actually thought he was an admin lol. Though I'm not a very old editor here, to me it only makes sense to support his nomination as I know it will benefit UESP. --BixenteN7Akantor (talk) 20:24, 6 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim of the Sky is doing all the work of an admin now, and he is well suited for the role and extra permissions that come with it. I know he'll do a good job. And since I stepped down from admin, there are fewer people with the ability to carry out those admin tasks. Nice timing on the 10th anniversary. —Dillonn241 (talk) 23:25, 6 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim has been a consistently good editor, and seeing what's posted on his userpage showcases some of the best things that he has contributed to the TES community. He is a great help as well and is happy to assist you whether on the wiki or on his discord account.--Analeah Oaksong (talk) 00:23, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim is a pretty cool dude. I've seen him contributing for so many years, and you can tell that he's very dedicated to TES's documentation across all areas. We'd be leagues behind where we are today if he wasn't around to put in the work. Adminship is a great next step because he'll no doubt elevate the wiki and the community. --Vincentius1 (talk) 00:43, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim's a great editor, very thorough, good with people, and well mannered. I fully recommend him for administrator. --TheRockWithAMedicineCupOnHisHead (talk) 01:02, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim's extremely positive and welcoming attitude towards others on top of his high quality editing and willingness to teach others makes me glad to support him, especially with how much it would aid the immense contributions he already makes. --Floognoodle (talk) 01:34, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: A self-nomination for adminship is no easy task, so allow me to be the first active admin to throw my support behind this RfA. Rim has always been fantastic to work with, both on the wiki and on the community side of things. I have no doubt he will make an excellent addition to the team. We really lucked out sniping the talent from TES Fandom Wiki! —⁠Legoless (talk) 06:27, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: big man is large. administrator-sized, some may say. I think Rim deserves administrator, whenever there is a project I want to do, he is there to help out with research or formatting and UESP guidelines. He also does a lot of ESO maintanence, eliminating the lackluster coverage where needed. I fully support this administratorship. --ErfXploded (talk) 06:39, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: big man's always been great to discuss wiki editing and lore with. Even the times I'm not directly involved in a conversation between him and another- it's very easy to absorb insights from him to improve my own editing skills. His goal of making sure UESP keeps up with the times is also a good one. Fandoms are seeing a resurgence away from the fandom Wikia website, with more and more games making their own private wikis. It'd be a shame to see UESP outshined by newer wikis, or left behind as a relic. Big man seems perfect to make sure we keep with the times. Support Ithelia (talk) 09:20, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: The wiki is thriving while the activity of some admins is going down (including that of my own). This means that a new RfA is long overdue. I don't think I can find anyone that has had more growth and passion for the wiki, and the Elder Scrolls at large, than you that would deserve this adminship. Your collaboration with the community is noteworthy, which is evident by the support above this post. I don't think we've had as much engagement with an RfA in literally the whole history of the wiki. You have my full support and I'm looking forward to have you on our team. --Ilaro (talk) 10:21, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim is active, friendly, and knowledgable. Great edits, never loses his cool from what I've seen. All the markings of a great contributor to the wiki and an excellent future administrator. Mindtrait0r (talk) 16:13, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Big man's always lovely to discuss TES related things with. He is very involved even in communities outside UESP, which makes him a person with a broad perspective when it comes to TES. There's a lot of times I referred to pages he worked on without knowing, because his edits are vast. I have no doubt he will make a fine admin. Dee1 (talk) 16:41, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: big man is a very pleasant and friendly user with whom it is always a joy to deal and discuss matters. He's a natural leader, whom people like me trust. We ready to follow him, not cause we have to, but cause we want to. — Maxandkon 17:42, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: As many have stated above, I feel Rim would make an exemplary addition to the admin team, not only for his technical knowledge of the wiki and for his impressive edit history, but also for having a good head on his shoulders and for having a forward thinking mindset that I’m sure will continue to be a boon to the wiki for years to come as we make our way into the next chapter of the series — Naga007 (talk) 17:59, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim has consistently demonstrated an impressive track record of excellent work over the years, contributing significantly to various pages. I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with him on numerous projects, and his dedication and skill have always stood out. From what I’ve seen and