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Hey everyone! I've been helping out with Adoption Requests recently, which lead me to thinking: What are some great qualities to look for when promoting a new user to admin status?

On wikis that I frequently visit, the admin teams are very social. They like to engage with editors either through talk pages or in the comments section of various articles. From what I've seen, good admins work together as a team.

  • What are some of the best qualities you look for when promoting new admins?
    • Quality of edits?
    • Engagement with the community?
    • Eagerness to contribute?

Feel free to share your ideas and opinions! :) ----Trellar WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 00:45, November 15, 2011 (UTC)


Godisme
To me, a good admin should fit the following criteria:
1.High level of knowledge on the subject material - they may be a good contributor but if they do not know the source material, they are not going to make a good admin.
2.Good edit history - an admin should always do good work. They should not have a troubled past on the wiki and should be making good quality edits.
3.General knowledge of wikimarkup - an admin should be able to edit without the use of the RTE. Formatting and template creation are two things most admins should be working on and the RTE is not good for those.
4.Commitment - I recently ran into a problem with an admin on one of my wikis. He did good work but he just was not committed to the site, only showing up once a month or so. A good admin should be active on the site and willing to help when needed. They don't need to be there every day but the more time they can put in, the better.--GodPray  00:52,11/15/2011 
All very good points! In regards to commitment, it's also important to be passionate about what you're editing about. I'm a new editor over at the Healthy Recipes Wiki, and while I don't have extensive knowledge on the subject, I'm eager to learn and help out in any way that I can. :) --Trellar WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 18:50, November 18, 2011 (UTC)
Jäzzi

Some qualities I look for are:

  • Mainspace edits out weighing other edits.
    • Quality edits like rewriting pages or fixing mark up
    • Helping other users out on their talk page when they need help.
  • I'd like them to be active in the community, as admins are users people look up to.
  • And eagerness to contribute is good, and I'd like to see them stay eager before and after they are promoted. While everybody has a life and has other commitments, I would like to see them edit at least once a week to check in and make sure nothing happens on the wiki and that they haven't missed anything. – zzi 00:58, November 15, 2011 (UTC)
Nice work, Jazzi! A healthy balance between the number of mainspace edits and engaging other editors in comments is a great combination to look for. Someone who works hard, but listens and engages with the rest of the community. --Trellar WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 19:00, November 18, 2011 (UTC)
Wattz2000

I think any admins should have qualities of:

  1. Respect and courtesy to most if not all users within the community.
  2. Quality contributions and determination for their expansion of content.
  3. Knowledge of the material and content to better show what they can do to help out the wiki.
  4. Knowledge of Wiki syntax is always good and usually a definite item to have, and even minor knowledge of css and js can be quite helpful.
  5. Knows the organization of the wiki by working through categorization and files uploaded to the wiki.

All in all, there are more items an admin can go through to become better suited for the position, and in some ways, there are less. Since I listed these in my opinion of order of importance, I think a strong and firm friendship with the community is by far the best quality for an admin to have. — Wattz2000 01:05, November 15, 2011 (UTC)

YES!! Respect for fellow community members is crucial for an admin. As an admin you are a representative for your community to any new members or outsiders that may stop by. Put your best foot forward and show them how awesome your wiki by being kind to one another. --Trellar WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 19:25, November 18, 2011 (UTC)
Technology Wizard

I believe admins should:

  • Be trustworthy
  • Have the ability to interact with the community
  • Have a certain need for admin tools
  • Be motivated and dedicated
  • Brighten the wiki in many different ways
  • Promote new ideas for the wiki
  • Introduce projects to the community
  • Be kind, caring, respectful, optimistic, responsible, organized, mature, and active

These are most of the important things I can think of at the top of my head. I believe users who can prove themselves to be worthy of all those excellent qualities and be decided upon community consensus can be great admins! —Technology Wizard ·Contribs· ~Talk~ ·E-Mail·  01:22, 11/15/2011 

All very good points! --Trellar WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 20:13, November 18, 2011 (UTC)
Hollowness
  • What are some of the best qualities you look for when promoting new admins?

