User:Banaticus/Adoption/Permissions

In order to keep the wiki running efficiently, some users have additional abilities (permissions) beyond those of basic users. These abilities are used for the maintenance of the site, but because of the potentially dangerous nature of these abilities, they are only given to trusted users.

The user access levels page lists the rights of all types of users. I'll briefly cover each type, as well as how people get these abilities.

Unregistered/Anonymous users

Anyone that just drops by and edits Wikipedia without logging in or creating an account is an unregistered or anonymous user with the lowest access level. They are tracked by their IP address rather than a user name. They may:

• Read all Wikipedia pages (except restricted special pages)
• Edit pages that are not semi-protected or protected
• Create talk pages in any talk namespace (but may need to ask for help to create pages in some parts of the wiki)
• Query the site API in 500-record batches.

They may not:

• Upload files or images
• Add an external link of any kind unless they answer a CAPTCHA.
• Purge a page without clicking a confirm link.

Although most long-standing Wikipedia users have a username, some do not such as 220.101.28.25. While such users may still contribute greatly to Wikipedia, not registering a username prevents them from gaining any further access levels.

Registered users

They may:

• Create new pages (except in the MediaWiki namespace), limit 8 per minute
• e-mail other users if they activate an email address in their user preferences
• mark edits as minor
• purge pages without a confirmation step
• customize their Wikimedia interface and its options as they wish, via Special:Preferences or by adding personal CSS or JavaScript rules to their vector.css or vector.js files.

Autoconfirmed registered users

Normally, long-term blocks of IP addresses or ranges do not affect logged-in editors. However, it is occasionally necessary to block both anonymous and logged-in editors in this way to prevent disruption. Administrators are always exempt from such blocks (with the exception of Tor blocks). Other editors can request IP block exemption on a per user basis if they can show good cause. Normally, it requires 10 edits and four days for a registered account to be autoconfirmed. A person editing through an IP block exemption requires 90 days and 100 edits to be autoconfirmed. They may:

• Move pages
• Edit semi-protected pages
• Upload files or upload a new version of an existing file
• Mark pages created by others as patrolled in Special:NewPages
• Save books to the wiki

In addition, the Edit filter has a number of warning settings that only affect editors who are not autoconfirmed and they are no longer required to enter a CAPTCHA for most events.

Registered users who are not yet autoconfirmed may request a manually-added "confirmed" flag.

Administrators, bureaucrats and stewards

Officially, becoming an administrator (admin), bureaucrat, and/or steward (collectively known as "sysops") is No Big Deal. In the very early days, all users were admins. The system was changed to a role-based access control under which individual user accounts could receive separate flags, which would determine which tools they could access. Most maintenance and administration aspects of Wikipedia can be conducted by anyone, without the specific technical functions granted to administrators. When not using the special tools, sysops are have no special powers or privileges when editing like everyone else, although they are expected to observe a high standard of conduct.

Simply stated, while appropriate conduct and the correct use of the tools should be considered important, merely "being an administrator" is not important.

Admins

The admin logo - a Wikipedia globe with a mop

On the English Wikipedia, anyone can nominate themselves to be an admin, although since it is generally required that you have demonstrated maturity and experience in editing Wikipedia (that high standard of conduct thing), in general people with low edit counts are summarily rejected as "not having enough experience". For instance in 2008 only a dozen candidates with between 3,000 and 4,500 edits succeeded and only one with less than 3,000 edits. If you are interested in this process, you should view the Guide to requests for adminship. Admins can add any non-admin flag to an account although they cannot always remove flags. They may:

• Protect pages
• Edit protected pages
• Delete and restore pages
• Move pages over redirects (move a page to where another page already is)
• Hide and delete page revisions
• Block other editors from editing for various periods of time
• Other functions, which are explained in more detail on the Administrators/Tools page.

Bureaucrats

The bureaucrat logo - a Wikipedia globe with transparent wrenches

Bureaucrat rights are granted by the community to exceptionally trusted users who are allowed to perform certain actions on other users' accounts. They may:

• making another user a sysop (although they cannot remove a person from a sysop group)
• add/remove permission to run a bot
• use Special:RenameUser to rename users (including themselves)

To become a bureaucrat, you must have been an active admin (at least 150 admin actions in the past six months) and have the support of two people who are already bureaucrats.

Steward

Stewards can basically do anything, and are expected to do everything for small Wikimedia wikis which don't have admins or bureaucrats (for instance, as of early February 2011 the [Portugese language Wikipedia] has no bureaucrats or anyone with a checkuser flag because of a deep internal conflict). Stewards are reelected yearly -- they must justify themselves to the community each year.

Stewards are preferably multilingual, because steward work often involves projects of varying language, but this is not a requirement. They should also be available on a reasonably common basis. The stewards policy sets limitations; for example, stewards may not use their access on projects that they are active on to avoid conflicts of interest, and are encouraged to watch and help on the steward request pages. They can also join the IRC channel #wikimedia-stewards ^connect on freenode to answer requests.

To become a steward, you need to have a Global (SUL) Login, have been active on any Wikimedia Foundation project for at least six months, been an admin for three months, be at least 18 years old (and at least the age of majority in your country), and provide your full name and proof of identity to the Wikimedia Foundation.

All other flags

Reviewer

As part of the pending changes trial, users in this group can review other users' edits on pages subject to protection by pending changes. Potential reviewers should recognize vandalism, be familiar with basic content policies such as the policy on living people, and have a reasonable level of experience editing Wikipedia. It is recommended to read the reviewing guideline, where the reviewing process is detailed, as well as expectations for a reviewer.

