GuildWiki:Administrators

The administrators of the GuildWiki are a somewhat different union than most other websites out there use. This page exists to show administrative policy and the goals of administrators.

For more detailed information on the existing administrators, see Administrator information.

Overview
GuildWiki admins are recommended by the community. Promotion to administrator is done solely at the discretion of the bureaucrats listed here. Once promoted, an administrator is fully autonomous: he may do as his powers allow, as he sees fit. This seems dangerous, and indeed some users have disagreed with this policy in general. However, this policy has worked very well throughout the history of the GuildWiki: it allows incredibly quick resolution of the vast majority of issues. Further, because the administrator's character is well-known before his promotion, abuses of administrator power simply do not happen. Finally, administrators can counteract other administrators. This is the final fail-safe mechanism to ensure that any unreasonable abuse of power is kept in check.

The fine print
Administrators are appointed for life. No amount of inactivity can result in an administrator losing his position. Again, this is because only extremely trusted users are granted administrator status. Administrators may step down at will, or may control their continued appointment in other ways. Administrators in the midst of conflict have, in the past, offered to resign if the community voted it was prudent. The administrators listed here may remove any administrator for any reason, though this has only occurred twice in our history.

Administrators can ban users at will. This is usually done in cases of vandalism, and permanent bans are usually reserved for spambots. However, if an administrator feels it prudent, he may remove a user from the wiki for any reason, or no reason at all. As a matter of courtesy, most administrators will not ban a user he is directly involved with; instead, he will ask another administrator to examine the situation from a neutral perspective.

Administrators can protect or delete pages at will. However, administrators are strongly encouraged to do so only via the community-sanctioned channels, or in cases of obvious vandalism.

Administrators can counteract other administrators, if they feel it prudent. An erroneous ban can be lifted. An erroneous delete can be restored. Typically, only a message on the talk page explaining the reason why such a countermeasure is prudent is expected in such a case. The "reverted" administrator is expected to oblige the revert, and should not reinstitute their action without discussing it with the "reverting" administrator.

Again, though this may seem a fairly chaotic governing system, it works extremely well in context of the wiki. An appointment to administrator is not something done lightly. The administrators are a cohesive team, and the mutual respect they share for another, even when disagreeing, is second to only the respect and care they have for the GuildWiki itself.