Thomas Dalton wrote:
I don't think that "this user doesn't need the tools" is ever a valid reason to deny adminship. Trust is a valid criteria. Need is not.
It's the risk/reward thing again. Giving someone the admin bit is taking a risk, for that risk to be worth it we need to have a reasonable expectation that they'll do something useful with it.
Then why do we allow people to edit articles at all. Under strict risk/reward analysis, that was the wrong thing to do. Yet by doing the "wrong thing" we have created something quite significant. In my opinion, your assessment of risk/reward is more appropriate to a well-established institution than to a cutting-edge web project.
-Rich