This is an article about Wikipedia administrators. For Wikipedia's policy page on administrators, see Wikipedia:Administrators.
On Wikipedia, trusted users may be appointed as administrators (also referred to as admins, sysops or janitors),[1]: 327 following a successful request for adminship. Currently, there are 913 administrators on the English Wikipedia.[2] Administrators have additional technical privileges compared with other editors, such as being able to protect and delete pages and being able to block users from editing pages.
Icon that typically represents administrators on Wikipedia
On Wikipedia, becoming an administrator is often referred to as "being given [or taking up] the mop",[2] a term which has also been used elsewhere.[3] In 2006, The New York Times reported that administrators on Wikipedia, of whom there were then about 1,000, were "geographically diverse".[4] In July 2012, it was widely reported that Wikipedia was "running out of administrators", because in 2005 and 2006, 40 to 50 people were often appointed administrators each month, but in the first half of 2012, only nine in total were appointed.[5][6] However, Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's co-founder, denied that this was a crisis or that Wikipedia was running out of admins, saying, "The number of admins has been stable for about two years, there's really nothing going on."[7] Wales had previously (in a message sent to the English Wikipedia mailing list on February 11, 2003) stated that being an admin is "not a big deal", and that "It's merely a technical matter that the powers given to sysops are not given out to everyone."[8]
In his 2008 book Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, John Broughton states that while many people think of administrators on Wikipedia as judges, that is not the purpose of the role.[9] Instead, he says, admins usually "delete pages" and "protect pages involved in edit wars".[9] Wikipedia administrators are not employees or agents of the Wikimedia Foundation.[10]
While the first Wikipedia administrators were appointed by Jimmy Wales in October 2001,[11] administrator privileges on Wikipedia are now granted through a process known as requests for adminship (RfA).[1] Any registered editor may nominate themselves, or may request another editor to do so. The process has been said to be "akin to putting someone through the Supreme Court" by Andrew Lih, a scientist and professor who is himself an administrator on the English Wikipedia. Lih also said, "It's pretty much a hazing ritual at this point", in contrast to how the process worked early in Wikipedia's history, when all one had to do to become an admin was "prove you weren't a bozo".[5]
Candidacy for the role is normally considered only after "extensive work on the wiki".[1] While any editor may vote in an RfA, the outcome is not determined by a majority vote, but rather by whether consensus has been reached that the candidate would make a good administrator, a decision that can only be made by a bureaucrat, a Wikipedia editor who is also appointed by the community through a "request" process, though the process is much stricter for them than for administrators.[12] This may have been implemented as a result of RfAs attracting increasing levels of attention: Stvilia et al. quoted that "Prior to mid-2005, RfAs typically did not attract much attention. Since then, it has become quite common for RfAs to attract huge numbers of RfA groupies who all support one another",[13] with the record number of votes in one RfA as of May 2022 being 468 for the RfA of longtime editor Tamzin Hadasa Kelly.[14]
Role
Once granted administrator privileges, a user has access to additional functions in order to perform certain duties.[5] These include "messy cleanup work",[1] deletion of articles deemed unsuitable, protecting pages (restricting editing privileges to that page),[15]: 66 and blocking the accounts of disruptive users.[1][5] Blocking a user must be done according to Wikipedia's policies and a reason must be stated for the block, which will be permanently logged by the software.[1]: 401 [15]: 120 Use of this privilege to "gain editing advantages" is considered inappropriate.[1]
Scientific studies
A 2013 scientific paper by researchers from Virginia Tech and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found that after editors are promoted to administrator status, they often focus more on articles about controversial topics than they did before. The researchers also proposed an alternative method for choosing administrators, in which more weight is given to the votes of experienced editors.[16] Another paper, presented at the 2008 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, analyzed data from all 1,551 requests for adminship from January 2006 to October 2007, with the goal of determining which (if any) of the criteria recommended in Wikipedia's Guide to requests for adminship[17] were the best predictors of whether the user in question would actually become an admin.[3] In December 2013, a similar study was published by researchers from the Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology in Warsaw, which aimed to model the results of requests for adminship on the Polish Wikipedia using a model derived from Wikipedia's edit history. They found that they could "classify the votes in the RfA procedures using this model with an accuracy level that should be sufficient to recommend candidates."[18]
^ ab"Wikipedia:Administrators". Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
^ abBurke, Moira; Kraut, Robert (April 2008). Taking Up the Mop: Identifying Future Wikipedia Administrators. CHI '08 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. pp. 3441–3446. doi:10.1145/1358628.1358871. ISBN978-1-60558-012-8. S2CID 5868576.
