User:DeirdreAnne/Mentorship/Themis-Athena

This page is for coordinating mentorship (Adoption) of User:Themis-Athena, most of the coordination will take place on the talkpage for now.

Adoption Request

(moved here from User talk:Doug to maintain unified discussion) Hi Doug,

I've been an enthusiastic user of Wikipedia forever it seems, and a few days ago finally decided to take the plunge and sign up. The last thing I want to do, though, is run afoul of Wikipedia's guidelines; so advice is certainly always welcome.

In addition, on Wikipedia's intro page I noticed the list(s) of areas where editorial help most seems to be needed: but although I'd like to lend a hand, quite frankly, the wealth of "unsorted," uncategorized or otherwise editorially not-quite-perfect material opening up once I click on any of those links is a bit overwhelming, so I'm still left wondering where I might best fit in. Could you have a look at my (as-yet rudimentary) user profile and see whether anything comes to mind off the top of your head?

By way of additional personal background, I'll just add that I am an attorney with practice experience in the U.S. and Germany, as well as various areas of international practice -- which is not something I'm in the habit of parading about online, but I think on this site it might actually serve as a source of my contributions as well. (Or would it?)

I'll be happy to hear from you whenever you have time to look into this ... no rush.

Thanks and take care,

TA —Preceding unsigned comment added by Themis-Athena (talk • contribs) 15:11, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

• Hi TA! Thanks for contacting me and I'm very glad you've decided to get an account and start editing. There are certainly areas where your legal background can be of help. First, take a look at WP:LAW and join up, it was the first WikiProject I joined, though I have moved on to other things and rarely even check in there now, it focuses a lot on cases and legal principles so you can imagine it's pretty well taken care of by law students with only occasional need for more experience. If you have any interest in intellectual property law, even if it's not an area of expertise, there is plenty of work to be done, just ask and I'll point you to the relevant areas. Clearly, you should also take a look at WP:LIT as well. You may also be interested in some of the WikiProjects that deal with Europe as well. There is, of course, tons of maintenance from copyediting to Dispute resolution to Deletion process, but remember, There is no deadline and you don't have to do everything.

• As far as Adoption is concerned, I'd be more than happy to adopt you if you wish. Simply add {{adoptee}} to your userpage.

• Rather than cluttering your talk page with lots of hints and ideas and comments on your editing, I'm creating User:Doug/Mentorship/Themis-Athena, the only issue is that this will not show the big orange bar and my watchlist is a bit large to mean much these days. If I don't respond for a while, ping me (post a message on my talk page to let me know). Thanks.

• BTW, my availability may be spotty in the next several weeks as I will be, coincidentally, leaving the US for a year in Germany. :-) --Doug.^{(talk • contribs)} 17:42, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

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• Doug, First of all thanks for accepting my adoption request! As you can see, I've proceeded to move the discussion here straight away (clutter on the talk pages, and all that) -- though if you'd prefer to keep it on the more general pages for the time being, that's fine with me as well. Just leave a message on my talk page to let me know.

• I certainly appreciate your many introductory tips and comments! I've selected three WikiProjects to join (Law, Literature, and Germany -- these seemed the most proximate choices) and also signed up for the "Elizabethan theatre" group that's part of WikiLit. As time progresses, I think I might also be interested in becoming involved with Wikipedia's mediation and/or arbitration process, but that will obviously have to wait. For the moment, I've decided to take it slowly getting started ... :) (Will have to, anyway, as German statutes of limitation tend to run at year-end, so you can probably imagine what my day job is like at the moment; but even apart from that, I'd hate to have the better part of my edits reverted as vandalism or whatever just because I'm still learning the ropes. So I might as well try not to overdo it right out of the box.)

• As a matter of sheer curiosity, how come you're about to spend time in Germany; and where are you going to be? If there is anything I can do to help you settle in (or get around, or whatever), do let me know. In any event: Herzlich Willkommen!

--Themis-Athena (talk) 21:48, 15 December 2008 (UTC)