[WikiEN-l] To: Jimmy Wales - Admin-driven death of Wikipedia

[Nick Boalch]

Conrad Dunkerson wrote:
> Look around at your fellow admins from time to time and ask yourself... is 
> there ANY way this person could pass an RFA at this point? If the answer 
> is 'no' then the de facto situation is that a person who does NOT have the 
> support or respect of the community has powers which are only supposed to 
> be held by those who DO... and that inherently breeds disruption and 
> resentment and ongoing damage to Wikipedia as a whole.

I don't think that is a particularly fair test. As is obvious, admins
are occasionally called upon to perform actions that upset people -- I
don't think admins should shrink from making those hard choices.

I can think of several thoroughgoingly solid admins, people who temper a
good knowledge of policy with a healthy dose of knowing that what we're
here to do is write an encyclopaedia, who I doubt would pass an RfA
because they've done things that have made them controversial or
unpopular in certain sectors of the community.

The community giveth, and the community taketh away -- but it taketh
away under the auspices of proper consideration by the arbitration
committee, not by having unpopular admins strung up by a baying lynchmob.

Cheers,

N.

-- 
Nicholas Boalch
School of Modern Languages & Cultures       Tel: +44 (0) 191 334 3456
University of Durham                        Fax: +44 (0) 191 334 3421
New Elvet, Durham DH1 3JT, UK               WWW: http://nick.frejol.org/