Wikipedia defines Nepotism as "favouritism granted to relatives or friends, without regard to their merit". Nepotism in communities may manifest in things like:
- Administrators or moderators not applying group rules in the same way, or at all, to friends as they would to other community members.
- Administrator / moderator positions being filled in a non-transparent manner (e.g. lack of open calls for position applications, non-merit based filling of positions, etc.).
- Group-affecting decisions being made in consultation with friends of administrators / moderators but not in consultation with the group as a whole.