Wikipedia administrators
The first Wikipedia administrators were selected by Jimmy Wales himself in October 2001. Any registered editor may nominate themselves, or may request another editor to do so. The process has been said to be "akin to putting someone through the Supreme Court" by Andrew Lih, a scientist and professor who is himself an administrator on the English Wikipedia. Lih also said, "It's pretty much a hazing ritual at this point", in contrast to how the process worked early in Wikipedia's history, when all one had to do to become an admin was "prove you weren't a bozo". Editors can become candidates only after "extensive work on the wiki". Any editor can vote in an RfA. The result of the vote is not by the number of votes for or against, but by the agreement that has been reached. The decision if an agreement has been reached can be made only by a bureaucrat. A bureaucrat is a Wikipedia editor who is also selected by the community through a "request" process which is much stricter for them than for administrators. This RfA process was started after RfAs attracted a lot of attention. Before the middle of 2005, RfAs did not attract a lot of attention. But then RfAs started attracting groups of editors who all supported one another.