Wikipedia:Admin coaching/Guidelines
A quick glance at the RfA mainpage will quickly reveal that there are no official requirements to becoming an Admin. Anybody can apply regardless of their Wikipedia experience. Reality, however, is completely different. While anybody can apply a quick review of failed RfA's will quickly show that the community has many unwritten expectations.
The purpose of the Admin Coaching Project is to help ensure that potential candidates are adequately prepared for adminship. Generally your admin coach will review your edits and provide insight as to areas where you need to grow before submitting an RfA. Your coach will help you to assess potential stumbling blocks and help prepare for your RfA.
If you don't meet the basic criteria, you might want to consider applying for adoption. Meeting these criteria does not mean that you will be accepted as a coachee or pass an RfA. Similarly, failure to meet these guidelines does not mean that nobody will accept you as a coachee or fail an RfA.
| Description | Guideline for starting Admin Coaching[1] | Recommended minimum for an RfA[2] | Suggested target for an RfA[2] | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Edits[3] | 1000 | 2000 | 3000 | If you are primarily a vandal fighter, you can easily double these numbers. |
| Number of main space edits[3] | 200 | 500 | 1000 | A candidate with 10,000 edits, but negligible mainspace edits may find it hard to pass an RfA |
| Participation in XfD's | Desired, but not required. | 30 XfD's | 100 XfD's | XfD's are viewed as one of the keys toward evaluating a potential admin. |
| Article Writing | Should have a history of editing/contributing articles. | DYKs and preferably a Good Article. | Good articles and possibly a featured article | While not required, having helped an article reach FA status is very helpful. |
| Policies and guidelines | Prospective coachees should demonstrate an understanding of policies and guidelines. | Prospective candidates should be able to research and find the appropriate policies and guidelines. | Should be able to answer and assist others with their questions/issues. | If you act like an admin, answer people's questions, you will be seen as an admin. |
| Number of active months on Wikipedia | 3 months | 6 months | 9 months | Active months are generally viewed as 150+ edits. |
| History of incivility | 3 months without incident | 6 months without incident | 9 months without incident | Incivility is one of the quickest ways to fail an RfA. |
| History of vandalism | 10 months without incident | 12 months without incident | 12 months without incident | If you've vandalized an article, it will generally be a year before people trust you with the tools. |
| History of being blocked. | 3 months without incident | 6 months without incident | 6 months without incident | This assumes the block was valid and the candidate deserved the block. Valid reasons or overturned blocks can shorten/eliminate this guideline. |
| Breadth of exposure. | Should have exposure to 1 to 3 projects/tasks/etc. | Should have exposure to 4 to 6 projects/tasks/etc. | Should have a wide breadth of exposure to many areas. |
- ^ When matching candidates to coaches, preference will be given to those who meet most of the guidelines.
- ^ a b There are no official requirements for adminship. Meeting these criteria does not guarantee passing an RfA. Additionally, individuals may have stricter or less stringent criteria for adminship.
- ^ a b Additionally, if your primary involvement on Wikipedia is Vandal Fighting, you should be tagging articles appropriately, posting notices on user pages, alerting AIV, etc. Editors should also be warned about editcountitis. The number of edits is ultimately less important than the quality of said edits.