Wikipedia:IRC channels/wikipedia-en-admins

#wikipedia-en-admins is a closed Internet relay chat channel allowing for real-time communications among administrators on the English Wikipedia and selected others. In addition to English Wikipedia administrators, access to the channel has been provided to some administrators on other Wikimedia projects, former admins, developers, and OTRS respondents. As with all freenode IRC channels with the word Wikipedia in the title, it is managed by the Group Contacts. However, to many editors the frequent announcements on Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents beginning "Following discussions on IRC, I have blocked..." ring alarm bells, as often such blocks concern well established editors and are often misguided.

Purpose

As envisioned by the founders and channel operators, the main purpose of the channel is to provide a forum for interaction among administrators. The channel provides a place for admins to obtain input from their colleagues on issues that arise from time to time, as well as to seek out an administrator with particular skills or interests to address a situation, or to locate a functionary such as a checkuser, bureaucrat, or steward where called for.

In addition to these primary purposes, the channel also facilitates social interaction among the administrator corps and other invitees apart from their day-to-day on-wiki dealings. The channel also has played an occasional but valuable role in emergency circumstances, such as when a rogue administrator deleted the main page and blocked Jimbo Wales.

The channel was originally created by Talrias for Danny to deal with urgent living biography issues. Foundation staff and board members sometimes come onto the channel with a problem needing solving.

Important: The channel is useful for administrators to double-check themselves or obtaining second opinions prior to acting, but in-channel discussion is never a substitute for an administrator's taking responsibility for his or her own administrator actions, nor for on-wiki discussions (on WP:ANI or another appropriate forum) of controversial issues or decisions. Always recall that some administrators do not use the channel or may not be on-channel at a given time, and at least equally important, non-administrator editors generally do not have access. Thus, basing an admin decision on IRC discussion excludes these editors from participating in the discussion, which can lead both to resentment on the part of those editors as well as decisions based on incomplete input and information. There may be very isolated instances where off-wiki discussion is best, typically involving privacy issues; however, basing decisions on any form of off-wiki communication, including IRC, must be carefully considered and justified in each instance lest this narrow exception swallow the rule. Few explanations have been given for why getting a second opinion in a chat room would be preferable to doing it on the wiki.

Conduct on the channel

The ethos behind the channel is "You're an admin, you were picked for your judgment. Use it."

Note that if you use the channel to sanity-check a decision, you still need to justify it as needed on the wiki. An administrator's actions must be able to stand on their own merits, regardless of any discussions on IRC.

Administrators should comport themselves in a collegial manner, even when upset or involved in an issue. Although channel guidelines discourage the release of channel logs by any participant, and their publication on-wiki is even more strongly discouraged, the channel (like any other IRC channel) is not private. Logs have in the past become available or forwarded to various people, including editors who were the subject of discussion as well as the Arbitration Committee. Participants should always bear in mind that the channel is a semi-public place for trusted Wikipedians in general, and for English Wikipedia administrators in particular. Appropriate standards of civility and decorum should be maintained and inappropriate personal remarks about any individual should be avoided.

How to obtain access

All Wikipedia administrators are technically entitled to entry to the channel, though in practice some are made unwelcome. If you're an English Wikipedia admin:

1. Request access below, providing your cloak details and/or IRC nick. (Someone will then process these by hand with /cs ACCESS #wikipedia-en-admins ADD nickname 5.). Once done, you can get access to the channel by typing /msg chanserv invite #wikipedia-en-admins. You should then be able to join the channel as normal.

   Also consider pinging ops in #wikimedia-ops (with !ops) which may expedite the process.

2. If you wish, go here to request an IRC cloak. (Sean then processes these by hand). This step is optional, but a good idea.

   If you wish for 'automatic' access where a /cs invite command is not required, please ask an op while in the channel. A cloak is required for this, they will op themselves and do /mode +I *!*@your/cloak/here

• The IRC instructions page may also be helpful.

