Talk: Administrators

This page is to discuss Avatar Wiki:Administrators.
If you need to alert administrators to vandals or spam, see Administrator Noticeboard.
If you need help from an administrator, ask one on their user talk page.

Leave of Absense[]

The Purpose of this section is for admins to inform other admins if they are going on a leave of absense or have returned.

Hey guys, many of you may have been noticing that I've not been editing much recently. I'm afraid that due to the fact that I will be having my finals from 7th to 15th of May, I won't be editing at all untill the 15th. I'm sorry. But I'll be back on the 15th, definately. I have a request though. Can you hold off any important discussions untill then? I'd like to at least give my view on them. Of course if you can't then that's OK too. Thanks a lot. See ya. - Zero - Talk 06:00, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

It is usually likely that any discussion that is really important will last more than a week, once you consider voting (which is usually one to two weeks) and all that. So you should get your opinion through. Another note is that I will be absent for a week from the 22nd of May onwards, due to the school outdoor education camp (hiking and rafting in winter, not looking forward to it). The 888th Avatar ^(Talk) 12:51, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, 40C rafting in an Australian winter, sounds terrible... Anyways, I'm sure all of you have noticed that I've been somewhat inactive (or just less loud) lately due to my football camp everyday after school and lots of homework, but for the majority of this month I should be more active. Thanks! Joey - Talk^Contribs 01:17, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

I'm back!!! - Zero - Talk 14:33, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Great! Vaznock - Talk 14:40, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Recent bug[]

Just a note to all admins that due to a recent blog bug, deleting a user's talk page (and possibly their user page) can result in random blog elements being deleted. Please be aware of this before making any deletions, thanks! Joey - Talk^Contribs 22:42, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Re:Summer Fun[]

Hey Admins, Yeah, I'll join in the summer fun with the rest of the avatar cummonity [i think thats spelt right] --Hamachi1993 16:20, 21 June 2009 (UTC)Hamachi1993

Request[]

As I'm sure most of you have noticed, I'm not nearly as active here as I used to be. I've had a lot of things going on in my life, and I don't feel that I'm making full use of my position as a result of that. Therefore, in keeping with community rules, I'd like to resign (or whatever you'd call it) as an admin and be de-sysopped.

This is in keeping with the community standard, but it would also be a relief to me not to feel like I have to be involved as an admin. To be honest, I'd rather do smaller things on this site, like simply edit and expand pages, than be forced to keep up with all the news and community help. I'd like to continue to contribute, just not as frequently, and not as an admin. If it's okay, I'd like to keep my status as a Rollback user, since I feel I can use that privilege more effectively.

Thanks everyone, and it's been fun. Puragus ^Talk 20:11, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

That's very noble of you Puragus. It's great that you're still going to edit though. :) Vaznock - Talk 22:36, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

It really is. That's great that you're going to edit still, like Vaz said. The Flash ^{talk} 00:18, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

I agree with Vaznock, it is really quite noble to resign and is a great reflection on your character and integrity. We will definitely miss your excellent administration ability, and your logical and reasonable demeanour. :( It is comforting that you will still be around when we need it. I'll do as you wish; rollback is the least that we can do for you. Wjxhuang, the 888th Avatar ^{Talk} 00:51, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the kind words :)Puragus ^Talk 01:55, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

You thoroughly deserve them. :) Wjxhuang, the 888th Avatar ^{Talk} 02:11, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

Wjxhuang is right, this is very noble of you. Kai - Talk 08:16, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

I compliment your altruism, Puragus. Admins overall should take a page from your book. ― T hailog 12:01, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

I second what has been said already. Omnibender - Talk - Contributions 19:05, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Absolutely. Hopefully, with your resignation, you will be able to move on to do greater things without being hampered by your administrative responsibilities. As they said, that was a very noble move. I always have and will continue to respect you and I hope that you will be able to accomplish all of your goals. Remember to stop by and greet us once you become a professor or accomplish whatever you choose to do. Mattkenn3 ^Talk 19:43, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, everyone :) And I won't forget to stop by every once in a while. Puragus ^Talk 02:08, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Activity notification[]

Starting this week, I have began biomedicine college, so my availability here is likely to be compromised. I don't know how badly, but at least some because to get to college and come back from it, at the very least four hours of my day are gone. So, I hereby communicate my current situation. There is a possibility that I'll take the course in another college, which would allow me to have a less time consuming schedule, but results for that one are still a couple weeks away, so until that happens, don't hold your breath very long for anything coming from me. Omnibender - Talk - Contributions 15:31, March 10, 2010 (UTC)

That's very unfortunate, but good luck at college! :) The 888th Avatar (talk) 08:58, March 11, 2010 (UTC)

