There have been many discussions about "unbundling" the powers of Wikipedia administrators – into an either a range of "sub-administrator" user classes, or permitting them for all editors in good standing. Only a few of these discussions have achieved the consensus necessary to unbundle any of these abilities.

This is an information page. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

Shortcut WP:UNBUNDLE

Several such efforts – narrowly focused ones – have been successful, resulting in the following:

• Non-admin closure of consensus discussions (covered with regard to XfDs at Wikipedia:Deletion process#Non-administrators closing discussions, and the Wikipedia:Non-admin closure essay; also widely applied to WP:Requests for comments and various other non-XfD discussions, including particular rules for the WP:Requested moves process)
• Wikipedia:Rollback: passed January 2008
• Wikipedia:Template editor: failed May 2012, passed Sept 2013
• Wikipedia:File mover: passed Feb 2011
• Wikipedia:Page mover: passed April 2016
• Wikipedia:Account creator
• Wikipedia:Event coordinator
• Wikipedia:Autopatrolled: passed December 2021 (Note: this was not 'unbundling' in the traditional sense. Autopatrolled was already available as a discrete user-right, this proposal was around removing it from the sysop group.)

Parts of this Wikipedia page (those related to section) need to be updated. Please help update this Wikipedia page to reflect recent events or newly available information. Last update: Probably a majority of unbundling proposals after 2012.

Most such proposals fail, however. In particular, a generalized "unbundle everything" idea has been classified as a perennially unsuccessful proposal that should not be re-proposed. Here are some of the discussions that did not result in changes.

• BD2412's proposal at Talk:Requests for adminship, September 2005
• Wikipedia:Limited administrators, January 2006
• Vandal fighters (at talk page and WT:RFA), August 2010
• New Userrights Proposal at Village pump (proposals), October 2010
• Unbundle the Block button at Talk:Requests for adminship, October 2010
• Proposal by Jc37/1 at Talk:Village pump (technical), June 2012
• Proposal by Jc37/2 at Talk:Village pump (technical), June 2012
• Proposal by Jc37/3 at Village pump (technical), June 2012
• Proposal by TomStar81 at RfA reform 2012, June 2012
• Unbundling delete and undelete at Talk:Village pump (technical), June 2012
• Un-bundling of the block tool at Village pump (policy), September 2012
• New user right proposal at Village pump (proposals), October 2012
• Unbundling the tools at Talk:Requests for adminship, October 2012
• Moderators, January 2013
• Vandal fighters again, January 2015
• Moderators again, July 2016
• User-right that allows non-admins to Semi-protect pages, July 2018

• Wikipedia talk:Requests for comment/Responder role

• Wikipedia:When unbundling admin power works
• Wikipedia:RFA reform