User:Barkeep49/RfA

Key thoughts of this essay in a nutshell: We don't know that much about RfA and some of what we "know" is probably not true The single best indicator that you're ready to run is respected editors, especially sysops, telling you that you're ready to run People need to be more motivated to oppose you than support you. This will work in your favor but less in your favor than the recent past. Nominators are really nice to have; so too is a base of support from something like an active WikiProject Questions matter but how they matter is hard to predict before you answer them. Good answers to questions are the best tool a candidate has at stopping or preventing a run of opposes. Since they matter make sure you answer them carefully (and where policy and guidelines are involved, correctly). It's good to be ready for questions and bouncing potential answers off someone, like your noms, is definitely useful. We should have a convention of asking an open ended question after a candidate receives some neutral or opposing votes on a given topic. Be conservative but not terrified with your non-RfA related activities while it's going on.

On September 11, 2019, I was privileged to become a sysop on English Wikipedia. Having watched several requests for adminship in my time and now having lived through it, I have a few thoughts on the process. On the whole, I think we know a lot less about how Requests for Adminship (RfA) works than conventional wisdom would suggest. It's a bit of exaggeration to say we don't know anything but I think that is closer to the truth than to say we really understand how it works.

The observations from this essay are most true from about a period sometime in 2017 to 2020. As of January 2021^[update] the general advice holds but RfA had a weird year in 2020 and so this essay may be out of date when you're reading it. I am going to talk in-depth about my specific experience, but in a way that is intended to illustrate broader points. While I could make the same points about someone else's RfA that doesn't feel fair to them when I can use myself, warts and all, instead.