University Wiki:User access levels
From University Wiki
A contributor's access to perform certain actions in University Wiki is determined by various flags on their account, some of which are automatic and others of which must be given to them manually. A user with a flag is said to be a member of that flag's 'user group', giving them certain 'permissions' and the use of certain features of the MediaWiki software.
Users are assigned the highest possible permissions based on the groups they are members of. A user who is an administrator and bureaucrat, for instance, would be able to use Special:Unwatchedpages (granted with the 'sysop' group), Special:RenameUser (granted with the 'bureaucrat' group) and to also use rollback (granted with the 'sysop' group).
Membership in a user group is sometimes referred to as a "flag" or "bit"; being made a member of the 'sysop' group is synonymous with being "given the admin bit" or "receiving the admin flag"
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[edit] Overview
All visitors to the site, including anonymous users, are part of the '*' group, while all logged-in users are also part of the 'user' group. Users are automatically promoted into the 'autoconfirmed' group when their account is at least seven days old and has accumulated at least 50 edits. Other flags are only given upon request; some, such as 'bot', are granted unilaterally if the user demonstrates a need for them. Others, such as 'halfop', 'sysop' and 'bureaucrat', are given only to trusted users that have a strong history of valuable contributions to University Wiki. In the future, such promotions will be voted upon by the committee. Until this time, the core administration staff will handle promotions. To apply for a position, send an email to en-wiki@universitywiki.org with the position you are applying for, a brief overview of your contributions to University Wiki and a description of how you would improve University Wiki with the tools granted.
[edit] User groups
[edit] Regular user levels
[edit] Anonymous users
Contributors who have not created an account or logged in may read all University Wiki pages (except restricted Special pages), and edit pages that are not protected or semi-protected. They may create talk pages in any talk namespace but may need to ask for help to create pages in some parts of the wiki. They cannot upload files or images. They must answer a CAPTCHA if they wish to make an edit which involves the addition of one or more external links, and click a confirm link to purge pages. All users may also query the site API in 500-record batches.
[edit] New users
- Whilst new:
A user who edits through an account they have registered, may immediately create pages in any namespace (except the MediaWiki namespace) and may also e-mail other users if they activate an email address in their user preferences. All logged-in users may mark edits as minor. They may purge pages without a confirmation step, but are still required to answer a CAPTCHA when adding external links. They may also customize their user interface and its options as they wish, via Special:Preferences and their monobook.
[edit] Autoconfirmed users
New accounts which are more than seven days old and have made at least 50 edits are automatically moved to the 'autoconfirmed' group. Autoconfirmed users may move pages, edit semi-protected pages, and upload files or upload a new version of an existing file. They are no longer required to enter a CAPTCHA under any circumstances. Autoconfirmed users may mark pages as patrolled in Special:NewPages.
[edit] Administrators, Bureaucrats, and Halfops
[edit] Administrators
Administrator rights are granted by the core administration staff to users requesting them. The process involves considerable discussion and examination of their activities as an editor. Most users that become administrators were halfops first. Users who are members of the 'administrator' user group have access to a number of tools to allow them to carry out certain functions on the wiki. The tools cover processes such as page deletion, page protection, blocking and unblocking, access to modify protected pages and the mediawiki interface, and the ability to grant and remove rollback and ipblock-exempt rights to other users. Administrators are otherwise no different from any other editor.
Administrators are also known historically as "sysops" (system operators). The two terms are used interchangeably.
See Special:Listusers/sysop for a list of users in this group.
[edit] Bureaucrats
The 'bureaucrat' flag is given to exceptionally trusted users who are allowed to perform certain actions on other users accounts. Bureaucrats are almost always administrators already.
Bureaucrats have extended access to Special:UserRights, which allows them to set many flags on other accounts when appropriate, including giving users who pass communal scrutiny their administrator or bureaucrat flag (but not the ability to remove them), and both add users to and remove users from the 'bot' user group. They can also access to Special:RenameUser, with which they can rename users (including themselves).
See Special:Listusers/bureaucrat for a list of users in this group.
[edit] Halfops
Halfops, short for (half operators), is also granted by the core administration staff to users requesting it. Users who are members of the 'halfops' have access to a number of tools that are similar to those given to administators. However, many of these tools are limited in the scope of their usage. These tools include the ability to protect pages that are being vandalized, and rollback for easy removal of vandlism.
