Wikipedia:Discussions for adminship/old/Front matter

Discussions for adminship (DfA) is the process by which the Wikipedia community decides who should be an administrator (or sysop). Administrators have access to a few technical features that help with maintenance. A user may submit his or her own request for adminship (a self-nomination), or may be nominated by another user.

This page is a new proposal to replace Requests for adminship. It is not the same thing.

Please be familiar with the administrators' reading list and how-to guide, as well as the guide to requests for adminship before submitting your request. Also review what adminship is not to clear up any misconceptions about adminship you may have.

About DfA
The community grants administrator status to trusted users who are familiar with Wikipedia policies. Admins are held to high standards, as they are often perceived as the "official face" of Wikipedia. Admins should be courteous and should exercise good judgment and patience in dealing with others. Nominees should have been on Wikipedia long enough for people to see whether they have these qualities. Almost all admin actions are reversible; being an admin is primarily an extra responsibility, as there are rules and policies that apply only to admins.


 * In a nutshell
 * To be considered for adminship, a user must have had an account on the wiki for at least two months, and must have accumulated at least 500 edits.
 * To participate in these discussions, a user must have had an account for at least one month, and must have accumulated at least 100 edits. Please don't remove or strike out votes lacking suffrage, but add a short comment such as "This user has only 4 edits".
 * Overly lengthy comments or discussions can be moved to the talk page.
 * Don't list a candidate on this page until the candidate has accepted the nomination. Any candidate may withdraw the nomination at any time, at which point the subpage is unlisted and archived.


 * Nomination standards
 * ''See also: List of non-admins with high edit counts
 * To be nominated, you must have had an account on the wiki for at least two months, and have accumulated at least 500 edits. However, some users set a variety of standards which may be higher.


 * Nomination process


 * Any user in good standing may nominate any other user who meets the standards above. Users may nominate themselves. Nominations remain for seven days from the time the nomination is posted on this page. The first three days are used to make comments, while the other four are used for voting. At the end of that period, candidates who receive a general consensus to promote will be made admins. The bureaucrats who handle admin promotions review the discussion to see if a general consensus is present; the threshold for consensus here is roughly 75–80 percent support. Only bureaucrats may close or de-list a nomination as a definitive promotion or non-promotion. In the case of vandalism, improper formatting or a declined or withdrawn nomination, non-bureaucrats may choose to de-list a nomination but they are never empowered to decide on whether consensus has been achieved.


 * In exceptional circumstances, bureaucrats may extend the deadline or repeat the nomination if this will make the consensus more clear. If your nomination fails, please wait a reasonable period of time (about a month and a half) before renominating.


 * How to nominate an editor for adminship


 * To nominate either yourself or another user for adminship, follow the instructions on this page.


 * Discussions


 * Who may participate: Any Wikipedian who has had an account for over a month and has accumulated 100 edits is welcome to join in, including the nominator, however, overtly supporting oneself is not counted.
 * Who may not participate: Editors who are not logged in ("anons"), do not have an account, or do not meet the suffrage requirements above. Comments by very new editors may be discounted if there is suspicion of fraud such as sockpuppetry.
 * To comment, click the [edit] links by the headers.
 * You may explain your position, but please leave longer comments in the comments sections. Long threads of conversation may be moved to the discussion page leaving the original comment and a link.
 * Always be respectful towards others in your comments. Bureaucrats may remove remarks that are pointlessly offensive.