[WikiEN-l] BADSITES vs RFA

[Slim Virgin]

On 5/29/07, Gallagher Mark George <m.g.gallagher at student.canberra.edu.au> wrote:
> > SlimVirgin wrote:
> > > ...we're a top--ten website with no idea how many admins we have.
> > > We know how many accounts, but not how many people, and we don't
> > > know whether they include banned users.
> >
> > I'm not an admin so I hope I'm not sounding glib or naive about
> > it, but: I'm at peace with this dilemma.  It's true we can't
> > know, it's true that's a concern, but it's not one we can afford
> > to worry about unduly, because there's nothing we can possibly do
> > about it and still remain as open as we have to be.  As long as
> > it's significantly easier to deadmin someone who's clearly "gone
> > rogue" than it is for them to construct the facade that allows
> > them to become an admin in the first place, I think the situation
> > is tenable.
>
> I hadn't actually considered the scenario that SV puts in her post,
> but it strikes me that there are more ways for a Trojan admin to
> cause damage than simply going rogue and deleting the main page.
> I'd also have to agree with her that, what with the CVU admin
> phenomenon, it is trivial for a bad user to rack up a lot of edits and
> bung his hand in, "Yep, I'll have me some extra buttons, please." ...
>
> The Trojan admin doesn't have to be a sleeper agent with Big Plans
> to cause trouble.  He just has to be what he is: a really, *really* bad
> admin.

There's also the issue of sockpuppet admin accounts being used in
support of that person's other accounts by blocking opponents,
protecting on the right version, and so on. The problem for us is that
we have no idea of the scale of it. Does it happen at all? Rarely? A
lot? We have no information. What I've noticed is that vandalism
fighting is becoming an increasing issue at RfAs, and it has seemed to
me (based only on my sporadic visits to RfA) that more and more people
are being promoted on the basis of lots of minor edits, which is not a
good thing for a number of reasons, the sock admin issue being one of
them.