In my case it was froma next to dead wiki and (still) building the community

Since I have only edited for gaming wikis it helps knowing how addicted the user is to the game and time they spend online :P ;). If I play the game with them and known them for 6 months or longer (if it is possible online wise) if they are a shinning example of the perfect helper: giving help to new people and loyal and a team player, and are known for the nice or friendly mannerism, even with less wikia experience and edits could sway me if admins are needed and long term editors/contributors are not available.
  • Quality of edits?
Knowing they want to fill the wiki with as much info and correct info and/or want to improve the wiki (making it as easy to use/read and as pleasing to look at). Quality of edits is filling in needed/missing information or helping out on outstanding wiki community projects. Their reasoning is as simple as "we want to help make things easier for people".
  • Engagement with the community?
Friendly, and willing to both input ideas and collaborating with others.
  • Eagerness to contribute?
Eagerness is good but curious and wanting to just help is just as good.

As an new admin my 2 new admins were both with no prior experience but wanting to help and ready to learn. I was ready to help from simple beginners how-to -> to advance editing. I'd trust either of them with the wiki indefinitely.  Hollowness | Wall | Contr 01:31, November 15, 2011 (UTC)

Nothing wrong with editing gaming wikis! ;) Coming from the gaming community, passion is key. Sure you can edit WoW Wiki or Elder Scrolls Wiki, but are you truely passionate about the game? Better yet, for larger games such as MMOs, are you passionate about a particular aspect of the game? For example, no matter what game I play, I absolutely love healing and will (almost) always end up playing a support class. Anyway, aside from getting a tad off topic, it's important to have admins who while maintaining all of the qualities listed above also bring something unique to the team. Whether that's an area of experitise within a particular game, or they have amazing CSS skills, or are social butterfly and engage well with the communityk, the ideal admin team has various strengths. --Trellar WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 20:13, November 18, 2011 (UTC)

Ajraddatz

Admins should be:

  • Active
  • Competent
  • Mature
  • Have a need for the tools

That's my RfA rational. ajr 01:33, November 15, 2011 (UTC)

Annawantimes

Administrators should...

  1. Not be concerned with the number of edits they've made, or their ranking on the leaderboard.
  2. Have made significant qualitative edits to the wiki.
  3. Foster engagement and life in the community.
  4. Show maturity and ability to talk to anonymous contributors who aren't vandals, and have potential to join the wiki.
  5. Be able to handle vandals and trolls properly; and know what to say when confronting them.
  6. Be trusted by a majority of the community, with good reason behind the trust.

Annawantimes (Talk) 01:47, November 15, 2011 (UTC)

.Seshat.
  • Knowledge of source matiral and an acceptable amount of edits on the mainstream pages to help flesh out the wiki's database of said source material.
  • Willingness to step in and resolve conflicts.
  • People skills requied to end conflicts as peacably and thoroughly as possible.
  • Knowledge of how to actually use the editor.
  • Ability to remain nonbiased in situations that might arise when conflict erupts between a user and another use the admin knows.
  • Actual knowledge and fluent grasp of the language the wiki is written in (I edit at a wiki where the only active 'crat has only a basic understanding of English grammar and, when their English isn't enough to explain a change they want to make, they close/delete the discussion and go with what they want to do despite what the community says).
  • An actual, regular presence in the community.
  • Willingness and the good sense to coordinate people to projects that need to be worked on when people ask.
  • Levelheadedness and acceptable attitude towards those who make mistakes/those who need to be banned.
  • Willingness to listen and consider propositions.
  • Dedication and the ability to manage their time, especially if they work at multiple wikis.
  • The good grace to step down or reallocate power when life keeps them from doing their duties. This, of course, includes removing their user rights (and, should they come back, willingness to participate in a probation period before their rights are reinstated, especially if they return after an extended period of time).
  • Enough modesty to admit when they're wrong about something and apologize accordingly if the situation calls for it.
  • A good handle on the community (wiki-on-wiki wars disgust me).

I could probably go on... .Seshat. 02:18, November 15, 2011 (UTC)

ZamorakO_o
  • They should be able to make an edit, or at least contribute in some way.
  • They must communicate. There is no way around that. An administrator is basically the slave of the community, and if he doesn't listen to the people he works for, how can he work for them?
  • They should have some sort of take charge attitude.
  • They should be approachable by newer users. 25px-Logo.svg.png 25px-TyA-pony.png 02:28, November 15, 2011 (UTC)
ForestMonthZero

To me a good admin should be:

  • at least moderately knowledgeable about wiki markup
  • at least moderately active (at least checking up on the wiki once a week, and performing maintenance and answering queries during that time)
  • fairly good with the language the wiki is in (grammar, spelling) or using automated tools for that task
  • willingly interact with the community on the wiki
  • be fairly friendly or at least tolerant of new users (ie, not throwing bans around or reverts or rollbacks; fixing instead of revert/rollback when the info being added is fairly reasonable, and not too horribly formatted)
  • be willing to admit to mistakes, and take remedial action to correct them
  • be willing to check into users who wish to be or are nominated to be elevated to become rollbackers/chatmoderators

