User:Tony1/RfA review

Questions

I've read a few responses, and I mostly agree with GMaxwell's.

Overriding comments:

The questions don't suit what I want to say.

The main issues for me are that an often brutal, chaotic selection process does not effectively:

prevent the promotion of admins who abuse their role, throwing their weight around;
ensure that admins are likely to set an example, especially in relation to civility and assuming good faith; and
minimise the likelihood that admins will "stick up" for each other in disputes on the basis of admin status alone.

Despite the inability of the system to screen out those who may behave badly, ironically, the culture and process are such that candidates' history of the odd squabble or incivility are magnified out of all proportion. (The US presidential process is similarly prone to muckraking.) It seems odd that unsuitable people get through because they've held off their squabbles until they become admins; but it's the only way of explaining the phenomenon.

It could be that other functional aspects apart from the initial selection process are contributing factors; isn't there some privileged discussion page accessible only by admins? Bad move to have that.

A name change would be good, to remove the notion that they are administrators in the managerial, hierarchical sense.

An effective system of accountability, complaint, warning, disciplinary action, and removal of adminship is essential; possibly ArbCom should appoint a subcommittee to run this aspect. Or bureaucrats might do it (they don't seem to do much at the moment); simply having a decent disciplinary system in place would curb most of the behavioural problems, I think.

Mediation of the voting process is essential to steer RfAs towards civility, moderation and relevance when they go off the rails. I think it's appalling that people end up being scarred by the experience. I'm suspicious of the anyone-can-vote process, which is vulnerable to stacking and concealed conflict of interest. TONY (talk) 12:38, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

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Questions

When thinking about the adminship process, what are your thoughts and opinions about the following areas:

Candidate selection (inviting someone to stand as a candidate)
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Administrator coaching (either formally or informally)
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Nomination, co-nomination and self-nomination (introducing the candidate)
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Advertising and canvassing
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Debate (Presenting questions to the candidate)
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Election (including providing reasons for support/oppose)
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Withdrawal (the candidate withdrawing from the process)
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Declaration (the bureaucrat closing the application. Also includes WP:NOTNOW closes)
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Training (use of New Admin School, other post-election training)
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Recall (the Administrators Open to Recall process)
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When thinking about adminship in general, what are your thoughts and opinions about the following areas:

How do you view the role of an administrator?
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What attributes do you feel an administrator should possess?
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Finally, when thinking about Requests for Adminship:

Have you ever voted in a request for Adminship? If so what was your experience?
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Have you ever stood as a candidate under the Request for Adminship process? If so what was your experience?
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Do you have any further thoughts or opinions on the Request for Adminship process?
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Once you're finished...

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This question page was generated by {{RFAReview}} at 12:39 on 23 June 2008.