User blog:Sannse/I Want to Be an Admin - Revisited

This is the second in a series of six posts about admins on FANDOM, adapted from past posts written by Sannse.

People on FANDOM want to help. It seems to be a characteristic of people around here, and is something really special about our community. Often that urge to help leads to questions like "please can I be a chatmod?" or "how can I join the VSTF?" So today let's look at that.

The most important thing to know is: you don't need to have rights or a profile badge to be helpful. There is a lot you can do without the admin profile badge, and a lot of pride and satisfaction you can get out of doing it.

How can I be an admin for my favorite community?
The route to becoming an admin or getting other rights for a community will vary a lot from place to place. Some wikis have a voting page where you can be nominated by others or self-nominate. For some young communities, just talking to the founder and offering to help out might be enough. But on others, especially many of the larger and more established ones, you are expected to wait until you are nominated by someone else, and asking for rights is pretty much the worst way to try and get them!

That's because some communities will almost automatically reject anyone who asks to be an admin. This is partly because the people who ask tend to be new to the community and less experienced (after all, they haven't been around enough to know that asking is a bad thing!) and partly because admins worry that someone who asks for rights wants the "shiny badge" of being an admin, rather than genuinely wanting to help the community as a whole.

So instead of asking, it's often best to try start by proving that you would make a good admin. This means editing well, adding and correcting information on the wiki, looking out for vandalism and reverting that, and being welcoming and helpful to those new to the community. You might also take on cleaning tasks around the wiki, for example making sure all double redirects are fixed, or just regularly visit and answer questions on a forum, Discussions or in chat.

You should also be sure to take part in the community's daily work. Maybe they have regular votes about new content, or discussions on how to best categorize pages - being a part of these will help you get to know the people in the community and help them get to know you. In most communities, becoming an admin takes time, patience, and good work.

How do I become an admin on Community Central?
On Community Central, admins and chatmods are chosen by staff. We don't have a voting process and don't accept self-nominations or requests. Instead we look around at the community and see who are the most sensible, helpful, trustworthy, and skillful people around. We also look for people who tend to promote calm behavior and have a positive outlook as they talk to others. And maybe most importantly, we love to find those who show a real desire to help others just for the fun of it.

Once we think we've found the right person, we make a few checks to see if they are blocked from other wikis, or there are other likely problems. Then we talk to other staff and the existing admins and chatmods to see what their opinion is. Hopefully, with this process, we find the right people for this wiki.

How do I join the VSTF or other global groups?
Global groups are ones that give you rights or a profile badge on all wikis. Each group has their own process for finding new members, but the first step is always making sure you know what the group does! We sometimes have people asking to join a group without any idea what it is or why they want to be a part of it!

But if you know what a group does, and think that would be something you would be suited for, then:


 * The VSTF wiki has a membership page that explains that, like Community Central admins and chatmods, the VSTF is by invitation only. It also gives some ideas of things you can do to increase your chances of being invited.
 * Helpers are part of the International Team, so the first requirement is that you speak English and at least one other language fluently (Google Translate won't do!). As with Community Central admins and the VSTF, Helpers are invited and not added from applications. But if you want to introduce yourself, you can do so on the International talk page.
 * Community Council members are chosen with a combination of invites and an application process. If you want to apply, please use Special:Contact to reach us. We are currently looking for experienced users with a clear record of giving feedback - especially on staff blogs and the Community Central forums.
 * The Volunteer Developers program is not recruiting more members at this time. But you can still get involved on the FANDOM Developers Wiki
 * Vanguard is a group of users who help wikis with portability issues. This group is also invitation only, but they keep a lookout for good candidates, and have a page about joining the group here.
 * Global Discussions Moderators are a new global group and we are still figuring out some of the basic operational questions. At this time we’re not likely to add more members, but those interested are welcome to apply via Special:Contact. Members should have a history of social community management.

How are people given rights on your wiki? What do you think is the best and fairest way?

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