From: wikien-l-bounces(a)Wikipedia.org
[mailto:wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Leif Knutsen
That kind of
corrosive supiciousness is the problem. For
the most part
our administrators, those who are involved in
backchannel
operations,
are the best and the most trustworthy we have.
I suspect that people are far more suspicious than is
warranted by what actually goes on, but I think we can agree
that suspicion is distracting and damaging. If admins made it
an explicit practice that they would communicate privately
only about certain, clearly defined issues; it might reduce
some fo the mystery (though I'm sure some suspicion and
paranoia would always persist).
There's the old Chinese proverb about how the wise man does not stoop to tie
his shoelaces in his neighbour's vegetable garden.
I am curious, however, what is the measure of the "best and
the most trustworthy" admins. My observation is that being
elected to an admin role depends on not having too many
detractors; and being deadmined is a result of truly
egregious offenses. The corollary to that is that an editor
who wants to be an admin must avoid contention in order to be
elected; but can let loose once he/she is in. I'm not saying
that it's common, but it bothers me to see how a lot of
well-meaning editors can't bombarded when they ask to become
admins by people they've had content disputes with; and then
see that established admins more or less abandon the caution
that got them their role to begin with.
Spot on. Most admins get their heads down, work hard, and do the right
thing, but a few, well it just sickens me to see the diference between their
humble notices of acceptance and the arrogance that appears a few months
later.
Peter (Skyring)