Global sysops

This new user class has stirred up its share of controversy over the past few weeks. It seems any proposal concerning global rights and functionalities results in mass disagreement and concern relating to lingual barriers, overcentralisation of power and whathaveyou.

The global sysop, according to the proposal, will be a new user class that will enable those with the new function to effectively combat vandalism and related troubles at smaller wikis, where such administrative defence is not present or is not actively available.

Personally, I like the idea, but I think the policy attached will need to be stringent and carefully formed. Only the most trustworthy should be allowed to wield these universal buttons, with some kind of preference towards those who speak a broder range of languages; clear communication with the local users is obviously going to be important to the successfulness of the job here. I also think that larger wikis should be allowed the option of opting out, or at least making their own local policies for the use of this tool on their homeground.

However, the straw poll that is currently taking place over at Meta-Wiki's Metapub, somewhat equivalent to a village pump, is certainly not going in favour of the implementation of the global sysop; last I checked, there were more peple opposing than supporting. Most of the opposition refer to the problems concerning language differences, and also the potential for abuse.

As any new policy needs at least 80% approval, it seems very likely that this proposal is going to be rejected for now. A shame, perhaps, but maybe a proposal with similar goals that will be to more universal liking will come along at some point.