Rollback

rollback logo

Admins and other users who have been granted the "rollbacker" permission (since January 9, 2008, this tool can be granted by administrators to non-administrators) are given the ability to revert multiple edits by a single editor at once. Users who do not demonstrate an understanding of what constitutes capable vandalism fighting, either because they have no or little history of doing so, or show a poor ability to discern between good and bad faith edits will not be granted this right. For a more detailed explanation of rollback and information about when it is appropriate to use the tool, see Wikipedia:Rollback feature. For information about the technical details of the feature, see here. To receive rollback permission, ask for it on the Rollback request page.

Accountcreator

accountcreator logo

The account creator flag is granted to users who are active in the account request process. The flag removes the limit on the maximum number of new accounts that can be created in a 24 hour period (normally six). It also allows users to make accounts with names similar to other accounts. The account creator flag is only given to users who participate in the account creation division and may be removed without notice should a user's participation in the account creation process cease.

Accountcreators are one of the two most recent additions to the available userrights, and as such currently very few users have the right. Accountcreator is only given to users who volunteer for the account creation division helping new and unregistered users create usernames that do not violate the username policy. The accountcreator flag allows these volunteers to create more than six accounts in any given 24 hour period, which is currently restricted for any user without syop or accountcreator privileges. The reason for this is to stop trolls from creating too many abusive accounts at a single time. You can request this privilege on any syop's talkpage, but must have already created accounts (that do not violate the username policy) through the account creation program. To receive Accountcreator permission, ask for it on the accountcreator request page.

Autopatrolled

The autopatrolled flag is granted to users who are active in the creation of new articles. This tool is granted so their creations are auto patrolled in Special:NewPages. Unlike other requests, any user may nominate an editor for Autopatrolled, even without that user's consent. A user who wishes to have this flag must be trusted, experienced, and must have demonstrated they are familiar with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, especially WP:BLP and WP:Notability. To receive autopatrolled permission, ask for it on the autopatrolled request page.

Edit filter manager

Edit filter managers manage the edit filter. It requires a basic knowledge of programming and excellent regex skills. Requests for access to the edit filter manager group should be made at Wikipedia talk:Edit filter. Requests may (in general) take up to seven days to process; more if case appropriate consensus (or lack thereof) is not clear.

Autowikibrowser

AutoWikiBrowser is a semi-automated MediaWiki editor for Microsoft Windows systems (2000, XP, Vista, 7) designed designed to make tedious repetitive tasks quicker and easier. It is essentially a browser that automatically opens up a new page when the last is saved. When set to do so, it suggests some changes (typically formatting) that are generally meant to be incidental to the main change. Please read the quick guide on the main page before requesting permission. In applying for AWB access, you indicate that you will abide by that agreement. That guide is for requesting AWB Access for the English Wikipedia only -- other projects have their own check pages a local sysops should be asked for permission there (or whatever their rules are, as they vary). Note that users with under 500 mainspace edits are RARELY approved. Also, you only need to give a reason for wanting AWB access if you have fewer than 500 mainspace edits! If approved, your name will be added to the CheckPage.

Checkuser

CheckUser is a tool allowed to be used by a small number of users who are permitted to examine user IP information and other server log data under certain circumstances, for the purposes of protecting Wikipedia against actual and potential disruption and abuse (mainly to test if a person is a sockpuppet. CheckUser itself simply produces log information for checking; it can require considerable skill and experience to investigate cases even with the tool.

On the English Wikipedia, CheckUser is entrusted to a restricted number of users who can both execute CheckUser inquiries subject to their own discretion and monitor and crosscheck each other's use of the function.

The permission is approved (exceedingly rarely and only with good cause) by the Arbitration Committee and beginning in February 2009 with a community election following vetting by the arbitration committee, who handle many privacy-related functions. Users authorized for CheckUser must be 18 years of age or older and have provided personal identification to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Oversight

Oversighting on Wikipedia (also known as Suppression) is a form of enhanced deletion which, unlike normal deletion, expunges information from any form of usual access even by administrators. It is used within strict limits to remove defamatory material, to protect privacy, and sometimes to remove serious copyright violations, from any page or log entry (including if required the list of users) on the English Wikipedia.

On the English Wikipedia, "oversight," the right to suppress edits, is entrusted to a restricted number of users, who can suppress material if it meets the strict requirements below. Use of these tools is monitored both by other oversighters who patrol the log, and by the Arbitration Committee (Arbcom) by its Audit subcommittee.

The permission is granted by the Arbitration Committee after community consultation and significant review of the user's contributions. Users in the oversight group must be over 18 years of age and must have provided personal identification to the Wikimedia Foundation.

These permissions are all critical to the operation of the Wiki, however it should be kept in mind that not having (or having) one of these access levels really is no big deal. The important thing about a wiki is that you are able to edit it as needed, not that you can limit the ability of others to do so. If a higher access level is granted to you, however, you should always remember that it was granted in the spirit of trust, and that you are expected to use the tools only as needed and always fairly.

Researcher

The 'researcher' group was created in April 2010 to allow individuals explicitly approved by the Wikimedia Foundation to search deleted pages and view deleted history entries without their associated text.

The assignment

Read through this lesson, then leave a message on my talk page with the answer to these questions (please do not copy your answer from the lesson above but put it in your own words):

1. What is a permission?
2. Which pages are un-registered users able to edit?
3. What is an auto confirmed account?
4. What permissions do registered accounts have?
5. Who can grant rollback?
6. What privileges do acccountcreators have and why?
7. Who can grant accountcreator and how do you request it?
8. What does rollback enable you to do?
9. What should you not use rollback for?
10. What are administrators able to do?
11. How do you request adminship?
12. What are a bureaucrat's main duties?
13. What technical abilities do stewards have?
14. What does checkuser enable a user to check?
15. What is oversight?
16. What type of a user must you be to be granted oversight?
17. What is a reviewer?
18. What is a researcher?