[WikiEN-l] Admin burnout

[Bryan Derksen]

Rich Holton wrote:
> If there are things that admins can do NOW that could cause us to have 
> to roll-back two weeks, then there is an immediate problem NOW, not 
> connected to any change in our selection procedure for admins. No 
> selection procedure will be 99.98% effective, and the damage of 
> attempting to achieve that is just too great.

Geni said "weeks of cleanup OR a rollback of the database", not both. I
don't see what possible vandalism could require a rollback to a point
before the vandalism actually started happening. The vandalism would
have to be pretty stealthy to be ongoing for two weeks.

> So, shall we remove the admin bit from anyone who admits to knowing how 
> to cause such damage? Or shall we immediately take steps to make it so 
> such damage is impossible?

Bit of a false dilemma there. Considering these methods of admin
vandalism have been available for quite some time and I don't know of
any actually being used, how about leaving things as they are?

I can think of an approach right off the top of my head to cause major
havoc using my admin powers that I wouldn't be able to undo with any
conventional tools. I've been an admin since mid 2002 and was at one
point the most prolific human editor (before AWB came along, grumble
mumble :) so hopefully I've got enough trust built up to avoid being
de-admined for admitting this.