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Revision as of 02:01, 19 August 2007 view sourceTenOfAllTrades (talk | contribs)Administrators21,283 edits rv. A.Z., adminship isn't granted based on a flat threshold of votes. Please propose any further changes on the talk page.← Previous edit Revision as of 02:07, 19 August 2007 view source A.Z. (talk | contribs)6,644 edits explained how they become administratorsNext edit →
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{{shortcut|WP:ADMIN|WP:SYSOP}} {{shortcut|WP:ADMIN|WP:SYSOP}}
'''Administrators''', commonly known as '''admins''' and also called '''sysops''' (system operators), are Misplaced Pages editors who have access to technical features that help with maintenance. Misplaced Pages practice is to grant administrator status to anyone who has been an active and regular Misplaced Pages contributor for at least a few months, is familiar with and respects Misplaced Pages policy, and who has gained the trust of the community. They can protect and delete pages, block other editors, and undo these actions as well. These privileges are granted indefinitely, and are only removed on request or under circumstances involving high level intervention (see ] below). Administrators are volunteers, ''not'' employees of the ]. '''Administrators''', commonly known as '''admins''' and also called '''sysops''' (system operators), are Misplaced Pages editors who have access to technical features that help with maintenance. Misplaced Pages practice is to grant administrator status to anyone who has been an active and regular Misplaced Pages contributor for at least a few months, is familiar with and respects Misplaced Pages policy, and who has gained the trust of the community. Users evaluate whether those criteria are met in a discussion following a request or a nomination for adminship.
Administrators can protect and delete pages, block other editors, and undo these actions as well. These privileges are granted indefinitely, and are only removed on request or under circumstances involving high level intervention (see ] below). Administrators are volunteers, ''not'' employees of the ].


In the very early days of Misplaced Pages, all users functioned as administrators. Any user can behave in a way befitting an administrator (provided they do not falsely claim to be one), even if they have not been given the extra administrative functions. Administrators themselves should not develop into a special subgroup but should be a part of the community like anyone else; the tools they are granted are technical, and do not convey authority. Although standards for administrator appointment have risen over time, several administrators are created every week. (There are currently {{NUMBEROFADMINS}} admins.) In the very early days of Misplaced Pages, all users functioned as administrators. Any user can behave in a way befitting an administrator (provided they do not falsely claim to be one), even if they have not been given the extra administrative functions. Administrators themselves should not develop into a special subgroup but should be a part of the community like anyone else; the tools they are granted are technical, and do not convey authority. Although standards for administrator appointment have risen over time, several administrators are created every week. (There are currently {{NUMBEROFADMINS}} admins.)

Revision as of 02:07, 19 August 2007

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Administrators, commonly known as admins and also called sysops (system operators), are Misplaced Pages editors who have access to technical features that help with maintenance. Misplaced Pages practice is to grant administrator status to anyone who has been an active and regular Misplaced Pages contributor for at least a few months, is familiar with and respects Misplaced Pages policy, and who has gained the trust of the community. Users evaluate whether those criteria are met in a discussion following a request or a nomination for adminship.

Administrators can protect and delete pages, block other editors, and undo these actions as well. These privileges are granted indefinitely, and are only removed on request or under circumstances involving high level intervention (see Administrator abuse below). Administrators are volunteers, not employees of the Wikimedia Foundation.

In the very early days of Misplaced Pages, all users functioned as administrators. Any user can behave in a way befitting an administrator (provided they do not falsely claim to be one), even if they have not been given the extra administrative functions. Administrators themselves should not develop into a special subgroup but should be a part of the community like anyone else; the tools they are granted are technical, and do not convey authority. Although standards for administrator appointment have risen over time, several administrators are created every week. (There are currently 848 admins.)

Because administrators are expected to be experienced members of the community, users seeking help will often turn to an administrator for advice and information. In general, administrators acting in this role are neutral; they do not have any direct involvement in the issues they are helping people with.

