Wikipedia:Advice for RfA candidates

This is an essay on the Requests for adminship guideline, and the Requests for adminship process page. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

Shortcut WP:RFAADVICE

This page in a nutshell: This advice is based on hundreds of previous RfAs. Being a Wikipedia administrator is not the same as being a moderator on an Internet forum. The tasks are many and varied and require a high degree of competency and judgement. In particular, see: What adminship is not

This advice makes becoming an admin sound complex but being an admin is complex. Your RfA will be an opportunity to demonstrate your skills in conflict resolution. Read also the linked pages at the end of this essay, and if you meet the criteria, don't let any of it put you off – for a well prepared candidate who fulfills the general criteria and has no skeletons in the cupboard, becoming an admin is easy.

The administrator role on Wikipedia is a advanced permission that is only granted to editors who can demonstrate to the community that their level of knowledge, judgment, experience, and behavior merit the level of trust, respect, and care from the community where consensus shows that the user will perform the duties and responsibilities of that role to their level of expectations. It is not a user right that is given to new, novice, or even established users on Wikipedia.

The process of becoming an administrator is explained at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship. The tasks that administrators actually perform on a regular basis are described at Wikipedia:Administrators. Successful RFA candidates will almost always have edited Wikipedia on a consistent basis for at least one year, will have thousands of edits demonstrating proficiency and a high level of knowledge in various maintenance-related areas of the project as well as policy-related areas, and will also have made measurable contributions to articles that demonstrate knowledge of important Wikipedia policies and processes involving article and content creation and expansion. The RfA process not only checks a candidate's editing performance, but also allows for the community to review the candidate's maturity, impartiality, interactions and behaviors toward other community members, and overall sense of judgement and decision-making. Solid preparation, proficiency with Wikipedia processes, and knowledge of Wikipedia's policies and guidelines is absolutely critical in order to have any chance of their RFA request being successful.

More essays (especially those on users' !voting criteria) and advice pages are listed at the end of this page. The footnotes contain links to important examples. Viewed separately, they are an integral part of this advice. Please be sure to read them and follow the links. When you have read this guide and gone through all the other advice, you may wish to start a request at the Optional RfA candidate poll as the last thing you do before making up your mind, but you may also wish to email an experienced user for advice.