Request for Adminship is the process that the Wikipedia community abides by to select those who wish to become administrators for the encyclopedia. Administrators, by definition, are given certain added functionality to preside over and maintain the Wikipedia encyclopedia. There are roughly 1,500 administrators ( list of administrators)that watch over a library being used by over 16 million registered users and plenty of unregistered users as well.

There is no set standard or method to become an administrator on Wikipedia, but requests are made by self-nomination or through being nominated by other members of the community. Typically, those hopeful of gaining adminship should be trusted members in the Wikipedia community with impeccable reputations.
Many decisions as to whether applicants are approved or denied are based on one’s general reputation within the community, editing history, as well as their specialization within the encyclopedia. Those who are more specialized may be more attractive for adminship, because of the large number of general admins that exist already. As stated before, there are no set requirements to gain adminship.

If you are interested in becoming an admin, there are a number of things that should be addressed before you apply.

• Applicants are encouraged to talk with other editors to get a feel of how their potential application would be received by the community to get a fair evaluation of their chances, for example, in Wikiprojects, helping struggling against Vandalism.
  
• Typically, those without 2,000 edits and three months of editing under their belt are declined in their request for adminship with regards to the WP:SNOW clause.
  
• To learn more about the nomination process, click here.
  
• Those who nominate other editors are asked to give a brief explanation as to why they nominated them and what they would bring to the table as an admin.For more information, read Request a nomination.
  
• Following the nomination process, there is a vote that takes place within the Wikipedia community as it pertains to the applicant’s desire to become an administrator.
  
• The vote is based heavily on the applicant’s responses to a set of general questions as well as optional questions posed by other editors. The applicant’s editing history and relations with other editors play a large factor in the community’s decision to vote in support or opposition of the request for adminship.
  
• While there is not an exact percentage, typically those nominated that receive at least 75% in favor of their RfA are approved. Again, this is not a set number.
  
• Nominations are held open for at least one week, in which the vote and discussion take place. After this period passes, a bureaucrat reviews and closes the nomination if there is a consensus within the community.
  
• Bureaucrats are those with the ability to promote users to admin or bureaucrat status, as well as remove administrators and bureaucrats, as well as other managerial tasks within the encyclopedia.
  

Useful links

Guide to requests for adminship

RFA Stats

Arguments to avoid in adminship discussion