Administrator contest draws attention
On April 29, Wikipedia administrator Grandmasterka proposed a contest in which administrators are awarded points for performing various maintenance tasks, aimed at reducing Wikipedia's growing backlogs. Points would be awarded and deducted in a number of areas, including deletions, blocking, conflicts, and protection. For example, participants would be awarded ten points for properly identifying and dealing with a suspected sockpuppet. Conversely, users would be penalized twenty points for blocking a user who was later reinstated after community discussion. The idea for the contest sparked from discussion here, which concerned inactive administrators.
Though in its very early stages, YechielMan and zzuuzz questioned the feasibility of logging all administrator actions, and the diversion of resources it may create. DESiegel, an administrator himself since 2005, quickly opposed the idea for a contest, nominating it for deletion last Monday. In his rationale, he predicted over-zealous administrators developing "adminitis", whereby deletions, protections, and blocks are instituted just because such action is easy to take. Over a dozen editors chipped into the dicussion, which concluded with a prominent "keep" result on Thursday. Nearly all disagreed with DESiegel, believing the contest would help reduce the backlogs and initiate friendly competition among administrators where it is sorely needed.