John Lee wrote:
The Cunctator wrote:
Back in the day when the "admin" class was created the claim by people like Jimbo is that in the long run nearly everyone would have admin powers; that it would be no special thing. I was skeptical for obvious reasons. But I'm still willing to believe that's what we're heading towards.
Really? I never knew this. But honestly, I don't see why I anybody could be that optimistic about this. RfA is getting ridiculous. On one RfA (NSLE's), we had an oppose vote because, among other things, the user started thanking people for voting support before the RfA finished. On another, (Mo0's), somebody voted oppose because "your talk page seems to be vandalised a lot" and "we should be erring on the side of caution, and voting Oppose unless we are absolutely sure". Adminship is supposedly not a big deal, but it is. This is even more clear when you look at Requests for Bureaucratship, where many people vote oppose because "we don't need more bureaucrats". I know this is off-topic, but I really think we should be looking into the RfA process as well as AfD, because RfA appears to be becoming the new VfD (yes, VfD). Last time, it was the "in" thing to bash VfD. Now, it's the "in" thing to bash RfA, as anyone who spends some time on our IRC channels should notice. This is worrying.
Never underestimate the overwhelming power of stupidity. In more dangerous circumstances some of these people woud be candidates for Darwin Awards. :-)
I'm perhaps one of the longest standing non-admins on Wikipedia. I turned down the nomination on a couple of occasions. I have no intention to apply in the forseeable future, but I think that the inquisitorial process would be a deterent.
Ec