 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article or a Wikipedia policy, as it has not been reviewed by the community. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Some feel that advanced permissions on Wikipedia either provide protection leading to preferential treatment, or leads to harsher treatment compared to other users |
The Super Mario Effect describes the different treatment that Wikipedians with advanced permissions receive compared to other users. First used in a 2012 ArbCom case, it most often refers to the notion that administrators may be admonished or may lose their administrator privileges for behavior that might otherwise result in harsher sanctions, including blocks or bans, if the same behavior were exhibited by a user who was not an administrator.
It is an allusion to the Mario video game franchise. One of the mechanics throughout the games is that the player starts off normal-sized (known in the game as "small Mario"), and any damage taken from an enemy while the player is normal sized results in Mario's death. However, a red mushroom makes Mario larger (known as "Super Mario"), and one of the added effects of being big is that taking damage results in the character returning to his small size rather than dying.
The implication is that administrators are "supersized" and if they engage in conduct that might be "fatal" to a regular user (for example, resulting in a block), they merely return to being normal sized (becoming a normal user), and must engage in such conduct a second time in order to face the same sanctions a non-administrator would have faced the first time.
The extent to which the Super Mario Effect actually happens has been the subject of some debate. The concept is often used to express discontent at a perceived lack of fairness.
