RationalWiki talk:Techs

Discussion

This discussion was moved here from RationalWiki:Moderator elections/Nominations.

Background:

Hi. In March 2016, I gave 5 users tech rights (with community support) in order to fight then-rampant spam via the editfilter: CorruptUser, JorisEnter, Owlman, Zero, Queex. Queex became inactive; Ikanreed was added as a RMF staffmember for some reason or other. Today, I removed all the inactive techs.

Current techs:

These are the current active techs:

1. 142․124․55․236‏‎ (also a mod*)
2. CorruptUser‏‎
3. David Gerard (also a mod, staff*)
4. FuzzyCatPotato‏‎ (also a mod, staff*)
5. Ikanreed‏‎ (also staff*)
6. JorisEnter‏‎
7. Owlman
8. Tmtoulouse‏‎ (god-emperor*)
9. Zero

In sum, there are 5 "unelected" techs: CorruptUser, Ikanreed*, JorisEnter, Owlman, and Zero.

*All mods are automatically given tech rights (or at least the ability to give themselves tech rights). Staff aren't elected to be techs, so this is an extra right given to Ikanreed.

Powers:

Techs have the ability to (1) alter the edit filter, which affects how RW handles spam and repetitive trolls like Mikemikev, (2) promote/demote users from ninja status, which gives bot-editing abilities (edits that don't show up on RecentChanges), (3) rename users, and (4) alter MediaWiki: space pages, which are mostly user interface items like MediaWiki:Sitenotice (the donation notice) and MediaWiki:Sidebar (the main site sidebar on your left). However, techs have no community authority and cannot police other users.

Theoretically, it's possible to request tech rights. In practice, tech rights have been given by moderators as needed. So the question (and TL;DR):

TL;DR: What should we do with the tech position? Eliminate all unelected techs, keep techs as is, or make techs elected?

I suggested 5 techs as the limit because that's what we got now -- obviously that can change. Mʀ. Wʜɪsᴋᴇʀs, Esϙᴜɪʀᴇ (talk/stalk) 03:52, 22 December 2016 (UTC)

I think we should keep the tech position as a sort of reserve force. If there's another flurry of spam/vandalism, then the mods can deputize people to help clean up any mess.Otherwise I think the position isn't necessary, since from what I can tell they're basically mods but with fewer powers. Unless of course there's something I'm missing. Is there? RoninMacbeth (talk) 05:45, 23 December 2016 (UTC)

Nope, you haven't missed anything. It's nice to have extra techs around to update the edit filter as the continual disruptive trolls come back (eg, Mikemikev). Otherwise, a mod would have to scroll through all edits to check if the troll is using new keywords.

Similarly, techs can help respond to false positives faster than mods alone.

TLDR: A permanent "deputized" tech force makes moderation substantially easier.

I'd like to preserve that, without the undemocratic nature of deputized techs. Mʀ. Wʜɪsᴋᴇʀs, Esϙᴜɪʀᴇ (talk/stalk) 11:28, 23 December 2016 (UTC)

I don't see a huge need for tech elections - anyone willing, able and not a twat should be allowed to do it. However, coops/unelections for rogue or absent techs should be a thing. Bicycle^wheel 22:58, 23 December 2016 (UTC)

We don't elect techs, that's a prima facie stupid idea - David Gerard (talk) 11:23, 24 December 2016 (UTC)

Let's not vote to elect techs — and if we're not doing that, let's scrap this discussion segment and remove the mention of techs from the (already too long) intercom message? Also, could some big, beautiful, baby boy please grant me tech already? Krej and Bongolian's been needing ninja for months now. Besides, I'd like to learn to help keeping the edit filter funky-fresh. All the best, Reverend Black Percy (talk) 14:34, 25 December 2016 (UTC)

*shrug* It seems the community is fine with undemocratic techs. Let's be democratically undemocratic! ;)

@RBP: Please direct your concerns to RW:YMB. Herr FüzzyCätPötätö (talk/stalk) 02:01, 26 December 2016 (UTC)