User blog comment:Sannse/Navigating the Wilds of Adminship/@comment-5691231-20130804104734

Nice blog, Sannse!

It's really inspiring for wiki administrators!

I couldn't help but laugh at the "earwig!", albeit it being true. Have you actually come across a user replacing page content with "earwig" before? or was that just a random example.

But more about the administration if I may procceed: I don't usually create wiki's - Not saying there's anything wrong with starting a wiki from scratch. Because that's perfectly cool. But I rarely do. I believe there's only one wiki I've created which is still here, my vanity wiki that is. The rest I requested for closure since I didn't care much to edit them.

I'm mainly a wiki administrator who likes to get technical. Although I'm sort of a novice when it comes to coding. I'm more advanced with the general editing if I may add. Still hoping to get experienced as some others :)

I try to be as polite as I can when it comes to new editors. It's what everyone should try to do. Even when it comes to blocking as you added in the blog. I've seen many block logs before where the block reason would be in all-caps, while additionally seeming tempered. And then there's the "expiry time of 9000 years" and such. That as well isn't recommended. "indefinite" is a much more reasonable way of putting it.

Vandalism is always going to be a problem. There isn't much you can do to prevent it from starting. But there is more than enough you can do to reverse it, and rid of it. Administrator positions can be easy, then they can be complicated. Generally depending on how big the community is. Admins are always the bigger person though in these situations. It's important to keep it in mind since what you are doing is influencing the entire community. So you really want to be civil.

You're also right about how oftenly founders give user's administrative rights out of the blue. It's not really too much of a big issue, but it can potentially become problematic especially if you don't know the user well.

As I said above--I'm more of an editor on my wikis even when I have administrator privileges. But I don't hesitate to resolve a problem. As long as it's helpful for the community space.

All-in-all, as long as you have a collaborative community with the inclusion of some very experienced administrators who will dedicate their rights to helping the wiki and its editors, then yeah, your wiki will definitely get somewhere soon enough!

So this was just a little advice coming from me. Your blog was really helpful! :)