Editing Wikipedia (section)

=== Administrators ===
Editors in good standing in the community can request extra [[Wikipedia:User access levels|user rights]], granting them the technical ability to perform certain special actions. In particular, editors can choose to run for "[[administrators (Wikipedia)|adminship]]",<ref>{{srlink|Wikipedia:Administrators}}</ref><ref name="David_Mehegan"/> which includes the ability to delete pages or prevent them from being changed in cases of severe vandalism or editorial disputes. Administrators are not supposed to enjoy any special privilege in decision-making; instead, their powers are mostly limited to making edits that have project-wide effects and thus are disallowed to ordinary editors, and to implement restrictions intended to prevent disruptive editors from making unproductive edits.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators#Administrator_conduct |title = Wikipedia:Administrators |access-date = July 12, 2009 |date = October 3, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:RfA_Review/Reflect |title = Wikipedia:RfA_Review/Reflect |access-date = September 24, 2009 |date = January 22, 2017}}</ref>

By 2012, fewer editors were becoming administrators compared to Wikipedia's earlier years, in part because the process of vetting potential administrators had become more rigorous.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/3-charts-that-show-how-wikipedia-is-running-out-of-admins/259829 |title = 3 Charts That Show How Wikipedia Is Running Out of Admins |last = Meyer |first = Robinson |website = [[The Atlantic]] |date = July 16, 2012 |access-date = September 2, 2012}}</ref>