^Hafner, Katie (17 June 2006). "Growing Wikipedia Refines Its 'Anyone Can Edit' Policy". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 January 2014.
^ abcdMeyer, Robinson (16 July 2012). "3 Charts That Show How Wikipedia Is Running Out of Admins". The Atlantic. Retrieved 23 January 2014.
^ abEbersbach, Anja; Adelung, Andrea; Dueck, Gunter; Glaser, Markus; Heigl, Richard; Warta, Alexander (2008). Wiki: Web Collaboration. Springer. ISBN978-3-540-68173-1.
^Das, Sanmay (2013). Manipulation Among the Arbiters of Collective Intelligence: How Wikipedia Administrators Mold Public Opinion(PDF). Proceedings of the 22nd ACM International Conference on Information & Knowledge Management. pp. 1097–1106. doi:10.1145/2505515.2505566. ISBN978-1-4503-2263-8. S2CID 52865675.
^Jankowski-Lorek, Michal; Ostrowski, Lukasz; Turek, Piotr; Wierzbicki, Adam (2013). "Modeling Wikipedia admin elections using multidimensional behavioral social networks". Social Network Analysis and Mining. 3 (4): 787. doi:10.1007/s13278-012-0092-6.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wikipedia administrators.
January 13, 2023
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This is an article about Wikipedia administrators For Wikipedia s policy page on administrators see Wikipedia Administrators On Wikipedia trusted users may be appointed as administrators also referred to as admins sysops or janitors 1 327 following a successful request for adminship Currently there are 913 administrators on the English Wikipedia 2 Administrators have additional technical privileges compared with other editors such as being able to protect and delete pages and being able to block users from editing pages Icon that typically represents administrators on Wikipedia On Wikipedia becoming an administrator is often referred to as being given or taking up the mop 2 a term which has also been used elsewhere 3 In 2006 The New York Times reported that administrators on Wikipedia of whom there were then about 1 000 were geographically diverse 4 In July 2012 it was widely reported that Wikipedia was running out of administrators because in 2005 and 2006 40 to 50 people were often appointed administrators each month but in the first half of 2012 only nine in total were appointed 5 6 However Jimmy Wales Wikipedia s co founder denied that this was a crisis or that Wikipedia was running out of admins saying The number of admins has been stable for about two years there s really nothing going on 7 Wales had previously in a message sent to the English Wikipedia mailing list on February 11 2003 stated that being an admin is not a big deal and that It s merely a technical matter that the powers given to sysops are not given out to everyone 8 In his 2008 book Wikipedia The Missing Manual John Broughton states that while many people think of administrators on Wikipedia as judges that is not the purpose of the role 9 Instead he says admins usually delete pages and protect pages involved in edit wars 9 Wikipedia administrators are not employees or agents of the Wikimedia Foundation 10 Contents 1 Requests for adminship 2 Role 3 Scientific studies 4 ReferencesRequests for adminship EditWhile the first Wikipedia administrators were appointed by Jimmy Wales in October 2001 11 administrator privileges on Wikipedia are now granted through a process known as requests for adminship RfA 1 Any registered editor may nominate themselves or may request another editor to do so The process has been said to be akin to putting someone through the Supreme Court by Andrew Lih a scientist and professor who is himself an administrator on the English Wikipedia Lih also said It s pretty much a hazing ritual at this point in contrast to how the process worked early in Wikipedia s history when all one had to do to become an admin was prove you weren t a bozo 5 Candidacy for the role is normally considered only after extensive work on the wiki 1 While any editor may vote in an RfA the outcome is not determined by a majority vote but rather by whether consensus has been reached that the candidate would make a good administrator a decision that can only be made by a bureaucrat a Wikipedia editor who is also appointed by the community through a request process though the process is much stricter for them than for administrators 12 This may have been implemented as a result of RfAs attracting increasing levels of attention Stvilia et al quoted that Prior to mid 2005 RfAs typically did not attract much attention Since then it has become quite common for RfAs to attract huge numbers of RfA groupies who all support one another 13 with the record number of votes in one RfA as of May 2022 being 468 for the RfA of longtime editor Tamzin Hadasa Kelly 14 Role EditOnce