Wikipedia:Impersonating an administrator

Occasionally, an editor who is not a Wikipedia administrator will falsely represent themselves as being an administrator or having administrative power or authority. This conduct is expressly prohibited by Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines § Behavior that is unacceptable:

• Do not claim to be an administrator or to have an access level that you do not have. User access levels can always be verified at Special:ListUsers.

A complete list of Wikipedians with administrative permissions can be found here. An editor whose name does not appear on this list is generally not an administrator, although there may be rare instances in which an administrator makes edits from a non-administrator role account.

Specific conduct

Impersonation of an administrator by a non-administrator can take several forms, including:

1. Saying in discussions or edit summaries that one is an administrator
2. Having templates or userboxes on one's user pages stating that one is an administrator
3. Having a username that contains a term like "Administrator", "Admin", or "Sysop" (note that this is also prohibited by Wikipedia:Username policy#Misleading usernames)
4. Asserting that one will use administrative powers (e.g., "cut it out or I will block you", or "I am going to delete this page")

Editors may misrepresent themselves as administrators in order to present a more authoritative tone in discussions. It is important to note that Administrator opinions have no greater weight in editorial discussions than those of any other Wikipedian. The views of an editor with a substantial record of participation in an area may be given more weight than those of a novice in that area, irrespective of whether the experienced editor is a regular editor and the novice is an administrator. Note that per WP:THREATEN, editors—including administrators—should avoid making threatening statements (including threats of a block or deletion) merely to get their way in a content to dispute.

If another editor misrepresents you as an administrator in a discussion (e.g., "Pat is a very experienced administrator, you should listen to them"), please politely correct them.

Permissible non-admin conduct

Any non-admin editor is permitted to warn another editor that they may be blocked, or that their contributions may be deleted, so long as the warning is not phrased in a way that suggests that the non-admin editor giving the warning is themselves able to impose a block or delete a page. It is also permissible for a non-admin editor to place warning templates on an editor's user talk page, as these warning templates indicate that further misconduct may lead to a block, but do not represent the editor adding the template as able to impose the block.

Non-administrators are also permitted to close certain discussions. For non-administrator procedures for closing discussions, see the policy at Wikipedia:Deletion process#Non-administrators closing discussions and the essay at Wikipedia:Non-admin closure. The most pertinent instruction in the policy for non-admin discussion closures is:

• Non-admins should indicate their non-admin status with the {{nac}} ("non-admin close") template, which should always be substituted e.g.
  • {{subst:Afd top}} '''Keep''' per [[WP:SNOW]]. {{subst:nac}} ~~~~