Guild Wars Wiki:Adminship/Draft 2008-02-06

The English language Guild Wars Wiki is administered by the community. New administrators are selected by a democratic process in the English language Guild Wars Wiki. There are two levels of adminship: sysop and bureaucrat.

Sysops
Sysops are administrators who can block accounts and IP addresses according to the rules of the Guild Wars Wiki policy. They also perform cleanup tasks (deleting pages, reverting vandalism, etc.) and protect critical or unusually contentious pages from editing. Sysops are expected to generally adhere to policy; however, keeping in mind that the role of sysops is to do what is best for the Wiki, the sysops are granted reasonable discretion. Although they should not break policy, they are not confined to what policy specifically allows them. However, sysops have no additional sway on matters of content or policy.

In essence, sysops are fully authorized to decide all matters not already specifically covered by policy.

Although each individual sysop has some level of autonomy, sysops may at times counteract other sysops. In these cases, the reverting administrator is obliged to leave a message explaining the reasoning behind the countermeasure. The administrator who has been countermanded is expected to oblige the revert, and should not re-institute their action without discussing it with the reverting administrator. ArbComm may be invoked to decide the proper course of action if necessary.

Sysops are expected (but not required) to provide a publicly reachable e-mail address or other means of private contact.

Sysops are selected by a review process, detailed in Guild Wars Wiki:Requests for adminship.

Sysops are appointed for life, but may voluntarily resign. Their status may also be formally examined by the arbitration committee or by the community via an official reconfirmation.

For a complete list of sysops, see Special:Listadmins/sysop.

Bureaucrats
Bureaucrats have the power to appoint or revoke the administrative status of users based on community decisions. Additionally, the group of bureaucrats, as long as there are at least 2, form an arbitration committee, who are the final arbiters on the English language Guild Wars Wiki of user conduct (but not content decisions), including that of administrators. Arbitration (as specified in the Arbitration policy), instead of usual sysop action, should take place if:


 * There is contention as to a proper course of action
 * A sysop's action is under scrutiny or that action is being contested
 * At least one of the parties involved in a dispute requests mediation

Although Bureaucrats are considered to be sysops (and are endowed with the powers thereof), in order to prevent conflicts of interest, they are expected to use those powers only when a sysop is unavailable and immediate action is necessary (eg. cases of rampant vandalism). While ArbComm injunctions and rulings may involve those, the enforcement of such is left to sysops. Any pre-existing sysop status is retained at the end of the bureaucrat term, or upon resignation; however a bureaucrat who was not a sysop prior to becoming a bureaucrat does not retain sysop status after resignation or the end of their term.

Due to their important role in the community, bureaucrats are held to a higher standard than sysops. All bureaucrats are expected to provide explanations for the use of their powers, and they are additionally expected to respond to any questions about their actions from anyone, including via e-mail. All bureaucrats are required to list a publicly reachable e-mail address.

Bureaucrats are generally appointed for fixed terms of 6 months from their date of appointment. The terms are staggered to have at least two bureaucrats active at all times. New bureaucrats are elected to an open position by community-wide open elections. Bureaucrats may run for re-election arbitrarily often. Any contributor (including non-administrators) in good standing may run for an open position. See Guild Wars Wiki:Elections for a description of the bureaucrat election process and a list of current open elections.

Bureaucrats are considered members of the ArbComm based upon the date the request for arbitration is made. If a bureaucrat loses his or her seat during an arbitration, he or she still acts as a member of ArbComm for that case until the arbitration is complete. Similarly, if a user attains a bureaucrat seat in the middle of an arbitration, that user is ineligible to participate in that arbitration.

Bureaucrats may resign at any time. Sitting bureaucrats can only be removed by unanimous votes of the other bureaucrats.

The current bureaucrats in the Guild Wars Wiki are:
 * User:LordBiro (paul.boxley@gmail.com)
 * Term: August 1, 2007 – February 29, 2008
 * User:Xeeron (wiki@xeeron.de)
 * Term: September 1, 2007 - April 30, 2008
 * User:Aiiane (aiiane@aiiane.net)
 * Term: January 1, 2008 – June 30, 2008

Administration and ArenaNet
ArenaNet is not formally involved in the administrator selection process. Community decisions may not be appealed to them. ArenaNet staff may participate in the administrator selection process just as any other contributor in good standing, but their opinions are given equal weight as other members of the community.