Wikipedia:Admin buddies

The concept of "admin buddy" is that each admin is paired up with another admin, and they keep an eye on how each other is doing, similarly to the practice of buddy diving. The idea is to catch admin stress and burnout before it becomes a serious problem.

An admin should periodically look on what his or her buddy is up to, typically by skimming the contribution history and user talk page, looking for signs of trouble. Are edit summaries getting nasty? Is a troll or vandal pushing the admin's buttons? Is the admin drifting out of policy enforcement, and starting to abuse admin powers? If so, the buddy should take note, ask how things are going, and offer any help or advice that seems appropriate, for instance to suggest a wikibreak.

Buddies don't need to work in the same areas of WP, in fact there is some advantage in having enough distance for perspective. So an image specialist could buddy with a vandal fighter, and instead of getting caught up in the drama of reverts, would pay attention to whether the vandal fighter is keeping cool or getting stressed by it. We also want to avoid any appearance of cliques or cabals; the buddy should prefer to communicate with the admin directly, rather than personally jumping into disputes. In the same vein, while private communication via email might be the right approach, it sets a better example to do it all in public via talk pages.

It is purely voluntary to have an admin buddy. If two of you are interested, you can jointly decide to do it, and add your names to the list of buddies below. If you are interested, but don't know of anyone, add your name to the list of those looking for a buddy. When considering who to buddy with, consider the admin's activity level; a very active admin may have a lot of history to review, and may be more of a time commitment. Buddying is a peer relationship, not mentoring, and while it is certainly possible to learn from watching the other admin, neither should feel expected to do anything for the buddy beyond watching for problems.

The buddy relationship can be ended by either admin at any time.