Indeed. Good luck Dr. Omnibender. Joey ^aa 19:39, March 11, 2010 (UTC)

who[]

who plans to get nominated....i do..one day..but not soonCourage the Cowardly ^{Dawn's Past} 03:32, July 26, 2010 (UTC)

Courage: To get nominated, your gonna have to contribute a lot to the wiki. I suggest you focus on making good contributions and helping out longer before setting administration as a goal of yours. And the need for any new admins is likely not going to change in the near future, so please refrain from starting a thread over who wants to nominate who. Thanks. Vaznock - Talk 21:10, July 27, 2010 (UTC)

I tried to tell him that on his talk page. Apparently he didn't get what I was saying. Avatar^Talk 21:11, July 27, 2010 (UTC)

..........................did you not read my last part? I sadi but not soon, meaning i would do it after i contributed much more...so yeah...Courage the Cowardly ^{Dawn's Past} 21:14, July 27, 2010 (UTC)

I read it, but still, we would prefer it if you don't start a thread with other users over who plans to get nominated. It is generally a good idea to make more contributions before revealing your intentions of being administrator. Even some of our best regular contributors haven't even shown a desire to be admins. All I'm saying is you shouldn't think about making adminship part of your future yet. That's all. Vaznock - Talk 21:18, July 27, 2010 (UTC)

Wow, I was a jerk back then, anyways, 2 admins are gone I have a feeling someones gonna replace them soon so who plans to run, I don't.Courage the Cowardly User 23:09, August 28, 2010 (UTC)

Ahhhh, former jerkiness burrrrrrrrnnnnnnnsssss!--Courage 21:26, November 3, 2010 (UTC)

Notice[]

As anyone who has been a regular here for the last couple months will have noticed, I have become little more than a stranger in this wiki. Part of that stems from the scarcely available new information on Legend of Korra, and part (most of it) from my inability to withstand article comments, among other recent features. The recent wikia level changes seem to want wikis to turn into some sort of ill-idealized social network instead of the store of knowledge I once joined, where I would spend hours editing. I thought I had endured the worse when the canon and fanon merger was surprisingly smooth, but then came badges and article comments, and the wiki, in my eyes, began to value quantity over quality. I don't know how the Oasis skin has affected the wiki due to my absence during its implementation here, so other that tighter space and more visible "edit this article" links sprinkled through the article, so I hope it hasn't made people who shouldn't edit aware that they can't. Just because people can edit, it doesn't mean they should. Some of you have told me in the past that more users would be good for us. I'd be telling a blatant lie if I said I agreed. People go out of their way and start editing ludicrously just to get silly badges. Looking at the recent changes page, I see that now that many people simply go into articles and leave one-liner comments which add nothing to articles. The fact both article comments and talk pages are used at once makes it impossible as far as I'm concerned to filter through legit and relevant talks from the ones devoid of value. I would say that this is the thing that pushed me away the harder. The more has not been merrier, as it has brought editors of the kind I feel should limit their participation to being simple readers. I would say I'm an elitist as far as what I think the wiki should be about, I've never been coy about that. I still plan to edit the wiki once Korra begins, but I don't think I can ever edit the way I used to or feel the way I used to, because I don't think the wiki will ever be the way it used to. This wiki has been a very important part of me as an Avatar fan, which is why I feel need to type these words, both to get it out of my chest, out of my mind, and out of respect of my fellow editors and administrators, who I think should have a proper explanation for my absence and how I feel about recent events. Omnibender - Talk - Contributions 21:54, November 7, 2010 (UTC)

This is really unfortunate. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't one of those users motivated by edit points and badges, cause I am. And my personal apologies if I am one of those users you are referring to that prompted your absence. I hope to see work with you again when the Korra series comes out. You're truly a remarkable user, and it's a shame to know that you're love for the wiki has been compromised by so many changes. Regardless, good luck with your studies. :)

22:25, November 7, 2010 (UTC)

You don't need to worry. You've made good edits en masse since before badges came around. No one who was already a regular user when the badges first showed up edited in a way that made me feel like the wiki got sidetracked. It's the direction new features steered the wiki into and cleaning up after those who misused them that did it. Omnibender - Talk - Contributions 22:37, November 7, 2010 (UTC)

I'm sorry you feel this way, I understand your feelings and am sorry to hear this.(I became a regular after the badges, I think.)--Courage 22:39, November 7, 2010 (UTC)

You don't need to worry either, you had good edits from day one. The kind of badge-seeking edit I mean is people who simply did mass adding of images needlessly despite articles having enough images, and people whose edits shouldn't really be made. I remember there was a member who added entire paragraphs to some articles, one letter, one space, one punctuation at an edit. This is an extreme example of what drove me away. Omnibender - Talk - Contributions 22:45, November 7, 2010 (UTC)

As you are one of our most prolific article contributors, this is to me very important and extremely concerning, and I'm very sorry you feel this way. I'd be very sad to see you go, and I'm willing to do everything I can realistically accomplish to stop that.

