On 6/21/06, Selina . wikipediareview@gmail.com wrote:
None of these were appointed in any way by the community, they just seem to have been privileges handed out to friends as individuals see fit...
You could look at "friends" as being a nepotistic conspiracy by which cronies evilly band together to take control of what was supposed to be a public, open project. Or, you could look at it as people selecting only the Wikipedians they trust the most - as demonstrated by experience and time with the project - to give access to confidential information which could be used to hurt the project.
Pick whichever you prefer.
Steve