This page contains my thoughts on the RfA process and adminship in general. It is incomplete at the moment and other sections might be added later.
Admin recall/term limits
editAdministrator recall should be a formal, unified and binding process. My suggestion for recalling an administrator (let's call him X) is as below:
- Three editors in good standing (as defined below), or one other administrator (let's say Y), notifiy X on his talk page that they want to initiate recall.
- X opens a subpage (on his user or talk page) on which users, including the initiator/s, who support recall add their signatures. Each of these users should be in good standing.
- X declares at the top of his user and talk pages that he is currently going through a recall process. The announcement should link to the aforementioned subpage. Users who supported the admin's candidacy/last reconfirmation RfA (per below) are automatically notified that a recall process has been initiated.
- If, within seven days, 15 signatures are collected, including three of the supporters mentioned in the step 2, administrator X stands for a mandatory reconfirmation RfA with the same standards as normal RfAs. If such signatures have not been collected in the specified time period, the recall motion has failed.
- For the duration of the RfA, X's status as an administrator is freezed/suspended, so he cannot use any admin tools.
- If X passes the RfA, the recall motion has failed. Otherwise, his admin status is revoked.
- If X resigns during the recall process, he will have resigned "under a cloud" and has to stand for an RfA to regain his admin status.
A user in good standing is one who has been an active editor (75+ edits per month) for at least 3 months, with no blocks, bans (and/or any other sanction), except for those that were a mistake (or self-requested), in that period, and not currently investigated for sockpuppetry.
The reason for the initiation of a recall motion should be something that X did in his capacity as an admin that did not affect any of the initiators, i.e. the initiators have to be uninvolved. The initiation should only take place after the issue in question has been discussed thoroughly, and a link to such discussion should be added to the top of the subpage for step 2 and in the nominating statement for the reconfirmation RfA.
Regardless of recall motions, admins under this system will have to stand for a reconfirmation RfA at least once every six years. No recall process shall take place in the six months following a successful RfA or in the six months following a failed recall motion, irrespective of the stage in which the motion failed.
I hereby pledge to follow this system of recall/reconfirmation if I am ever given the mop, even if it is not formalized or accepted as a binding guideline (unless the community adopts another proposal for a binding process of admin recall/term limits).