Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 12:37, 17 March 2012

This is an essay on Misplaced Pages culture and how it differs from policy relating to administrators. It is written as words of wisdom for new admins. It is not policy, but is an attempt to document how our policies are either interpreted or applied based on experience gained over the course of administering several thousand blocks. The author is not saying these are the way things should be, rather this is the way things tend to actually work. There are people who will disagree strongly with the views presented here and even those who think such thoughts shouldn't be expressed. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Misplaced Pages contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Misplaced Pages's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

Shortcut WP:NOTNAS

No Personal Attacks doesn't apply to talking about Admins.

While policy states otherwise, our culture makes it completely ok for users to make baseless accusations against you as an admin. You, as an admin, will be accused of bias, harassment and myriad other things. Typically such accusations are not actionable. These attacks pretty much come with the territory - get used to them.

Through our culture, we encourage folks to make such accusations.

When a user makes such a claim, he or she is to some extent immunizing themself against action by you by making you an "involved administrator." Unless you want to open yourself to a gory discussion of your actions on WP:ANI, you should probably not block that user at that point.

Admins need to develop thick skin fast.

Avoid being discussed on WP:ANI and the other drama boards like the plague.

Ochlocracy is not your friend or anyone else's. Many an innocent man has met an ugly death at the hand of angry mobs. As an admin, if someone questions your actions on one of these boards, people will enjoy piling on.

Never underestimate the incompetence, bad judgment and naïveté of folks commenting on ANI. If an issue is anything more than patently simple, chances are folks there won't bother try to understand the entirety of it which frequently leads to rather unfortunate outcomes.

Never block an established editor without a discussion on WP:AN, WP:ANI or some other public forum.

By established user, I mean someone with about 2,500 edits. We could argue what the number is but it’s not an absolute.

While there is no cabal, there is a strong double standard here at Misplaced Pages. Once someone has been here a while, WP:CIVIL is a mere suggestion and even seriously disruptive sockpuppeteers aren’t typically blocked for any substantial period of time if they're established editors, despite having policies in place that state the contrary.

If you want to discuss a seasoned editor’s action on ANI or other drama board, document every statement with a diff and explain the context concisely and carefully. Even then, people will still often fail to grasp what you're saying and ochlocracy can take root very quickly on any issue.

Misplaced Pages culture encourages repeat offenders.

You will come across established editors that have been blocked for edit warring and/or attacking other users a dozen times. Generally, our culture does not support long blocks for established editors.

Because we frequently do not ban these repeat offenders and blocks are not meant to be punitive, we actually encourage this behavior.

Experienced editors usually have buddies

Then there are the asshats who look out for their buddies on ANI. They'll do their best to ensure their pals get away with murder ensuring the double standard is applied, policies be damned.

Stay the hell away from the numerous ethnic/political conflicts waged documented on Misplaced Pages.

Examples of these conflicts:

• Catalan separatists and whatever you call those that don’t want that to happen
• Irish nationalists and loyalists (not to mention the British Isles naming dispute)
• The myriad Balkan conflicts
• The Arab–Israeli conflict
• The Liancourt Rocks and the Sea of Japan naming dispute
• etc.

These folks have been fighting in many cases for centuries – don’t expect them to play nicely on Misplaced Pages.

Do what most admins have done here (and will publicly refute) and just let them keep fighting amongst themselves. You might issue a block or two, but they’ll likely be incredibly painful because the person you warn or block has a bunch of wiki-skilled partisan buddies that will lodge numerous complaints about anything you do in the situation.

About the partisans to these conflicts here on Misplaced Pages:

• Many people editing pages related to these conflicts are extremists, hence their interest.
• There are a large number of partisans keeping an eye both on the subject and their partisan buddies.
• Many are extremely skilled wiki-politicians and will work the system to your disadvantage.
• These conflicts attract nut cases.

Folks don't like people documenting differences in policy and culture.

Many feel uncomfortable confronting these realities.

You will eventually get sick of wikidrama

Then you will either retire or semi-retire, or maybe even go out with a blaze of glory like Tanthalas39 (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA). He was one of the best.

See also

• New Admin School
• Advice for new administrators
• Observations on Misplaced Pages behavior

• Misplaced Pages essays