User:Isomorphic/Essays/Adminship:Theory and practice

A few observations about the evolving social structure of Wikipedia

Jimbo has said that adminship should be "no big deal." In the earliest days of Wikipedia, this may have been the true state of things. But, as Wikipedia grows, this is increasingly not the case. Many (both admins and non-admins) see adminship as a status symbol. Why?

Adminship requires the consensus support of the community. That makes it almost inevitable that adminship will involve a degree of status, since it embodies the trust and support of the community. It is an endorsement.

There is also another factor at work. In the beginning, Wikipedia was small. In a small web community, just like in a small town, everyone knows each other. More importantly, most people know each other's reputation and status in the community. People know who has contributed a lot, who is fairly new, who is respected, and who is disliked.

Wikipedia is too large for this kind of community now. Plenty of regular contributors don't know each other. Old users leave and come back, new users show up, and for an average contributor it's impossible to know who most people are. So, when a user wants to find a respected community member, they often use the easiest method available; look for an admin. Newer users sometimes look to admins for assistance, for unofficial mediation, for justice, and for advice.

In short, because it carries an implicit community endorsement adminship is more than a set of not-terribly-exciting technical abilities. Certainly we are not police as some allege, but neither are we janitors. We often serve, like it or not, as unofficial village elders.

Is this a Bad Thing? Not necessarilly. Whether it is good or bad depends on how it is handled. Personally I prefer the "no big deal" status, and am not fond of the recent proposals that would give admins explicit authority. I don't think it's necessary. I do, however, think that this kind of pressure is an inevitable part of Wikipedia's maturity.

Update

Above are my thoughts on why, in practice, admins get respect and authority. However, I'm becoming convinced that adminship should be kept more of a "no big deal" thing. Some Wikipedians now act like adminship is a prized position that should be given out as rarely as possible. That's ridiculous. Adminship is not a job in any traditional sense. We aren't constrained by a budget because we don't pay admins, we don't have a limited number of admin positions to give out, and there's plenty of work to do. The more admins there are, the more people are able to do some of the routine tasks like maintaining VfD. It's important that admins be trusted, but it's also important to get the work done.

If I believe that someone won't misuse their admin abilities, it's not important how often they use them or how active they are. Even an admin who only occasionally uses their powers is still contributing. As long as they do no harm, and sometimes help, where is the problem?