However, these are not the qualities of a Founder. A founder should be:

  • willing to contribute
  • willingly interact with the community on the wiki
  • willingly seek out users who would make good admins/bureaucrats/rollbackers/chatmods
  • willingly seek out users who have qualities that the founder is missing (language skills, wiki skills, etc)
  • be fairly friendly with new contributors
  • be willing to admit to mistakes, and take remedial action to correct them
  • be fairly active with content improvements

And a bureaucrat should be:

  • willing to oversee the admins
  • be fairly cool calm and collected
  • not be dismissive of complaints, and respond in a level headed manner, even with fairly ludicrous complaints
  • be willing to check into users who wish to be or are nominated to be elevated to become admins
  • at least moderately active (at least checking up on the wiki once a week, and perform checks and balances)
  • be willing to admit to mistakes, and take remedial action to correct them

ForestMonthZero 06:35, November 15, 2011 (UTC)

Callofduty4

Admins should be:

  • Friendly - an administrator should be easily approachable by the community he/she works in. It allows things to run so much more smoothly
  • Involved - an administrator who isn't involving him/herself a lot on the wiki does not do the wiki much good.
  • Educated on the subject matter - an admin who knows what the wiki he/she works on is about will make better decisions for that wiki.
  • Trustworthy - trust is important when deciding who should be an administrator.
  • Not a control freak - admins should not be control freaks who think they are in charge of everything.


Hmmm....The basic answer is all the answers that the other people answered but those good qualities can be faked.You never know when they betray you in a way that angers you but is perfectly legal.

But a few good qualities I like:

-Loyalty to what he/she knows is right

-selflessness

-devote everything to the goodness and care of the wiki,not to some dumb thing like badges and adminship or rollback rights.

-listens to people

-patience

-kindness

-Honest

-Humble

Those are what I think that matter in admins.

Raze1-Loyalty To What You Think Is Right

Projections

There a lot of redeeming qualities that an administrator requires to be a good one at their job. However, these qualities and characteristics are easy to reach. Below are some great steps to be a good administrator:

  1. Always have respect for the Wikia community.
  2. Have responsibility and integrity.
  3. Have knowledge about the subject

In my opinion, these are the big three; they are the most important, because they pretty much apply to all of the other tips below:

  1. Have patience.
  2. Nicely point out mistakes. After that, correct them.
  3. Edit the Wiki frequently or at least log in frequently.
  4. Use good grammar. Don't have punctuation or spelling mistakes.
  5. Don't fight or compete against other wikis. It makes you look unprofessional and desperate."You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling." 00:57, November 16, 2011 (UTC)

A good admin. Well. *digs up his search light again, dusts off his great book on good adminship, sets his chair right, and shrugs*

A good admin should always:

  1. Be communicative. Both to help others as to talk about issues where (s)he is confronted with.
  2. Friendly, even when under a little stress of people being not so nice, or when others make many mistakes.
  3. Willing to learn, make errors, learn from those and make more errors.
  4. Have an eagerness to learn on the subject of the wiki, preferrably with some basic knowledge on it already.
  5. Willing to spend some hours a week on the wiki, and communicate if (s)he plans to not log in for (several) days/ share the reason of not logging in for days when it wasn't planned.
  6. Aware and at peace with their own limitations on knowledge and capabilities.
  7. Willingness to be at least partly independant when it comes to finding knowledge. Willingness to also share this knowledge with others. Eagerness to find knowledge themselves highly recommended.
  8. Preferrably not be afraid to sometimes row against the stream. A bit of self esteem needed.
The 888th Avatar
  • A good admin needs to be mature, kind and patient – mature in how they use their additional rights, kind to others to set a positive tone of conversation around the wiki, and patient so those who make mistakes aren't discouraged. Superior knowledge of the topic and superhuman levels of activity are optional; temperament and knowing to properly use the rights carry far greater weight.
  • A great admin builds on the qualities of a good admin by also being technically proficient. A wiki's professionalism greatly improves by having an admin or two who can make sure the ability to edit MediaWiki messages doesn't go to waste and that the power of effective templating is utilised.
  • The best admin possesses vision in addition to the qualities above. Every wiki needs its "thinkers" who have ideas to make the wiki as successful as it can be, and can motivate or persuade the wiki to move in that direction. It's great to have any community member who has this quality, but it is even better in an admin, users who have more personal investment in the wiki, and who have the ability to boldly propose and effectively implement ideas. The 888th Avatar (talk) 11:38, November 16, 2011 (UTC)

