User blog:Obi the LEGO Fan/Regulating "Admin Talk"

This blog post should be read in correspondence with this community vote, as I am essentially defending the idea that we need to regulate what can be discussed on the private admin website.

Originally, the admins pretty much controlled everything from that website. Fortunately, we have been able to change that. In the last year or so Requests for Rights and Community Voting forums have been set up that allow the community to fully participate in making decisions. Despite this, some decisions continue to be made on the private site (hitherto "Admin Talk"). Now, I am going to present some key arguments for why we should implement Riolu's proposed regulations ("the plan") and have our discussions with the community, not in secret. First, let's take a look at some advantages derived from implementing the plan.

Advantage #1: Transparency

Moving discussions from Admin Talk to a discussion forum increases transparency. Transparency is key if we are going to have successful interaction between the administration and the rest of the community. This is because transparency bolsters trust, destroys barriers, and allows for accountability. It also has some other benefits that are large enough to be considered separate advantages.

Transparency bolsters trust because people are more likely to trust admins when they know exactly what they are doing and what their opinions are. If admins are mysterious and their actual paradigms and beliefs are not known to the public, then trust cannot exist. Transparency destroys barriers because it breaks down the "us versus them" mentality that is engendered by carrying out decisions and having discussions on a private website. Unnecessary reliance on Admin Talk makes it seem that the admins are an "elite" that is somehow separate from and superior to the community. However, that is of course nonsense. By integrating our discussions with the community we can demonstrate a key fact: administrators are just members of the community entrusted with extra tools. Finally, transparency allows for accountability—which is really clear and simple. If the community doesn't know what admins are doing, they can't hold them responsible. This has been mitigated by other decisions, but these regulations will finally allow for full accountability.

Advantage 2: Efficiency

Having discussions on the wiki instead of at Admin Talk will increase efficiency. This advantage is quite simple. If we cut out the "middle man," and instead of having preliminary discussions with other admins, we go straight to a community discussion, then we have cut out a major and unnecessary step in the process of making decisions. Cutting out this step will make the process more efficient. It also means that inactive admins will not slow down discussions. If people don't reply in a reasonable amount of time, then they don't get a say in the decision. This will further increase efficiency.

Advantage 3: Education

This is actually a huge advantage, and one that is not talked about nearly enough. Regulating Admin Talk will increase education. When we have discussions on a private site, we deprive the rest of the community of the benefit of our feedback. Administrators are generally trusted, skilled, and knowledgeable members of the community. Thus, their feedback should be considered quite valuable. But instead of sharing this knowledge with the community, we often restrict it to private dialogue. This means that the rest of the community doesn't have access to all of the administrators' feedback or reasoning. By having the discussions on wiki, the community will better be able to understand where the admins are coming from, which will greatly conduce constructive discussions.

Increasing transparency, efficiency, and education are three huge advantages to the plan. In comparison, the disadvantages are minor and insignificant. Thus, an impartial cost-benefit analysis clearly weighs in favor of voting in support of the plan, which I advise you all to do (although of course, please think through the issue for yourself and give whatever feedback you have!)

~Obi