Power illusion

(English) This is an essay. It expresses the opinions and ideas of some Wikimedians but may not have wide support. This is not policy on Meta, but it may be a policy or guideline on other Wikimedia projects. Feel free to update this page as needed, or use the discussion page to propose major changes.

It is important to remember that certain user classes, such as that of adminship, do not convey authority by default and/or in of their granting. All editors are human; everyone is subject to mistake, even those who have been trusted with extra functions and accesses. However, this seems to be sometimes forgotten, and users with additional tools are given authority simply as a result of their "title". Thus a power illusion is formed.

All users must adhere to the same set of policies that is applied to the Wikimedia projects, regardless of their user class. Any user who makes edits that render them blockable by policy are blocked. The same idea applies to activity on the projects in general; adminship (or any higher access, for that matter) in no way exempts anyone from the rules, the general guidelines or policy, or the possibility of criticism in a discussion.

Power illusion in discussion is something which can happen quite often. As aforementioned, no-one is perfect, and users with high permissions are by no means automatically right, or so perfectly knowledgeable with policy that they are not subject to making a related error. High access is not a trophy; it should not be used to confer greater authority or presence, or to verbally overrule another.

The equality of users is an integral quality of the projects. Everyone is here as volunteers, and the granting of higher access is merely an acknowledgement of the trust that the community has in a user, and an recognisation of the potential they have with the permission. It does not confer superiority of speech or knowledge.

See also