[WikiEN-l] Turn off AfD

Sat Dec 10 23:40:39 UTC 2005

John Lee wrote:

> Anthony DiPierro wrote:
>
>> How do you deal with crap everyone agrees should be deleted, but is
>> not actually speediable?  Here's a thought - make it speediable!
>
> Are you kidding? A year ago, the paranoid community rejected two 
> different measures for something *in between* speedy deletion and AFD 
> (both involved admin discretion but not full reliance on it). What 
> makes you think anything will have changed this year? If people won't 
> trust admins to semi-speedy something, why would they trust them to 
> speedy something? If anything, considering how we've grown, I wouldn't 
> be surprised if people would vote down proposals like Preliminary 
> Deletion even harder. People are scared of the potential for admin 
> abuse. And frankly, I don't blame them. Scandals like the bitter edit 
> war over licence vs license in a Mediawiki template have proven that, 
> sadly, our admins can and do get into trouble. Even the best of us, 
> like Everyking, get too heated and involved in articles we edit that 
> we cause pointless edit/revert wars. 

This is a key part of the problem.  Most speedy deletion candidates are 
undoubtedly good candidates, but many admins have not built up their 
trust with the community.  One can spot-check an admin's candidates, and 
if his claims are consistently valid he will build trust.  He will make 
mistakes, but how he reacts when those mistakes are brought to his 
attention will have a direct impact on how much he is trusted.  A 
willingness to give his critic the benefit of the doubt will go a long 
way toward building trust.  Being seen as a hardline defender of 
deletions will negatively affect trust, even if what you do is more 
moderate than what you say.  If a vocal supporter of more deletions also 
takes an active role in expanding speedy deletion he will leave the 
impression that he is trying to "pull a fast one".  Being a trust 
builder is a far more important skill for a sysop than knowing  and 
enforcing the rules.

Ec