UDWiki:Administration/Policy Discussion/Sysop Guidelines Review

For the short preliminary discussion that preceded this policy discussion, please see here.

Background

The UDWiki of 2018 has much, much less activity than the UDWiki of, say, 2008. In that time the community has shrunk and this means some standard by which we define a "model" user of the wiki has also changed. One area where this change is not reflected is the promotions page, more specifically the Sysop Guidelines.

Current Guidelines for System Operator Requests

Users who wish to request System Operator status (and users who wish to nominate other users for System Operator status) should note that before they can be considered the following guidelines should be met by the candidate:

• Significant time within the community.

We define this as at least 2 months since the candidate's first edit.

Note: looking in a User's User contributions might give false results for this criterion, as the edit history is periodically purged on this wiki.

• Significant activity within the community.

We define this as at least 500 edits in the past six months under the candidate's name.

Note: looking in a User's User contributions might give false results for this criterion, as the edit history is periodically purged on this wiki.

• Prior interest in maintaining the community.

We define this as clear evidence that the candidate is already performing maintenance tasks and taking leadership roles on the wiki.

• Desire to become a System Operator.

We define this simply as indicating in the candidate's request their desire for the position (Note that if a person is nominated by another user, the candidate in question should note their acceptance of the nomination).

If a user is highly exemplary in one criterion, a certain amount of leeway may be given with the other criteria.

Reflection and Proposal

The above numbers, namely the 500 edits in 6 months criterion, does not come close to reflecting the activity of the community as defined by the active users of the wiki. The position of sysop is not this exclusive and therefore should be changed. The other expectation that a user of 2 months could be a candidate for sysop is not particularly accurate either, as not much activity happens on the wiki over 2 months anymore, therefore it's practically useless as a guide for a new user's potential as a sysop.

I propose that we change the above specifications for a candidate to be more accurate. We want to reflect the standard by which a trusted user of this wiki should be judged, in order to be considered a good candidate for promotion.

Proposed Guidelines for System Operator Requests

Users who wish to request System Operator status (and users who wish to nominate other users for System Operator status) should note that before they can be considered the following guidelines should be met by the candidate:

• Significant time within the community.

We define this as at least 2 6 months since the candidate's first edit.

Note: looking in a User's User contributions might give false results for this criterion, as the edit history is periodically purged on this wiki.

• Significant activity within the community.

We define this as at least 500 250 edits in the past six months under the candidate's name.

Note: looking in a User's User contributions might give false results for this criterion, as the edit history is periodically purged on this wiki.

• Prior interest in maintaining the community.

We define this as clear evidence that the candidate is already performing maintenance tasks and taking leadership roles on the wiki.

• Desire to become a System Operator.

We define this simply as indicating in the candidate's request their desire for the position (Note that if a person is nominated by another user, the candidate in question should note their acceptance of the nomination).

If a user is highly exemplary in one criterion, a certain amount of leeway may be given with the other criteria.

Voting Section

Voting Rules

Votes must be numbered, signed, and timestamped. They can take one of two forms: # comments ~~~~ or # ~~~~ Votes that do not conform to the above will be struck by a sysop.

The only valid voting sections are For and Against. If you wish to abstain from voting, do not vote.

For

1. From the discussion, I still feel that this is the right step in the direction of accurately signalling the accessibility of the position of 'sysop' to UDWiki's community. Anything beyond that, particularly the alternative opinion of "remove these guidelines altogether", I feel is a separate discussion. In the meantime, this is appropriate and necessary move. THE CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER 13:34, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
2. While I would prefer something more in the vein of removing/reworking the guideline, I agree this is a step in the right direction, so even though it may not be as full of an improvement as I would like, it is an improvement nonetheless, and thus has my vote. —Aichon— 14:58, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
3. The lower editing standard is more in line with the current activity level, and I've always thought 2 months was a bit short of a time to learn how the community works. --^A_O^R_D^M_O^P_R^I _! ^T 17:24, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
4. Gives a much more realistic picture of the expectations for sysop candidates. Bob Moncrief ^EBD•W! 00:32, 7 September 2018 (UTC)
5. ^Acorn. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 02:13, 7 September 2018 (UTC)
6. I would maybe even go lower on the minimum edits, but it is a step into the right direction. And it is only a guideline that has always been interpreted in the light of the current activity level - in the old days the 500 edits were a bare minimum, and most serious candidates were far above it. -- Spiderzed▋ 20:47, 7 September 2018 (UTC)
7. Pretty much as Spiderzed. Linkthewindow  Talk  13:53, 21 September 2018 (UTC)