granted administrator privileges a user has access to additional functions in order to perform certain duties 5 These include messy cleanup work 1 deletion of articles deemed unsuitable protecting pages restricting editing privileges to that page 15 66 and blocking the accounts of disruptive users 1 5 Blocking a user must be done according to Wikipedia s policies and a reason must be stated for the block which will be permanently logged by the software 1 401 15 120 Use of this privilege to gain editing advantages is considered inappropriate 1 Scientific studies EditA 2013 scientific paper by researchers from Virginia Tech and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found that after editors are promoted to administrator status they often focus more on articles about controversial topics than they did before The researchers also proposed an alternative method for choosing administrators in which more weight is given to the votes of experienced editors 16 Another paper presented at the 2008 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems analyzed data from all 1 551 requests for adminship from January 2006 to October 2007 with the goal of determining which if any of the criteria recommended in Wikipedia s Guide to requests for adminship 17 were the best predictors of whether the user in question would actually become an admin 3 In December 2013 a similar study was published by researchers from the Polish Japanese Institute of Information Technology in Warsaw which aimed to model the results of requests for adminship on the Polish Wikipedia using a model derived from Wikipedia s edit history They found that they could classify the votes in the RfA procedures using this model with an accuracy level that should be sufficient to recommend candidates 18 References Edit a b c d e f g Ayers Phoebe Matthews Charles Yates Ben 2008 How Wikipedia Works No Starch Press ISBN 978 1 59327 176 3 a b Wikipedia Administrators Wikipedia Wikimedia Foundation Retrieved 29 July 2015 a b Burke Moira Kraut Robert April 2008 Taking Up the Mop Identifying Future Wikipedia Administrators CHI 08 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems pp 3441 3446 doi 10 1145 1358628 1358871 ISBN 978 1 60558 012 8 S2CID 5868576 Hafner Katie 17 June 2006 Growing Wikipedia Refines Its Anyone Can Edit Policy The New York Times Retrieved 23 January 2014 a b c d Meyer Robinson 16 July 2012 3 Charts That Show How Wikipedia Is Running Out of Admins The Atlantic Retrieved 23 January 2014 Further coverage Steadman Ian 19 July 2012 Wikipedia might be running out of administrators figures show Wired Archived from the original on October 6 2014 Retrieved 24 January 2014 Lo Wang Hansi 19 July 2012 As Wikipedia Gets Pickier Editors Become Harder To Find NPR Retrieved 29 November 2014 Lee Dave 18 July 2012 Jimmy Wales denies Wikipedia admin recruitment crisis BBC News Retrieved 24 January 2014 Wales Jimmy 11 February 2003 Sysop Status EN I Wikimedia Mailing List Retrieved 24 January 2014 a b Broughton John 2008 Wikipedia The Missing Manual O Reilly Media p 199 Kosseff Jeff April 15 2019 The Twenty Six Words That Created the Internet Cornell University Press ISBN 9781501735790 Schiff Stacy 31 July 2006 Know It All The New Yorker Retrieved 19 February 2014 Wikipedia Bureaucrats Wikipedia Wikimedia Foundation Retrieved 29 July 2015 Stvilia Besiki Twidale Michael B Smith Linda C Gasser Les 2008 Information quality work organization in wikipedia Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 59 6 983 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 163 5109 doi 10 1002 asi 20813 Harrison Stephen June 16 2022 Inside Wikipedia s Historic Fiercely Contested Election Slate Retrieved October 17 2022 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link a b Ebersbach Anja Adelung Andrea Dueck Gunter Glaser Markus Heigl Richard Warta Alexander 2008 Wiki Web Collaboration Springer ISBN 978 3 540 68173 1 Das Sanmay 2013 Manipulation Among the Arbiters of Collective Intelligence How Wikipedia Administrators Mold Public Opinion PDF Proceedings of the 22nd ACM International Conference on Information amp Knowledge Management pp 1097 1106 doi 10 1145 2505515 2505566 ISBN 978 1 4503 2263 8 S2CID 52865675 See Wikipedia Guide to requests for adminship Jankowski Lorek Michal Ostrowski Lukasz Turek Piotr Wierzbicki Adam 2013 Modeling Wikipedia admin elections using multidimensional behavioral social networks Social Network Analysis and Mining 3 4 787 doi 10 1007 s13278 012 0092 6 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wikipedia administrators Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Wikipedia administrators amp oldid 1132400730, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
