[WikiEN-l] Streamline the sysop recruiting process

[Daniel Ehrenberg]

I think a simplified system would help. May I suggest:
*Dictator for life has ultimate rights, only one to block developers
*Developers have all the rights of dictator for life; except can block anyone except developers
*Logged in users (still no email required) can edit pages
*Anonymous people can only view the encyclopedia.
This still has 5 classes, but really only 2 1/2 classes of editors. Alternatively, we could have only 2 classes: Dictators-for-life and logged in users, but this presents several problems. No offence to Jimbo, but we shouldn't put *too* much exclusive power with him. However, if there are more than one dictators for life, they could ban eachother (or if they couldn't be banned...) and many bad things *could* happen.  I agree that every editor needs a talk page (like someone said in another post) but I think that all editors should be logged in.
 "Poor, Edmund W" <Edmund.W.Poor at abc.com> wrote:I think your worries are just as sensible as mine ;-)

I worry about making too much of a hierarchy. We already have...

An Elite:
* Dictator-for-life: Jimbo Wales (controls URLs, bandwidth, machines; sets policy)
* Developers: can delete or alter any page, any time, without a trace! same for blocking, promoting, renaming users)
* Sysops: can delete pages or protect them from the lower classes; can block IP's.

A Lower-class:
* Signed-in users - cannot be blocked, except by a developer
* Anonymous (IP) users - can be blocked by any sysop

This looks to me like 5 levels of power. Some people don't like us having that many levels. Some people profess to trust those in the top 2 levels (the Gang of Five); some make no such profession of trust. 

Although I worry about the long-term future of Wikipedia, so far it has weathered all storms. (Ah, that's easy for you to say, "Uncle Ed", sitting in your ivory tower... Yeah, you have a point...)

Ed Poor
Wikipedia Developer and Sysop
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