[WikiEN-l] Admins and elitism

[Jeff Raymond]

Guy Chapman aka JzG wrote:

> Whoa there.  Wikipedia is reputation based.  We have editors who have
> a firm place in whatever elite one might infer we have, by dint of
> their contributions, but who are not and never will be admins.  And
> that's before we get to Giano...

Ba-dum-ching!

> No, it's not hard to sanction an admin.  All they have to do is
> something stupid.  The big problem is that there is a reluctance to
> bring those sanctions before the community.  We seem to have nothing
> between "ZOMG! He deleted my article on my band I just formed last
> week!  Rouge admin abuse!" and total meltdown.

That's fair.  But...

> The main problem, I
> think, is that there is no calm atmosphere for discussing the
> performance of admins (and that brings us back to the thread earlier
> about admin meltdown).  I seriously do believe there should be a place
> for admins to discuss their actions and quietly admonish each other
> for being bloody silly *without* making it a three-ring circus.  And
> yes, that goes against the Wiki ethos, but the problem with openness
> is that there are a lot of POV-pushers out there just looking for
> chinks in the armour.  I'd hope the need for privacy would be
> temporary, but I perceive it as being there.  I also believe that
> trusted non-admins should be allowed to take part.  Just not
> any-old-editor coming to take the next pot-shot at whatever admin
> stepped in to stop their particular content dispute.

This *could* act as a solution, but not as a great one.  I mean, right
now, as it stands, if an administrator (to use my pet peeve) is
consistently abusing the speedy deletion policy, I have one choice to have
anything substantive done about it - ArbCom.  Of course, no one really
wants to do that, and it doesn't always result in a prompt resolution -
one open-and-shut case I presented last summer still took weeks, which is
fine, but isn't always helpful.  Etc etc.

Your clearinghouse idea has significant merit, though.

>>2) More importantly, adminship is viewed as a reward rather than a
>>responsibility, thus creating a protector group of admins.  There's one
>>recently-promoted admin in particular who embodies this concept, but
>> there
>>are many like him.
>
> You might want to run that past a few admins and see how loudly they
> laugh.  Seriously, anyone who wants to be an admin should try it for a
> couple of weeks and see how they like it.

I should be clearer.  The reward part of it comes from the editor class,
not the administrator class - I'm sure admins knee deep in the muck don't
see it as a reward.  However, the result of users nominating users as a
reward and then becoming a protector type still stands - I see it too much
not to be concerned by it.  It's not a god complex as much as something
else I can't find the words for.

-Jeff
-- 
If you can read this, I'm not at home.