How to Become a Wikipedia Administrator

Last Updated: May 27, 2022 References

The standards for becoming a Wikipedia administrator are getting increasingly tough as Wikipedia becomes more developed. Here are the steps and expectations on how to become an administrator.^{[1]
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Steps

1
Decide whether you want to become a Wikipedia admin or not. Being an admin is a lot of responsibility and it requires a lot of hard work and dedication. If you say yes, then follow the next step below.
- Administrators are responsible for closing discussions, deleting pages, protecting pages, blocking users, rolling back vandalism, helping new editors learn the ropes, and other important tasks. Determine whether you are ready to be an administrator. You will not have to do all these things; it's common to pick one or a few areas and focus on them. However, you are expected to have experience and proficiency in a variety of administrative tasks, as you may decide to venture outside your preferred area or be called on to do so.
2
Be an active member of Wikipedia for at least a few years (about 2 or 3) and make a lot of good changes (at least 4000 edits) which help build the encyclopedia.^{[5]
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- Use edit summaries.
- Avoid controversy and edit wars.
- Engage in a collaborative and constructive manner (building good and featured articles or expanding stubs).
- Do maintenance tasks like reverting vandalism, removing copyright material, and participating in deletion processes.
- Enable your e-mail address for communication.
- Get a grasp of the basics of Wikipedia policy by reading the Administrators' reading list.
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3
Nominate yourself by following these instructions. The way the nomination process works is to seek consensus by supporting the user and giving user constructive criticism (opposing) from the editors. Your previous work will be reviewed thoroughly before a decision is reached.
- You may probably want to wait for someone else to nominate you as an administrator, especially if you are a young editor.
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Create your subpage and answer all the standardized questions.
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Accept your nomination afterwards and post it at the "request for adminship" page.
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Participate in the "RfA" Request for Adminship proceedings. Some editors will grill you with additional questions. After around a week, a bureaucrat will decide whether consensus has been reached and will close your RfA. Usually nominations that have an 75% or higher amount of support will pass, and 65% and lower will fail. Nominations in between are subject to "crat chats", where several bureaucrats will discuss whether or not to promote you.

Community Q&A

Question

How do I become an editor?

Community Answer

To become a Wikipedia contributor, all you need to do is click Edit and just edit or create an account if you want to be known by a particular name.

Warnings

It is a bad idea to "advertise" your RfA on user talk pages or on IRC. You may earn opposition by doing this. However, it is OK to advertise it on both your userpage and user talk page.

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This is not a foolproof guide on how to become an administrator. This is just an overview of the process of RfA and what is expected. Even if you follow these steps closely, there is no guarantee that your RfA will succeed. Be aware of that.

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The RfA process at Wikipedia can be grueling and somewhat demoralizing if you aren't selected. Don't worry if your nomination fails, it's not the end of the world.

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Being an admin requires you to deal with open conflicts effectively. It also requires you to make good decisions under intense heat and remain calm under severe harassment (admins tend to get more harassment than regular editors). If you are not willing to take those chances, don't request adminship.

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It is also a bad idea to create a long, complicated, fancy signature before or during your RfA. Some editors look down on this, and you may gain more opposition as a result.

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Each different language version of Wikipedia has a separate way of determining how administrators are decided. Also in some languages and Wikimedia projects, lack of activity may cause your admin status to be revoked. Research the processes for other language Wikipedia's before you apply for adminship.

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Remember that RfA is not a vote and the bureaucrats ultimately decide whether consensus has been reached or not, although your RfA needs 70% or more support to pass.

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If you reveal to everyone that you're 13 years old or under and request adminship, it is highly likely that you will fail.
- There are no age limits for adminship, but there are some editors who oppose admins who are young minors.
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If you have been a non-helpful, non-productive editor at Wikipedia, you are probably better off starting over from a new account. The bad edits early in your history at Wikipedia may hold you back from adminship. There is a major risk in doing this however.
- If you create a new account to hide your bad history and request adminship later, you will risk being caught and accused of abusive sock puppetry. If that happens, you may end up being blocked/banned unless you have a legitimate reason to start a new account.
- If more than 80% of your edits are helpful and productive, and the non-helpful, non-productive edits are in the first 1 month, you have more chance of becoming an admin and will not have to create a new account.
- Before starting over, though, note that a Wikipedia editor was blocked^{[6]
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Remember that in a limited number of cases admins are required to deal with so call long term abuse accounts who habitually stalk and prey on the admin corps, so think seriously about ramifications from admin actions before deciding whether or not to run.

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