See Special:Listusers/halfop for a list of users in this group.
[edit] Other flags giving access to specialized functions
[edit] Ipblock-exempt
Users who are given the ipblock-exempt flag ('ipblock-exempt' user group) are not effected by autoblocks and blocks of IP addresses and ranges that aren't made with the "anonymous users only" setting.
[edit] Oversight
Users who are given the oversight flag ('oversight' user group) have access to Special:HideRevision, through which they can permanently hide revisions of pages from all users, and Special:Oversight, where they can view a log of such actions and the content of the hidden revisions. This right is only granted to exceedingly few trusted users who are age 18+ and have identified themselves to University Wiki.
See Special:Listusers/oversight for a list of users in this group.
[edit] Other flagged accounts
[edit] Bots
Accounts used by approved bots to make pre-approved edits can be flagged as such. Bot accounts are automated or semi-automated, the nature of their edits is well defined, and they will be quickly blocked if their actions vary from their given tasks, so they need less scrutiny than human edits.
For this reason, contributions from accounts with the bot flag ('bot' user group) are not displayed in recent changes or watchlists to users who have opted to hide bot edits. Minor edits made by bot accounts to user talk pages do not trigger the "you have new messages" banner. Bot accounts can query the API in batches of 5,000 rather than 500.
See Special:Listusers/bot for a list of users in this group.
[edit] Blocked
Users that are problematic to the University Wiki community may have their editing privileges revoked. A block can be applied to an account, an IP address, or a range of IP addresses. Blocks can also be temporary or definite depending on the severity of the disruption caused by the user. Blocked users are still able to view the wiki normally, but they cannot change the contents of the wiki.
[edit] Table
| Granted | Inherited | Denied | Revoked | Limited |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Permission |
Allows user(s) to… | Blocked users | Anonymous users |
Registered accounts | Auto-confirmed | Bots | Administrators | Bureaucrats | Halfops |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| apihighlimits | request API queries in batches of 5,000, rather than 500 | ||||||||
| autopatrol | automatically mark all edits made by the user as patrolled | ||||||||
| block | block an IP address, user name, or range of IPs, from editing | ||||||||
| bot | edit without their edits showing up in recent changes | ||||||||
| createaccount | create a new user account for themselves or another user | ||||||||
| createpage | create a new page | ||||||||
| createtalk | create a new talk page | ||||||||
| delete | delete a page with up to 5000 revisions | ||||||||
| deletedhistory | view the history of a deleted page or a user's deleted contributions | ||||||||
| edit | edit any page which is not protected | ||||||||
| editinterface | edit the MediaWiki namespace to affect the interface | ||||||||
| editprotected | edit pages which have been protected | ||||||||
| editusercssjs | edit .css or .js subpages of other users | ||||||||
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E-mail a user (using Special:EmailUser/username) who have associated an email address with themselves |
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| ipblockexempt | be unaffected by blocks applied to his IP address or a range (CIDR) containing it. | ||||||||
| makebot | set/remove bot flags for accounts | ||||||||
| makesysop | give halfop/admin/bureaucrat abilities to another | ||||||||
| markbotedit | mark rollback as bot edits, to keep them out of recent changes | ||||||||
| minoredit | make an edit marked as 'minor' | ||||||||
| move | change the title of a page by moving it | ||||||||
| nominornewtalk | minor edits by this user to user talk pages do not trigger the "you have new messages" banner | ||||||||
| override-antispoof | allows users to input text containing bad data types, blacklisted characters, confusing text, create accounts with confusing/similar names, empty string, etc. | ||||||||
| patrol | state that they have checked a page that appeared in Special:Newpages | ||||||||
| protect | protect or unprotect pages | ||||||||
| purge | purge a page by adding &action=purge to the URL |
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| read | read pages | ||||||||
| renameuser | change the name of an existing account | ||||||||
| rollback | use a special link to more easily revert a bad edit | ||||||||
| skipcaptcha | perform actions without having to go through the captcha | ||||||||
| undelete | undelete a previously deleted page or specific revisions from it | ||||||||
| unwatchedpages | view a list of pages which are not on anyone's watchlist | ||||||||
| upload | upload a media file, or overwrite an existing unprotected file |
[edit] See also
This article was adapted from Wikipedia and is available for reuse under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
