Erik Moeller wrote:
A sysop nomination, like a deletion, must have near unanimous support to be successful.
That's an interesting perspective, and there's some truth in it, but I'm not sure I agree. My rule has been that I hand out sysop status to pretty much anyone who asks for it, as long as they have some decent history with us. RK would fit that perfectly.
Now, as to whether his becoming a sysop would be _successful_ is of course a different question. There was some dissent over 172, and he's still more than a bit controversial at times. I think it's pretty clear that, to avoid controversy, RK would need to avoid a lot of deletions in areas that are of interest to him.
Part of the reason wiki works so well is that it isn't a process of "o.k., you've earned trust, now here's your privileges", but rather a process of "here's your privileges, now earn trust".
--Jimbo