--- "steven l. rubenstein" <rubenste@ohiou.edu> wrote:
> Let's not get bogged down in semantics.  This may be
> a case where an
> analogy to sysop is neither needed nor helpful.
> After all, judges under
> certain circumstances have a lot of power, and
> police often listen to
> different sides in a dispute, act as mediators, and
> are themselves
> policed.  If we continue on this track we may end up
> having a very
> interesting and informative conversation about the
> differences between
> police, judges, and I would then add to the mix
> constables.  But if we are
> having a discussion as sysop, I have three comments.
>
> 1) I never sought out the position of sysop but
> given that it implied a
> certain amount of trust by a segment of the
> community I didn't feel I could
> turn it down.  When I first saw my new screen, with
> all the powers suddenly
> at my disposal, I really felt overwhelmed, almost
> dizzy.  Of course my
> first act was to abuse the power -- although I was
> the only victim of that
> abuse.  I have recently had an experience where I
> have been sorely tempted
> to put a block on a page and ban a user.  Obviously
> I did not.  But -- and
> I realize this may be of little interest to most of
> you -- so far I see
> being a sysop as a sort of zen exercise in accepting
> and renouncing power.
>
> 2) But I have also deleted a couple of pages, and I
> know some others have
> been very active in this.  I wanted to ban one user
> with what I thought was
> good cause, and someone else did it the next day.
> Since virtually everyone
> in the community saw that person as a pest more than
> as a member of the
> community, I'd say -- if we really must have an
> analogy -- I'd compare
> sysop to house-cleaner.
>
> 3) Whether sysop is a mop or a cop, either way I see
> the role as being an
> agent of the community.  If I understand the deal
> right now, there is
> virtually nothing a sysop can do that cannot be
> undone by another
> administrator; it seems to me that virtually all
> sysops, if they ever act,
> do so when they have a sense from the community.
>
> Anyway, aside from my periodic zen moments, it does
> seem to me that the job
> is mostly about tidying up.  It seems to me that
> anyone can do this on a
> limited basis (by editing -- just like we don't
> expect the maid or
> custodian to do all cleaning), and that the other
> tasks (e.g. cultivating
> NPOV) really are for the whole community, sysop or
> not.
>
> Steve

Yeah, I guess that makes more sense than an anology.
But I just realised that sysops have another, rarely
used power. Sysops have power just from their name
"sysop". If a sysop tells a bunch of non-sysops
something, and they haven't heard the type of
conversation on the mailing list (ie don't know that
sysops aren't this exclusive band of 5 people who go
around fixing the server and banning people), they'd
probably listen to you more than a non-sysop. I don't
think this power is actually used by anyone other than
jimbo, though.
--LittleDan

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