Forum:Users who have confirmed their email address cannot upload files to a wiki

Special:Contact has been used to direct staff attention to this forum post. See also:
 * http://help.wikia.com/wiki/Help:User_access_levels
 * http://help.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Administrators%27_how-to_guide

A user has just pointed out to me that at vsk.wikia.com a user who does not have membership of the "emailconfirmed" group cannot upload files to the wiki.

The error message they are shown is:

Permission error The action you have requested is limited to users in one of the groups: Administrators, Wikia Staff, Helpers, emailconfirmed.

(This is different than my prior experience at rappelz.wikia.com where a user merely needed to be a member of "Users" group to have file upload rights.)

After a little checking I see that users who have confirmed their email address are being added to the groups: "Users" and "Autoconfirmed users" but not to "emailconfirmed" (maybe this is the fundamental bug in the system i.e. root cause)


 * 1) Is this a bug? (See also http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:MediaWiki_1.13_upgrade/Resolved_issues#Lowering_upload_rights)
 * 2) Is there something else each user must do to get added to the "emailconfirmed" group?
 * 3) Is there something else I need to be doing as sysop to permit either "Autoconfirmed users" or "Users" to upload files to a wiki?

Studying http://vsk.wikia.com/wiki/Special:ListUsers - I notice that there are zero members in the "emailconfirmed" group and that the "Autoconfirmed users" group is not even mentioned.

Reviewing http://vsk.wikia.com/wiki/Special:ListGroupRights I discover that uploading files is not a right assigned to the Users group. Whereas at http://rappelz.wikia.com/wiki/Special:ListGroupRights and http://test-najevi.wikia.com/wiki/Special:ListGroupRights this right has been assigned to the "Users" group. I cannot recall having asked that the "Users" group right to upload files at vsk.wikia.com be removed. (maybe this is an alternate root cause)

Obviously I want users who have registered a user name at Wikia to be able to upload files to the wiki. It is not clear to me what a user must do to become a member of the "emailconfirmed" group but from it's name I would assume that they must confirm their email address. (Requiring this level of "authentication" makes sense to me.) However, this action has been taken for several users and yet they are not added to the "emailconfirmed" group.


 * What is the best known method for allowing users who have dutifully verified their email address to be able to upload files to a wiki?
 * Is there a downside to granting either the "Users" group or the "Autoconfirmed users" group this right to upload files?
 * Is there a help page (which I clearly have missed) that explains all of this?

-- najevi 06:02, December 30, 2009 (UTC)