[WikiEN-l] Parker Peters's comments

Fri Oct 6 20:52:21 UTC 2006

On 10/6/06, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> People still complain that it's impossible to get rid of a bad admin
> when that's manifestly false. The ArbCom is *not* happy with cases of
> clear abuse of admin powers and does act when such are brought to its
> attention.

The ArbCom also seems to take a fairly narrow view of what constitutes
"abuse", in the sense that disruptive behavior -- even *massively*
disruptive behavior -- is ignored if it (a) seems to sort of work out
in the end, (b) can be claimed as being "for the good of Wikipedia",
or (c) both.

> I think it's far better and simpler to make it relatively easy to
> become an admin, then remove the bad ones as and when they show it,
> than to require a process with ever-escalating requirements for
> adminship most of which have nothing to do with the powers in question
> in the hope that this will stop the problem before it occurs.

Actually, the current RFA is fairly successful in one respect: it's a
decent filter against people who are likely to react explosively to
pressure, which is actually pretty helpful.  Having admins that lose
their composure easily is not really the best idea, for obvious
reasons.

-- 
Kirill Lokshin