Volunteer Response Team/Volunteering

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OTRS volunteers are always welcome, but there is a fairly selective application process, given the nature of the work. Generally, OTRS administrators must be familiar with you and your work on Wikimedia projects before accepting you as a volunteer and issuing you an account. It may take some time before you receive a response in regards to your request, so please be patient.

If you are truly interested in helping out with OTRS and have not yet received a response as to that status of your application, please feel free to join the IRC channel and introduce yourself to some of our members. You still may be able to help out without an OTRS account (for more information, check out OTRS/IRC channel).

Before applying to volunteer, please read OTRS/info-en recruiting and make sure that the following statements accurately describe you:

• you're willing to work on difficult, sensitive, and at times hostile messages;
• you're courteous, skilled at resolving disputes, friendly even in the face of hostility, sensitive to the needs of those outside Wikipedia, and have exemplary discretion;
• you're willing to provide identification to the Wikimedia Foundation (please see Access to nonpublic data policy for why we ask for this).

Please note that there is a firm recommendation of 16 as a minimum age for participation in the OTRS system, to ensure people have adequate real life and Wikimedia experience before taking on what is a considerable and important responsibility for the Foundation and the projects.

====[[User:Example|]]====

*'''languages you can reply in:''' Zulu, English-3, Inuktitut-3, and Sinhala-2
*'''most active user talk pages:''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Example]
*'''Email sent''': Yes

I'd like to help out on OTRS because . ~~~~

Feel free to specify if you are entrusted with any special tools on wikis (sysop, bureaucrat, checkuser, etc.). You may also add to your application links to archives of help desk posts, or identification on active mailing lists if you think they are relevant.

Please also send an email to volunteers-otrswikimedia.org linking to your application on this page and giving your age, each time you apply. Thanks.

Note: Additional language skills are a plus. Currently, additional help is needed in: German (Deutsch), Spanish (Español), Portuguese (Português), Dutch (Nederlands), and Hebrew (עברית) queues (in order of backlog). Please make sure you mention any language skills you have.

Daniel B

• languages you can reply in: he-N, en-3
• most active user talk pages: [1]
• Email sent: Yes

I would like to join the OTRS info-he because it is noted above that help their is needed, and I will be happy to help. I am active on Hebrew Wikipedia since 2006 and I'm a sysop since 2007. I am familiar with all Hebrew wikimedia projects, as well with meta and the global community. I have a good understanding of GFDL. Daniel B 10:23, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

• Would be useful, there are quite a few tickets in Hebrew sitting in permissions at the moment too. Stifle 17:03, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
  • As an aside, Stifle, can you point them out to me, please? -- Avi 17:38, 5 February 2009 (UTC)
    • They're gone since. I can assign them to you in future if you want :) Stifle 17:06, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
      • I can handle the basic permission ones that do not require long treatise responses :) -- Avi 17:12, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
• Endorse. Absolutely. Synergy 23:48, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
• Endorse we really need more he-N agents --Mardetanha ^talk 17:25, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Happy-melon

• languages you can reply in: en-n, fr-3, de-1, es-1
• most active user talk pages: en:User talk:Happy-melon
• Email sent: Yes

Hi, I'm Happy-melon, and I'd like to help here. My wikimedia home is en.wiki, where I'm a sysop and have 20,000 edits; although I do some article writing, I'm now mainly a 'backstage' worker: I do a lot of work with templates, and I'm also involved with a number of the more 'technical' policies. I'm also active on www.mediawiki.org, where I'm also a sysop, and I have patch credits to the MediaWiki software from my involvement at bugzilla. I think that the 'wild card' I would bring to the OTRS team is a very thorough understanding of how the MediaWiki software works and consequently how to answer technical queries. I don't know how many e-mails OTRS gets asking "how do I do X?", but while I'm sure most of the existing volunteers can answer most such queries, I could probably have a stab at many if not all. Of course technical help is not my only offer; I have a thorough grasp of most en.wiki and meta policies including BLP (one of my Featured Articles on en.wiki, en:Emma Watson, is a prominent BLP). My written French is reasonably good although my German and Spanish leave much to be desired. Above all, I believe I have the temperament and patience that is needed to do OTRS work; I always endeavour to remain calm and (where possible) neutral in disputes, and usually take the role of mediator rather than participant. I feel that I am a good candidate for OTRS access. Happy‑melon 23:01, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

We don't get a whole lot of technical questions. Anyhow, are you knowledgeable with copyright and image licensing? - Rjd0060 23:24, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Although it is not a focus of mine, I am familiar with the relevant policies. I am active on maintaining the speedy deletion criteria on en.wiki, which touch on a variety of copyright issues; and I occasionally work the CSD categories which throw up innumerable real-world examples. The transfer of content between the GFDL licenses on meta and en.wiki, and mediawiki.org (parts of which is in the public domain), also involves licensing issues, which I am familiar with. Happy‑melon 23:48, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Rodrigo Tetsuo Argenton

• languages you can reply in: en-2, pt-n
• most active user talk pages: w:pt:Usuário Discussão:Rodrigo Tetsuo Argenton
• Email sent: Yes

I'm volunteer and enthusiastic of Wikimedia Brasil, user of Wikipedia since 2006, in Wk-pt I have experience in welcoming new editors, in Wikimedia Commons I have more than 60 photos, I have one book in Wikibook-pt under construction and I'm study free content, open content, license of use, wiki... I'm here to help in questions about Wikimedia Brasil, and question in info-pt. That's all. Rodrigo Tetsuo Argenton ^m 04:29, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

• keep. We need more users pt spearkers. Alex Pereira ^falaê 17:20, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

SB_Johnny

• languages you can reply in: en, de-2, fr-2 (quite rusty in my languages and getting rustier with age)
• most active user talk pages: [2]
• Email sent: Yes

I'd like to help out with requests related to en.wikiverity and en.wikibooks, especially in matters concerning course instructors from outside institutions who want help with things like classroom videos. I think it would also be helpful to have "native Wikiversitans" available to deal with any requests that might relate to original research projects, since this is the only project that allows that to any serious extent. I am a checkuser, so the foundation already has my contact info. --SB_Johnny|^talk|_books 16:49, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

• Just so you know, there aren't any queues specific to Wikiversity or Wikibooks. Queues are (mostly) delimited by language. Stifle 17:08, 10 February 2009 (UTC)