This page outlines the procedure through which I may be recalled from my administrative rights on the English Wikipedia. This page exists so that the steps herein are clearly laid out prior to the recall being necessary, so that in the event a recall is initiated, there can be no accusation of me "changing the rules" during the course of the recall.

Warnings & Disclaimers[edit]

• Wikipedia:Administrators open to recall is a voluntary process. I am willing to participate in it as the tools for adminship are granted through the consensus of the community, so it stands to reason that the community should have the right to remove these tools by consensus. However, in the event this process gets abused, I will delete this page (and any subpages) and remove myself from the recall category.
• Petitions for recall that are trivial or made in spite of a single action I have taken that is in accordance with policy or community consensus can and will be ignored at my discretion. Recalls should be based on a series of incidents, or at least an extreme breach of policy.
• Petitions for recall must be made in a civil and reasoned manner. I reserve the right to ignore and close any petition for recall that turns into a "bash Hersfold" fest.
• Any use of canvassing or single-purpose accounts will immediately invalidate the recall petition.
• I reserve the right to defend accusations made against myself. However, I will not delete or protect any recall petition that was made in good faith, nor block any user for the sole reason of petitioning against me, nor request that another admin do so. I can and will, however, use my tools as an administrator to gather evidence in my defense.
• Recall should be a next-to-last resort, the last being ArbCom. If other forms of dispute resolution are not attempted before opening a recall petition, your petition may be closed without consideration.
• These recall procedures apply to my use of the administrative tools only. If you are concerned I am abusing Checkuser, or any other restricted access permissions I may gain (not including Edit Filter Manager), contact the Arbitration Committee instead.

Alternatives[edit]

Recall should be a last resort if at all possible. Other steps in the dispute resolution process should be sought out before this happens. I am more than open to communication on my talk page - if you have a question or concern about any of my actions, it is best addressed there. If something is a little more severe, you may want to post a thread at the Administrator's Incidents Noticeboard. While this option should probably be sought before taking the incident to ArbCom, that option is as always open to you as well; however, be aware that the recall process will end much faster, and much more amicably, than anything the ArbCom is going to come up with.

If other means of dispute resolution are not attempted before opening a recall petition, your petition may be closed without consideration. Users who have had no prior contact with me may not open a petition without first seeking other means of dispute resolution.

How this works[edit]

If, for any well-thought-out and non-spiteful reason, an editor feels that I have in some way abused my rights as an administrator or in some way have become undeserving of them, they may (if they meet certain eligibility requirements to show that they are in good standing) request that I be recalled from my position as an administrator on the English Wikipedia. Through following the process outlined below, they may start a petition that will require signatures from seven other editors who also meet eligibility requirements, for a total of eight signatories. In this petition, the signers will present their evidence against me, and I will present evidence in my defense. When the petition is started, I will post a public notice on my user page and user talk pages announcing the active petition. A petition will remain active for a period of one week. If at this time, eight signatures are not obtained, the petition will be closed as failed, and the signatories will be ineligible to open a new petition for one month. Even if this happens, I'll still take the comments to heart and work to improve myself.

When eight editors in good standing have signed the petition, I will open a Request for adminship page, providing in the nomination space a brief description of the situation. I will include first a summary of the evidence that has been brought against me, then a summary of the evidence I have provided in my defense. I will answer the default questions as they have applied to my work as an administrator, and then transclude the page at once. At that point, the remainder of the recall will be up to the community at large. Should the RfA fail, as determined by a bureaucrat, they will remove the administrative tools from my account. Should the RfA pass, however, I will retain the tools. In that event, the eight users who signed the petition shall be ineligible to start another petition for one month.

Eligibility criteria[edit]

In order to start or participate in a petition for recall, an editor must meet these criteria. These criteria do not apply to participation in any recall RfA that may result from a successful petition.

1. At least two months tenure as an editor. This is measured from the time of the first edit to the main namespace, that is, an actual article that required actual editing.
2. At least 1,500 total edits across all namespaces.
3. No blocks within the past year of indefinite length or that ran their entire course without being lifted by an administrator. Autoblocks that were unintentionally applied to an account do not apply.
4. No active bans enforced by the community at large, the Arbitration Committee, Jimbo, or the WMF.
5. No participation in a recall petition against me for one month.

Any petition started by an editor who does not meet these criteria will be closed without consideration. Likewise, any signature to a petition from an editor that does not meet these criteria will be ignored.

How to file a petition for recall[edit]

1. Read this page in full.
2. Make sure you meet the criteria above. Your petition will be closed without consideration if you do not meet the criteria.
3. Click the link below. This will open a new petition with a preloaded format for you to fill out.
4. Fill out all information on that page.
5. Notify me on my talk page with this template: {{subst:User:Hersfold/Recall/Notice}} ~~~~
   • Note that this template will automatically add a header and link to the petition for you. I recommend you not file a petition around midnight UTC, as that could cause the link to break.

Pages related to this process[edit]