Request assistance - Full list of administrators - Requests for adminship

Administrator tools

The wiki software has a few important features that are restricted. Of those restricted features, administrators have access to the following.

Protected pages

  • Protect and unprotect pages, with different kinds of protection against editing by certain classes of users, and page moving. Pages are generally protected rarely and temporarily. For information and guidelines, see Misplaced Pages:Protection policy.

Deletion and undeletion

  • Delete pages, including images, and their history. For information and guidelines, see Misplaced Pages:Deletion policy and (most definitely) Misplaced Pages:Deletion guidelines for administrators. To suggest a page for deletion (after reading the policy and guidelines pages), see Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion. Sometimes deletion is a technical matter, in which a redirection page has to be removed to make way for renaming an article, or a page whose history has been broken up has to be deleted and the pieces recombined. Other times it is a matter of cleaning up junk edits on pages with no actual content, or removing material that has been pasted from another site, thereby causing copyright infringement.

Block and unblock

  • Block IP addresses, IP ranges, and user accounts, for a specific time or indefinitely.
  • Unblock IP addresses, IP ranges, and user accounts.

Reverting

  • Revert pages quickly. Any user (logged-in or not) can revert a page to an earlier version. Administrators have a faster, automated reversion tool to help them revert vandalism. When looking at a user's contributions, a link that looks like: – appears next to edits that are at the top of the edit history. Clicking on the link reverts to the last edit not authored by that user, with an edit summary of (Reverted edits by X (talk) to last version by Y) and marks it as a minor change. One-click rollback is mainly intended for vandalism, spam, etc. Disputed content deserves an explanation, either in the edit summary or on the talk page, and it is not nice to omit that (either by rolling back, or by leaving the summary field blank).

Keeping vandalism out of recent changes

  • Administrators can exclude bulk vandalism from Recent changes. To do this, add &bot=1 to the end of the URL used to access a user's contributions. For example, . When the rollback links on the contributions list are clicked, the revert and the original edit that you are reverting will both be hidden from the default recent changes display. (The bot marker was originally added to keep massive bot edits from flooding recent changes, hence the "bot".) This means that they will be hidden from recent changes unless you click the "bots" link to set hidebots=0. The edits are not hidden from contributions lists, page histories or watchlists. The edits remain in the database and are not removed, but they no longer flood recent changes. The aim of this feature is to reduce the annoyance factor of a flood vandal with relatively little effort. This should not be used for reverting a change you just do not like, but is meant only for simple vandalism, particularly massive flood vandalism.

Design and wording of the interface

Administrators can:

Other

Users with administrative privileges can also:

  • move pages protected against moves;
  • view Special:Unwatchedpages to see pages which may be more vulnerable to vandalism;
  • view the history of deleted pages, and the deleted contribs of users; and
  • create accounts with names similar to those of existing accounts

Becoming an administrator

If you would like sysop access, add your nomination to Misplaced Pages:Requests for adminship according to the guidelines mentioned there, and a discussion will take place among fellow editors about whether you should become an admin. Afer seven days, a bureaucrat will determine if there is consensus to promote you. Keep in mind that each language's Misplaced Pages has its own policies for administrators, which may differ somewhat.

Although multiple user accounts are allowed on Misplaced Pages in certain circumstances, only one account of a given person should have administrative tools.

Be careful, please! If you are granted access, you must exercise care in using these functions, especially the ability to delete pages and the ability to block IP addresses. You can learn how to do these things at the Administrators' how-to guide. Please also look at the pages linked from the Administrators' reading list before using your administrative abilities. Administrators and all other users with extra tools are expected to have a strong password, to prevent damage in the case of a compromised account. (See also Misplaced Pages:Security.)

If you have exercised your right to vanish, and return under a new name, your new name can request administrator access by contacting a bureaucrat privately and producing satisfactory evidence of being the same user, provided you did not originally request desysopping under controversial circumstances. This will not guarantee privacy, however, as new accounts which are granted sysop rights without an RfA tend to attract attention and speculation.

