This is an
essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
I believe all candidates at Requests for adminship (RfA) should have experience of writing articles. Featured articles are great, good articles are welcome, but I don't even go that far – just some evidence that a candidate can evaluate multiple sources and write prose around it. Here's why:
Any editor who has written two featured articles can walk up to the Administrator intervention against vandalism noticeboard and address reports there successfully without having ever filed a single one themselves. [4]
I have seen this essay (and variations of it) be misinterpreted as "All admins must have multiple GAs / FAs / created xx articles / to pass RfA", which is complete hogwash. While it's nice to improve articles to good and featured status, it is possible to create a "good article" in spirit without going through the formal review process, and some people are naturally more skilled towards proof-reading, checking spelling and grammar and tidying up, than research and writing in bulk. It's also possible to get an inexperienced editor to pass a GA for you when it's still got major problems with it – and the RfA voting community can spot these.
What I do not want is a complete absence of any serious mainspace editing.
... any grievance posted about an admin by a non-admin is almost automatically considered to be harassment of the admin, probably by a troll or sock-puppet. The admin is presumed to be innocent, and the complainant is assumed to be guilty.
cf. "I have never met anyone who can do Scheme, Haskell, and C pointers who can't pick up Java in two days, and create better Java code than people with five years of experience in Java, but try explaining that to the average HR drone."
This is an
essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
I believe all candidates at Requests for adminship (RfA) should have experience of writing articles. Featured articles are great, good articles are welcome, but I don't even go that far – just some evidence that a candidate can evaluate multiple sources and write prose around it. Here's why:
Any editor who has written two featured articles can walk up to the Administrator intervention against vandalism noticeboard and address reports there successfully without having ever filed a single one themselves. [4]
I have seen this essay (and variations of it) be misinterpreted as "All admins must have multiple GAs / FAs / created xx articles / to pass RfA", which is complete hogwash. While it's nice to improve articles to good and featured status, it is possible to create a "good article" in spirit without going through the formal review process, and some people are naturally more skilled towards proof-reading, checking spelling and grammar and tidying up, than research and writing in bulk. It's also possible to get an inexperienced editor to pass a GA for you when it's still got major problems with it – and the RfA voting community can spot these.
What I do not want is a complete absence of any serious mainspace editing.
... any grievance posted about an admin by a non-admin is almost automatically considered to be harassment of the admin, probably by a troll or sock-puppet. The admin is presumed to be innocent, and the complainant is assumed to be guilty.
cf. "I have never met anyone who can do Scheme, Haskell, and C pointers who can't pick up Java in two days, and create better Java code than people with five years of experience in Java, but try explaining that to the average HR drone."