Will the new RfA reform come to the rescue of administrators?
16 May 2024
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28 December 2021
Editors discuss Wikipedia's vetting process for administrators
26 September 2021
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31 July 2019
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31 January 2019
The last leg of the Admin Ship's current cruise
31 July 2018
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29 June 2018
Has the wind gone out of the AdminShip's sails?
24 May 2018
Recent retirements typify problem of admin attrition
18 February 2015
Another admin reform attempt flops
15 April 2013
Requests for adminship reform moves forward
21 January 2013
Adminship from the German perspective
22 October 2012
AdminCom: A proposal for changing the way we select admins
15 October 2012
Is the requests for adminship process 'broken'?
18 June 2012
RFAs and active admins—concerns expressed over the continuing drought
14 February 2011
RfA drought worsens in 2010—wikigeneration gulf emerging
9 August 2010
Experimental request for adminship ends in failure
13 October 2008
Efforts to reform Requests for Adminship spark animated discussion
23 April 2007
News and notes: Arbitrators granted CheckUser rights, milestones
6 February 2006
Featured picture process tweaked, changes to adminship debated
27 June 2005
Discuss this story
I tried once. Not likely to try again. They want flawless and super-active people, good luck finding them. Maybe admin rights should be given to every user who has shown themselves to be trustworthy by contributing in a positive way and not having been blocked for a certain period (e.g. 1 year). Make it similar to applying for rollback. If a user abuses their rights just take them away. Or else have a modding system like on Slashdot where established users can mod down an edit and if it gets too much of a negative vote it gets high up in a queue for admin reviewing. Targaryenspeak or forever remain silent 21:21, 19 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
arguementsbanter away, the time wasted on RFA voting and instead give a more broad based opportunity to discuss and elect admin recruiters and objectives. The end result is the community getting more suitable and better organised people without the choas. Regards, SunCreator (talk) 21:34, 19 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]As someone involved in some of the discussion 5-6 years ago, I guess the recent outcomes aren't too much of a surprise. My observations then were that calls of it being broken etc. were largely driven by individual cases where person X should have been promoted or person Y shouldn't. Maybe it's more general now and it is a belief more people should pass, I'm quite out of touch with that side of wikipedia, but I guess at the bottom of it the concrete reasons as to why weren't really forthcoming, beyond the same material listed in the RFA itself. i.e. it's more or less to do with simple disagreement about who will/won't make good admins. It's pretty much the same reason then why reforms are hard to define, a way to remove the opinion part is to provide solid criteria, however defining those solid criteria requires the input of the same set of opinions which will undoubtedly differ. Other methods such as boards to create admins, lead to suspicion that it'll end up in "group think" type situation whereby those selected are all of the same ilk, rather than being the diverse sets of the past. As said though wikipedia is ultimately quite conservative as that is part of the core principals - outcomes with no consensus default in retaining the current status quo in pretty much all forums. --62.254.139.60 (talk) 22:19, 19 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
The voting system should be eliminated. Non-substantive arguments should be discouraged and ignored, with the final decision going to the bureaucrat. Like an AfD, if the arguments for a certain outcome are superior, that outcome should win, even if the other side gets more "votes". That would disempower those few nasty, petty individuals that make RfA such a hellish process. --JaGatalk 04:31, 20 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
If you want to start with reform at rfa then you may want to consider listing the reform options up at rfa for a year, then letting candidates choose the reforms they want to test in their rfa, then draft proposals based on that approach. Allowing the candidates to test the reforms would provide actually usable data for any reform attempt so that we could move forward with facts and not opinions, fear, guesses, etc. TomStar81 (Talk) 09:34, 20 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I've started up an RFC on this topic. Please feel free to comment at Wikipedia talk:Requests for adminship#Request for comments about whether the RFA process should be changed. Targaryenspeak or forever remain silent 18:31, 20 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I suspect that it might be more acceptable if there was a second intake stream in which a representative cabal of experienced admins invited existing non-admins to join their ranks. Highly undemocratic, but totally sidestepping the inquisition stage which many non-admin abhor. Even lowly editors with only a few thousand edits can identify very quickly a few names that they would trust to do the job, but persuading those names to be put forward at RFA is like drawing teeth. It isn't that RFA isn't working, it is that many consider the pain not worth the very minimal gain. Velella Velella Talk 21:57, 20 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Brilliant article, and much needed. Every admin action remains logged and reversible -- adminship should be no big deal. Clearly some improvements are needed to how RfA is handled and how adminship can be removed if an admin doesn't work out. I like a number of the suggestions above:
Thanks for this writeup, and for the great comments. – SJ + 13:17, 21 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I don't see a lot of evidence that this is anything but a symptom of the changing (read: shrinking) active user base. Yes, I'd admit that the unofficial requirements (>3000 edits, not automated or automated depending on the phase of the moon, sainthood, etc.) restrict the pipe a bit but the nozzle doesn't matter if there isn't any water pressure behind it. by and large new editors become admins. This is more true now than it was before, but it has always basically been true. If the supply of new editors who stick around for 3-9 months and care enough about the site to want to be administrators dries up, so to will the pool of admin candidates, regardless of what RfA looks like. Protonk (talk) 07:49, 22 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
RFA also has the problem that it privileges editors who are not willing to edit in controversial areas. If you frequent, say, the fringe theories noticeboard, and deal with the problems raised there, you're going to have enough people who hate you for not letting them promote their views on Wikipedia that you will never pass RfA. RfA seeks people with great experience in things like AfD, but throws out people who work hard to support five-pillar policies such as WP:NPOV, because they'll have upset too many people.... and so gets admins who have absolutely no knowledge of any of the real problems of Wikipedia. 86.129.73.104 (talk) 16:42, 22 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Things sure have changed!
"but the process has remained virtually the same as when Camembert created the page in 2003.".
I'm pretty sure that the process has changed. I recall that edit-counting was discouraged when I became an admin. I also distinctly recall (therefore) being able to read *all* of a person's edits and questioning them about them.
I maintain that anyone who can be trusted with the tools should have them, especially now that admins have been nerfed and can't delete the wiki anymore. We could give the buttons to 80% of the regular editors or more.
Ceterum censeo RFA editcountitis esse delendam.
--Kim Bruning (talk) 15:57, 22 June 2012 (UTC) ps. I was the nominator for the first WP:100 RFA (source). I now refuse to nominate people on the grounds that I don't do unto others what I would not have them do unto me[reply]
What year?
Signpost editor, please note: the second paragraph under "Brief history" begins "In the same year . . ." - What year?? Textorus (talk) 21:56, 25 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]