Wikipedia:Administrator elections
 | The following is a draft working towards a proposal for adoption as a Wikipedia policy, guideline, or process. The proposal must not be taken to represent consensus, but is still in development and under discussion, and has not yet reached the process of gathering consensus for adoption. Thus references or links to this page should not describe it as policy, guideline, nor yet even as a proposal. |
Administrator elections are an alternative process by which interested editors can become administrators on the English Wikipedia.
A trial of administrator elections will run side-by-side with the Requests for Adminship process. Neither process affects the other in any way, and you can choose to follow either process to be an administrator candidate. The requests for adminship process grants administrative privileges if a consensus is found as a result of a public discussion of support, oppose, and neutral statements and rationales from users. The administrator election process grants administrative privileges based on a secret ballot vote. See "Comparison with the Requests for Adminship process" for more details.
Rationale[edit]
Administrator elections are a private vote, using the SecurePoll software. A list of voters is available, but their votes are kept secret. The intent is to reduce the amount of contentious discussion amongst voters, thus making the process less antagonistic and increasing the number of candidates willing to volunteer to be administrators.
English Wikipedia administrator promotion rates have been steadily declining since the golden age of administrator promotions around 2005–2008, where as many as 408 admins were being promoted per year. Modern promotion rates are closer to 12 per year.
Procedure[edit]
The overall process lasts 10 days: an initial 3-day period for discussion and questions, and a 7-day period for a secret ballot vote. Candidates sign up by a specified date prior to the discussion and questions period.
Election cycles are advertised in advance, including watchlist notices. The process is managed by the bureaucrats, initially in concert with the WMF to set up the SecurePoll software.
Period 1: discussion and questions[edit]
During this 3-day period, the community can ask questions and raise issues, as well as provide positive feedback. Candidates are encouraged to participate in the discussion period, answering questions and responding to feedback. During this time, commenters must not indicate their support or opposition.
Period 2: voting[edit]
Once the discussion period is complete, a secret ballot vote occurs for 7 days, using SecurePoll. During this period, discussion is closed. Candidates may be asked direct questions on their user talk pages, but they are not expected to watch their discussion page, nor the election page for the full period, to allow them a respite from community vetting.
Who can vote[edit]
Administrator elections use the Arbitration Committee Election suffrage requirements. To vote, an editor must meet the following criteria:
- registered over 2 months before election
- have 150 mainspace edits by 1 month before election
- have 10 live edits in the year running up to 1 month before election
- not be sitewide blocked during the election
- not be vanished
- not be a bot
Tallying[edit]
At the end of Period 2, votes are scrutinised and tallied, results are announced, and new admins are granted administrative privileges. The pass rate is 70% or greater. The vote tally is calculated by Support / (Support + Oppose) for each candidate.
Election dates[edit]
Administrator elections are approved for one election cycle as a trial run, then will need to be renewed with an RFC. This trial run is likely to take place sometime in 2024.
Are RFCs required before the trial?[edit]
No. The result of the corresponding request for comment discussion is The community supports trying this proposal for 1 election, after which it will be reviewed in Phase II.
While there are concerns regarding the implementation details of this proposal, given this is a trial run, there is sufficient support to run the election as written.
Accordingly, one election will be held, with implementation details (such as scrutineering) worked out based on discussions on this page's talk page. After the trial, request for comment discussions will be held to discuss how to proceed, thus allowing the community to alter the process if desired, or choose not to continue.
Comparison with the Requests for Adminship process[edit]
| Requests for adminship | Administrator elections | |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | 7 days (2 days discussion-only)[1] | 3 days discussion + 7 days voting |
| Scheduled | No | Yes |
| Voting | Public | Secret (using SecurePoll) |
| Selection method | Consensus | Vote |
| Pass threshold | 65-75%[2] | 70% |
| Suffrage requirement | Extended confirmed account | See § Who can vote |
Newsletter[edit]
If you'd like to receive a user talk message when important administrator election milestones are reached, such as when a date is chosen and when the "accepting candidates" phase opens, please add yourself to the mailing list.
See also[edit]
- Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/2021 review/Proposals/Admin elections
- Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/2021 review/Proposals#Closed: 8B Admin elections - Proposed by Worm That Turned.[3] No consensus.
- Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/2024 review/Phase I#Proposal 13: Admin elections - Proposed by Novem Linguae. Consensus for.
References[edit]
- ^ As per consensus at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/2024 review/Phase I § Proposal 3b: Make the first two days discussion-only (trial), for a trial period, there is 2-day discussion-only period.
- ^ As RfA is a consensus-based process, there is not exact threshold for success, but in practice a candidate with below 65% support is almost always unsuccessful, and above 75% almost always successful. Candidates with between 65 and 75% support are typically subject to a bureaucrat discussion about the consensus for their request, and outcomes vary on a case-to-case basis.
- ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship/2021_review/Proposals&diff=prev&oldid=1051774464