Help talk:Administrators' how-to guide

Wouldn't it be possible to translate this article? There are so many people, who aren't that well in understanding English. Especially me: I undertand German best, but am also able to undertand English and French. But with that many special words, isn't it really easy to understand. So I wish that this page gets translated in future!

And: I can offer a page, where you can help to build up an english version of this page: Leciel

Please visit it! Mta 16:28, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Bezüglich deutschsprachigen Übersetzungen brauchst du dich nur an mich oder Avatar wenden. Und, ich werde die Seite gleich mal auf meine ToDo-Liste schreiben. Gruß Tomsen (talk) 08:31, 27 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Danke vielmals! Mta 08:32, 27 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I agree to whatever you guys are saying, but shouldn't something about making somebody else and admin be included? 09:53, 9 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Good point - I've added a brief note to a link at the end, but Help:User access levels is what you need. Kirkburn (talk) 14:21, 9 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I know, but it took me quite some time to find out how to do it. Zheliel  11:13, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Becoming an administrator
How do you become an Administrator does the founder of the particular wikia have to make you one? --Gruntijackal 20:42, 21 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Either the founder has to grant the rights (through votes, discussion, or otherwise), if the founder is inactive please see Wikia adoptions. — Charitwo (talk) 20:47, 21 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes but how does the founder grant rights? There's no obvious link I can find that will allow me to make another user an admin of my wikia. Broier 16:59, March 18, 2010 (UTC)


 * If you're a founder, or a bureaucrat, you can access Special:UserRights by searching it up from the sidebar. You can also access it by using the "Special pages" link on the sidebar toolbox. Down the list of special pages should be a link in bold labelled "User rights management". The 888th Avatar   (talk)  09:21, March 19, 2010 (UTC)


 * I'm a founder and I can't find this "Special pages" link or the sidebar you mention, is it gone? Having to type in the url or search for these special pages is a pain in the ass. Gakera 23:41, February 23, 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, it is gone. The link mentioned is Special:SpecialPages. You can also put a few of those special pages into your toolbar..AB 11:50, February 24, 2011 (UTC)
 * Oh, cool, that's handy adding it to the toolbar. I was confused by that Customize link, I pressed it when I was looking for what I later found out is called the "Theme Designer" - I wanted to change the background on my wiki (what I consider to also be "customizing"). It might be better to spell it out, "Customize Toolbar" or just "Customize these links". And it took me forever to find the Theme Designer, I must say that this aspect of the Wikia platform might benefit from a UX study :) My suggestion is to add a "Control Panel" or "Dashboard" link somewhere prominent for administrators, that presents these Special links in the context of some workflow (Change Background, Assign Admins, Revert Edits etc...). Gakera 12:55, February 24, 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggest Gakera. We actually have been discussing an admin dashboard, so you may see it in the future. We just released a new Wikia Labs product where you can test new features. You can learn more about it here: http://community.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Sarah_Manley/Introducing_Wikia_Labs. Happy editing, --Sarah (help forum | blog) 23:33, February 24, 2011 (UTC)

Link to tar manual
The link to tar manual in section "How do I block a troublemaker?" is 404. Another possible link would be http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/html_chapter/Date-input-formats.html --a_morris (talk) 03:50, 13 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks! Fixed. Kirkburn (talk) 15:09, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Question
Hi, I'm the admin of the new wiki about LEGO.com games. I would like to know how to make other people admins. I would also like to know how to make a better page design. Thanks! Signed, Secretam.
 * Try Special:UserRights on the wiki to change user rights of a user. Page design: skin help at Help:Customizing Monaco and design help at Help:Beyond the basics and Help:Features_FAQ. Good luck! Joey (talk) 07:48, July 9, 2010 (UTC)

A query
Is it the done thing to remove an admin's admin rights when the said admin is inactive? -- Dragonfree  OVER 4,000 EDITS 20:50, July 16, 2010 (UTC)


 * Only if there is consensus to do so. There have been long debates about it on English Wikipedia.  — Jeff G. ツ 17:52, October 19, 2010 (UTC)

Requesting help from admins here
I have created a talk page section requesting a change to a protected page at Talk:Rollback, but I could not find a way to alert an admin to the need for the change, like Wikipedia:Template:Edit protected. Please create or make it easier to find such a way, and also please review my requested change. Thanks. — Jeff G. ツ 17:52, October 19, 2010 (UTC)

New member message
You know that message you get after your first edit on a wiki. How do I change that up. I am an admin on the Fairy Tail Fanon.--Zicoihno (Talk to Me) 21:25, February 27, 2011 (UTC)


 * Sure, see User:Wikia for instructions and the right pages to change those messages. --Charitwo (talk) 06:46, February 28, 2011 (UTC)

