Throughout the history of the Simple English Wikipedia project, there have been a few cases where sysops (including bureaucrats) were desysopped due to incivility or abuse of their powers.
Other reasons for desysopping included sysops resigning or because of inactivity for a long of time. This Wikipedia does not have an arbitration committee, so most desysopping is done by consensus of the community.
Cases[change | change source]
As of December 2007, there have been at least 3 cases where sysops have lost their privileges. Currently, 8 sysops have had their powers removed.
- On October 16, 2006, Netoholic proposed five sysops: Cprompt, Menchi, Mero, Optim, and Tango, to be demoted due to inactivity for a long time. Although there was no exact consensus whereas to demote all five sysops, steward Jon Harald Søby revoked sysop rights from all on November 10, 2006. Additionally, Tango and Mero didn't oppose to their de-sysopping. Currently, all five seemed to have left the project.
- The first where a sysop was removed due to abuse and incivility was Netoholic. Netoholic was reported for long-time misuse of his tools and was de-sysopped by a vote of the community (see here). Prior to his demotion, he was also requested for comment on meta, where the stewards have also been reported about the issue. Netoholic then had his sysop rights removed. Subsequently, the community was asked to vote on whether to reinstate his privileges. A clear majority voted to support his removal. Netoholic then left the project on November 13, 2006, and hasn't edited here since.
- Another case of de-sysopping occurred on June 29, 2007, when Archer7 nominated SimonMayer and Brion VIBBER to have their rights removed due to inactivity (although their rights would be reinstated upon their request). SimonMayer had been a bureaucrat on the Simple English Wikipedia while Brion VIBBER was a sysop and a meta developer. The purpose to the removal were fears of vandals attempting to compromise their accounts by hacking their passwords. The community gave a near-unanimous vote to remove their rights.
Resigned[change | change source]
- Angela was a previous bureaucrat on the early days of the wikipedia, but resigned her post as a bureaucrat after Netholic succeeded her. She is currently an inactive admin on this wiki.
- Sean William, also known as PullToOpen, was a former sysop who requested his sysop rights to be removed before retiring from this wiki.
- Tdxiang was another former admin who also had his sysop rights removed after leaving on an extra-long wikibreak. He has left a note on his userpage stating that he may return.