Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/CheckUser and Oversight/2019 CUOS appointments/CU

ST47

ST47 (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)

Nomination statement

I am volunteering for Checkuser and Oversight. I returned to Wikipedia early this year from a long inactivity - I originally edited from 2006 - 2009. I am familiar with WP:SPI and investigate and resolve cases there regularly, and I have already signed the WMF NDA as a WP:ACC user. I'm a computer security researcher and a part time web admin, so I am very familiar with the uses - and limitations - of the tool. I am comfortable calculating IP ranges and issuing range blocks. My Recent Changes and AbuseFilter patrolling causes me to stumble upon likely sock puppet accounts fairly often, and access to the Checkuser tools would allow me to properly resolve those cases and help with backlogs at WP:SPI and elsewhere. Similarly, I do occasionally run into oversightable things from recent changes or sockpuppets, and report them to the oversight team. I often have IRC and email open even while I'm not actively on wiki. So, I offer to take on either or both roles, as you decide.

Standard questions for all candidates

Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
I regularly patrol WP:SPI for cases that are ready for administration, either because a CheckUser has already commented or because no CheckUser is required, so I am familiar with investigating behavioral evidence of sockpuppetry as well as the procedures at SPI. I come across enough likely socks through patrolling Recent Changes, abuse filters, and a few other venues, to be familiar with the common LTAs. I also issue my fair share of range blocks, balancing the size of the range and the duration against the level of disruption in order to minimize collateral damage.
Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.
I work in computer security, and I'm a developer/sysadmin for a small hobbyist website, so I regularly work with IP addresses and ranges, WHOIS and port scan data, user agent headers, and so on.
Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have OTRS permissions? If so, to which queues?
No.

Questions for this candidate

Editors may ask a maximum of two questions per candidate.

Comments

Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing arbcom-en-cwikimedia.org. Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.

L235

L235 (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)

Nomination statement

Greetings: I’m Kevin, and I’m applying for CheckUser and Oversight access to help with some of the backlogs we’ve seen, particularly at SPI. I’ve been an SPI clerk since December 2015, where I’ve been actively involved in sockpuppetry investigations. As a clerk and patrolling administrator, I am responsible for making initial determinations on the use of CheckUser (endorsing or declining CU requests prior to CU review), evaluating evidence, and blocking users for sockpuppetry. I’ve made 499 blocks in the ~1 year since my RfA, and many SPI-clerk recommendations for admin action before that.

I have an extensive track record as a thorough evaluator of behavioral evidence in SPI cases, and I have a technical background as a Stanford computer science student. I am regularly available and accessible on IRC, and I am glad to perform CU/OS functions on ACC, UTRS, and OTRS (all of which I currently have access to).

Standard questions for all candidates

Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.
Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have OTRS permissions? If so, to which queues?

Questions for this candidate

Editors may ask a maximum of two questions per candidate.

Comments

Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing arbcom-en-cwikimedia.org. Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.

Oshwah

Oshwah (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)

Standard questions for all candidates

Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.
Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have OTRS permissions? If so, to which queues?

Questions for this candidate

Editors may ask a maximum of two questions per candidate.

Your candidacy in 2018 was unsuccessful. What is different about it this time around? --Rs chen 7754 01:32, 4 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Comments

Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing arbcom-en-cwikimedia.org. Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.

Mz7

Mz7 (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)

Nomination statement

Hello, I'm Mz7, and I would like to apply for checkuser rights this year. I have a history of evaluating SPIs going back to when I became an administrator in January 2017, and I am experienced at identifying the behavioral peculiarities that may indicate that two accounts are related. CheckUser would just be another tool in the toolbox to help with the work I already do in that area. Apart from SPI, back in January of this year I joined the account creation team (ACC), which typically has a backlog of requests awaiting checkuser (the oldest request in that queue at the time I am writing this is from 7 months ago). I would be happy to help out on that front as well. As far as my personal background goes, I am familiar with networking principles and IPv4/IPv6 range blocks, and I consider myself a quick-learner. If there is a tricky or unfamiliar case, I would not hesitate to consult with a fellow checkuser. I am very active on IRC, and I find that I get along pretty well with others on Wikipedia. I look forward to working with the team if appointed.

