Wikipedia:Administrators open to recall/Sample process

The following is an informal process, not a policy or guideline

The status of the approach on this page is currently unclear. It was an object of active debate in 2009, when there was general consensus that it was a Good Idea for administrators who lost community confidence to voluntarily resign. However, there was a failure to reach consensus on the precise method to judge this and what process to implement. Nevertheless, a number of admins have voluntarily indicated their intention to follow a process based on what is listed here.

This page in a nutshell: Administrators who use this process submit a re-confirmation RfA or resign (their choice) if asked by six editors with over 500 edits and one month of tenure.

Overview

Category:Wikipedia administrators open to recall grants discretion to members over the criteria under which they will stand for re-confirmation and the venue at which re-confirmation will be conducted. To increase the predictability of the recall process, some members have documented their intentions at Wikipedia:Administrators open to recall/Admin criteria. For those who have not, this page presents a sample procedure and set of criteria which may be chosen as a fallback at recall time to reduce controversy. Admins may commit to this as a default in advance, or may do so at a later time.

The recall process described here proceeds in two stages, petition and re-confirmation. In the petition stage, editors ask an admin to stand for re-confirmation or resign. If the petition meets an initial threshold, it triggers the re-confirmation stage, in which editors decide whether the user is to retain adminship. If re-confirmed, the user remains an admin; otherwise, they resign. Details follow.

Petition

Any editor may request recall by starting a numbered petition on the admin's talk page. (Before doing so, they should confirm that the admin is willing to use the sample recall process, if the admin has not already committed to it.) At the admin's discretion, the petition may be moved to its own page. Editors may request recall for any reason, but are expected to do so civilly and in good faith.

There is some dynamic tension between the goals of increased accountability and protecting the system from abuse. For that reason, to trigger the re-confirmation stage, a recall petition must be signed by at least six editors each having over 500 edits and over one month of tenure. (The admin may waive these requirements for individual editors at their discretion.)

To allow time for cooling off and to facilitate discussion and compromise, petitions can remain open for seven days. Petitioners may strike out their signatures at any time. A petition may be closed early as successful at the admin's discretion, but not as unsuccessful. If at the end of the petition period the required threshold is met, then the re-confirmation stage begins; otherwise, the recall fails.

Re-confirmation

Following a successful recall petition, an admin may submit a new Wikipedia:Requests for adminship, making clear that if it fails, they will resign. (At the admin's discretion, they can resign first and submit a new RfA at their own convenience.) The standard for the RfA is the same as for any RfA - community consensus: if the user has consensus to remain an admin, the RfA is successful; if they lack such consensus, it is unsuccessful. Admins who resign during or as the result of a recall process are considered to have done so "under a cloud" and should re-apply at RfA to regain adminship.

Wikipedia:Administrators § Administrator recall
Wikipedia:Administrators open to recall – The "main" page, giving a brief description of the idea.
Wikipedia talk:Administrators open to recall – talk page with discussion.
Wikipedia:Administrators open to recall/Admin criteria – the criteria and process for recall used by various category members.
Sample procedures and criteria
- Wikipedia:Administrators open to recall/Sample process
- Wikipedia:Administrators open to recall/Alternative process
Records of past recall requests, hand-maintained by volunteers.
Reference material about other proposals, ideas and general information.
Category:Wikipedia administrators open to recall – The category page, showing which administrators state they are voluntarily open to recall.
Category:Wikipedia bureaucrats open to recall – for Bureaucrats
17 August 2008 Category Deletion Discussion
Wikipedia:Adminship in other languages

Note: the above is not an exhaustive list.

Requests for comment

Note: the above is not an exhaustive list

Overview

Petition

Re-confirmation

See also

Requests for comment