Star Trek Timelines:Ranks/Requests

This article is about the page for requesting administrative tools. For help from current administrators, see Star Trek Timelines:Admin noticeboard.

A request for adminship (RFA) is the process by which users of the Star Trek Timelines Wiki decide whether or not a candidate will be granted additional tools that aid in maintenance of the wiki. A user may either submit his or her own request for adminship (a self-nomination) or be nominated by another user.

Current requests for adminship

Current requests for adminship
Username	Nomination date	Closing date	Discussion
There are no current requests for adminship.

About RfA

There are two types of administrative abilities that may be granted through the RfA process: sysops (system operators, also known as administrators) and bureaucrats. Sysop tools include the ability to block users from editing, delete or protect pages, and the ability to further prevent vandalism. Users with the bureaucrat right can bestow other user rights upon other users. For more information on administrators and their tools, please see the administrators page.

The community generally grants administrative rights to trusted users, so nominees have a higher chance of passing a request after having edited on the wiki for a significant amount of time.

Nomination standards: Any registered user may nominate another registered user for administrative rights, or a user may be self-nominated. Adminship is usually only granted if the user demonstrates a "need" or use for the tools.; Candidates for bureaucratship must already have sysops userrights. As a rule of thumb, bureaucratship is usually only granted if there is a clear lack of activity among other bureaucrats.

Decision process: The strength of the arguments supporting, opposing, or expressing a certain opinion of the candidate is the main factor used in determining the success of the request (see our consensus policy). Requests must last for at least one week at which point they may be analyzed for a final decision, which may determine whether or not there is consensus to grant the candidate access to the tools he or she requested. Additionally, if the outcome of the request is not clear, the nomination may be extended for a further period of time in order to determine a proper consensus. At least 3 current admins must weigh in on the nomination for it to be considered to be concluded.

There are no explicit requirements for nomination, but a few guidelines that may improve the chances of a successful request are as follows:

Candidates should be well-known, trusted, and helpful contributors to the wiki.
Candidates should have been an active contributor to the wiki for a significant amount of time.
Candidates should have a high number of quality contributions.
Candidates should present a clear "need" or use for the tools (e.g. significant amounts of counter-vandalism contributions, etc.).

Since all editors have an equal opinion, the nominator should be irrelevant to the nomination.

If an RFA fails, a sufficient amount of time should pass before the candidate is nominated again.

Expressing opinions: Any user with an account is welcome to comment on requests. Comments should assess not only the use or need a candidate has demonstrated for the tools with which they would be provided, but they should also reflect upon his or her leadership ability and skill at diplomacy - necessary qualities for an administrator. Remember to keep the wiki's best interests in mind when assessing a possible candidate.

Nominations for adminship are not secret ballots. Comments are often responded to, and discussion commonly takes place within the candidate's nomination section. Try to avoid heated arguments and remain calm.

Support or opposition should also not be based on friendships or rivalries. If a candidate has had a disagreement with you or a friend of yours in the past, do not simply oppose the candidate's nomination for that reason.

The following is a list of common discussion markup choices which should be placed at the beginning of all posts within a nomination section.

Support - followed by a reason for supporting the nominee.
Oppose - followed by a reason for opposing the nominee.
Neutral - followed by a reason for neither support nor opposing nominee.
Comment/Observation/Note - followed by a statement presenting facts or clarifying a disputed fact.
Not yet/Wait a little - followed by a reason for currently opposing while suggesting future support.
Notice of intent - a bureaucrat's notification of an intent to either close a discussion or extend it for a specified period of time.
{Decision} - a decision made by a bureaucrat presented in the form of {Example Candidate} has been made a sysop/bureaucrat or The discussion period of {Example Candidate}'s nomination is now over, {Example Candidate} remains a normal user/sysop.

Nominating

Nominations must be accepted by the user in question. If you wish to nominate a user, make sure you let the user know on his or her talk page.

How to nominate

Create a page at "Star Trek Timelines:Requests for adminship/NOMINEE", where NOMINEE is the username of the nominee.
Follow the instructions given on {{RFA}} to fill out the request.
Fill in another row of the summary table above with the nominee's information.
If this is a non self nomination, contact the nominee on his or her talk page to let him or her know that he or she has been nominated.
The candidate must then sign the acceptance of nomination section on his or her request page.

What can administrators do?

See the administrators page to learn about administrator tools.

What are bureaucrats?

Bureaucrats are administrators who have been chosen by the community to determine consensus on RfAs. Bureaucrats are able to grant tools for autopatrol, bots, sysops, and other bureaucrats as well as remove each of these with community consensus.

What can I do to help?

Even as a normal user, the following things may be done to help out:

Watch Special:RecentChanges and help to revert vandalism even before you're an admin: Any spam pages that you encounter can be nominated for speedy deletion by placing the deletion template at the top of the page. An admin will see this in the category and delete it. This is the primary reason why this wiki needs administrators - to fight vandalism keep the wiki clean, readable, and accurate.
Add or improve content: Working with editorial standards for this project can also go a long way to showing your support for this community. Not all people necessarily enjoy writing content, and certainly improving the grammar or doing behind-the-scenes type of edits is always helpful. Working with the project to help articles meet the standards of the Star Trek Timelines:Style guide is also appreciated and a significant portion of the work that happens on this wiki.
Be part of the community
Be creative: While often new ideas and new project concepts will be met with skepticism and resistance, if you can come up with an idea that helps out the community as a whole or something that will make this website more usable to many more readers is always appreciated. Don't shy away from a proposal because you think that it is too daring or that it will be shot down.

Instructions for bureaucrats

Once a request has run for at least one week, the following procedure should be executed by a bureaucrat:

Announce on the candidate's RFA page that his or her RFA is finished with the final decision, or place a note of intent if more time is required.
Remove the RFA from the above list.
Add a link to the finished nomination to the archive.

If the request was successful, the following steps should be executed:

Add the person to the appropriate user-group using the user rights management page. Remove redundant usergroups, such as autopatrol, etc.
Add the candidate to the list of administrators.