The Cunctator wrote:
Back in the day when the "admin" class
was created the claim by people
like Jimbo is that in the long run nearly everyone would have admin
powers; that it would be no special thing. I was skeptical for obvious
reasons. But I'm still willing to believe that's what we're heading
towards.
Really? I never knew this. But honestly, I don't see why I anybody
could be that optimistic about this. RfA is getting ridiculous. On one
RfA (NSLE's), we had an oppose vote because, among other things, the
user started thanking people for voting support before the RfA
finished. On another, (Mo0's), somebody voted oppose because "your
talk page seems to be vandalised a lot" and "we should be erring on
the side of caution, and voting Oppose unless we are absolutely sure".
Adminship is supposedly not a big deal, but it is. This is even more
clear when you look at Requests for Bureaucratship, where many people
vote oppose because "we don't need more bureaucrats". I know this is
off-topic, but I really think we should be looking into the RfA
process as well as AfD, because RfA appears to be becoming the new VfD
(yes, VfD). Last time, it was the "in" thing to bash VfD. Now, it's
the "in" thing to bash RfA, as anyone who spends some time on our IRC
channels should notice. This is worrying.
Never underestimate the overwhelming power of stupidity. In more
dangerous circumstances some of these people woud be candidates for
Darwin Awards. :-)
I'm perhaps one of the longest standing non-admins on Wikipedia. I
turned down the nomination on a couple of occasions. I have no
intention to apply in the forseeable future, but I think that the
inquisitorial process would be a deterent.
Ec