[WikiEN-l] Worthy admins? (was "The userbox fad")
charles matthews
charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com
Wed Jan 4 16:46:52 UTC 2006
"jayjg" wrote
> I think the problem is
that we are creating administrators who are not part of the community, not
familiar with its policies and norms, and not particularly interested in
Wikipedia's goals.
The first point is how older generations always talk, of course. I.e. it is
the postulation of a 'generation gap'.
Second point might be factually true. How many of us would like to take an
exam on policy? Is it any longer possible to be familiar with enough of the
key policy pages? Why is there no 'Dummies' guide? (Well, maybe there is
and I just don't come across it.) Norms - well, yes, community norms are
what actually matter.
Not interested in WP's goals. Possible, though I wonder just how many
people are interested in my current goals (this week, 1911 EB reference
wikification and blue-linking, sort out and develop William Blake mythology,
[[Category:Category theory]]).
There is a kind of progression: encourage people to have user accounts when
they were happy as IPs; user pages too tribal or full of 'This Wikipedian
drinks coffee' user boxes; RfA votes for people with too high a proportion
of edits on User Talk pages, or vandal chasing, and not enough good
name-space edits.
We have to live with all of this, by the way. Admin status is the major
form of recognition open to everyone that means something (barnstars have
long been debased currency, Featured Articles I can no longer be bothered
with, as slanted to certain kinds of writing.)
Potential solutions:
- Stop talking about a gap in terms that can only accentuate it
- Do something about a policy guide for non-veterans
- New recognition mechanisms, raise the bar for admin creation for
newcomers, more active research of committed content-oriented RfA candidates
from those who quietly get on with it.
Charles
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