User:Fuhghettaboutit/Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host requirements

The Teahouse’s question forum is designed to be a friendly environment for users to ask questions and obtain help from those willing to respond. Although anyone can answer questions there, early on the title of Teahouse “Hosts” was created to designate individuals specifically taking on the task of acting as representatives of the Teahouse and of furthering its aims.

Initially, the designation of Teahouse host had certain obligations attached to it, such as devoting a minimum number of hours to the project and welcoming a certain number of users per week. Requirements to act as a host were quickly dropped however (although certain expectations remained), and designating oneself a host became as simple as entering one’s name in a field and clicking a button marked Make me a host!

It is not the intention of this page to set forth host requirements that radically depart from that informality. There will never be, for example, any formal “voting” process to become a host, such as the burdensome process to become a Wikipedia administrator. Nor does this page stop anyone, including those who do not meet these requirements, from answering question at the Teahouse without the host designation. However, those taking on the mantle of "host", which inevitably conveys some imprimatur of official designation, should not be obviously unsuited for the role.

For the most part, the process of simply allowing anyone willing to help to freely designate themselves a host has worked––because the majority of self-selected hosts met common sense necessities to function in the role, such as having the modicum of editing experience needed to answer questions from a base of knowledge, and possession of the requisite language facility to compose clear answers to new user queries.

However, and despite that the Teahouse’s main link to the process for becoming a host asks if the person is an “experienced user” – and on the ensuing page, whether he or she is “An editor who understands how Wikipedia works?”, at time users have designated themselves hosts who simply cannot function well in the role. For example, users who are obviously [too] new themselves, and those whose writing skills might be suitable in their native language, but which are not sufficiently developed for an English language audience. Persons of unsuitable temperament have occasionally presented as well.

This page’s purpose is to set forth certain bare requirements before a person may designate themselves a Teahouse host. These are '’minimum’’ requirements––that it is expected, would naturally already be present in quantity for most of those who would self-select as hosts, and thus to present no bar to suitable volunteers.

Host requirements

 * A minimum of 1,000 edits (combined under all account names);
 * A basic familiarity with wiki markup and our core Wikipedia policies and guidelines, including verifiability, neutral point of view, no original research, notability, identifying reliable sources, citing sources, deletion policy and its processes, and the manual of style;
 * The ability to communicate in clear English;
 * A modicum of congeniality and lack of a battleground mentality. Except in extreme cases, this cannot be gauged in advance of host duties, but when seen in a host, is considered a compelling ground to ask the person to relinquish the title; and
 * A measure of competence. All users make mistakes. This catchall criterion is for relatively clear-cut cases, where repeated poor advice to users while acting in the host role is seen as damaging to the Teahouse project.

What to do if these criteria are not met
If a user does not meet these minimum requirements, then it is suggested that they be politely asked on their talk page to voluntarily withdraw, with a pointer to the criterion or criteria apparently not met. If that is not effective within 48 hours, a discussion thread should be opened at Wikipedia talk:Teahouse or the host lounge talk page, proposing to remove the user as a host, noting the issue(s) involved, and soliciting comment. The user in question should be informed of the discussion soon after posting, either by a note to his or her talk page, or by a ping at the discussion thread.

Please understand that meeting these threshold requirements does not necessarily mean a person is suitable as a host. If a host’s sustained course of conduct shows they are clearly unsuitable on grounds not captured in these criteria, it is suggested that a similar protocol be followed. Ask them politely to withdraw on their talk page, and if ineffective, discussion should take place.