[WikiEN-l] Analysis of Request for Adminship

[Ilmari Karonen]

Steve Bennett wrote:
> 
> And the worst is "come back later, might support you then". Not
> because the candidate is in any way actually deficient as an admin,
> but they simply haven't served an unwritten waiting period.

However irritating this might seem to the person who is told that, this 
can in fact be quite reasonable advice.  The subtext is often "We don't 
know enough about you to tell if you'd be a good admin.  If you're still 
interested and haven't gone off the deep end in the meanwhile, try again 
in a few months."  Or simply "I don't think you're experienced enough 
yet.  Try again when you've been around longer."  Or possibly both.

People do change over time, and more importantly, people also reveal 
more about themselves as they interact with people.  _I_ know I was as 
trustworthy back when I registered my account as when my RfA was passed, 
but for all anyone else knew back them, I could've been another WoW 
sock.  The six months or so between the two events served not only to 
familiarize me with Wikipedia, but also to provide other users with some 
confidence that I wasn't going to go on a vandalism spree as soon as I 
got my admin buttons.

-- 
Ilmari Karonen