Board Thread:Wiki Discussion/@comment-1073312-20140816013529/@comment-1370845-20140816025514

Firstly, I want to make it clear that my response should not be taken as an attack, and it will likely come across as threatening and elitist. I do not want it too, but this is a disclaimer first. With that said, I am now going to explain my stance, my problems, and I'm going to let it all out for everyone to see. This is so that I hope you understand my position.

My position is in opposition of creating a new admin because I feel neither that it is adequate or necessary. An admin is a user with only a few more buttons, that can edit MediaWiki pages. Those are Delete, Protect, Block. The only reason I ever wanted to be an admin is for the first two I have listed. I have no need for Protect, and despite my most recent actions, I actually don't want to block anyone either. If you look at Special:Logs/block, I have probably made the least blocks out of any admin in the current 'team'. I only wanted the role because I can edit the site's CSS, JS, and the wikifeatures. As you all know, I enabled the Maps feature recently, something which received highly positive reaction.

So, I don't think the powers are useful or meaningful as they may appear. I also think it is unnecessary because all of our admins are active. We have more than enough to do the current job of maintenance. What I would love to see would be an admin interested in editing the mainspace. You all groan at that idea, but the mainspace is why the wiki was created, although the content namespaces are why it is edited. Is this a bad thing? By all means, it is not. It fits well within the philosophy of Spore. Even the Final Fantasy Wiki, a wiki with no content namesapces and no Fiction Universe, similarly has 'non mainspace' regulars, but they are outnumbered by actual contributors.

Am I sounding elitist? Quite possibly. I have no way of saying this without being elitist, but the users who have made the most contributions to the site are all the current admins. Wormulon has made far more mainspace edits than anyone else remaining, is approachable and friendly, and has more experience than any of us with regards to this particular wiki. Cyrannian updates the Featured Articles, has had mainspace experience (though not as strong), and is a 'community manager'. Ghelae is the quiet admin who also has several mainspace contributions and has been in charge of the "purging" of lots of old content. I, myself, am another WikiGnome, I have created and updated every template that you use in your fictions, I have created all of the CSS currently used, I am the go-to for coding advice. OluapPlayer is an old timer like Wormulon, who was promoted for his edits and for being helpful, he was also one of the admins responsible for the huge task of purging old the old Concepts, as well as a mainspace updater who became a fiction writer.

Do you see what I mean? Admins on the basis of representation are unnecessary. If anyone were to be admin, they would have to have made prolific contributions to the site. An admin who is promoted on the basis of representing someone is useless. I would love to see a new admin that could help me out, the only reason I'm not as active as I am is that I'm the only one who does code. Otherwise, our templates would be even neater and better looking than they are. I look at them and see many problems while most look at them and say "well, they work, and I have no idea how they work, but they do, so I'll go with that."

No, what needs to be rid of is the feeling that admins are elite, and that we are threatening. But I do not agree that promoting a new admin is how to do it. I think we all need to remember what a Wiki is. The new users have all but forgotten what it's for.