Wikipedia:Adminship reform

The powers and position of "Administrator" have existed in some form since Wikipedia's inception in 2001. Administrators were initially selected by Wikipedia co-founder, Jimmy Wales, but before long a request for adminship process was created. In 2007, the first large requests for comments style requests for adminship reform discussion, and since then large RfCs have happened every few years.

Several powers have been "unbundled" from the Administrator toolkit—including Rollback, Template editor, File mover, Page mover, Account creator, and Event coordinator. These specific tools allow more people to help with administrator tasks without having to endure an RfA or be fully trusted with the entire toolbelt.

A procedure for de-adminship (or desysopping) has also been widely discussed. Starting in 2011, inactive admins have been automatically desysopped after one year of inactivity. Additionally, many admins have been open to recall, in which several prominent editors (typically extended confirmed editors or other admins) ask for their resignation. Then either the admin would step down, or suffer a second RfA to decide their fate as an admin.

Adminship Reforms
While there have been many RfCs to give certain rights of administrators to other users, there has been very little discussion on removing or expanding administrator power. In the 2007 RfA reform discussion, it was first brought up to require candidates wishing to become admins to have a certain number of edits. This was never implemented as a requirement, however, a user needs extended confirmed permissions—500 edits and 30 days—to edit the Requests for adminship page. This, however, can be avoided if someone else nominates you, and you allow them to edit the RfA page on your behalf.

The only successful reform on Administrators came in 2011, and regarding demotion due to inactivity. This was brought to the village pump after an inactive admin account was compromised and used to promote white supremacist messages. Prior to being implemented, this issue was a "perennial proposal", and was opposed on the basis to having to hold administrators to strict edit and time requirements. The 2011 RfC fixed both of these concerns by only requiring a one year stretch of inactivity, any edits would reset the one year timer.

Unbundling
Certain powers have been granted to non-administrators, to help with backlogs, and getting stuff done. The first of these proposals to gain support was rollback. The 2007–2008 poll had ~60% support to create a "non-administrator rollback" feature. Even though this was considered "ambiguous" at the time, and previous polls did not result in adding the feature, with similar support percentages. Regardless, a developer was asked to enable the rollback right, and they did. Presently, the rollback right isn't as useful, due to the number of tools allowing for similar functionality with the regular undo button. Still, most vandal fighters still get proper rollback as soon as they can.

Template editor is another unbundled power. This allows technical users to edit edit–protected templates freely. This was first proposed in 2012, but was opposed on the fact that it was too expansive, and not needed. A later 2013 RfC fixed these concerns, and was passed. The RfC added a new protection level that would be applied to templates, keeping full–protection for when absolutely necessary. Template editors can edit both template and module namespaces, as well as edit notices.

In 2011, the "filemover" right was transferred from Wikimedia Commons. This right allows trusted users to rename files. In 2016, the page mover user right was created, allowing users to move pages without a redirect, move all subpages, and move a page to an existing redirect. The May 2016 RfC established the user right, and the later 2016 RfCs added extra permissions to the right.