User:Animum/The social duty of editors

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly."

- Albert Einstein

This is an essay. It merely reflects my views on this particular subject and is not, nor do I expect ever to be, ironclad policy.

The question of the role of the administrator is a frequently asked one, with good reason. If we are to elect them to positions of higher authority, we, and they themselves, need to know how they are expected to function. However, in answering this question, we have hit a little snag: Different editors, no surprise here, have different ideas of the role of a sysop. Some view them as normal editors, while others think they are elevated in authority; some think a few extra buttons are no big deal, but other editors think they must have a high level of trust to carry out sysop functions; different editors, still, think they should be detached and objective, and others encourage wide participation with other editors. If there is such a diverse range of answers to the capacity of the sysop, I do not doubt there to be some other views as to the niche of the more-plentiful regular editors. To repeat the second and third sentences at the top of this page, these are my views alone; I do not expect some people who, by some means or another, happened to stumble upon this essay to have the same opinions. As I am not one of the "mediocre minds" mentioned in the above quote, I welcome them. This is a wiki, after all.