Administrators are wikiHow community members who willingly take on extra responsibility to make wikiHow the best how-to manual possible. While every wikiHow user is an editor, administrators have three extra powers and responsibilities which allow them to ensure that wikiHow continues to blossom into a useful free resource: changing titles, deleting pages, and blocking accounts. Other than these general housekeeping duties, they participate in the same creative and collaborative activities as any other editor or contributor.
Administrator elections take place twice a year, in March and September. If you would like to participate, keep an eye out on in the forums.
Steps
- 1Get to know active admins. They're the ones who will be voting in the admin election, so it's good to interact with them so when your name pops up, they know who you are. But since admins aren't glorified on wikiHow it can be hard to know who they are! There are also many admins who aren't active right now, and they usually don't vote in the elections either. The best way to see which admins are active right now is to look at the block log and deletion log. The best way to make an impression on admins is to ask them questions, especially about situations you come across while following the steps below.
- 2Know the deletion policy well. Since one of the abilities you gain as an admin is the ability to delete articles, it's important that you're very familiar with the deletion policy.
- Apply NFD tags with care. Nominating articles for deletion carelessly and repeatedly is a red flag and will hurt your chances of getting elected.
- Vote on NFD discussion pages. Most admins review articles that have been nominated for deletion and check the discussion pages for consensus. Go to and show your knowledge of the deletion policy by voting on the discussion pages. Explain why you think the article does or does not violate the deletion policy. Any registered contributor can vote for or against deletion.
- Admins often look after a particular NFD reason, so vote on a variety of NFD articles so that more admins see your comments.
- Save articles from deletion. If you see that an article someone started can be rewritten or edited so that the NFD reason is no longer valid, fix it! Admins and article boosters are allowed to remove the NFD tag, but let them know that the article is fixed by posting a comment on the discussion page! Once an admin or a booster sees it, they will remove the tag for you. This will help people remember you, as well as demonstrates that you have good knowledge of the deletion policy and a genuine interest in improving articles.
- 3Participate in the forums, especially the Village Pump. Offer feedback, ask questions, and answer questions. The forums are a great place to learn about wikiHow's policies and interact with the community, including active admins.
- If you like chat rooms, you can also spend some time in wikiHow's IRC channel. Some admins are in there often.
- 4Avoid and mediate conflict. Many people don't understand how wikiHow works, and some people are just plain annoying. An important thing that admins look for when voting is patience. It's good to show that you don't let people get under your skin, no matter how angry or insulting they get. It's good if you can show that you're immune to trolls, too. If people see that you get easily irritated by people, whether on talk pages, the forums, and IRC, admins will question whether your temperament will negatively affect the way you use admin options.
- 5Patrol recent changes. Report any of the following on the admin notice board:
- Username policy violations
- Anyone who writes that they are under 13 years old (that doesn't mean, however, that it's acceptable to judge by grade level, or to ask someone how old they are)
- Vandals
- Spammers (people who place the same links everywhere)
- Pages needing protection (any page that you notice is getting a lot of vandalism in a short period of time; common with controversial featured articles)
- Anyone who is uploading a lot of images in short period of time without adding them to articles
- Anyone who is uploading a lot of videos in a short period of time, and the videos don't seem to comply with our video guidelines
- Anyone who is directly and repeatedly attacking other contributors on wikiHow
- 6Apply during the "call for admin nominations". They will begin approximately every January 15th, May 15th, and September 15th and will be announced at the Village Pump at the Forums. Ask an existing wikiHow Administrator to nominate you for the position. If the administrator thinks you would be a good candidate for adminship, he or she will nominate you during the nomination cycle. Alternatively, you could nominate yourself by following the instructions posted at the Forums during the call for nominations.
- 7Recognize that new admins will be selected by a consensus-seeking process, conducted in confidence among existing admins. Typically, admin candidates need support of 70-80% of the existing admins. Generally, this process can last from a few days to a few weeks, as it can take time for admins to reach a consensus on who should be an admin. When complete, the results will be published on the Village Pump at the Forums.
- 8Understand the selection criteria that existing admins will be looking for in each candidate:
- Trust - This is the most important criterion. Do the existing admins trust you to exercise control responsibly on one of the most popular sites on the Internet? Trust is earned over time by continually displaying good, level-headed, mature judgment.
- Empathy and kindness - Admins exist to serve the broader community of editors and readers. A demonstrated history of treating others with kindness and mutual respect is a necessity.
- Mission focus - Demonstrated ability to put wikiHow's mission before competing concerns.
- Civility - Can you remain civil when criticized for the decisions you make as an admin? Can you wield admin powers while still being kind, polite and welcoming?
- Track record - While there are no hard and fast rules, generally a contributor should have at least four months of experience and 500 - 1000 article namespace edits on wikiHow before being considered as a possible administrator candidate. Existing admins have a hard time evaluating candidates they have yet to observe and interact with personally.
- 9Don't be discouraged if you don't make it through on your first couple election cycles. About half of the people nominated will not pass on their first few attempts, but are instead encouraged to try on a second, third, or fourth attempt. If you were nominated but not appointed, reach out to an existing admin to ask for coaching to help you apply in the future. Similarly, if you are never selected for adminship, you can still be a valued member of the community. Many great wikiHow editors have never become admins.
Tips
- Spending some time patrolling will teach you much of what you will need to know to be a valuable administrator.
- Administrators are responsible for:
- Renaming articles
- Blocking vandals, spambots, and other users who consistently violate policy
- Blacklisting and whitelisting of URLs
- Rarely, protecting pages to prevent vandalism
- Managing and deleting articles and requests that have been nominated for deletion, or deemed inappropriate.
- You must know how to act as an admin.
- Ask current admins for advice on how you are doing. If you're already going the tasks listed above but want to know where you are falling short, don't be afraid to ask for constructive feedback. These seasoned editors will be happy to answer your questions about being an admin.
Warnings
- Adminship is neither a trophy, nor a promotion[1]. Admins have no status in wikiHow above those of other regular contributors. Admins merely gain a few extra tools to perform the extra responsibilities the job entails.
- Using administrator powers to push around productive wikiHow contributors is never acceptable.
- For a variety of reasons, not all those who apply for adminship will be selected. Being declined adminship does not mean that you are not a valued or appreciated member of the wikiHow community, so don't let this discourage you from continuing to participate at wikiHow.
- Look at adminship as a responsibility, not a trophy. Being an admin doesn't make you more popular or respected, and it doesn't mean your opinion matters more than anyone else's on wikiHow. It just means you can do a few extra things that require you to know our policies very well. You don't need to be an admin to be respected on wikiHow. If you're eager to become an admin but you don't seem eager to improve wikiHow and learn wikiHow's policies, you probably won't get elected.
Related wikiHows
Sources and Citations
- Wikipedia - What adminship is not
- wikiHow forum post - "Adminship is NOT a trophy"
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Article Info
Last edited:
December 19, 2011 by Krystle
Categories:
Being an Admin | Help
Recent edits by: Kitten Z, Writelf, Whoze (see all)
In other languages
Deutsch: Werde ein wikiHow Administrator, Español: Ser un Admin de WikiHow, Español: llegar a ser un Administrador wikiHow