experienced firsthand, Rim is an outstanding candidate and his passion is evident not only in the volume of his contributions but also in the quality and depth of his work. Beyond the more visible efforts, he’s tackled a wide range of obscure topics and tasks, showing a high level of commitment. Imperialbattlespire (talk) 20:37, 7 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: In my short time as an active editor, Rim has been consistently helpful, calm, and interested; helping me become a better editor. He's been a valuable asset to the UESP for a long time and I believe he would be a great fit for adminship! Hagrin Frost-Eye (talk) 00:26, 8 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim has done a lot of great work for the wiki for a long time, and I think UESP would benefit even more from having him as an admin. --Oriwa Talk 05:53, 8 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: I agree with many of the positive comments above so I'll keep this short. I've known Rim for many years going back to the Wikia days (where I would sometimes reprimand him for his questionable edits :p) but I've seen his editing and admin skills improve greatly over that time, so this makes sense.--Jimeee (talk) 09:24, 8 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: I've seen you grow a lot as an editor over the years, and enjoyed working on you on many things over that stretch. I trust you getting a mop to help the wiki out! --AKB Talk Cont Mail 04:22, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Friendly, helpful, and encouraging, especially to new(er) editors, and his work in many areas of UESP has been and continues to be integral to the wiki's growth and sustainability. His adminship would no doubt be a benefit to UESP. – dyanle (talk) 05:37, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim has done alot of things for the wiki and I'll support his nomination for the Admin team.--Talyyn (talk) 12:27, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: An excellent editor: knowledgeable, sensible and courteous. He'll make an excellent addition to the admin team and it'll be great to have another active admin on the site. --SerCenKing (talk) 15:54, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim/Ratticus is simply put amazing and with a brilliant lore oriented mind. I am new to editing in the Wiki but I've been a part of this community in the Discord since 2020, Rim is the reason I decided to officially "enlist". He is an excellent teacher, fun to have a conversation with and 100% would be an invaluable asset to the Admin team. Ariandaël (talk) 19:12, 11 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: I'll keep my comment short, I've known Rim for almost a decade now, and in that time he's always had a positive and welcoming attitude, especially towards new editors. I have confidence in his time as admin he'll bring new approaches to the table whilst keeping the userbase in mind. ThalJ (talk) 20:18, 11 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim has always been very pleasant to work with and has much to show for his tenure on the Wiki. He has always been one of the first to acknowledge others' work with a kind message, is supportive and gives thanks where due. As to Administration, I believe the UESP Wiki would benefit from someone who is not only knowledgeable but patient, thorough and dedicated. Requesting said position is, as some have said, bold. I feel it is more of a donation of one's self to a cause. We are, after all, merely volunteers, giving our time freely to something we enjoy. Taking it further in step is bold if only in feeling that the Wiki deserves even more of one's time and energy. This is what Rim is asking to give. And so I give my ascent. :) - Erorah (talk) 00:50, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Rim has been a valuable asset to the UESP, not only through his solid editing contributions to the wiki, but also through helping other editors and recognizing when they might be ready for an expanded role, thus strengthening both the wiki itself and the community which supports it. Definitely a worthwhile candidate for the Administrator role. — Wolfborn(Howl) 01:28, 12 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Support: Initially wanting to stay out of this voting process, I felt obligated to do at least this much for Malik after he showed such compassion and willingness to help a fellow editor. He clearly knows his stuff. UnknownG (talk) 01:21, 22 April 2025 (UTC) (Note: This vote was placed afterwards)
Consensus: Support. Unanimous support. – Robin Hood (talk) 04:06, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

AddendumEdit

 

Hello everybody, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who voted and wrote something about me for the RfA, I really appreciate all the kind words you folks had to say! I did not expect this level of support, at 30 votes (including votes from 3 Admins, 9 Patrollers, 4 Autopatrolled users, 2 Userpatrollers, 1 Wikia Bureaucrat, and 2 Guildmasters) this nomination has now beat the previous record by at least a dozen votes, becoming the most supported RfA in the wiki's history. I've somehow had three different users message me with this scene from Spider-Man 3, so I feel obliged to add this photo onto the end of the RfA hahaha. I'm truly blown away, this all means a lot to me, and I really can't thank you all enough! I look forward to serving you all as admin and improving the wiki, and hope I can continue working with the community going forward in the same positive manner I have before. Good luck editing everyone! The Rim of the Sky (talk) 17:59, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

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