Wikipedia talk:Administrators

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Contacting Administrators[edit]

I've searched through a lot of pages to figure out where to post this, which exemplifies the basic problem. I've never found a way to contact an administrator. It's been almost as hard to find a place to raise the issue; all the other admin pages are specific. This seems to be the place to start.

There are times when the best way to handle something is to ask an administrator for advice, especially if the formal process might get someone needlessly in trouble.

There are obviously technical problems with how to set up contacting administrators because no one administrator should be burdened by the job, several admins and the question goes to all of them, and a "Contact Administrator" link is going to be abused.

The last could be simplified by narrowing those who can ask down to people with a fair amount of experience with the assumption they aren't asking something trivial. But that leads to an implementation problem: how do you tell you. I don't know how to sort who has to deal with requests for information. Even if there's a group that specializes you still have the problem of the question going to multiple people.

Obviously I've run into something specific but I've skimmed enough talk pages to know that sometimes editors feel backed into a corner and now and then could use some help. From discussing how to handle to reassurance they're doing the right thing, even a bit of wordsmithing, a handful of admins could make editors jobs much easier.Kovar (talk) 03:33, 20 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Kovar. If you'd like to contact an administrator and don't mind many people seeing your inquiry, I'd recommend Wikipedia:Administrator's noticeboard. That is less private but will get you a faster response and spread the workload of replying. If you'd like to contact a random, recently active, single administrator, try this tool. –Novem Linguae (talk) 04:28, 20 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
You can also add {{Admin help}} to your talk page, which will get the attention of an administrator who watches for those requests. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 04:33, 20 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Or try contacting one via the list at Wikipedia:List of administrators/Active. Lectonar (talk) 10:04, 20 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
If it's urgent there's also #wikipedia-en-revdel connect where admins can be contacted. Primefac (talk) 10:35, 20 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Question[edit]

How to become an administrator? Mood segregate (talk) 14:33, 5 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This is literally on the table of contents for the linked page Wikipedia:Administrators#Becoming an administrator. — xaosflux Talk 14:41, 5 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, thank you I just didn't find it last night Mood segregate (talk) 00:19, 6 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Help distinguish admin actions from general editor conversation[edit]

caveat: Bishonen is shown as an example but this post isn't about him/her

I've had a few encounters with admins over the past 6 weeks and though the end result was managed well, I found the initial notice to be unclear. The use of vague language and casual tone make it ambiguous as to how the accused is meant to respond. This goes against the Care & Judgement guidance for admins

Recommendations[edit]

  1. Can we recommend admins add "admin" to their sig so their role and responsibilities are clear
  2. Can we have admins use a template (like template:admin) with threatening an admin action like "block" to make the escalation clear? This would clearly distinguish admin action from general discussion with the admin
  3. Do better to gather context before threatening admin action.
  4. Clarify where the accused is in the process. e.g. 1st warning, 2nd warning etc
  5. remember that admins are also editors and should have WP:AGF with the accused

Examples & Issues[edit]

Tonymetz 💬 18:14, 5 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

For cultural reasons we choose not to make who admins are super obvious. At the end of the day our culture is that admins are just like other editors, except they have a few extra "tools". However a good solution to this might be to install a user highlighter script, which would highlight admin signatures a different color for just you. My preferred admin highlighter script. Other admin highlighter scripts. If an admin is speaking with their "admin hat on", they will sometimes say so in text, or it can be inferred (e.g. "I will block you if you continue doing X", only admins can block so hopefully only an admin would say this). I have not reviewed your 3 diffs of user behavior and will leave that to someone else. Hope this helps. –Novem Linguae (talk) 00:41, 6 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
the user script is helpful. Tonymetz 💬 01:23, 6 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
For cultural reasons we choose not to make who admins are super obvious.
I like this overall. One idea would be to have a conditional signature that admins display to distinguish dmin duties. Tonymetz 💬 01:39, 6 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I installed the user highlighter and it's a big help now that I see the admin highlighting in discussions and edit histories Tonymetz 💬 01:41, 6 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I did the second one so I am responding to it. There was a warning that asked you to declare why your alternate account follows the sockpuppetry policy at User talk:Tonymetz#Multiple accounts. You ignore the first part where I said If you are using the alternate account as an account that you will use to edit on public computers, please indicate so. If it is a doppelganger, no edits should be made from that account and only added the template to your user page. As your usernames were Tonymet and Tonymetz at that time, it could cause a lot of confusion. I thought it was probably a WP:DOPPELGANGER, but you kept editing from both accounts. Now, arguably the block wasn't needed, so this is bad on my part, but it did help alleviate the confusion one may have from those usernames by unblocking after you have renamed your account to TonymetzAlt. 0xDeadbeef→∞ (talk to me) 00:45, 6 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
thanks for adding context. if you look at the comment from a new-user's perspective (who doesn't know about blocks) , it's not clear that the next action will result in a block. It would be nice to have a clearer template that an admin is involved and a block is the next step.
I'm not disputing the block action, but I'm trying to help the admin team to distinguish admin actions and communications from general editor discussions. Tonymetz 💬 01:28, 6 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
A terrible idea. I welcome new editors, tell them when they aren't using a reliable source, etc, trying to help them. I'm doing this as a regular editor, not an Admin, but if my signature glared out ADMIN TELLING YOU THIS how do you think they'll react? I do not want to scare new good faith editors. See WP:BITE. Most of the work I do is not in my Admin role. Also there not 4 steps before being blocked. Twinkle has 4 steps, Admins have discretion. Doug Weller talk 11:16, 6 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

RFA2024 RFCs that affect administrators[edit]

For your information, there are many WP:RFA2024 RFCs that recently closed that affect administrators. You may wish to examine these in more detail at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/2024 review#Phase I. A quick summary:

Today I edited this policy page to reflect proposals 14 and 25 since those look straightforward. Will hold off on editing in the other proposals for various reasons (only approved for trial, needs a follow-up RFC to flesh out details, etc.) –Novem Linguae (talk) 09:11, 15 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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