Should we allow users to be granted temporary administrative rights?
At the 2021 RFA Reform RFC, the idea of allowing temporary two-year administrative terms was floated, but the proposal did not gain sufficient consensus to pass. However, I believe that with some tweaking temporary adminship could be found acceptable. Administrator is currently the only flag which is given by the community and which has a temporary option, but this option is not in use. Our policy at WP:CANDIDATE states Adminship is granted indefinitely
but then goes on to add (among other reasons) and is removed only upon request, ...
, which still theoretically allows for temporary access without needing a policy change.
The main venue I am proposing for temporary adminship would be as a result of a bureaucrat chat. Currently RfA is considered "unsuccessful" if the percentage in support drops below 75%, ostensibly because adminship is "for life" (barring misbehaviour or resignation). However, at a 'crat chat we accept percentages down to 65%. This new proposal would allow bureaucrats, following a chat, to add "temporary adminship" to the list of potential outcomes. This would be for candidates who have one or two "hot button" issues that have tainted or otherwise "sunk" their RfA.