Xiao Qiao

I agree with all of you, guys. But there are my opinions:

  • An admin doesn't need to make a giant number quality of edits, like thousand, ten thousands or more. It is not necessary that the user create a large number of new pages or add a lot of categories to page or make major edits per week, get points, points and points (Achievements feature) and forget what the truly editor is, I think rather that they are actively making the wiki a better place, "quality over quantity".
  • An admin should be active in the community: communicate with other users through talk pages, forum... and make friendly and helpful, patience, enthusiasm to help new members.
  • I have seen a vandal user that like to be naughty and bite other users but they can be touched and become good members of the community, even be an trusted admin although they had a history of mischievous.

Those are my thoughts on the admin's qualities.

•♪•♪•♪• Xiao Qiao (☎ leave a message ) 12:02, November 16, 2011 (UTC)

Roads

Being a bureaucrat myself on Ben 10 Fan Fiction, I tend to look for these qualities when promoting someone else to admin rights (which can be used in the context of this forum topic):

  • Trustworthiness - I don't want the newest admin to turn around and block everyone, now do I?
  • Some technical know-how - Although not as strict as my other points, it's good for the admins to have some slight knowledge of coding and the like.
  • Wisdom - Someone who knows how to resolve arguments, knows how to approve a wiki's rules or deem them "un-wiki-constitutional", knows how long certain people should be blocked, etc.
  • Knowledge of the topic in question - A total P&F-hater would do horribly as an admin on the Phineas and Ferb Wiki! (I'm not an admin there; that was just an example.)
  • Not easily angered - Someone who always starts arguments or gets in trouble wouldn't do a good job as an admin.

Those are a few of those points.

Roads (The Techical Update we've all been waiting for: category redlinks are back! *sigh*) 16:30, November 16, 2011 (UTC)


I see that folks have already answered most of the ones that I was goind to say.

Here's what I look for on the Elder Scrolls wiki

  • Dedication - Someone who has proven them dedicated to the topic, and to better fixing the wiki
  • Trustworthiness - as stated above - someone who wont go and ban anyone
  • Objectivity - its important for an admin to remain neutral
  • Wisdom - To know when pages needs to be reverted (as vandalism) and when to step back and let things unfold naturally
  • Knowledge - Able to know a fair bit about the topic of the wiki.
  • Respect - Respects and encourages the Wiki community (both in IRC and on the wiki itself)
  • Language - A minor one, but I feel that it is important for an admin to be able to speak english at least passably. The community looks up to the admins for guidance, it sets a poor example if they have numerous spelling mistakes in their blogs and talk comments. TimeoinSay G'DayView my workSkyrim To-Do List 00:12, November 29, 2011 (UTC)

Kindness.

I would look for trustable, kind, and experienced Admins if I were you. Batreeqah (talk)
  • Neutrality-on one wiki I have suffered because of biased admins. Admins must look a both sides of the argument.
Imamadmad

If I were to look for a new admin, trust would be the most important thing. Trust that they have proved through a significant amount of good edits (the number would depend on the wiki, but for a bigger wiki I would say at least 100 and a smaller wiki at least 30-50). These edits must both be in the main part of the wiki as well as in the forums, proving that they are interested in what the community has to say. These people must be trusted to follow the rules, as they are the ones enforcing them. These people should be willing to help people and listen to the community, and shouldn't turn into a tyrant. These people should have a decent knowledge of the material the wiki's about, although they don't need to be expert (I mean, a wiki is a place to learn about a subject after all!). They should show at least basic coding ability (eg can make links, bold, italics, y'know, the small stuff that get's used frequently on a wiki) and preferably good spelling/grammar (as mentioned above, you don't want your community announcements filled with typos. Think what an example that would give!). These people should edit reasonably frequently, as they are the ones with the most ability to stop vandals, and vandals can do a lot of damage if there isn't an admin around to stop them. Also, this would mean that they stay up to date on any wiki decisions, so they don't start going to correct the formatting on pages when the wiki community has decided to do it another way, for example. That's all I can think of for now, but the most important thing is that they've proved themselves up to the task with their edits before they gain admin status. Imamadmad (Contact me) 19:50, February 24, 2013 (UTC)

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