User blog comment:Brandon Rhea/Tips for becoming an admin/@comment-5061099-20121221213020/@comment-20644-20130111172645

I guess that would depend on what your admin selection process is. Do you choose the admins, or do you have the community choose them? If you choose them, it’s simple enough&mdash;just don’t promote them if they’re not needed, but make sure to encourage them to continue what they’re doing. A reminder that admin rights aren’t needed to be an awesome contributor is a big plus.

If you go the ideal route and let the community choose admins, it’s trickier since people can vote for who they want. However, the best thing to do, if you believe you don’t need more admins, is to encourage people to consider whether the person’s potential adminship is needed or if they’re just being nominated for it as a reward for hard work. Explain why you believe more admins aren’t needed, and explain how, with too many admins, there will be a number of admins who don’t have much to do.

Ultimately, admin rights should be given out sparingly, and only when they are needed to serve the needs of the community. If the needs of the community don’t necessitate more admins, then the community can decide whether they think it’s worth it to have more admins than they need.