Wikipedia:Unbundling administrators' powers
 | This is an information page. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting. |
There have been many discussions about "unbundling" the powers of Wikipedia administrators – into an either a range of "sub-administrator" user classes, or permitting them for all editors in good standing. Only a few of these discussions have achieved the consensus necessary to unbundle any of these abilities.
Successful proposals
Several such efforts – narrowly focused ones – have been successful, resulting in the following:
- Non-admin closure of consensus discussions (covered with regard to XfDs at Wikipedia:Deletion process#Non-administrators closing discussions, and the Wikipedia:Non-admin closure essay; also widely applied to WP:Requests for comments and various other non-XfD discussions, including particular rules for the WP:Requested moves process)
- Wikipedia:Rollback: passed January 2008
- Wikipedia:Template editor: failed May 2012, passed Sept 2013
- Wikipedia:File mover: passed Feb 2011
- Wikipedia:Page mover: passed April 2016
- Wikipedia:Account creator
- Wikipedia:Event coordinator
- Wikipedia:Autopatrolled: passed December 2021 (Note: this was not 'unbundling' in the traditional sense. Autopatrolled was already available as a discrete user-right, this proposal was around removing it from the
sysopgroup.)
Failed proposals
 | Parts of this Wikipedia page (those related to section) need to be updated. Please help update this Wikipedia page to reflect recent events or newly available information. Last update: Probably a majority of unbundling proposals after 2012. |
Most such proposals fail, however. In particular, a generalized "unbundle everything" idea has been classified as a perennially unsuccessful proposal that should not be re-proposed. Here are some of the discussions that did not result in changes.
- BD2412's proposal at Talk:Requests for adminship, September 2005
- Wikipedia:Limited administrators, January 2006
- Vandal fighters (at talk page and WT:RFA), August 2010
- New Userrights Proposal at Village pump (proposals), October 2010
- Unbundle the Block button at Talk:Requests for adminship, October 2010
- Proposal by Jc37/1 at Talk:Village pump (technical), June 2012
- Proposal by Jc37/2 at Talk:Village pump (technical), June 2012
- Proposal by Jc37/3 at Village pump (technical), June 2012
- Proposal by TomStar81 at RfA reform 2012, June 2012
- Unbundling delete and undelete at Talk:Village pump (technical), June 2012
- Un-bundling of the block tool at Village pump (policy), September 2012
- New user right proposal at Village pump (proposals), October 2012
- Unbundling the tools at Talk:Requests for adminship, October 2012
- Moderators, January 2013
- Vandal fighters again, January 2015
- Moderators again, July 2016
- User-right that allows non-admins to Semi-protect pages, July 2018