bugs wrote:

This is not a bug in the software, you can assign a user to the Steward group at en-wiki from Meta, but it does not really serve any real purpose. You should contact the stewards, they should be able to remove it (they would of course, contact Jimbo first). If for some reason they can't do it, then re-open the bug.

bugs wrote:

Also, as you can see from Jimbo's user rights log on en.wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=rights&user=Jimbo+Wales&page=), steward tools still work on the English Wikipedia.

I contacted the stewards on IRC a few weeks ago, and they seemed to believe that there was an unknown cause for the quirk. As such, they refused to resolve the issue.

Also, it's my understanding that steward flags on any other wiki (1) do absolutely nothing and (2) do not exist except for this one. It's true that Jimbo exercised user rights control, but it was that specific incident that caused people confusion about stewardship.

bugs wrote:

Can you perhaps e-mail him about this and see if he can try removing it himself on Meta?(In reply to comment #3)

I contacted the stewards on IRC a few weeks ago, and they seemed to believe
that there was an unknown cause for the quirk. As such, they refused to resolve
the issue.

Did they try and remove it via Meta? I see no reasons why that wouldn't work. (We could e-mail him and ask him to see if he can remove it.)

Also, it's my understanding that steward flags on any other wiki (1) do
absolutely nothing and

They do work... I just showed you that. :-)

(2) do not exist except for this one.

That is true, there is no real reason for users to have them on other wikis when they can just as easily have them on Meta.

It's true that
Jimbo exercised user rights control, but it was that specific incident that
caused people confusion about stewardship.

Let's confirm with Jimbo first that he does not mind it being removed (and make sure he can't do it himself).

As a steward, I can tell you that there is no bug here. Any steward could technically remove his stewardship; see a demonstration at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Log?user=Pathoschild&page=User:Jimbo+Wales@enwiki .

Rather, this is a community issue. I recall from past discussions that this was left as a sort of honourary badge, rather than from any actual need or purpose. If you achieve community consensus to remove it, you can submit a request at [[m:Requests for permissions]].

In the meantime, I've closed this bug since there is no technical issue.

Seems to have been since removed.

He was given Founder right instead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Listusers/founder
Though there's no log about it on meta (the log show the status before and after [1]) nor enwiki. Maybe it was directly done on the db.

[1] - http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=&user=&page=User%3AJimbo+Wales%40enwiki