Charles, I didn't want to have to go into the details of this particular case, because it's not why I'm posting to the board. But in brief, the admin recreated a page that had been deleted after a VfD (a deletion that had been confirmed at a VfU); recreated it again after an admin deleted his first recreation; pasted a fake deletion notice on it in an effort to force a third (fake) vote about the deletion; then when an admin protected the blank page so the first admin couldn't recreate and write on it again, the first admin used his admin power to unprotect it. But admins are not supposed to use their power to protect or unprotect pages they're involved in editing.
Regarding the point you made about them unblocking themselves, if it were possible to block an admin for abuse of power, then if they unblocked themselves, they'd be abusing their powers again, and so could be blocked again. It would actually be a very simple process, perhaps with blocks increasing in time each time they unblocked themselves.
Admins not having the power to block other admins for abuse of power is like the police not being able to take action against an out-of-control police officer. It makes no sense, and I would like to change it, and so my question is how do I start that process.
Sarah
On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 17:30:00 -0500, Charles Podles wrote: if a sysop is consciously abusing his
powers, then what's to stop him from abusing them further in order to unblock himself? Blocking for abuse of sysop powers would be pointless.
Last, I'm not sure unprotecting a page in order to edit it even qualifies as an abuse of admin powers---articles are meant to be edited, and unprotecting a page opens it to editing by all.
--Charles P. ([[en:User:Mirv]])