[WikiEN-l] Wheel warring

[Ben Emmel]

On 2/6/06, Philip Welch <wikipedia at philwelch.net> wrote:
>
> I've proposed a strict policy against wheel warring at
> [[Wikipedia:Proposed wheel warring policy]]:
>
> 1. Any given use of administrative powers cannot be reverted or
> reversed by another admin unless the issue is brought to adequate
> discussion.
> 1. a. Blocks may be extended without discussion, but they cannot be
> shortened or lifted.
> 1. b. 1RR is strictly enforced on protected pages.
> 2. Any administrator who reverses another administrator's use of
> admin powers without any discussion shall be desysopped immediately
> without further review.
> 3. Once discussion is opened, a final decision cannot be made until
> either the parties involved have reached Wikipedia:Consensus or a
> specific intervening decision is made by the Wikipedia:Arbitration
> Committee, User:Jimbo Wales, or the Wikimedia Foundation Board of
> Directors. (This means that mere interpretation or extrapolation of
> something Jimbo said previously does not warrant admin reversion.)
> Any administrator who reverts another admin's use of administrative
> powers before this has happened shall be desysopped immediately
> without further review.
> 4. Administrators desysopped under this policy must wait three months
> before starting the process to regain admin status.
>
> --
> Philip L. Welch
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Philwelch


The only objection I have to this is that sometimes, an admin makes a
mistake (say, for example, a 3RR block when in reality, only three reverts
and a legitimate edit was made). I've had editors contact me wanting to
contribute to Wikipedia, but find they can't because of a wrong blocking. In
these cases, I usually go ahead and unblock them, and then leave a nice
message on the blocking admin's talk page. Any other delay due to
communication between admins I think is unfair to the blocked editors.

This is an international project, and we all can't expect to be online at
the same time, what with time zones, sleeping, eating, school, work and
such. I don't think I'll be able to say to that blocked editor "Sorry, I
can't unblock you for fear of losing sysop status for at least three months.
You'll have to wait while Admin XYZ, who is currently sleeping in
Asia/America/Europe to check his email/talk page and unblock you."

But otherwise, a strict wheel-warring policy is needed. Admins aren't above
the law. Our disciplinary procedures should at least attempt to show this.

We are now at the age where adminship is truly a "big deal".
--
Ben Emmel
Wikipedia - User:Bratsche
bratsche1 at gmail.com
"A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees."
-- William Blake