[WikiEN-l] The userbox fad

Tue Jan 3 18:43:15 UTC 2006

slimvirgin at gmail.com wrote:
> Exactly right. Almost every block is at serious risk now of being
> reversed by an admin who's never read the blocking policy, has had
> very little interaction with the community, and who got elected with
> under 20 votes, but decides he quite liked something the blocked user
> once posted, and so therefore he has to unblock, leading to wheel
> wars, endless explanations of the most obvious things on WP:AN/I, and
> a consequent unwillingness on the part of other admins to block
> troublemakers until they become serious problems (and even then it can
> be difficult: see the Marsden situation). Unfortunately, part of this
> problem is fueled by the philosophy that adminship is "no big deal,"
> which if Jimbo reads this thread, I ask that he consider commenting on
> somewhere, because I've lost count of the number of support votes I've
> seen quoting it, leading to yet another unknown and possibly clueless
> admin being promoted. Combine poor admins with hundreds of users who
> are turning Wikipedia into a social club, and you have a giant mess.

I'm not sure how this whining about new admins is helpful. Rather than 
stirring up bad feeling amongst admins, perhaps you could do something 
more productive about the situation, such as asking new admins to 
explain their actions, voting oppose to people you think are unfamiliar 
with admin policy, etc.?

I, in general, don't see how complaining about inexperience among new 
admins, is going to give them the experience necessary. I think it 
should stop, and more productive behaviour should start.

Chris