Forum:Learning how to be a Wiki Admin

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I was just notified that I will be promoted to admin over at Wikiwrit. I hope to gain the experience and skills needed to become an admin here one day. I also want to run my own Wiki some day. I was wondering if there is any advice, or tutorials, or online documents that I should read. I am a former programmer so I should be able to learn the language the Wiki is written in to make modifications. Wikiwrit is broken, I think the owner tried to put in a redirect mod, and forgot to add in the MySQL table for it. Chances are it might be me that has to fix it. Anyway it might also be of interest to those here who want to be an admin, to see what kinds of things one must learn to be a good admin. Thanks. --Lt. Sir Orion Blastar (talk) 18:52, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Well, I recommend "1984", "Mein Kampf", and "How to Win Friends and Influence People". Or, I suppose you could look at the Admin Handbook on Meta, if you want to be all boring and stuff. -- Sir Codeine K·H·P·B·M·N·C·U·Bu. · (Harangue) 22:22, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

People will be bitching to you. And you'll have to take it. --Crazyswordsman...With SAVINGS!!!! (T/C) 04:30, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm, I think you forgot "The Prince" by Machiavelli and "The Way Things Ought To Be" by Limbaugh. "1984" is good I read that one, "Fahrenheit 451" is another recommended reading. Basically books written by Egomaniac Sociopaths or about Egomaniac Sociopaths seems to be the pattern here. So that means "Equilibrium" is another recommended reading. Also "Star Wars" read by the view of Darth Vader would be another good one. :) People will be bitching at me and I'll have to take it? How is that any different from me being a normal user? I get bitched at by lots of people for stuff that is basically nothing. I mean heck I was one of the few that tried to reason with Slashy and took all of his bitching and didn't let it get to me. How did I do that? I must confess that I am Batshit Insane, and that helps. :) --Lt. Sir Orion Blastar (talk) 03:36, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Anyway best way to handle handle people bitching at you, is to turn an emotional conflict into a cognitive one. Sure they are venting with their spleen calling someone or some people or maybe you as an idiot or whatever. It is up to you to figure out why they are calling people idiots. You could ask a question like "Why do you think I/Him/Her/They is/are (an) idiot(s), can you please give me some examples?" Chances are they will then show you the reasons why they think that way, and then from there you reason it cognitively with them. Be sure to reference the policies and rules here, and avoid losing your temper in the process. Notice that when I tried that with Slashy he was trying to be reasonable and even considered one of my options to have the article rewritten, now that was progress from an unreasonable vandal who kept blanking and vandalizing pages into someone who at least considered a rewrite option. If only I had better negotiation skills, and if only the rest of Uncyc could have quit egging him on, I might have resolved it without a block or ban. Oh by the way, you might want to consider referencing "Fahrenheit 451" the next time you guys have a Forrest Fire week. Why? Because it is the temperature at which paper burns. The whole "Fahrenheit 451" story was about Firemen that started fires instead of putting them out, and often burned books and other things that were considered the cause of all human problems. Until one Fireman decided to start reading books instead of just burning them. Well anyway "Equilibrium" was a cross between "Fahrenheit 451" and "1984" but with Clerics instead of Firemen, and a person named "Father" instead of "Big Brother", and people got burned until they were dead for "sense offense" because they had books, songs, perfume, jewelry, pets, and other things that cause emotions, because emotions are outlawed for causing wars and crimes. Everyone takes Prozium to suppress emotions, until one Cleric misses his daily dose. They made a good movie based on that book. By the way that Unmeta link goes to a page that does not exist, was that a joke or something saying there are no rules to becoming an admin? --Lt. Sir Orion Blastar (talk) 06:24, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

^ Of course, I'm only joking about "How to Win Friends and Influence People".