After reading David Gerard's post "RFA has gone weird"[1] two weeks back, I decided on a whim to nominate myself for adminship. [2] My principle was that I would largely ignore the existing process for the calcified barnacle that it is and apply a no-nonsense stance towards self-important questioning. The process has just closed, and I was of course unsuccessful. I would note that I did not enter into this process with the realistic expectation of success. (Although I was pleased to discover that I polled almost as many positive votes as negative, most of which seemed to agree with my take on the situation.) What I learnt from reading (and occasionally replying to) comments were: 1) ZOMG how dare you not answer the questions??!!1!!1 2) One has to have "a specific reason" for wanting admin tools. Being generally concerned for the good of the project is not enough to satisfy the razor minds of the RfA voters. 3) Editcountitis is actually a mindset of self-improvement, not a pointless obsession. You must have as many edits as is humanly possible before even considering being an admin. ("Storkk" lays it out straight: "390 mainspace edits isn't really evidence of gnoming. I am really looking for something like 3000 - 4000.") 4) You must participate in all existing processes whether you like it or not. You must also get into discussions with people on their talk pages. Why? Shut up with your questions already. You just have to. I don't qualify, notes "(aereopagitica)", because I have "less than 100 XfD discussions participated in and less than 50 user Talk contributions". 5) Answering questions, and replying to critical comments, bluntly and to the point is "arrogant", "contemptuous", "insulting", "proud", and "incivility of [a high] magnitude". Also symptomatic of needing "self-improvement" and "a thicker skin", advises "Dlohcierekim". 6) Life as an admin is a hellish, Kafka-esque nightmare of continuous inquisition from a swollen, all-powerful bureaucracy. ("[W]hat you experience here is only a taste of what one will face as an admin", comments "Physicq210".) 7) It is somehow useful for people to cast a "neutral vote", rather than just leaving a comment, which is of equivalent logical value. 8) Despite there being over a thousand administrators already, one bad egg is enough to cause havoc, disaster, dogs and cats living together, and mass hysteria. The solution to this is obviously to keep the number of administrators as small as possible, thus maintaining the status quo and preventing more potential bad people from becoming admins. 9) Even stating "I promise not to go batshit" and signing it with your real name is not enough to sway the high muck-a-mucks. Consider taking classes in advanced boot-licking before responding to comments. ("[C]andidate is... plainly in that class of admin who would immediately set out causing grief and bloodshed.", declares "Splash".) 10) This is all going to go on your permanent record, son. Don't let your mouth write a check that your butt can't cash. ("Would recommend not returning to RfA in future", adds "Splash", ominously.) So I guess it's back to the edit mines for this particular peon.... [1] http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2006-October/054960.html [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship/Earle_Martin -- Earle Martin http://downlode.org/ http://purl.org/net/earlemartin/