On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 09:10:34 +0800, Andrew Lih andrew.lih@gmail.com wrote:
The two terms (sysop and admin) are used interchangeably in the Wikipedia user space. They both mean someone who as gone through [[Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship]] successfully, and can delete and protect pages, and block IPs/names.
I have long thought it to be a Bad Thing that these terms are both used, since it often leads to confusion. The historical reason seems to be that the software developers called the status flag in the database "sysop", but the community (simultaneously?) settled on the term "administrator" for the same status. I've actually seen people stating that "An admin is someone with sysop status." as though this in some way justified the existence of both terms.
However, a discussion a few months ago aimed at choosing a single official term (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Administrators#Remove_all_sysops) led to a straw poll which for one thing got very silly, and for another demonstrated nothing approaching consensus (even after tidying up the silliness).
As for whether the usage should be emulated elsewhere, I would suggest doing what seems sensible on your project, and leaving en.wikipedia to its own craziness. ;) [Hm, there's a thought: what term(s) do other languages use?]