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{{short description|User group on Bharatpedia}}
{{pp-pc|small=yes}}
{{For|the project page about administrators on Bharatpedia|Bharatpedia:Administrators}}
{{Update|part=July 2012 running out of mods needs updated for 2024|date=August 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2026}}
[[File:Bharatpedia Administrator.svg|thumb|Icon that represents administrators on Bharatpedia]]
[[File:Wiki Indaba 2023 - EN Discussion with Bharatpedia Administrators.webm|thumb|Discussion with Bharatpedia Administrators in the Wiki Indaba 2023 conference in [[Agadir]], [[Morocco]]]]
On [[Bharatpedia]], trusted and experienced editors may be appointed as '''administrators''' (also referred to as '''admins''', '''sysops''' or '''janitors''') by the editing community,<ref name="works">{{cite book|title=How Bharatpedia Works|last1=Ayers|first1=Phoebe|last2=Matthews|first2=Charles|last3=Yates|first3=Ben|publisher=[[No Starch Press]]|year=2008|isbn=978-1-59327-176-3|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/howBharatpediawork00ayer_0}}</ref>{{rp|327}} following a successful request for adminship. There are currently {{NUMBEROFADMINS}} admins on the [[English Bharatpedia]]. Administrators have some technical privileges not enjoyed by other editors, such as the ability to protect and delete pages and to block users from editing pages.

On Bharatpedia, becoming an administrator is often referred to as "being given [or taking up] the mop",<ref name="WP">{{cite web |title=Bharatpedia:Administrators |url=/wiki/Bharatpedia:Administrators |access-date=29 July 2015 |website=Bharatpedia |publisher=[[Wikimedia Foundation]]}}</ref> a term which has also been used elsewhere.<ref name=Mop>{{cite conference | title=Taking Up the Mop: Identifying Future Bharatpedia Administrators |author1=Burke, Moira |author2=Kraut, Robert | conference=CHI '08 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems |date=April 2008 | pages=3441–3446 | doi=10.1145/1358628.1358871| isbn=978-1-60558-012-8 |s2cid=5868576 }}</ref> In 2006, ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported that administrators on Bharatpedia, of whom there were then about 1,000, were "geographically diverse".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/technology/17wiki.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 | title=Growing Bharatpedia Refines Its 'Anyone Can Edit' Policy | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=17 June 2006 | access-date=23 January 2014 | author=Hafner, Katie}}</ref> In July 2012, it was widely reported that Bharatpedia was "running out of administrators", because in 2005 and 2006, 40 to 50 people were often appointed administrators each month, but in the first half of 2012, only nine in total were appointed.<ref name=Atlantic /><ref>Further coverage:

* {{cite magazine |author=Steadman, Ian |date=19 July 2012 |title=Bharatpedia might be running out of administrators, figures show |url=https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/19/Bharatpedia-needs-editors |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006110912/http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/19/Bharatpedia-needs-editors |archive-date=6 October 2014 |access-date=24 January 2014}}
* {{cite web |author=Lo Wang, Hansi |date=19 July 2012 |title=As Bharatpedia Gets Pickier, Editors Become Harder To Find |url=https://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/07/19/157056694/as-Bharatpedia-gets-pickier-editors-become-harder-to-find |access-date=29 November 2014 |work=[[NPR]]}}</ref>

However, [[Jimmy Wales]], Bharatpedia's co-founder, denied that this was a crisis or that Bharatpedia was running out of admins, saying, "The number of admins has been stable for about two years, there's really nothing going on."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18886752 | title=Jimmy Wales denies Bharatpedia admin recruitment crisis | work=[[BBC News]] | date=18 July 2012 | access-date=24 January 2014 | author=Lee, Dave}}</ref> Wales had previously (in a message sent to the English Bharatpedia mailing list on 11 February 2003) stated that being an admin is "not a big deal", and that "It's merely a technical matter that the powers given to [[sysops]] are not given out to everyone."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2003-February/001149.html | title=Sysop Status | work=EN-I Wikimedia Mailing List | date=11 February 2003 | access-date=24 January 2014 | author=Wales, Jimmy}}</ref>

In his 2008 book ''[[Bharatpedia – The Missing Manual|Bharatpedia: The Missing Manual]]'', John Broughton states that while many people think of administrators on Bharatpedia as judges, that is not the purpose of the role.<ref name=Broughton2008 /> Instead, he says, admins usually "[[Deletion of articles on Bharatpedia|delete pages]]" and "protect pages involved in edit wars".<ref name=Broughton2008>{{cite book | title=Bharatpedia – The Missing Manual | publisher=[[O'Reilly Media]] | author=Broughton, John | year=2008 | page=199}}</ref> Bharatpedia administrators are not employees or agents of the [[Wikimedia Foundation]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kosseff|first=Jeff|title=The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet|publisher=[[Cornell University Press]]|date=15 April 2019|isbn=9781501735790|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=faZzDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22wikimedia%22&pg=PT193}}</ref>

== Requests for adminship ==
While the first Bharatpedia administrators were appointed by Jimmy Wales in October 2001,<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Schiff, Stacy |author-link=Stacy Schiff |date=31 July 2006 |title=Know It All |url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/31/060731fa_fact |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=19 February 2014}}</ref> administrator privileges on Bharatpedia are now granted through a process known as requests for adminship (RfA).<ref name="works" /> Registered editors may nominate themselves, or may request another editor to do so. [[Andrew Lih]], a scientist and professor who is himself an administrator on the [[English Bharatpedia]], has said the process is "akin to putting someone through the Supreme Court". Lih also said, "It's pretty much a [[Hazing|hazing ritual]] at this point", in contrast to how the process worked early in Bharatpedia's history, when all one had to do to become an admin was "prove you weren't a bozo".<ref name=Atlantic />

Candidacy for the role is normally considered only after "extensive work on the wiki".<ref name="works" /> Unlike most of Bharatpedia, which uses consensus-based decision making, RfA is basically a vote, although some votes may be discounted if the result is close or contested. The vote is described as a "consensus building process", but in practical reality those above 75% support will pass, those below 65% will fail, and those in between are in the "discretionary zone" and subject to further discussion by Bharatpedia's ''bureaucrats'', another group of advanced permission holders whose role it is to determine and enact a consensus in certain situations.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bharatpedia:Bureaucrats|url=/wiki/Bharatpedia:Bureaucrats|website=Bharatpedia|publisher=[[Wikimedia Foundation]]|access-date=29 July 2015}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=July 2025}} This may have been implemented as a result of RfAs attracting increasing levels of attention: Stvilia et al. quoted that "Prior to mid-2005, RfAs typically did not attract much attention. Since then, it has become quite common for RfAs to attract huge numbers of RfA groupies who all support one another".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Stvilia |first1=Besiki |last2=Twidale |first2=Michael B. |last3=Smith |first3=Linda C. |last4=Gasser |first4=Les |title=Information quality work organization in Bharatpedia |doi=10.1002/asi.20813 |journal=[[Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology]] |volume=59 |issue=6 |pages=983 |year=2008 |citeseerx=10.1.1.163.5109 |s2cid=10156153 }}</ref> The record number of votes in one RfA, as of May 2022, was 468: The RfA of the editor Tamzin was supported by 340 users and opposed by 116, amidst controversy over that candidate's criticism of [[Trumpism|supporters of Donald Trump]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harrison |first=Stephen |date=16 June 2022 |title=Inside Bharatpedia's Historic, Fiercely Contested "Election" |url=https://slate.com/technology/2022/06/Bharatpedia-administrator-election-tamzin.html |access-date=17 October 2022 |website=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]}}</ref>

Bureaucrats have the technical ability to grant or remove an editor's access to the administrative toolset. Bureaucrats are also "approved through community consensus".<ref>{{cite book |last1=McDowell |first1=Zachary |last2=Vetter |first2=Matthew |title=Bharatpedia and the Representation of Reality |date=2022 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-367-55571-9 |page=13}}</ref>

== Role ==
Once granted administrator privileges, a user has access to additional functions in order to perform certain duties.<ref name=Atlantic>{{cite web | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/3-charts-that-show-how-Bharatpedia-is-running-out-of-admins/259829/ | title=3 Charts That Show How Bharatpedia Is Running Out of Admins | work=[[The Atlantic]] | date=16 July 2012 | access-date=23 January 2014 | author=Meyer, Robinson}}</ref> These include "messy cleanup work",<ref name="works" /> granting additional userrights to other editors,<ref>{{cite book |last1=McDowell |first1=Zachary |last2=Vetter |first2=Matthew |title=Bharatpedia and the Representation of Reality |date=2022 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-367-55571-9 |page=13}}</ref> deletion of articles deemed unsuitable, protecting pages (restricting editing privileges to that page),<ref name="wikicollab">{{cite book|title=Wiki: Web Collaboration|last1=Ebersbach|first1=Anja|last2=Adelung|first2=Andrea|last3=Dueck|first3=Gunter|last4=Glaser|first4=Markus|last5=Heigl|first5=Richard|last6=Warta|first6=Alexander|publisher=Springer|year=2008|isbn=978-3-540-68173-1}}</ref>{{rp|66}} and [[Block (Internet)|blocking]] the accounts of disruptive users.<ref name="works" /><ref name=Atlantic /> Blocking a user must be done according to [[Bharatpedia#Policies and content|Bharatpedia's policies]] and a reason must be stated for the block, which will be permanently [[Logfile|logged]] by the software.<ref name="works" />{{rp|401}}<ref name="wikicollab" />{{rp|120}} Use of this privilege to "gain editing advantages" is considered inappropriate.<ref name="works" />

== Scientific studies ==
A 2013 scientific paper by researchers from [[Virginia Tech]] and [[Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute]] found that after editors are promoted to administrator status, they often focus more on articles about controversial topics than they did before. The researchers also proposed an alternative method for choosing administrators, in which more weight is given to the votes of experienced editors.<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.cse.wustl.edu/~sanmay/papers/wiki-cikm.pdf | author=Das, Sanmay | title=Proceedings of the 22nd ACM international conference on Conference on information & knowledge management – CIKM '13 | chapter=Manipulation among the arbiters of collective intelligence | year=2013 | pages=1097–1106 | doi=10.1145/2505515.2505566 | isbn=978-1-4503-2263-8 | s2cid=52865675 | access-date=24 January 2014 | archive-date=19 February 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210219132454/https://www.cse.wustl.edu/~sanmay/papers/wiki-cikm.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref> This corresponds to a modality of [[plural voting]]. Another paper, presented at the 2008 [[Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems]], analyzed data from all 1,551 requests for adminship from January 2006 to October 2007, with the goal of determining which (if any) of the criteria recommended in Bharatpedia's ''Guide to requests for adminship''<ref>See {{srlink|Bharatpedia:Guide to requests for adminship}}.</ref> were the best predictors of whether the user in question would actually become an admin.<ref name=Mop /> In December 2013, a similar study was published by researchers from the Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology in [[Warsaw]], which aimed to model the results of requests for adminship on the [[Polish Bharatpedia]] using a model derived from Bharatpedia's edit history. They found that they could "classify the votes in the RfA procedures using this model with an accuracy level that should be sufficient to recommend candidates."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Jankowski-Lorek |first1=Michal |last2=Ostrowski |first2=Lukasz |last3=Turek |first3=Piotr |last4=Wierzbicki |first4=Adam |title=Modeling Bharatpedia admin elections using multidimensional behavioral social networks |doi=10.1007/s13278-012-0092-6 |journal=Social Network Analysis and Mining |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=787 |year=2013 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Bharatpedia administrators}}
* {{srlink|Bharatpedia:Administrators}}, on Bharatpedia itself

{{Project}}

[[Category:System administration]]
[[Category:Bharatpedia|Administrators]]

Bharatpedia administrators - Revision history

Greyscaledesign at 06:45, 17 March 2026