Ultima Codex:Adminship

This is a proposed policy for the Editable Codex please discuss it in the talk page.

The Codex of Ultima Wisdom is administered by the community. There are two types of formal administrator status: administrators and bureaucrat. This status is not intended to represent extra weight within community decisions or generally directing the wiki, nor is it a requirement for moderating or enforcing policy. Like all users, administrators and bureaucrats are expected to respect policy and consensus.

Administrators
Administrators are users that are also granted technical access to a few restricted features (including blocking users and deleting pages), and the additional responsibility of not misusing them. When effecting a change that requires this access, a clear reason must be provided and the action must only be performed in these cases (or else be reversed):
 * As specifically noted in any written policy, e.g. deletion according to deletion policy. For this purpose, mentions of "administrative action" should be interpreted as an allowance of blocking/banning offenders.
 * At their own discretion, whenever he or she believes it would be supported directly by community consensus (regarding the specific change/action). If going against what would normally be accepted as policy or going beyond usual sysop actions, the sysop is to note this action on the sysop discretion log. If this discretion is exercised and the expected consensus is seriously challenged by any user, an actual consensus needs to be established and implemented or the action(s) should be reverted. In challenged cases that break an explicit restriction, the action(s) are to be reverted while that consensus is not yet established.

Bureaucrats
Bureaucrats have sysop status as well as these additional powers and responsibilities:
 * Altering the assigned groups and administrator status of user accounts based on community decisions, policy, or arbitration. This includes appointing or revoking sysops based on requests for adminship and managing bot status. A clear reason has to be provided in the log when altering the user rights.
 * They are expected to respond to any questions about their actions from anyone, including via e-mail. Each bureaucrat is required to give a publicly reachable e-mail address (shown on the list of bureaucrats).
 * Bureaucrats may only use admin powers to deal with an ongoing situation and if no normal admin is available. Additionally, they may delete pages at any time in accordance with the deletion policy. Bureaucrats are only allowed to block in emergencies, specifically for edits that impair the ability of users to access wiki content, such as vandalism.

Note that these bureaucrat-only functions are not subject to the same conditions as admin actions.

Selection process
The admin selection (and reconfirmation) process is governed by the policy for requests for adminship. Other ways to lose adminhood include arbitration and voluntary resignation. One also gets admin status temporarily during a term as bureaucrat.

The bureaucrat selection process is governed by the policy for elections. Bureaucrats are generally appointed for fixed terms of 12 months from their date of appointment, with the term periods being staggered to have a functional and unchanging subgroup during the transitions. Bureaucrats can only be removed before their term end by voluntary resignation (which may be done at any time) or by unanimous votes of the other bureaucrats (as long as there are at least 2 others).