[WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions

[Ryan Delaney]

On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 11:38 AM, Ian Woollard <ian.woollard at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 22/01/2010, Ryan Delaney <ryan.delaney at gmail.com> wrote:
>> This is really not the attitude that we want to project toward anyone.
>> I'm very disappointed by the tone of this email.
>
> Tone is one thing, but I'm more concerned about the complete lack of
> process here.

Thanks for getting this back on track.

>
> Am I correct in thinking that a lone admin can technically delete
> *any* BLP article at all by:
>
> a) 'challenging' and removing any references
> b) instantly deleting the article for being unreferenced
>

In theory, an administrator "could" do this. "Technically".

> While that's a somewhat contrived scenario; I've seen admins do things
> a bit like that before, and they could probably argue that a) was what
> they truly believed (even if everyone else considers the references to
> have been good).

The solution to that is to follow dispute resolution and clean up the
mess. We don't add rules to cover every possible eventuality. We have
common sense for that.

> So is it right that there's a rule, but no process for these kinds of deletions?

Pretty much. What you're describing, if it is happening, does sound
like a problem deserving of attention. But I wouldn't jump to creating
a new bureaucracy to handle this problem any more than I would
another.

- causa sui