On 6 Oct 2006, at 21:04, Gregory Maxwell wrote:
On 10/6/06, Stephen Streater
<sbstreater(a)mac.com> wrote:
[snip]
It is a
shame because the tools of adminship are really tools which
every experienced user acting in good faith should have. ...
that was
always the intent, .. Remember? "No big deal". But life has turned
out so much more complex.
That's because people don't trust strangers,
and most people on RfA are strangers.
Basically, paranoia is safer.
Yes. This is a factor. I can think of .. um, one? Wikipedian I've met
in person whom I wouldn't want to support for adminship, ... comfort
is still very much a meat based thing for most people.
But it goes beyond the simple familiarity issue that you pointed out:
As an RFA participant we're asked to state our trust about how the
person for an indefinite time into the future when challenged with a
potentially infinite spectrum of tasks under an infinite number of
conditions. People change, our needs change... and as a result our
process makes it unrealistically difficult to feel comfortable with an
approval.
It is interesting how the psychology is set up.
People could also be concerned about all the
good decisions that might be lost if someone
is not promoted. But as these never happen,
they are easier to ignore individually.
But collectively, the conservative nature of
Admin promotions is contributing to the
problems we see. For examples, Admins
don't generally choose to stand up and correct
bad actions in other Admins - they are being
selected to be inane and bland.