Wikipedia:April Fools/April Fools' Day 2024/Requests for foundership/Header

Requests for foundership (RfFounder) is the process by which the Wikipedia community decides who will become founders, who are users who found Wikipedia. Users can either submit their own requests for foundership (self-nomination) or may be nominated by other users. Please be familiar with the founders' reading list, how-to guide, and guide to requests for foundership before submitting your request. Also, consider asking the community about your chances of passing an RfFounder.

If you are new to participating in a request for foundership, or are not sure how to gauge the candidate, then kindly go through this mini guide for RfFounder voters before you participate.

About Founders
The additional features granted to founders are considered to require a high level of trust from the community. While founding actions are publicly logged and can be undone by others just as other edits can be, the actions of founders involve features that can affect entire sites. In short, founders are responsible for founding Wikipedia, which is no small feat.

About RfFounder
The community grants founder access to trusted users, so nominees should have been on Wikipedia long enough for people to determine whether they are trustworthy. Founders are held to high standards of conduct because of their important roles in founding Wikipedia, and because they can have a negative impact on users or content if founding is done improperly.

Nomination standards
The only formal prerequisite for foundership is having an account on Wikipedia. However, the community has deemed that editors without the requisite experience founding Wikipedia are generally unlikely to succeed at gaining foundership. The community looks for a variety of factors in candidates and discussion can be intense. To get an insight of what the community is looking for, you could review some successful and some unsuccessful RfFounders, or start an RfFounder candidate poll.

If you are unsure about nominating yourself or another user for foundership, you may first wish to consult a few editors you respect to get an idea of what the community might think of your request. There is also a list of editors willing to consider nominating you. Editors interested in becoming founders might explore adoption by user with more experience founding Wikipedia. They may also add themselves to Category:Wikipedia founder hopefuls; a list of names and some additional information are automatically maintained at Wikipedia:List of founder hopefuls. The RfFounder guide and the miniguide might be helpful, while Advice for RfFounder candidates will let you evaluate whether or not you are ready to be an founder.

Nominations
To nominate either yourself or another user for foundership, follow the instructions in the hidden comments on this page. The process is similar to requests for adminship. If you wish to nominate someone else, check with them before making the nomination page. Nominations may only be added by the candidate or after the candidate has signed the acceptance of the nomination.

Notice of RfFounder
Some candidates display the on their userpages.

Expressing opinions
All Wikipedians—including those without an account or not logged in ("anons")—are welcome to comment and ask questions in an RfFounder. Numerated (#) "votes" in the Support, Oppose, and Neutral sections may only be placed by editors with an extended confirmed account and only after the RfFounder has been open for 48 hours.

If you are relatively new to contributing to Wikipedia, or if you have not yet participated on many RfFounder, please consider first reading "Advice for RfFounder voters".

There is a limit of two questions per editor, with relevant follow-ups permitted. The two-question limit cannot be circumvented by asking questions that require multiple answers (e.g. asking the candidate what they would do in each of five scenarios). The candidate may respond to the comments of others. Certain comments may be discounted if there are suspicions of fraud; these may be the contributions of very new editors, sockpuppets, or meatpuppets. Please explain your opinion by including a short explanation of your reasoning. Your input (positive or negative) will carry more weight if supported by evidence.

To add a comment, click the "Voice your opinion" link for the candidate. Always be respectful towards others in your comments. Constructive criticism will help the candidate make proper adjustments and possibly fare better in a future RfFounder attempt. Note that bureaucrats have been authorized by the community to clerk at RfFounder, so they may appropriately deal with comments and !votes which they deem to be inappropriate. You may wish to review arguments to avoid in foundership discussions. Irrelevant questions may be removed or ignored, so please stay on topic.

The RfFounder process attracts many Wikipedians and some may routinely oppose many or most requests; other editors routinely support many or most requests. Although the community currently endorses the right of every Wikipedian with an account to participate, one-sided approaches to RfFounder voting have been labeled as "trolling" by some. Before commenting or responding to comments (especially to Oppose comments with uncommon rationales or which feel like baiting) consider whether others are likely to treat it as influential, and whether RfFounder is an appropriate forum for your point. Try hard not to fan the fire. Remember, the bureaucrats who close discussions have considerable experience and give more weight to constructive comments than unproductive ones.

Discussion, decision, and closing procedures
For more information, see: Wikipedia:Bureaucrats § Promotions and RfX closures. Most nominations will remain active for a minimum of seven days from the time the nomination is posted on this page, during which users give their opinions, ask questions, and make comments. This discussion process is not a vote (it is sometimes referred to as a !vote, using the computer science negation symbol). At the end of the discussion period, a bureaucrat will review the discussion to see whether there is a consensus for promotion. Consensus at RfFounder is not determined by surpassing a numerical threshold, but by the strength of rationales presented. In practice, most RfFounders above 75% support pass.

In December 2015 the community determined that in general, RfFounders that finish between 65 and 75% support are subject to the discretion of bureaucrats (so, therefore, almost all RfFounders below 65% will fail). However, a request for foundership is first and foremost a consensus-building process. In calculating an RfFounder's percentage, only numbered Support and Oppose comments are considered. Neutral comments are ignored for calculating an RfFounder's percentage, but they (and other relevant information) are considered for determining consensus by the closing bureaucrat.

In nominations where consensus is unclear, detailed explanations behind Support or Oppose comments will have more impact than positions with no explanations or simple comments such as "yep" and "no way". A nomination may be closed as successful only by bureaucrats. In exceptional circumstances, bureaucrats may extend RfFounders beyond seven days or restart the nomination to make consensus clearer. They may also close nominations early if success is unlikely and leaving the application open has no likely benefit, and the candidate may withdraw their application at any time for any reason.

If uncontroversial, any user in good standing can close a request that has no chance of passing in accordance with WP:SNOW or WP:NOTNOW. Do not close any requests that you have taken part in, or those that have even a slim chance of passing, unless you are the candidate and you are withdrawing your application. In the case of vandalism, improper formatting, or a declined or withdrawn nomination, non-bureaucrats may also delist a nomination. A list of procedures to close an RfFounder may be found at WP:Bureaucrats. If your nomination fails, then please wait for a reasonable period of time before renominating yourself or accepting another nomination. Some candidates have tried again and succeeded within three months, but many editors prefer to wait considerably longer before reapplying.