So I'm looking at this latest thread, and wondering...why is this an issue? I seem to remember that "is sysop" used to appear on the wikipedians page. Seeing that I had sysop rights made me ask what they were and guidelines for use, which forced me to ask via this list. Not a bad thing, and a path that I think other truly interested new wikipedians might also follow -- can this be bad? There is enough information out there that shows that most wikipedians don't want a cabal. IF this is an issue, than I would frankly rather see us all lose our sysop rights.
On that subject, I have yet to use mine (except to delete misspelled pages, and even then, I try to follow Brion's advice). Despite the fact that I have very strong feelings on what I consider legitimate use, etc., and often would love to block IPs, I have avoided the temptation because I think it's too easy a privilege to abuse. I'm not sure that everyone else with those privileges is as able to make the differentiation. Would it be possible to have a system where it took two sysops to block a contributor? This might help to provoide some of the checks and balances that I think the site will need more and more as it grows...
Jules
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