QUOTE(Newyorkbrad @ Mon 14th July 2008, 2:56pm)
QUOTE(gomi @ Mon 14th July 2008, 7:37pm)
Actual suggested policy:
QUOTE
1) Candidates with their first successful requests for adminship will get a 1-year term as admin;
2) At the end of their first term, adminship will, in all cases, be revoked;
3) After 1 month, the candidate may re-apply for adminship;
4) Second and subsequent RFAs generate two-year terms, with a minimum 2-month gap between successive terms. There is no limit on the number of admin terms that may be served.
5) All admins at the time this policy is enacted may serve at least one additional year, with their term ending on the anniversary of their first successful RFA after that year has passed.
6) Checkusers shall be, at a minimum, admins who have been elected to a third term. Checkusers shall serve a maximum of two two-year terms. If a checkuser's admin status expires during his or her term, that admin status will be extended until the end of the checkuser term.
I dare someone to post an RFC on this and try to get it passed.
One result of implementing this type of policy would be substantial increase in the amount of community time that would be spent in evaluating and voting/commenting on the reconfirmation RfAs -- of which there could wind up being at least a couple each week -- time that could, at least in theory, otherwise be spent in mainspace. I also don't see the rationale for a mandatory gap period between successive administrator terms.
The increased number of RfAs would be a problem, but I think that there is a big enough population on WP that the increase can be managed. It would also likely force admins to be more careful regarding how they treat editors, thus reducing drama from more minor issues and helping retain editors. On the other hand, I think community recall is likely to be too drama-laden, thus becoming far more of a sinkhole for editors' time.
All in all, I think the site would probably see an eventual drop in conflicts over admin behavior, thus helping to balance out the increased RfA load.