User:Linuxbeak/Guide for admins

So, you made it. You've been nominated (or you self-nominated) for adminship, went through seven days of voting, and were given the thumbs-up by a bureaucrat. Great! Welcome to being an admin. Now, it's time to get to work.

There are several things that you should know before you start to participate as an admin. No, I'm not talking about using rollback or deleting articles, I'm talking about community participation.

Being an administrator on Wikipedia is in theory no big deal, but in practice it is not so.

Regarding blocks

 * Some administrators will block vandals without warning. Generally speaking, this is acceptable assuming that you are wise about it. If a vandal has a history of being warned and blocked in the past, then an immediate block is not unheard of. However, do not block without warning if the edit made is argueably (however weak) innocent and out of curiousity.


 * Here's a big common-sense suggestion. DO NOT BLOCK OTHER ADMINISTRATORS WITHOUT DISCUSSING THE PROBLEM ON THE NOTICEBOARD FIRST! Let's face it: administrators who are acting out of control should be reported first. Don't just block them unless they're doing something extremely bad, such as vandalizing. Do NOT block an administrator who you are in a personal battle with. That smacks of immaturity and is extremely bad form for an administrator.

Regarding userboxes

 * Stay away from them. Userboxes have caused way too much controversy on Wikipedia. If you're spending more time arguing about userboxes than you are on articles, then you have your priorities screwed up. Remember that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not myspace.

Regarding civility

 * Your administrator title is not a license to flame. Nor is it a license to demean, put down, troll, harass, or violate Wikipedia policy. Administrator != asshole. Got it? Even if a user is a total fuckwit, don't be a fuckwit in return. Show your maturity, and show that you are of a higher level than that of an idiot.

Important stuff

 * You are not special. Every single Wikipedia rule and guideline still applies to you, so don't violate the rules that you are supposed to uphold.


 * To Wikipedia, you are seen as a user that is trusted more than a registered user. To the outside world, you are an administrator. The term "administrator" is a loaded term, and the outside world does not realize that there are practically 1000 administrators. As such, do not do anything that would cause the media (or any other group for that matter) to think that Wikipedia administrators are loose cannons on deck. Although you are part of a large group, your voice can be rather resounding.


 * There is no cabal. Really, there isn't. I don't know who started that entire nonsense, but if there really WAS a cabal, Wikipedia would be MORE of a bureaucracy than it is now.