Janitorial admins are nothing special. They don't go on covert operations, nor do they believe they are leaders of men. They're just janitors, tidying up around the place and occasionally running the kids with the spray cans out of the hall.
It is the goal of a janitorial admin to serve as a custodian, operating behind the scenes to keep things ticking over with the minimum of fuss. Janitorial admins can be found stacking the chairs on the tables and sweeping up after any cabal has been disbanded. Janitorialness does not equal grandstanding or forgetting our roots, it means a willingness to get on with the job and build a consensus. Sometimes it means being a glorified cleaner.
Janitorial administrators promise to do their best in all situations, although they advise editors that they do occasionally get it wrong. They will always try their best, even if they sometimes come up short.
Principles of janitorial administrators edit
- Wikipedia administratorship is not a big deal.
- Admins are human and occasionally make mistakes.
- Use clean water every day and judge each issue fairly — both in isolation and in context.
- Replace broken mops and unprotect pages where needed.
- We're all in this together.
The essence of janitorialness edit
If Wikipedia were deleted, Janitorial admins would move to the other Wikimedia projects and fix the red-links Wikipedia's deletion caused.
Favorite quotes edit
- [T]here is nothing wrong with being a janitor - Scrubs
- All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others. - Douglas Adams
- I don't like that there's the apparent feeling here that being granted sysop status is a really special thing. - Jimmy Wales wikimedia.org archive entry, gmane archive entry
- Every administrator wears two hats: that of editor, and that of janitor. As an editor, every admin has the same rights and responsibilities as every other editor. As a janitor, admins have more options available to them, and with those options come increased responsibility. Sometimes, when things are at their most stressful, administrators can confuse the two hats, and mistake the janitor hat for that of a "supereditor." User:Nandesuka, [1].
- "Administrator" means "janitor" - clean up vandalism, do administrative nuts-and-bolts tasks, the power to block abusive users, etc - User:David Gerard speaking in comments to More on Wikipedia October 06, 2005. Accessed: 2007-12-10. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5Tz1d7oF3)
- We must consider both the ultimate end and all clear sensory evidence, to which we refer our opinions; for otherwise everything will be full of uncertainty and confusion. - Epicurus