This is not a general blog about being an administrator on Wikipedia; it was prompted by a recent incident fresh in the mind. Anyone can edit Wikipedia articles if not specifically banned, it helps of course to learn the (HTML-like) code, but there's information on site if I remember, on how to do that; there's community on site among editors, and editors with a fairly substantial, recognized contribution might pass a voting process and become administrators. (They can be nominated, or nominate themselves. ) The turnout in my election wasn't large but there was still a majority, and I've been an administrator onsite since mid-2005.
An administrator is responsible for monitoring the site for vandals, for participating in deletion debates, and several similar tasks. (I have not held up much more than the first of these responsibilities lately, but think I'll return soon and do much more on Wikipedia...) To this end several links- to delete a page or image, to quickly roll back edits by a user, to block a user from editing, ... are available from an admin's screen that aren't from a regular editor's.
(More later, I think...)
