[WikiEN-l] Admin burnout

[Keitei]

On Feb 8, 2007, at 21:29, George Herbert wrote:
> We're doing terribly at keeping identified, overstressed admins from
> ending up going over the edge.  What are we doing wrong, or what do we
> need to learn to do right?

I don't suppose it has anything to do with the, "We are the priests;  
you are the janitors. Now shovel our crap." mindset.

In order to become an admin, one must have an impeccable track record  
and have been aiming for adminship for quite some time. Then one must  
jump through all sorts of flaming hoops while all the people one gets  
along with the least gather to heckle. Then having become an admin,  
one gets treated like shit by newcomers pissed that one has deleted  
their page, trolls pissed that one has blocked them, POV pushers  
pissed that one has protected their page, users insistent that one is  
just the same as them and does not have any greater level of trust  
and should never be given any level of slack, users convinced that  
one is abusing one's powers, and "valued contributors" insistent that  
one does not matter and should go to hell because they do so much  
more and are so much more important to the encyclopedia.

It's a wonder all the admins haven't left the project.

And from my experience as an admin at other wikis, it's not the  
newbies or the vandals that get you down. It's the bitter resentment  
from invested users targeted at you over and over and over again. As  
if because the admins have such unspeakable power, they have to be  
abused to keep them down, so they won't take over in power-mad fits.  
It just gets to the point where one is like, "Fine! If you don't want  
me around so much, I'll leave. Have fun."

And why shouldn't they? Nobody is obligated to stay and if admins  
aren't valued, why would they want to?

--keitei