Standard questions for all candidates

Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
As I mentioned in my nomination statement, I have commented on numerous sockpuppetry investigations in the past several years I've been an administrator. Specifically, I have experience spotting behavioral peculiarities that carry over between multiple accounts (which are the key in investigations—checkuser is just complementary evidence in that sense), and I am familiar with the kind of information that checkuser would return and how it would factor into the outcome of an investigation. I joined WP:ACC back in January 2019, where I have handled approximately 400 requests, about three dozen of which I had to refer to checkusers.
Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.
I have a technical background and am familiar with basic networking principles and IP address assignment. I consider myself a quick learner, and if there is any technical aspect of a case that I am unfamiliar with, I will not hesitate to ask a fellow checkuser for advice. I also have experience fulfilling confidentiality obligations.
Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have OTRS permissions? If so, to which queues?
This is my first time applying for advanced permissions beyond sysop on any WMF project. From November 2016 to April 2019, I was an active member of the OTRS team with access to the info-en and permissions queues. I voluntarily requested that my access be removed in April 2019; although my activity level was still within the activity requirements of OTRS, I decided I wanted to focus my time more on content work and administrative work on-wiki.

Questions for this candidate

Editors may ask a maximum of two questions per candidate.

Comments

Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing arbcom-en-cwikimedia.org. Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.

RoySmith

RoySmith (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)

Nomination statement

I am applying only for CU. Qualifications:

Admin since 2005.
Extensive unix DevOps experience, including managing web servers at Songza and Google.
Engineering team lead for Smarts/EMC's IPv6 network management product.
Have been active on WP:SPI, opening cases for investigation by CU holders.

Standard questions for all candidates

Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
I've been active for the past few months opening SPI cases. I got into that when I started working on reviewing new drafts, which has a fair amount of socking involved. My role at this point has been gathering whatever evidence I could with the standard admin capabilities. Commonality of editing focus, correlations between users of editing timelines, similarities in usernames, editing style, etc. When there seemed to be enough behavioral evidence, I would open a SPI case for further investigation by a CU.
Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.
My last two positions (Senior Software Engineer at Google, and Director of Engineering at Songza) were both hands-on running web servers and applications. Much diagnostic work involved reading through server logs. In both positions I had access to confidential user information. Particularly at Google, access to any personally-identifiable information was tightly controlled, on a "need to know" basis, and with strict requirements to limit access to the minimum amount of data required to do the job, for the minimum amount of time, and quarantined to a secure environment. As a CU, I would have access to similarly sensitive user information, and would exercise the same diligence. I'm being vague here, but please feel free to ask questions if I've glossed over anything that you want to know.
Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have OTRS permissions? If so, to which queues?
Other than being an admin on en, none. No OTRS permissions.

Questions for this candidate

Editors may ask a maximum of two questions per candidate.

Comments

Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing arbcom-en-cwikimedia.org. Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.

SQL

SQL (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)

Nomination statement

Hi, I'm SQL. I have served as an Administrator since 2007.

I'm the developer behind:

IPCheck, a tool used by many functionaries daily to help determine if a given IP is a proxy / webhost / compromised.
ISP Rangefinder and NBCH, tools used to list hosts on hosting networks.
IPRange, a tool used to resolve a given subnet (often helpful to identify webhosts or proxies).
I was the original developer behind the account creation interface[1]

I am a regular at Requests for unblock, the account creation interface (mostly in the proxy check queue), the unblock ticket request system, and the Wikiproject on open proxies. I would primarily use the tool in those areas.

Standard questions for all candidates

Please describe any relevant on-Wiki experience you have for this role.
I mention in my nomination some of the various related tools I've written. I've contributed extensively at the Wikiproject on open proxies. I'm active in the proxy check queue at ACC.
Please outline, without breaching your personal privacy, what off-Wiki experience or technical expertise you have for this role.
As I mentioned last year, I've had a lot of relevant jobs, NOC / internal support, and cable tech support.
Do you hold advanced permissions (checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward) on this or other WMF projects? If so, please list them. Also, do you have OTRS permissions? If so, to which queues?
I do not.

Questions for this candidate

Editors may ask a maximum of two questions per candidate.

Your candidacy in 2018 was unsuccessful. What is different about it this time around? --Rs chen 7754 01:31, 4 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Comments

Comments may also be submitted to the Arbitration Committee privately by emailing arbcom-en-cwikimedia.org. Please note that the candidate will be provided the opportunity to respond to a paraphrased version of any emailed comments; the sender's name will not be provided.