Places where administrators in particular can assist

Administrator rights can be particularly helpful for working in certain areas of Misplaced Pages.


Other access types

In addition to administrators, there are other types of identified users. See also Misplaced Pages:User access levels.

IP addresses

Visitors who have not "signed in" can still do most things, including the most important: editing articles and helping with Misplaced Pages maintenance tasks.

Signed-in users

Signed-up users can do everything IP addresses can do. They can also upload files, start new articles and, once they reach the "autoconfirm" threshold, they can move/rename pages and edit semi-protected pages. See Special:Userlogin to sign up.

Bots

The edits of users with Bot status turned on can be hidden in recent changes (hidden by default) and watchlists (shown by default), usually only used for mass edits by bots.

Bureaucrats

Users with "Bureaucrat" status can turn other users into sysops (administrator) (but not remove sysop status), change usernames, and flag and unflag bots accounts. Bureaucrats are created by other bureaucrats on projects where these exist, or by stewards on those who do not yet have one. Sysoppings are recorded in Special:Log/rights or Misplaced Pages:Bureaucrat log for activity prior to December 24, 2004. Sysoppings by stewards are recorded at Meta:Special:Log/rights but the few stewards who actively sysop users on the English Misplaced Pages do so using their local bureaucrat status, making this distinction rather academic.

Oversights

Users with the "oversight" permission can hide revisions of pages from all users. These revisions can temporarily be accessed and reviewed by users with the oversight permission. A log of oversight actions is visible to all Oversights.

Checkusers

Users with the "checkuser" permission can retrieve the IP addresses used by a username and can also retrieve all edits by users using a certain IP or IP range. A log of Checkuser actions is visible to all Checkusers.

Stewards

Users with "Steward" status can change the access of any user on any Wikimedia project. This includes granting and revoking sysop access and marking users as bots. Their actions are recorded at Special:Log/rights on meta. Requests for their assistance can be made at m:Requests for permissions. Normally, they will not perform actions that can be carried out by local users.

Developers

The highest degree of technical access (actually a group of levels, the difference between all but the lowest of which is not really visible to users) is "developer", for those who can make direct changes to the MediaWiki software and the Wikimedia wiki farm and databases. These people, by and large, do not carry out administrative functions.

They can be contacted via the wikitech-l mailing list. See mw:Developers for a partial list of developers and further information.

Dealing with grievances

If a user thinks an administrator has acted improperly against them or another editor, they should express their concerns directly to the administrator responsible and try to come to a resolution in an orderly and civil manner. However, if the matter is not resolved between the two parties, users can take further action according to Misplaced Pages:Resolving disputes. For more possibilities, see Requests for comment/User conduct: Use of administrator privileges.

Administrator abuse

Administrators can be removed if they misuse their powers. Currently, administrators may be removed either at the request of Jimbo Wales or by a ruling of the Arbitration Committee. At their discretion, lesser penalties may also be assessed against problematic administrators, including the restriction of their use of certain powers or placement on administrative probation. The technical ability to remove administrator status rests with stewards.

There have been alternative procedures suggested for the removal of sysop status, but none of them have achieved consensus. Some administrators will voluntarily stand for reconfirmation under certain circumstances; see Category:Misplaced Pages administrators open to recall.

No big deal

An often paraphrased comment about adminship is the following, said by Jimbo Wales in Feb 2003, referring to administrators as sysops:

I just wanted to say that becoming a sysop is *not a big deal*.

I think perhaps I'll go through semi-willy-nilly and make a bunch of people who have been around for awhile sysops. I want to dispel the aura of "authority" around the position. It's merely a technical matter that the powers given to sysops are not given out to everyone.

I don't like that there's the apparent feeling here that being granted sysop status is a really special thing.

— Jimbo Wales, wikimedia.org archive entry, gmane archive entry

See also

ru-sib:Misplaced Pages:Administrators

Categories: