I was just wondering how people would feel if Durova was considered for adminship again? Only I think she's addressed a lot of the concerns people had a year ago and behaved well.(I was pro Giano etc at the time of the !! debacle.) Do you think she's done much 'wrong' on wiki over the past year? Just wondered.

The question you have to answer with Durova is "Why?" Clearly adminship for her is about status and influence - in principle two reasons why she should not have adminship. Put another way, how does Durova having adminship help build an encyclopedia instead of attracting controversy?

Or to put more generally, what is the point of being an admin (forgetting about the "just some tools" argument which it clearly is not)?

I would support Durova, as I believe her to be honest, and to have learned from mistakes in the past. Then again, I'm banned, so my vote wouldn't count for much.


Wikipedia adminship is for just about everyone about status and influence. Pretenses aside, the question is if someone deserves a promotion to a status of influence in the project.

The point for me where she's concerned is that she's good, particularly with BLPs etc nowadays, but in general now her judgment is good. She sort of mediates or speaks out bout things and is good at articulating her position. If she was given more authority she could do this even more- regaining the bit of status she once had, but with her current stance/demeanor, she could have more influence on policy, precedent and the direction taken by WP. She might even and probably would, encourage deletion of a greater number of BLPs.

But I suppose she already acts in this capacity- she'd just have a bit more leverage and her arguments perhaps be given a bit more weight.



I don't know if I'd like to say for almost everyone it's about status, but it would be mainly about the influence she could have on the tone of WP as she is now, as you say.

I honestly don't think if I offered to nominate her (and the thought has crossed my mind in the past), she'd accept. She is having fun building featured picture/sound candidates.. Every time we chat, she's showing my a new featured item candidate she's working on. I think she would be a GOOD admin again, but I have serious doubts that she would put herself through that again. Maybe next time we talk, I should ask....

Well, to ask you the question, given the potential for grief, why would you want to give that to someone whom* you respect.


*Things I do to keep members happy.

I just asked her and she said she's not sure about the unfairness of some's words being valued more than others by virtue of their status, and whether she wants to buy into it or something like that (I've been up all night lol- estate agen't flat inspection was at dawn )

Maybe she'll change her mind- I don't know if Sirfoz is right about what her experience at RfA would be like. I hope not as I think she's earned it again a little bit:)

She's had very questionable judgment in the past; I'd have to vote against her.

I'm not sure if you'd be the best nominator anyhow. "Oppose. WR nominator prima facie evidence of hating Wikipedia."

But if she was nominated, I would support her.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:A...strators#Durova

Lol she didn't mention that. Great minds think alike or something

Yes she is doing fantastic work, but I prefer her as a non admin than as an admin.

On the other hand I am spiralling to inactivity on WP so don't really care.

Tough call! This is one of those questions that make me glad I don't have a Wikipedia user account...

I'll just say this, though. If we're trying to predict Durova's future behavioral predilections, you have to ask if the clear signs of egotism and arrogance she showed a year or so ago were integral characteristics, or merely a facade. If they were a facade, there's a good chance the facade has been weakened, though I don't believe anyone could say that it "crumbled" or "fell" as a result of those shenanigans. Still, someone with insecurity/inferiority problems who has had their ego facade weakened by a past mistake isn't likely to repeat that mistake, at least not deliberately, much less recklessly.

But if it's an integral characteristic, or perhaps an aspect of a larger problem with narcissism and/or incipient megalomania, then there's a pretty good chance that she'll just pick up where she left off once her privileges are restored - in fact, she'll see that as vindication, proving that she'd been right (about whatever-the-hell it was) all along.

If I had to take a wild guess, I'd say it's probably the first thing, and that it's reasonably safe to make her an admin now, even if it wasn't originally. Just don't make her a CheckUser or anything like that, of course - I may be gullible, but I'm not that gullible!

I should once again point out that I'm not a professional therapist, and I don't even have a degree in Psychology. In fact, I haven't even played such a person on TV. (Yet!)

Absolutely no question about it, she deserves another shot and I don't believe she'd ever make another mistake of the kind that caused such a furor last year.

Durova could win, but only if she submits to recall and the recall criteria and process is clear to all.

Come to think of it though, she never really did retract that nasty statement she made about Greg Kohs, did she? Even long after the one journalist (as opposed to "journalists") pointed out that he didn't give a hoot as to what Kohs's current account status was at the time.

That might be a factor - persistent refusal to refrain from persisting, etc., etc. "Abuse uncorrected is abuse continued," as they say. (Well, as Jon Awbrey says, anyway!)

One thing I will say in Durova's favor is, she does at least seem to have an interest in churning out a good encyclopedia which is more than I could say for some. I'd be inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt on that alone.

My one reservation is, I kinda got from the whole sooper-sekrit sleuthing leaked emails thing that prior to it all going tits up on her, she did seem to having just a little bit too much fun playing Velma to Slim's Scooby Doo. I wonder if it's a case of once bitten twice shy, or if she'd just slide back into that role more covertly this time. Lesson learned or fatal character flaw?, thats the ¢24 question.

She has shown that all she wanted to do is harass certain wikipedians and exploit non wikipedians. Those the vote for her obviously turn a blind eye about it. It has been shown here how far she will go to publicly humiliate people and cause damage. I left her alone to edit, but she couldn't leave me alone and she had to make things worse.

No SirFozzie, I wont respond to another thread you start in the tar pit because we know well enough you did that last time just to hide your bad mouth.

I have offered to co-nom (note, not nominate) her if she ever considered running again. It should be somewhere on her talkpage, about 3 months ago or so. I think she would be a good admin this time around, cos she got so severely burned when "sekkrit sleuthing" last time. Technically she always was excellent - it was just her passions that lead her astray.

looks like feeling the temperature to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Synergy/Durova

Durova's response to the speculation is hilarious: "Also Sprach Durova".

I'd support her in principle. She's learned her lesson and would be an asset to the project as an admin: her work on users who are in trouble or have been banned has been admin-caliber for months already. (Examples: Privatemusings(?) and Bus Stop). She might go the Cla68 route and sit out RFA just because she's happier as she stands.

I wonder how !! (T-C-L-K-R-D) would feel about all this...

!! is probably long gone. That's the point.

He's long gone because of Durova's actions. People aren't just going to forgive or forget, you know. It is a common fallacy on Wikipedia to think something you did years ago will be forgiven or forgotten. And it ain't true.

Yes, it isn't true, and more's the pity. Durova is quite an accomplished dramamonger. She is now reduced to working along the margins to

Hasten The Day!™

Nobody is more aware that long-ago sins are never forgiven than I am. I'm still paying the price for a silly Googlebomb I put on Wikipedia in 2005, before I knew that Wikipedia's administrators existed and did not look kindly upon such activity. I would have become an administrator long ago if not for that unfortunate beginning to my wiki-career.

Rootology was forgiven. He's a better person than I am. It all depends.

Really? Long gone? We have proof of that do we?

Giano

I'm not interested in seeing more admins poking their noses in every bit of drama they can find.

She gives a link to the Richard Strauss piece, with some words:

Also Sprach Durova:

R…F…A
Drama!

Will she run
again?

Pro-ba-bly
sometime.

But remember we all know
this is not
a big deal.

But of course along with a score, this needs pictures. Along with bang-bang, bang-bang bang-bang of the kettle drums (!! !! !! !! !! !! ) we need man-apes banging some tapirs on the skull with a bone! And at least one woman-ape, too.

Then the woman-ape throws the bone into the air! LOOOONG flash-foward and it becomes a space station, orbiting the Earth! Then walz music from that OTHER Strauss guy.

Then a long series of evolved-apes learning to use computers and shit. But they're still apes.

Then this scene of one of the apes wanting to get back into the nice warm ape-ship, someplace out near Jupiter or something. The WP monolith is the same, but a lot bigger.

"Open the ad-min door, Pal."

"OPEN THE AD-MIN DOOR, PAL!!!"

Neutral (NPOV) voice: "I'm sorry, Durova, but this conversation can serve no further purpose."

Possibly then some interesting stuff where Durova attempts to sabotage the higher functions of PalComm, one amnestic or clueless-sysop at a time.

Pretty soon, a lobotomized PalComm:

"JIMBO, JIMBO.... GIVE US YOUR ANSWER, DO....."

Then psychadelic scenes, and finally..... The StarChild. (I think this is SlimVirgin, but interpretations differ).

Behaving like a complete and utter arsehole can hardly be called "unfortunate". The fact that you're one of the few editors with even less chance of ever becoming an administrator than I have has very little to do with your start in 2005.

Why are people so insanely power crazy?
Durova, you can find her all over the silly control boards as if she is the one fat controller of wiki and it's all for the benefit of the encyclopedia, yea sure it is. Everyking is openly immature and short tempered and rude and crazed out of control even without the extra power , that is easy and open . Durova is much more dangerous and sneaky.

Not now, not ever.

Yes, I agree, but I would have become an admin in 2007 if not for the 2005 incident.