This page in a nutshell: This is a Request for comment (RfC) regarding a proposal to implement Community de-adminship. Also known as Administrator Recall, de-adminship would enable the Wikipedia community to remove the admin tools from existing Administrators who have lost the confidence of the community
Within the Talk page, please read below "Background", "Purpose of this Discussion", and "General Observation" for an introduction to what is going on.
There, a poll was conducted that attempted to evaluate the levels of community support for various proposals seeking to create a method by which the community at large (as opposed to Arbitration Committee) could pass comment on the actions of and if necessary remove the tools from, existing Administrators.
The main conclusions of this poll were as follows:
The status quo, (i.e. no such process being available) whilst garnering some support, was very unpopular. 77% of respondents did not support its continuation.
Only one proposal achieved a greater degree of support than opposition – "Wikipedia:Community de-adminship" (CDA) – which received a majority of 13, and the support of 65% of those who considered it. This proposed process was designed as a "mirror image" of the existing Wikipedia:Requests for adminship (RfA), and part of its appeal was evidently its familiarity.
The reasons for dissatisfaction with the status quo are complex and varied, but a view was regularly expressed that if the community at large has the authority to appoint administrators through the RfA process, then the community should also be able to remove their powers.
Some wording changes and clarifications as identified above (Section: Update from WT:CDADR). Few of these were controversial.
An increase in the nomination period from 3 days to 7 days.
More emphasis on pre-nomination attempts to resolve any disputes.
Most complex of all, a more specific statement about how the outcome shall be judged. Various options were considered and two specifics are identified as part of this RfC (see below).
The aim of this RfC and its associated discussion is to assess the support for Wikipedia:Community de-adminship to be implemented on the English Wikipedia.
Between now and one calendar month from the date of nomination i.e. until 8pm GMT on Xday Yth February 2010, discussion will continue here.
If sufficient consensus has been reached (see below) WP:CDA will be implemented subject to various steps identified below.
If sufficient consensus has not been reached, and further discussion would be useful, it will be extended.
In many cases the above discussions were a conflict between:
The desire to make the process simpler or easier to implement in order to avoid allowing those perceived as having abused their Administrative tools to continue without fear of sanction, and
The desire to avoid a system in which Administrators, who almost inevitably find themselves taking on potentially controversial tasks on the community's behalf, are discouraged from taking action for fear of reprisals via a Recall method that is too easy for aggrieved editors to make use of when they don't get their way.
The resulting changes to the Guide to Community de-adminship were a compromise between these two poles.
It will also be necessary to amend the policyWikipedia:Administrators to include reference to the WP:CDA process. This step will be undertaken as a technical matter at that page as and when needed.
