Wikipedia:Online Ambassadors/Apply/Biosthmors

Biosthmors

The following discussion is preserved as an archive of a successful Online Ambassador application.

Welcome to the Online Ambassador Team, Biosthmors. The Interior (Talk) 16:29, 28 September 2012 (UTC) Biosthmors (talk · contribs)

1. Why do you want to be a Wikipedia Ambassador?

   Because I want academia and Wikipedia to collaborate. We could use more quality content, and academia is a natural place to find quality contributors. Also, polite and supportive collaboration with students during their assignments might convince some to stick around.

2. In three sentences or less, summarize your involvement with Wikimedia projects.

   I participate by improving WikiProject Medicine-related content. I am here to learn and share knowledge about health.

3. Please indicate a few articles to which you have made significant content contributions. (e.g. DYK, GA, FA, major revisions/expansions/copyedits).

   I have rewritten the article for deep vein thrombosis. I've taken it to GA status. I've addressed the comments in its second peer review, and I plan on taking it to FAC soon. I started prothrombin G20210A and got a DYK for it. I'm in the middle of providing a thorough and relatively slow but steady GAN review of malaria along with the experienced User:Sasata, who is thankfully tackling this important disease. I think of reviewing/commenting as a collaborative form of quasi-content contribution because one's suggestions can be adopted.

4. How have you been involved with welcoming and helping new users on Wikipedia?

   If I see a struggling inexperienced editor, I like to help and give them advice. Here are my last four welcoming messages to constructive editors on their user talk.[1][2][3][4] I try to be friendly, straightforward, and simultaneously explain how Wikipedia works.

5. What do you see as the most important ways we could welcome newcomers or help new users become active contributors?

   Ideally, we should respond to user inquiries or feedback in a timely manner. I try to do this (here I marked feedback as resolved, here I notified another I responded). For new contributors, if they know there are other passionate and competent individuals they can collaborate with (an example), then they might engage and stick around. I also just saw somewhere (now I can't find it again) that developing a welcoming "persona" might help people stick around, so I just added a picture and intro to my user page.

6. Have you had major conflicts with other editors? Blocks or bans? Involvement in arbitration? Feel free to offer context, if necessary.

   No.

7. How often do you edit Wikipedia and check in on ongoing discussions? Will you be available regularly for at least two hours per week, in your role as a mentor?

   Usually every day, unless I'm taking a weekend trip with no internet access. Yes.

8. How would you make sure your students were not violating Copyright laws?

   I would check on suspiciously phrased prose, and I would check to see if the students had been advised on this. I imagine I will also have a user subpage with this being emphasized.

9. If one of your students had an issue with Copyright Violation how would resolve it?

   If I found a clear violation I would remove it myself. I would kindly mention the issue to the student at their talk page, and I would link them either to here and/or here. Depending upon the scenario, other options include raising the issue at the talk page, nominating for speedy deletion, tagging the article with {{Copypaste}}, asking for help at WikiProject Copyright Cleanup (which would probably catch the attention of User:Moonriddengirl), and discussing things at Copyright problems. I would also ideally have an understanding with the professor and/or other ambassadors on what and when they would like to hear from me in these cases.

10. In your _own_ words describe what Copyright Violation is.

    A violation is reproduction of a copyrighted source that could be legally challenged. For prose, it can happen when substantial duplication of words/structure (too close paraphrasing) of copyrighted sentences is cited, but passed off as original wording (no quotes). Reproducing lengthy quotes of copyrighted prose can also qualify. With images, uploading inappropriate images to Wikimedia Commons or Wikipedia can also qualify.

11. What else should we know about you that is relevant to being a Wikipedia Ambassador?

    I saw the posting for Online Ambassadorships at WT:MED, and I am most interested in the Introductory Neuroscience class, because I could conceivably provide some real-life assistance. From what I've seen of some random student contributions in the Spring semester, they can sometimes mimic traditional research papers. I'll endeavor to have my students know what an encyclopedia is, in that we are a tertiary source. I'll expect students to understand that "Wikipedia articles should be based on reliable, published secondary sources and, to a lesser extent, on tertiary sources." I'll want students to understand primary sources should be cited only sparingly and that "material based purely on primary sources should be avoided." I think these instructions address the main content problems I've seen thus far. Biosthmors (talk) 22:56, 18 September 2012 (UTC)

Endorsements

(2 Endorsements are needed for online ambassador approval).

• Support per positive attitude and positive feedback at WP:MED. Though the account is somewhat new at less than a year old, the editor has shown they know what they're doing and are willing to learn.Smallman12q (talk) 00:40, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
• Support, per Smallman12q.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 14:13, 19 September 2012 (UTC)