[WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions

[David Goodman]

I agree that either before or now -- indeed, any possible rule, an
admin is more likely to succeed with an unchecked deletion if the
articles actually turn out to be unsourceable, than if they turn out
to be notable and sourceable. But it is reckless to delete without
checking first unless immediate harm is apparent, and arb com actually
used "commend" to describe the act of doing just that sort of
single-handed thoughtless deletion.

I mention an earlier proposal that single handed deletion is only
possible for G10 G11 and truly routine administration. At least then
there will be a second admin involved.


David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG



On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 2:15 PM, Charles Matthews
<charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> David Goodman wrote:
>> Arb Com at this point seems very willing to encourage arbitrary action
>> by administrators, when we really need to be be moving in the opposite
>> direction, of requiring greater admin responsibility and care.
> As far as I know, the principle remains that admins are personally
> responsible for their use of the tools, and (in effect) put their
> adminship on the line every time they make discretionary use of those
> buttons. The traditional principle is to give admins wide discretion,
> and hold those who make bad use of that discretion to account. Now this
> is a case where mistakes can be made; those mistakes can also be
> rectified easily enough by another admin. We'll have to see how it all
> works out. If my braglist started turning red, and I could see that a
> particular admin was acting unreasonably, I would discuss the matter
> (this is also traditional).
>
> So I don't really agree here: "arbitrary" can be the pejorative of
> "discretionary", but we'll have to see to what extent this is for the
> worse. (I'm babysitting two troublesome BLPs myself, and have failed to
> get deletions, one via AfD and one via PROD, quite recently. Both have
> serious problems with reliable sources, and real world enmities. It had
> not occurrred to me to delete them out of hand. The post I'm replying to
> is a bit WP:BEANS, therefore.)
>
> Charles
>
>
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