[WikiEN-l] Worthy admins? (was "The userbox fad")

Wed Jan 4 16:04:48 UTC 2006

On 1/4/06, Ryan Delaney <ryan.delaney at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I almost wish it were feasible to make a "Request for De-adminship" where
> someone could be nominated for admin removal as a result of a user conduct
> RFC, but then I realize what a trollpit that would become in a matter of
> hours.

And this is the other side of the coin.  While it is true that some admins
abuse their privileges, the vastly more common case is that they faithfully
execute their mandate, and then are falsely accused by trolls and borderline
trolls of abusing their privileges.  And, apparently, a growing number of
cases involve administrators who use their powers (e.g. deleting,
undeleting, blocking) in support of the actual goals of the project, and are
then censured as "abusive" by people who are unfamiliar with policy, or
value process over content, or who see Wikipedia's purpose as the creation
of a vast social network or fledgling internet democracy.

Jay.