I'm sure there are things which we can consider that would make your presence here more comfortable. Our policy on new features is almost nothing, and I'm sure we can tighten it to reduce edits just for badges. We can also more clearly separate article comments so that discussing changes to the article on article comments is banned. I'm also pretty sure that there is a javascript method to put a talk page link on the article, making access to it easier.

I myself also feel that this wiki is suffering from a lack of focus on our core purpose, that of content. Maintaining articles to the pristine quality that they once were has become more and more difficult as good writers are more and more outnumbered. We can only combat that by holding on to every good writer, perhaps keeping a firmer hand on questionable edits, and try to encourage better writers to edit more. The fact is, this wiki needs you. The 888th Avatar (talk) 22:58, November 7, 2010 (UTC)

I am sorry you are feeling so down about the changes that have come to this wiki. I really don't know you that well, because I still deem myself somewhat a new user, so I presume while I've been around is about the time you have been sitting back and staring at the road the wiki has taken.

I must agree, in what I have seen, there are many many disgusting edits and users that are adding categories en masse incorrectly. This irritates me to no end, and I try to keep them undone and clean. I may not be a vast article contributor..just a few things and corrections here and there, but a lot of what I do (and water spout, and courage) is watch these waves of "Contributors" and keep clean the changes they're making. And I Definitely would love to see some progress made in telling them ... Make your edits count! Don't just add what you want or feel like! And just general teaching as to how to edit, since people are doing it wrong over and over again (Especially with categories).

As far as badges go .... heh .... I'm ranked #7 on this wiki, and I am the first to say I think the rankings mean squat nil. I wouldn't care at all if the badges were removed from this wiki altogether - and I would fully support the decision to remove them from the wiki at once if it ever came to the table. Suggestion: Remove the badges. Period. They don't really serve a purpose seeing as they don't really identify who are the real, true contributors on the site. Vulmen (talk • contribs) 23:58, November 7, 2010 (UTC)

I would like to say a couple of things. Firstly, I completely agree with Omnibender. I think the badges are out of control and need to be abolished. I take partial (most) credit for Omnibender's feelings, and I couldn't be more sorry in retrospect. I'm fairly certain that ambiguous "user" who added several pages just for photos was me. It's something from which I'm still ashamed about, and I hope my edits since have been positive and proven I'm not malicious. It seems that a lot of people are in agreement about the issue of badges, and I'm implore that the badges be abolished for the sake of quality on this wonderful wikia. I'm very sorry Omnibender, and I hope that we can resolve this issue. With warm regards, Nick Lewis (talk • contribs) 07:17, November 28, 2010 (UTC)

Policy[]

Please excuse my opinionated rant, but I woke up for soul purpose of expressing my view of how utterly ridiculous I think the administrative policy is. The first criterion is that there can only be five administrators at a time. Out of the five current administrators, three are Bureaucrats! It seems to me that since a bureaucrat has even more responsibility, that there would be fewer (...), but this is obviously not the case. A simple solution I could propose would be to not even include the bureaucrats as administrators (even though they have the rights). It makes sense, I suppose, to have three bureaucrats to five administrators, but not the other way around (!)

A secondary question I have is why on earth having five is productive? It seems to me that if a user shows good work and trust (as well as the willingness to help other others) they should be inducted as administrators. For discussion, I strongly urge the option of having a moderation forum, where only select "groups" and "users" have the permissions to view. This can be used to discuss any issues in private. It seems quite more practical to me then sending emails. (By the way, I will finish that forum once I'm given the appropriate editing rights, and figure out how to make categories [which is really why it's so delayed]).

I see that omnibender is apparently inactive, which is why I am bringing this up now. It's possible we may need another nomination at some point soon. I would be happy to discuss in private who I specifically think should be inducted, based on their work to date, but this is not the point of my rant. Regards, Nick Lewis (talk • contribs) 07:06, November 28, 2010 (UTC)

I support this fully, more vandals are coming and more traffic is also, we need more admins to help clean up.

-- Courage the Cowardly User ^(Talk) ^{(Contributions)}

While true, always remember that an administrator is very much a representation of the site. They should have an understanding of the policies, and such. This is common sense though, and probably not even worth mentioning... Nick Lewis (talk • contribs) 21:32, November 28, 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I wouldn't go overboard though and add like 10 new admins

-- Courage the Cowardly User ^(Talk) ^{(Contributions)}

I have a plan to implement on the wiki, which will hopefully work. A comparison is that I'm creating a "New Deal" (FDR's first 100 days in office trying to fix the great depression...). The first thing I want to establish is a moderation forum, which is a private forum that only administrators can access. Sadly, my forums are grossly disorganized right now. That will be fixed tonight, since I have time. Sorry I can't be around more. I feel badly about it. Nick Lewis (talk • contribs) 02:02, December 5, 2010 (UTC)