Can't make somebody an admin?
I am a bureaucrat on my wiki and I want to make a user an admin. However, when I go on the user rights management page, I find that all I can change is the categories related to chat. The admin/b'crat/rollback check boxes are grayed out and moved over to the left column. Is there a way to change this, and if so, how? Forestpaw13
 * What wiki is this happening on? --Sarah (help forum | blog) 16:34, July 8, 2011 (UTC)

How do you make a user admin?Ivan Kakooza 03:42, January 1, 2012 (UTC)


 * You can learn how to here. Sarah (help forum | blog) 17:03, January 3, 2012 (UTC)

how do i talk to administraitors i was banned by something i did not mean to do i am new and di not know the rules

Chat mods
Just a small thing, I know, but Chat Mods can't access the User Rights page anymore. You might want to modify that. That and the section is titled ChatChat.... Ryll Shados (talk) 08:11, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

Concerning the page Help:Administrators' how-to guide

Quoted from ChatChat section: " As a chat moderator, you have the ability to kick other users from the chat. This can be done either from Special:UserRights or through the main chat."

A Chat Moderator no longer has access to "Special:UserRights" as far as I can tell, unless it changes from Wiki to Wiki.

This should be fixed on the How-to Guide, if it is wiki-wide.

~&#61;(iNate)&#61;~ (talk) 08:13, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

I was recently promoted to an Admin on the PotBS Wikia, while reading this page, there is a glaring duplicate which I'm surprised hasn't had any attention given. "Step by Step & How do you become an admin? " are duplicated. - NM Odd, either Cache refresh or just going back to Page appears to have cleared it up. /sigh

ClericTaven (talk) 17:47, August 19, 2012 (UTC)

Block
i want to know why i was blocked out of my account so if you get a chance please unblock me and tell me why i was blocked thank you
 * You should contact the admin in question who blocked you here on their Community Central wall, or else contact Staff through Special:Contact/blocked Ri pt o   ( Talk ) 22:03, January 20, 2016 (UTC)

How to easily find deletion candidates
My edit about how to easily find deletion candidates was reverted because "candidates for deletion, and deletion templates are not admin-specific tools. Any user can see/use both."

I could use some advice on the right approach to solving the problem I had. As a new admin, I knew there were a bunch of files that had been marked for deletion. I wanted to find them, and found it very difficult to find candidates for deletion. The google searches I did on finding deletion candidates in many cases led to pages that showed me how do delete an item, but not how to find items already marked for deletion. I found this terribly frustrating as a new admin.

Many of the searches I did led back to this excellent admin how-to page. Since this page was easy to find, it seemed that it would benefit from having information not only on how to delete, but how to find things that needed deleting. Since deleting can only be done by admins, and since a number of google searches led me to this page, it seemed like this was the logical place to put that information. New admins like me would be easily able to find it. I see now that there is a different philosophy being used for this page, so I understand why my edit was reverted.

But that leaves me (or more correctly, future newbie admins) with my original problem. I spent quite a bit of time trying to google variations on 'how to find wikia files marked for deletion', and for something that seemed like a simple task, this information was surprisingly hard to find.

Since this information doesn't belong on this page, is there somewhere else we can put it that would make it easier for newbie admins to find? Assuming that a newbie admin doesn't know there is a special category for deletion candidates (I didn't know that); google searches including variations on the word 'category' aren't a good solution.

Suggestions welcome, thanks!

Microsporocyte (talk) 20:31, February 1, 2016 (UTC)

Workflow Versus Features
I understand why my edit was undone, though I'm a little confused by it. T he page already includes some non-admin specific information -- see this comment:  " Any user can  revert  a page using the "Undo" option in the page history. ...", s o it seems there is already a precedent for adding non-admin specific info.

So though I understand the explanation given for the revert, now I'm uncertain -- does the page include non-admin specific information, or does it not? Can my edit be put back in? Or should that other comment be taken out?

 I would like to see us take a broader approach to helping users than just documenting admin specific features. A page that is designed to help administrators should be broad enough to help with anything an administrator might be likely to do. And since only administrators can delete, it follows that administrators are more likely to go looking for deletion candidates, even though technically anyone can do it. It's one part of a cleanup task -- "hey, today I'm going to go get rid of all those files contributors have marked for deletion." -- Step 1:  find 'em  Step 2:  delete 'em.

 This is akin to the 'workflow oriented' approach to software, as opposed to the 'feature oriented' approach. As both a user and content creator, I much prefer the workflow orientation -- help the user with what he or she is trying to accomplish, rather than creating and documenting discrete, unrelated features, leaving the user to figure out how they fit together.

So -- even though finding deletion candidates isn't admin specific, it supports a task (workflow) that an admin would be very likely to be trying to accomplish, and so the information would make sense to include here.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading!

Microsporocyte (talk) 20:31, February 1, 2016 (UTC)