[WikiEN-l] what is a sysop?

[Fred Bauder]

> Yeah, I guess that makes more sense than an anology.
> But I just realised that sysops have another, rarely
> used power. Sysops have power just from their name
> "sysop". If a sysop tells a bunch of non-sysops
> something, and they haven't heard the type of
> conversation on the mailing list (ie don't know that
> sysops aren't this exclusive band of 5 people who go
> around fixing the server and banning people), they'd
> probably listen to you more than a non-sysop. I don't
> think this power is actually used by anyone other than
> jimbo, though.

This kind of intimidation works only on folks who know part of the story,
know that there are sysops and administrators but don't know their
limitations. As a sysop (provided you follow the rules) is does no good at
all in a dispute. Definitely not something you want to pull out and wave
around during an edit war you are involved in yourself.

Fred