User:Montanabw/Involved

WP:INVOLVED contains very good advice. The crucial point is that a conflict of interest and strong feelings often go together, making it difficult if not impossible to be neutral in a dispute. Being INVOLVED can apply to interactions with other editors, editing in a content area, or editing on a specific article. The concept is intended to be interpreted broadly.

The exceptions are clear:


 * Interaction in a purely administrative role: Once someone steps into a case as an administrator, their neutral analysis of the situation may lead them to conclusions that favor one side over another; that does not make them "involved", that is what their job is.
 * Prior edits are "minor or obvious" and "do not speak to bias": I interpret this to include things like fixing obvious typos, minor copyedits that correct misspellings, adding wikilinks to de-orphan another article, reversion of blatent vandalism, and so on.  Basically, a small or noncontroversial edit does not disqualify an admin from acting in an administrative capacity.
 * Warnings, calm and reasonable discussion and explanation of those warnings, advice about community norms, and suggestions on possible wordings and approaches do not make an administrator 'involved'.
 * Even an "involved" admin can fix blatant vandalism, but it is "still the best practice . . . to pass the matter to another administrator via the relevant noticeboards."