[WikiEN-l] Non administrators closing deletion debates

[Ron Ritzman]

On Sun, Sep 14, 2008 at 4:18 AM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:

> That's my view - if you do it right, people will just assume you're an
> admin, so what difference does it make?

Well, the convention is that you put "non admin closure" in your
closing statement. The new Zman AFD closing script does that
automatically.

The problem is that there's been a charge that AFD closes that don't
strictly adhere to the wp:nac essay, particularly "no consensus"
closes, are being challenged for no other reason then that they were
closed by a non-admin. How accurate the charge is I'm not certain but
my view on this is that the phrase "comment on the edit, not the
editor" should be extended to AFDS, "evaluate the close, not the
closer[1]". If it's a bad close (not just one you don't agree with)
then it should be reverted or taken to deletion review even if closed
by an admin. If it's a reasonable close, then it shouldn't matter who
closed it.

That being said, wp:nac was written for a reason. If the non admin is
unfamiliar with deletion policy and has no experience judging
consensus (or lack thereof) then the only AFDs he should be closing,
if any, are ones that are unanimous or near unanimous keeps.

1. The only exception is if the closer, admin or not, has a COI and/or
!voted in the AFD.