The role of administrators
What are the possible roles of an administrator in a Wikimedia project? These are the roles I came up with.
- Politician: (Clinton, by Marc Nozell, CC-BY) In it for the thrill of power. Has some pretence to the Judge and Leader roles as well. Doesn’t mind a spot of drama.
- Police: (public domain) Rule enforcer with underdeveloped sense of subtlety. May enjoy a quiet punitive block from time to time. Gets a kick out of being hated by vandals.
- Gamer: (Rihanna by gamerscoreblog, CC-BY-SA) Only really does it for the kudos of their peers and bragging rights (such as they are). Similar to the Politician in some respects (like a lack of true sincerity in the role) but doesn’t have that same thirst for power. Only runs for RfA when they are certain they will make it. Can be found on IRC.
- Judge: (public domain) Thoughtful and considered interpretation of the rules at best, domineering wikilawyering at worst.
- Leader: (Helen Clark, by the Office of the PM, GFDL) Respected and idealistic representative of the community, tries to argue thoughtfully for what is right rather than what is popular. Nurtures newcomers. In a less flattering light resembles the Politician. Likely candidate for spectacular wikiburnout.
- Babysitter: (babysitter by John & Alyssa DeRusha, CC-BY-SA) Resolves petty squabbles and sends people to the naughty step if necessary. Experienced scolder.
- Diplomat: (public domain) A babysitter with tact. Also tackles protracted disputes and occasionally even solves them.
- Janitor: (sweeping by pedrosimoes7, CC-BY) O humble servant, maintainer of archives, deletor of copyvios and cruft, we hardly knew ye.
The above is a link to a three question survey. [The Javascript seems temperamental. If you don’t see anything then just go directly here.] The first asks which of the above roles are accurate in theory and in reality. (Plus the option “something else”, in which case you should leave a comment here saying what.)
The other two questions are:
Are you an administrator on your project(s) of choice?
- Only by user rights
- Yes
- No, but considering it
- Not yet
- No, but there’s a trail of failed RfAs behind me
- Hell no
What is the Requests for Adminship (RfA) process like on your project(s)?
- Too easy
- Before I was an admin I thought it was too hard, but now I think it should be harder
- Precisely as painful as is necessary
- Too traumatic
- Too bureaucratic/petty
- Too arbitrary
- One of the most notoriously difficult levels to pass
The survey is open for two weeks. I will put up some results when it’s done if a few people answer it.
Comment
I’m missing a role (which I guess is my own, mostly, these days): the grease monkey, tweaker of css, fiddler with javascript, and master of parser functions.
— Duesentrieb · 26. February 2008, 23:39
Hm, that should be the Mechanic.
— pfctdayelise · 27. February 2008, 08:51
Commenting is closed for this article.
Why Wikipedia doesn't need protecting from the masses Links for 2008-03-02
