[WikiEN-l] Who monitors Wikipedia?

[Chris Howie]

On Sun, Mar 2, 2008 at 9:34 PM, Kurt Maxwell Weber <kmw at armory.com> wrote:
> On Sunday 02 March 2008 20:27, Chris Howie wrote:
>  > Good luck getting anyone to run for adminship if they're going to be
>  > subjected to what amounts to a weekly RfA.
>
>  An RfA is only a big deal if you find yourself compelled to respond to every
>  point made against you...in other words, it's only a big deal if being an
>  administrator is an actual goal of yours--it's only a big deal if you *want*
>  to be an administrator.
>
>  Frankly, those are the people I don't think should be administrators.

Time to initiate a recall against me then, eh?  Seriously, this
position is ridiculous.  You are completely disregarding motivation.
My basic motivation is to assist the Wikipedia community.  My specific
motivation is to be able to perform RC patrol more effectively, that
is, I can monitor AIV as well as block vandals without having to
report to AIV and check up on them until someone gets around to
blocking.

I do want to be an admin, but I'm not power-hungry or crazy (or I hope
not).  To my knowledge every time I have used the tools it has been in
the best interests of the community.

If not wanting to be an administrator is a negative mark then I
suggest you are going to find Wikipedia with a bunch of admins who, as
I understand you to mean, don't particularly want to be
administrators.  They are going to be much less willing to trawl
through backlogs as people who want to be admins specifically to deal
with the backlogs.

Basically what I'm saying is that if someone *genuinely* wants to be
an admin *so they can help out Wikipedia*, what's the problem?

>  If you don't really care much if you're turned down, all you have to do is
>  fill out your nomination statement and leave it alone.  These are the people
>  we need: people who don't necessarily *want* the job, but are willing to do
>  it at the request of the community.

I seriously doubt the ability of such people to be able to put up with
all the BS that administrators do.  Though you may counter-argue that
such administrators tend to not attract BS.  However, I'd say that if
all of the "want-to-be" administrators were desysopped then not only
are we going to have a lack of manpower, but all of the complaints
will shift to the "don't-want-to-be" administrators who may very well
decide it's not worth it.

>  Are you familiar with Cincinnatus?  Or George Washington, for that matter?

I'm unsure what you're driving at here, and it seems to be a somewhat
sneaky question.  If I answer "no" in either case, is the reply going
to be some sort of big "here, let me lecture you about them and why
this is relevant" monologue?  Therefore I decline to answer.  If you
have a point here, make it without my help.

-- 
Chris Howie
http://www.chrishowie.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Crazycomputers