[Foundation-l] retire the administrator privilege

[Amir E. Aharoni]

2011/3/4 Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net>:
> On 03/03/11 5:44 AM, Amir E. Aharoni wrote:
>> The name "administrator" gives the impression of some mythical
>> "balance of power", although administrators don't actually
>> administrate - they (un)delete, (un)block and (un)protect, in addition
>> to editing articles and participating in discussions just like
>> everybody else. The name "sysop" (system operator), used occasionally
>> in English, and more frequently in some other languages (e.g. Hebrew),
>> sounds less like a managerial role, but it's technical and cryptic and
>> requires explanation.
>>
>> Giving user groups exact and real names will likely change the
>> attitude of many users who see these user groups as "the powers that
>> be" and think that they're impenetrable.
>
> You make a strong point. People cherish their titles and the
> self-esteem.  Being able to say "I am a Wikipedia administrator," to
> someone who has never edited Wikipedia gives an impression of
> importance. Breaking the task into its components leaves each part less
> prestigious.

Most admins with whom i am familiar aren't using their adminship to
gain prestige.

I'd rather be "the guy who wrote a detailed encyclopedic article about
every diacritic sign in the Hebrew alphabet" than an admin - i find a
lot more prestige in it. I am happy about being an admin, not because
of prestige, but because having the permission to delete pages without
going through some request page is simply useful for writing articles
and making the wiki better.

Put simply, good admins, who use their permissions to create a better
wiki, are not supposed to object to such a change.