Wikipedia:Administrator recall/RfCs

This is a list of former and ongoing discussions, notably requests for comment, about the administrator recall process.

Former RfCs and discussions

A history of discussions prior to the 2024 recall procedure can be found at Wikipedia:History of de-adminship proposals.

2024 Requests for adminship review – Phase I

The first phase of the 2024 Requests for adminship review brought forward multiple proposals for a recall process, labeled Proposal 16 to Proposal 16f.

• Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/2024 review/Phase I
  • § Proposal 16: Allow the community to initiate recall RfAs
  • § Proposal 16b: Require a reconfirmation RfA after X years
  • § Proposal 16c: Community recall process based on dewiki
  • § Proposal 16d: Community recall process initiated by consensus
  • § Proposal 16e: Allow the community to initiate recall RfBs
  • § Proposal 16f: Require a reconfirmation RfB after X years

While no single proposal found broad consensus, the combined result of Proposals 16, 16c and 16d combined was considered enough evidence for a rough consensus in favor of a recall process, to be fleshed out in Phase II.

2024 Requests for adminship review – Phase II

Following the rough consensus of Phase I, a survey was created as part of Phase II to flesh out the details of the recall process. It comprised 13 distinct questions, ranging from the initiation procedure to a potential time limit on starting multiple petitions in a row.

• Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/2024 review/Phase II/Administrator recall
  • § Initiation procedure
  • § Rolling
  • § Reconfirmation threshold
  • § Eligibility to RRFA
  • § Recall Petition Suffrage
  • § Striking/Removing signatures
  • § Desysop after Recall petition
  • § Recall petition discussion
  • § Reconfirmation by admin elections
  • § Reconfirmation threshold for admin elections
  • § Notifications for petitions
  • § Expired signatures on initiation petitions
  • § Initiator time limit

The survey led to the creation of Wikipedia:Administrator recall with the adoption of all options that gained consensus.

Wikipedia:Village pump (policy) RfC

Because of the uncertainty around the binding nature of the Phase II RfC, a follow-up RfC was started at Wikipedia:Village pump (policy). This question aimed to clarify whether the previous discussion had by itself force of policy, or whether further discussion was needed to ratify it.

• Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)#Administrator Recall

The closing statement noted that a lack of clarity over the RfC's precise goal asked led to different questions being answered by the participants. However, with no formal process required to ratify new policies, beyond the necessity for large changes to be well-advertised, the closer considered this RfC to be a valid way to establish the status of Wikipedia:Administrator recall as a policy. Ultimately, this discussion established consensus for Phase II's recall procedure to be adopted.

Policy status discussion

Following debate about whether the closer was in their right to label WP:RECALL as a policy, a discussion was started on 28 October 2024 at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard over its policy status.

• Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive366 § Is WP:RECALL a policy?

This close challenge ended with consensus to remove "policy" designation from the page.

Early workshopping

Also on 28 October 2024, a Wikipedia:Village pump (idea lab) was opened to discuss potential improvements to the recall process.

• Wikipedia:Village pump (idea lab)/Archive 62 § Avoiding a long month of drama

It was archived, and served as the inspiration for today's reworkshop.

Early closure discussions

After the first recall petition reached 25 votes, the question of early closure was brought up on Wikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard on 6 November 2024. Consensus there was that the recall policy as such did not provide for closing the petition before 30 days had elapsed. On the next day, an open discussion (clarified not to be a formal RfC) began at Wikipedia talk:Administrator recall, polling the community about future closing scenarios.

• Wikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard/Archive 50 § Requesting closure of Wikipedia:Administrator recall/Graham87
• Wikipedia talk:Administrator recall/Archive 2 § Early closure

The latter discussion did not call for a formal decision, and was archived with no action.

Signature-only petitions

• Wikipedia talk:Administrator recall § RfC: Should we add text prescribing just signatures, no discussion?

Started on 3 November 2024. Closed on 29 November with consensus against the following text being added: As with any petition, all that is wanted is signatures. Any editor may and should remove any material found on a petition page except for the nomination and signatures. Any exceptions should be discussed and agreed to on the talk page first.

Shorten Recall petition period

• Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Shorten recall petition period, started on 1 November 2024
  • Previously at Wikipedia:Village pump (policy) § RfC: Shorten the recall petition period?, moved to a standalone page due to the discussion size

RFC to shorten the recall petition period from 30 days. Closed as "no consensus" on 14 December 2024.

Village Pump discussion

• Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)/Archive 198 § h-We need to fix the admin recall process, started on 19 November 2024. Discussion was archived without formal closure.

Future RfCs

An "idea lab"-style page was created on 8 November 2024 to allow for centralized discussion of changes to the recall procedure, in preparation for future RfCs.

• Wikipedia:Administrator recall/Reworkshop

It continues the workshopping of potential changes started at Wikipedia:Village pump (idea lab) § Avoiding a long month of drama.