Nick, to understand why things are the way they are requires deeper thought than a superficial observation of the number of admins. The question shouldn't be "Does it look like we have enough admins?" It should be "Are admin tasks getting done?" You see, admin tasks are getting done on time. The speedy deletion category is always clean, votes for deletion are paid attention to, unused files are deleted on a regular basis, all vandals and disruptive users are blocked, the theme is fine, and we're not breaking into fights all over the place. We've given the ability to delete comments to rollback users, so we're not experiencing problems in that department anymore either. If admin tasks are getting done, it follows that we don't need any more admins, at the moment. We have inactivity policies; if Omni really doesn't edit for three months, then we are supposed to nominate a replacement for administrator (not bureaucrat though). But it's not urgent that we get new admins now, or have additional admins.

You also need to consider some of our history to understand why we have no private space for administrators to talk about the wiki. We did, on this page (as in only admins could contribute, but everyone could see the conversation). The reason we don't have one anymore is because as a community, we decided that there is no need for admins to have their private conversation space if this wiki makes all its decisions by consensus. Admins are nothing more than trusted contributors. If an administrator appears to have significant influence, it should be because others want to listen to him/her, not because of their status as an administrator. If administrators really need to communicate in private, it should be through a method that is available to every other user anyway - Special:Emailuser.

I understand you edit on other wikis as well. The thing to understand is that you can't apply the same thinking to every wiki. Every wiki has its individual internal "culture", if you will, and a unique set of policies to fit its unique needs. To standardise everything with other wikis, I believe, would be a mistake. The 888th Avatar (talk) 02:26, December 5, 2010 (UTC)

In retrospect, many of my comments were foolish. You've more of less dismantled my arguments. On the wiki I do most of my work for, it's much more serious. Most of the people on it are doctorates with no sense of humor (it's very dry), and often times the discussions are legal in nature. As a result of this, my mindset is very serious with regards to wikis in general. I do, however, think that some issues should be discussed in private. It wouldn't hurt to have a moderation forum, IMHO.

With regards to the administration: I was mostly upset that night because of the badge and departure of omnibender ;) The administration is fine. However, I do not see the reason why there is a "limit" to the number of administrators. My argument was not really that we need them, but rather that there's no sense in having such a strict limit. My other main point (that seems to have a lot of agreement) is about the badges. I don't think badges are flawed, but I think the system by which they are awarded is flawed. I think that we should have badges, but I don't think it should be based on qualitative things, such as "number of pictures" or "number of edits". If someone actually does good work with something, then they can be awarded by some sort of administrator (this kind of badge is often called a "banstar" badge). It's also a much more rewarding badge, which actually means something. That's my 2-cent, and may be strongly disagreed with. Nick Lewis (talk • contribs) 02:38, December 5, 2010 (UTC)

Administrator Noticeboard[]

Hey admins, shouldn't there be a link on this page to the Admin Noticeboard? Or have it in the drop down menu at the top of the page?? Will94 ^{(Talk - TTFF - Teru)} 06:13, February 4, 2011 (UTC)

I've updated a link at the top of the page. :) The 888th Avatar (talk) 06:16, February 4, 2011 (UTC)

AW:AN[]

Shouldn't AW:AN be linked here at the top? – Natsu11 · (wall • Nanatsu no Taizai) 16:26, June 30, 2011 (UTC)

Question?[]

How many admins will be holding up to in this wiki for right now, since I see that this wiki has 7 admins right now and I kinda heard it suppose to hold up to 6, but I wasn't exactly not sure?-- King Marth 64 (talk • other wikis • blogs) http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k576/DigiPen92/th_20px-Marthsprite.gif 04:10, March 15, 2012 (UTC)

Per recent forum decisions, the set number is now seven. The 888th Avatar (talk) 08:25, March 15, 2012 (UTC)

Oh hey apparently it used to be five but in February it was changed. Also see here. felinoel ~ (Talk) 12:29, March 15, 2012 (UTC)

Gold links[]

How do they make admins marked by goldlinks Davebrayfbu (wall • contribs) 13:05, October 28, 2012 (UTC)

That is done via Wikia.css Lady Lostris /

SOAP 23:02, October 28, 2012 (UTC)

Is that how they make ADMINISRATOR and ROLLBACK ? came up on a user page for people who are them to and a link to ? ~Davebrayfbu 19:37, November 23, 2012 (UTC)

I don't understand your question, sorry. Lady Lostris /

SOAP 00:11, November 24, 2012 (UTC)

I believe he was asking whether the Administrator and Rollback labels that appear on a user's profile page are also added via Wikia.css. HAMMEROFTHØR (wall) • 00:25, November 24, 2012 (UTC)