[Wikipedia-l] Re: sysop vs. admin

Fri Oct 29 12:07:47 UTC 2004

On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 09:10:34 +0800, Andrew Lih <andrew.lih at 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?]

-- 
Rowan Collins BSc
[IMSoP]