The "Small Wikipedia" problem

The admin election game (WP:RFA) is basically a positive sum game where those interested suck up to each other. It's like having politicians elect each other.

If only it were that good. In reality, the best qualified users are too afraid to go to RfA, because it has become a venue for every old feud to be brought up, where users are allowed to be nasty to each other, and where strange and ever changing artificial measures of worth are applied irregularly. The day that Chzz, who in my opinion is the single most highly qualified person for adminship that is not one already, no longer feels afraid to run at RfA, we can call the process fixed. Until then adminship will be a huge issue. The number of promotions is dropping fast, the number of burnouts is too high, and there is a host of qualified people that are put off by the atmosphere in that area.