Wikisource:Administrators/Archives/Jack Merridew

2009-06 admin

 * — SUL, ec

Jack Merridew has a history. I think he has been involved in three arbitration cases over on En.Wp. In short, he has been a bit of a prick, especially to User:White Cat. See w:User:Jack Merridew/History for the long version.

In April 2008 he joined English Wikisource and Indonesian Wikipedia and then in May he joined Javanese Wikipedia. He focused on the latter two, where he now has 3711 and 1212 edits respectively. In July we started chatting, and he started helping in the Page namespace. Since then he has helped in all manner of ways, and also worked on his own project: Index:The works of Horace - Christopher Smart.djvu, pulling in the proofread text from w:en:User:Ottava Rima/Wikisource as we try to convert  into a Wikisourcerer.

Largely due to his Wikisource contributions, his ban on English Wikipedia was replaced with a mentoring arrangement. There have been a few hiccups along the way, but I have come to realise that he has meant well all along, and he has come to realise that what he perceives to be a problem needs to be shared with the community, and a collaborative solution found.

More recently he worked with me to finish Index:Martyred Armenia - El-Ghusein.djvu in record time, has been given the autopatrolled flag, and has 2743 edits all said. John Vandenberg (chat) 21:32, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

I’ve been on-wiki for over four and half years and plan on being indef:active. My time off en:wp was actually a great experience as I now understand the wider picture a lot better. This is a great project and I see a lot of things I can do here. My background is in software and this has allowed me to do productive work on projects in languages I’ve no clue about; the markup is still clear to me. I am interested in working in protected areas such as the MediaWiki namespace; I’ll add useful tools to the CSS, for example. High traffic pages, like the Main Page (which I’ll try and not break, again), are protected and thus are not benefiting from work I would like to do. There are a lot of issues over there and they all amount to scalability issues. When I began editing that project there were about a half million articles and the place was just taking-off. I was not the only one jumping in; millions, have and myriad disagreements, factions, and issues emerged. There are still many issues, and they are far from sorted, but things are moving in the right direction. Cheers, Jack Merridew 09:30, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Terima kasih (thank you) — I accept.


 * Support as nom. John Vandenberg (chat) 21:34, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Support - Josette (talk) 22:46, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Support. Since October last year when I opposed confirmation of Sherurcij over an incident at the English 'pedia, I have come to the sad realisation that I myself am an argumentative, abrasive, irritating troll over there; and a paragon of virtue over here. :-) It seems the different projects have different cultures that draw different behaviours out of people. With respect to Jack, I think some fault might still be found with his behaviour over there, but not so much as his antagonists would have us think; because of his unsavory past, he can't break wind without someone calling for his immediate banishment. Over here, Jack has been friendly, helpful and sensible 100% of the time. I'll take that. Hesperian 01:32, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * P.S. please don't over-read the above; I am most certainly not labelling Jack or Sherurcij or anyone other than myself a troll. Hesperian 01:33, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * See above; the culture over there has a lot of growing up to do. As the other projects grow, they need to be careful to not repeat mistakes made there. Cheers, Jack Merridew 09:30, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree, and am actually sorry we're limited to this nomination to discuss the pros/cons and what WS does right in fostering constructive criticism opposed to WP. I get labeled a "fascist government stooge" by the "troubling leftists" and a "socialist terrorist apologist" by the "troubling rightists"...some days you wonder if maybe you aren't the problem, not them. Sherurcij Collaboration of the Week: Author:Carl Jung. 15:56, 27 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Yoz haz talk page, so we'z not limited to here. en:wp has too much tolerance for disruption. Here, the librarians shush those raising their voices. Cheers, Jack Merridew 04:33, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Support - Done constructive work here, with useful expertise. Being a Richmond supporter, I am not about to condemn due to circumstance elsewhere. -- billinghurst (talk) 02:13, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * As an Eagles supporter, should I change my vote? Hesperian 23:24, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * When I saw the Eagles, they tweaked a line to “I ride in the trunk in case I get drunk.” — Cheers, Jack Merridew 06:29, 27 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Were they talking about Ben Cousins too? Hesperian 12:42, 27 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Looks like Ben had just turned two years old then; that the legal drinking age down there? Cheers, Jack Merridew 13:24, 27 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Support --Zyephyrus (talk) 17:28, 27 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Support--Jusjih (talk) 02:04, 30 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Support --Spangineerwp (háblame) 20:53, 2 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Support While I usually have a fairly "top-down" attitude towards issues on various wikis, work here trumps troubles elsewhere in this instance. Different communities can grate differently against personalities. EVula // talk // &#9775;  // 20:42, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

2009-11 Self-requested Removal/Restoration

 * 11/25/09 Voluntarily resigned administrator status whilst in good standing (see request for removal).
 * 11/30/09 Adminship restored per request at the Administrator's noticeboard (in the future the archives thereof)

Comment: This did not involve this project specifically; it was about en:wp's environment affecting my interest in the WMF projects in general. Details available upon request, but I don't see a need for much detail here. There will, of course, be plenty of detail available over there and those interested will know how to find it. Sincerely, Jack Merridew 09:25, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

2010-07 confirmation

 * Thanks folks; I know I've been less than hyper-active; I'll work on it. I just got an unrelated post on en:wp that's got me thinking about The Most Dangerous Game; I've not read it in years, but will soon. If ours needs anything, I'll do my best. I was poked re TOC work, too, and that's something John and I talked about a while ago. Seems time. Cheers, Jack Merridew 08:40, 2 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Support. Helpful contributor, seems to be engaged in some interesting projects. :) -- Cirt (talk) 15:51, 1 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support Still active (his logs are a bit stale, but just because he hasn't deleted anything in a while doesn't mean he isn't still an active contributor). EVula // talk // &#9775;  // 15:57, 1 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support --Zyephyrus (talk) 19:09, 1 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support - Maximillion Pegasus (talk) 19:09, 1 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support - John Vandenberg (chat) 02:31, 2 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support Seems to be doing a good job.--Longfellow (talk) 10:50, 4 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support though I am holding him to his promises. Poke poke. — billinghurst  sDrewth  11:37, 14 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support Inductiveload— talk/contribs  00:15, 15 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support Diego Grez (talk) 00:16, 15 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support Mattwj2002 (talk) 00:19, 15 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Confirmed — billinghurst  sDrewth  08:12, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

2011-02 resignation
Jack requested deletion of his user pages and removal of rights on February 24, 2011. —Spangineer (háblame) 19:40, 24 February 2011 (UTC)