Wikinews:Accreditation requests/William S. Saturn

Consensus has been reached on this Accreditation request, and the result is successful. Please do not add further votes or comments to this request.

William S. Saturn (talk)

Name: William Saturn

Location: United States

Areas of interest: Politics

Reason: To continue interviews with U.S. Presidential candidates

Accomplishments: Wikinews reporter since 2008, Wikipedia editor since 2007 (See list of articles written for both wikinews and wikipedia at w:User:William S. Saturn)

Wrote 17 Wikinews articles
Interviewed several U.S. presidential candidates.
Authored the 2008 Fear and Loathing series.

Contact information: wssaturn@gmail.com

User ID: 21437

Applied on: 06:34, 28 January 2011 (UTC)

Comments, Questions

In your opinion, what three (published) articles of yours are you most proud of and why are you proud of them? ~YTT ^{T | C} 04:38, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the question. I am proud of all my contributions, but I am especially proud of "Obama withdraws from Trinity United Church" because of the reader reaction. I very much enjoyed the comments on the opinion section and was honored to receive praise on my talk page from a reader. Next, I am proud of "Wikinews interviews Gene Amondson, Prohibition Party presidential nominee" because it was my first interview. I was thrilled to actually converse with a presidential candidate. Furthermore, the experience caused me to follow Prohibition Party politics more closely, and after Gene Amondson's death in 2009 (for which I wrote the Wikinews obituary), I decided to work on his wikipedia entry, which I was able to promote to "Good article" status. Lastly, I am proud of "Bob Barr wins the Libertarian Party presidential nomination" because it was my first article on Wikinews and I guess it's part of human nature to reflect fondly on things that are our first.--William S. Saturn (talk) 06:47, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Could you elaborate on your reason for requesting accreditation? On the face of it, if you're already doing something, where does accreditation come into continuing to do it? --Pi zero (talk) 13:43, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I feel that accreditation would help me in contacting more mainstream candidates who may question my legitimacy and/or not respond to queries.--William S. Saturn (talk) 17:22, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Votes

Neutral Yes, William is an exceptional editor, his original reporting work is excellent, but I am concerned at his civility, and his long periods of inactivity. He had not edited here since June 2010, when he requested username change. He has been sporadically active here in last April, January, July 2009, and 2008. William also tends to... automatically disagree with someone who does not think like him, and because of that I'm not opposing. Oh, and don't forget this! (I know... it's Wikimedia Commons stuff, but anyway). Take this as a comment with points to consider, fellow Wikinewsies. Diego Grez ^{return fire} 07:16, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Now that the presidential campaign is starting up, I plan to be active with interviews. For example, I am currently lining up an interview with Fred Karger.--William S. Saturn (talk) 07:37, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Weak support I am leaning towards support here as William has shown his exemplary OR skills and how well he can collect and collate information. I only have one major issue - your long periods of absence. As long as you remain a reliable contributor (and not use AR as a once-off tool) I would be more than happy to give you the nod. ~YTT ^{T | C} 11:38, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Support William Saturn has conducted some great interviews, accreditation would help him get them more easily, I'm sure. No concerns. Tempodivalse [talk] 16:02, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Happy to Support. William's OR is good and I'd love to hope accreditation may help him establish more ambitious interviews. Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 16:34, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Support I like the OR that you have be getting and hopefully now you can get more interviews. —Mike moral ♪♫ 17:54, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Pi zero (talk) 19:13, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Support; I've far more respect for AR applicants who've shown they'll try OR even without the "credentials". I'm less concerned about sporadic activity, the purpose of credentialling on-project is to give an appearance of authority. How effective this is depends on the recipient. I trust William to understand the difference between social engineering and deception; I'd also be happy to draft any letters of recommendation that may be required. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 22:54, 29 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Support He's always done great interviews of 3rd party candidates including from the major third parties (Libertarians, Greens and what not) to the random eccentric who think's he'll bring something new to the Oval Office @ 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. --Patrick M (TUFKAAP) (talk) 18:41, 2 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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