Once an editor is granted access, he or she generally retains it indefinitely. No formal process for the removal of access exists and such matters have been addressed by the channel operators on a case-by-case basis. Formal access to the channel will not be revoked unless a participant refuses to abide by the standards of conduct expected of channel members, and indeed sometimes not then. Using the channel inappropriately, such as to orchestrate blocks, is a ground for the removal of access.

Pending requests

Please register before adding a request (type in /msg nickserv register password, replacing password with one of your choice)

Controversy

This IRC channel has frequently caused controversy since its inception. It was proposed and discussed on the WikiEN mailing list [1], where concerns were raised about its lack of openness[2]. Discussion quickly ceased and the channel was set up in secret, with only a select few invited to participate. [3]

Controversy has continued to plague this channel, based in part on the limited access to it and in part on administrator decisions, such as blocks, that were justified on-wiki on the basis of discussion in the channel, but were later deemed by many editors and administrators not to have been justified. As discussed above, a strong consensus has emerged that the practice of basing blocks or other admin actions on IRC-based discussion should be avoided. Additionally, some respected administrators have reported that they have been made to feel unwelcome in the channel. The ethic of the channel should be such that all admins feel welcome to participate, although such participation is never required. Some former administrators who resigned under controversial circumstances have retained privileged access to the channel, causing some critics to question whether this is a desirable thing.

In January 2007, one editor who had been the subject of a block that had been discussed extensively on the channel filed a request for arbitration urging that the Arbitration Committee direct that the channel be discontinued. The Arbitration Committee voted not to take up the case, with several arbitrators opining that the channel was not officially connected with the English Wikipedia and the matter was therefore outside the committee's jurisdiction. However, several arbitrators, both in their individual capacities and claiming to speak for the committee, expressed the view there had been "numerous incidents involving gross incivility" on the channel, which the committee considered "absolutely unacceptable."[4] Some of the channel operators acknowledged the criticism and stated that they would renew efforts to ensure that civility was maintained and that inappropriate personal attacks on any Wikipedia participant would be avoided. It is difficult to judge the success of such efforts due to the nontransparency of the channel, and critics still claim that problems have continued since the stated efforts to clean up the channel.

Selected criticism and commentary

• User:Geogre/IRC considered
• An informal audit by Alex Bakharev
• WP:AN special archive
• Arbitration Committee member views
• A request for Arbitration by Irpen regarding this channel

Channel operators

There are several channel operators for this channel who have the ability to add users to the channel's access list, and remove users from the channel or access list.

The current channel operators are (in no particular order):

UninvitedCompany Martinp23 Seanw James_F Dmcdevit Angela One_

Delphine Kim_register Jwales Interiot Mark_Ryan Morven Mackensen

Dannyisme Jacoplane FennecFoxen Snowspinner Sannse Chairboy DavidGerard

Shanel BradPatrick Tawker AlisonW Lar Nishkid64 JohnReaves

Mindspillage Bastique YellowMonkey Poore5 Majorly Cbrown1023 Deskana

The channel owners say that they would like all English Wikipedia administrators on the channel, particularly new ones, so as to get the admins talking to each other and learning accepted practice from the distinguished and well trusted admins there. Note however, that not all admins who are regarded on Wikipedia as distinguished and well trusted enjoy the trust of the dominant members of the channel. Some wikipedians regard the private status of the channel as being of particular value for mentoring in an environment unfettered by "wikilawyering" and "process wonkery", while others would like to see this closed channel dedicated to Wikipedia admins brought under the control of the Wikimedia Foundation.

No aspect of IRC is mandatory to being an admin, and if anyone tries to make it a criterion for support at Requests for adminship, such comments should be ignored.

Sources of processes detailed on this page

James F. is the contact freenode has for Wikimedia-related IRC channels. The Foundation disclaims IRC, so James is the sole source of authority, a state of affairs which has led to some anomalies. For instance, there are examples of well-respected wikipedia admins being unwelcome in the channel, while non-admins with friends in high circles are made welcome, etc. James is only occasionally active at the moment in this area. This means that his deputy, seanw should be consulted for the majority of issues.

See also

• IRC
• Wikipedia:List of administrators/IRC nicknames
• Wikipedia:Private correspondence