<html>
This is a reasonable concern. I remember some time ago -- several
months or a year -- when there was an edit war on a particular page and
an administrator joined in with a message like this: "What's the
trouble here? I am a sysop -- let's sort this out."
Indeed, this was a very inappropriate use of the position. However,
a number of other sysops pretty quickly chastised the person in question
for projecting power in this way.<br><br>
I think the only reasonable solution to this problem -- and my response
to your concern -- is that sysops <i>should</i> act as "police"
in one particular regard: we have a responsibility to police ourselves
against this kind of abuse of power.<br><br>
New contributors need to learn all sorts of stuff when they come to
wikipedia -- from the ~~~ trick to the sometimes subtle NPOV
policy. I think their learning what a sysop is and isn't is just
one more of those things.<br><br>
Steve<br><br>
At 02:34 PM 5/23/2003 -0700, you wrote:<br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>--- "steven l.
rubenstein" <rubenste@ohiou.edu> wrote:<br>
> Let's not get bogged down in semantics. This may be<br>
> a case where an <br>
> analogy to sysop is neither needed nor helpful. <br>
> After all, judges under <br>
> certain circumstances have a lot of power, and<br>
> police often listen to <br>
> different sides in a dispute, act as mediators, and<br>
> are themselves <br>
> policed. If we continue on this track we may end up<br>
> having a very <br>
> interesting and informative conversation about the<br>
> differences between <br>
> police, judges, and I would then add to the mix<br>
> constables. But if we are <br>
> having a discussion as sysop, I have three comments.<br>
> <br>
> 1) I never sought out the position of sysop but<br>
> given that it implied a <br>
> certain amount of trust by a segment of the<br>
> community I didn't feel I could <br>
> turn it down. When I first saw my new screen, with<br>
> all the powers suddenly <br>
> at my disposal, I really felt overwhelmed, almost<br>
> dizzy. Of course my <br>
> first act was to abuse the power -- although I was<br>
> the only victim of that <br>
> abuse. I have recently had an experience where I<br>
> have been sorely tempted <br>
> to put a block on a page and ban a user. Obviously<br>
> I did not. But -- and <br>
> I realize this may be of little interest to most of<br>
> you -- so far I see <br>
> being a sysop as a sort of zen exercise in accepting<br>
> and renouncing power.<br>
> <br>
> 2) But I have also deleted a couple of pages, and I<br>
> know some others have <br>
> been very active in this. I wanted to ban one user<br>
> with what I thought was <br>
> good cause, and someone else did it the next day. <br>
> Since virtually everyone <br>
> in the community saw that person as a pest more than<br>
> as a member of the <br>
> community, I'd say -- if we really must have an<br>
> analogy -- I'd compare <br>
> sysop to house-cleaner.<br>
> <br>
> 3) Whether sysop is a mop or a cop, either way I see<br>
> the role as being an <br>
> agent of the community. If I understand the deal<br>
> right now, there is <br>
> virtually nothing a sysop can do that cannot be<br>
> undone by another <br>
> administrator; it seems to me that virtually all<br>
> sysops, if they ever act, <br>
> do so when they have a sense from the community.<br>
> <br>
> Anyway, aside from my periodic zen moments, it does<br>
> seem to me that the job <br>
> is mostly about tidying up. It seems to me that<br>
> anyone can do this on a <br>
> limited basis (by editing -- just like we don't<br>
> expect the maid or <br>
> custodian to do all cleaning), and that the other<br>
> tasks (e.g. cultivating <br>
> NPOV) really are for the whole community, sysop or<br>
> not.<br>
> <br>
> Steve<br><br>
Yeah, I guess that makes more sense than an anology.<br>
But I just realised that sysops have another, rarely<br>
used power. Sysops have power just from their name<br>
"sysop". If a sysop tells a bunch of non-sysops<br>
something, and they haven't heard the type of<br>
conversation on the mailing list (ie don't know that<br>
sysops aren't this exclusive band of 5 people who go<br>
around fixing the server and banning people), they'd<br>
probably listen to you more than a non-sysop. I don't<br>
think this power is actually used by anyone other than<br>
jimbo, though.<br>
--LittleDan<br><br>
__________________________________<br>
Do you Yahoo!?<br>
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.<br>
<a href="http://search.yahoo.com/" eudora="autourl">http://search.yahoo.com</a><br>
_______________________________________________<br>
WikiEN-l mailing list<br>
WikiEN-l@wikipedia.org<br>
<a href="http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l" eudora="autourl">http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l</a><br><br>
<br>
---<br>
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.<br>
Checked by AVG anti-virus system
(<a href="http://www.grisoft.com/" eudora="autourl">http://www.grisoft.com</a>).<br>
Version: 6.0.478 / Virus Database: 275 - Release Date:
5/6/2003</blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Steven L. Rubenstein<br>
Assistant Professor<br>
Department of Sociology and Anthropology<br>
Bentley Annex<br>
Ohio University<br>
Athens, Ohio 45701</html>