[WikiEN-l] Parker Peters's comments

[Gregory Maxwell]

On 10/6/06, Stephen Streater <sbstreater at mac.com> wrote:
[snip]
> > It is a shame because the tools of adminship are really tools which
> > every experienced user acting in good faith should have.  ... that was
> > always the intent, .. Remember? "No big deal".   But life has turned
> > out so much more complex.
>
> That's because people don't trust strangers,
> and most people on RfA are strangers.
>
> Basically, paranoia is safer.

Yes. This is a factor.  I can think of .. um, one? Wikipedian I've met
in person whom I wouldn't want to support for adminship, ... comfort
is still very much a meat based thing for most people.

But it goes beyond the simple familiarity issue that you pointed out:
As an RFA participant we're asked to state our trust about how the
person for an indefinite time into the future when challenged with a
potentially infinite spectrum of tasks under an infinite number of
conditions. People change, our needs change... and as a result our
process makes it unrealistically difficult to feel comfortable with an
approval.