Help:User rights

All Wikia contributors have access to read and contribute to all of our wikis. A number of special user roles also exist on Wikia with advanced user rights, in order to help prevent spam and vandalism. Below is a description of these rights.

Any of these may be subject to change or variation on individual wikis.

To add or remove users from these groups, use Special:UserRights.

All users
Anyone, including unregistered users, can read and edit the wiki as well as create pages on the wiki.

Registered users
Users who have created an account and logged in are able to:
 * customize the appearance and features of the wiki by setting their preferences.
 * upload an image, video or other file to the wiki.
 * add pages to their watchlist, which can be used to track edits to a particular page.
 * maintain a user profile and talk page.
 * remove advertisements from all pages (except for the main page of each wiki).

Autoconfirmed users
Registered users who have been with Wikia for at least 4 days and made at least 10 edits also have access to the following tools:
 * no longer have to go through a captcha when inserting an external link into a page, blanking a page or creating a new account.
 * edit semi-protected pages.
 * upload multiple files at once.

Emailconfirmed users
Emailconfirmed users are users who have confirmed their email in their preferences. With this permission, emailconfirmed users have the ability to email other users if they have opted to allow other users to email them, as well as requesting lost password information.

Rollbackers
Anyone can revert vandalism and bad-faith edits, but it takes a couple of clicks in the page history to get it done. Users with the "rollback" permission are able to undo bad edits with one click, by using the rollback link on diff pages, user contributions list, or the list of recent changes.

It is important to note that admins (including bureaucrats) already have rollback rights by default. Users with rollback rights are just users who are not necessarily an admin.

Rollbackers (users with Rollback rights) can be seen via Special:ListUsers, but they do not by default have any special title that appears on their userpage.

Chat moderators
Chat moderators are users who have chat moderator status in chat in order to moderate a wiki's chat room. They are able to block users from chat, which will kick a user out of the chat and ban them from returning until a chat moderator or an admin removes "Banned from chat" at Special:UserRights.

Having this status causes "CHAT MODERATOR" to appear next to the username on the user's userpage.

Administrators
Administrators (or "admins" or "sysop") are trusted users, who are generally chosen by the community and also have access to the following tools: For more details, see the Help:Administrators' how-to guide.
 * they have all privileges from the chat moderator and rollback groups and also have the ability to:
 * delete and undelete pages, as well as delete images or files (it is not possible to undelete images or files).
 * lock (protect) a page so it cannot be edited or renamed by users without adminship privileges.
 * block users who are vandalising the wiki from editing.
 * grant and revoke chat moderator rights.
 * edit the wiki's skin and format.
 * edit MediaWiki pages.

The state of being an administrator is also referred to as "adminship". Being an administrator makes "ADMIN" appear next to a user's name on their userpage.

Bureaucrats
Bureaucrats are one level up from administrators but have none of the administrator privileges. Bureaucrats only have the ability to manipulate users rights. They have the ability to promote and revoke rollback, chat moderator and administrator rights as well as appointing new bureaucrats. While they cannot directly revoke another user's bureaucrat status, they can revoke their own. Bureaucrats also have the ability to revoke a user's bot status in case the bot is malfunctioning, but community consensus is required for the addition of users's bot status.

By default, bureaucrats are not identified on their userpages. If a bureaucrat is also an admin, only "ADMIN" will show so Special:ListUsers must be used to tell bureaucrats from normal administrators.

Founders
A wiki's founder is automatically given admin and bureaucrat rights during wiki creation. This allows them to edit the wiki's skin and format. As more contributors join, it's a good idea for bureaucrats to appoint trusted users as admins.

The title of founder appears next to the founder's name even if they later abdicate their position as bureaucrat or administrator, and it overrides those titles.

Bots
A "bot" is any automated process, program, or script that makes it easier for a user to make tedious or repetitive edits and actions on a wiki. When a bot is running in quick succession, the recent changes log can sometimes be overtaken, making it harder to spot more substantial edits by regular users. Giving an account a "bot flag" will hide these edits from the recent changes list (although any editor can still choose to see them by clicking "Show bots").

On Wikia, a user who wishes to use a bot should set up a separate account for it, then talk with other users on the wiki about whether the types of edits the bot makes should be hidden. After discussing it with the community, the bot owner or admin can request the bot be flagged.

CheckUsers
See also: Help:CheckUser

CheckUsers have the ability to check another user's IP address, as well as the ability to check what users have edited using a particular IP address and view the CheckUser log. This ability is generally only available to Wikia Staff, Helpers and VSTF, but on wikis where sockpuppetry is a major problem, access can be considered.

VSTF
The Volunteer Spam Task Force, abbreviated to "VSTF", are experienced and involved Wikians who have administrator access to all Wikia. They also have tools allowing them to combat cross-wiki spam and vandalism. See Help:SpamTaskForce for more info, or Special:ListUsers/vstf for a list.

Helpers
Helpers consist of contractors and volunteer interns who are working for Wikia. They have administrator access to all of Wikia's wikis. See Help:Helper Group for more info, or Special:ListUsers/helper for a list.

Staff
Staff are employees and they have full access to all Wikia wikis. They are shown in Special:Listusers/staff on any wiki, and often have a special Staff signature when they sign their comments. Staff have tools to support them in helping to maintain all of Wikia. Please see Help:Contacting Wikia for details on how to contact Wikia staff.

Utilites
Utilites are staff tools which they use for more features. These are shown in Special:Listusers/util on all other wikis. The identity to their profile is not shown but may not have a staff signature unless if they have Wikia Staff privileges.

How do you grant admin rights to another user?
thumb|620px|left|Watch this quick video on how to grant another user admin rights. 

Why can't I give another user privileges?
Users cannot access some tools when they don't have user rights. If a user has its bureaucrat and admin rights revoked by, they cannot re-grant them back. They can be revoked for one of the reasons:
 * The rights were abused and vandalised.
 * A user is inactive (by request of the community).
 * User request.
 * Found to be as an alternative account which is a sockpuppet.
 * A user was denied from adopting a wiki and still has it on a wiki for one of the following reasons:
 * The user was founded, adopted or given admin access on a wiki and has not waited 60 days and sneaked for admin rights by telling an admin to grant user rights on the wiki even if contributions are good.
 * An admin granted the user rights to a user and someone contacted a staff if a user doesn't have enough edits.
 * A user was blocked from another wiki.
 * Editing MediaWiki interfaces into nonsense, spam, harassment, hate speech, threats, vandalism and more.
 * Mass promoting users with few edits.

What can't blocked users do?
If a user is suspected of breaking Wikia's or a local community's guidelines, they may be blocked by staff or a local admin. Blocked users can't: In some cases, blocked users are also prevented from emailing other users, creating new accounts, and editing their own user talk page only if decided by the local admins, Wikia Staff, Helpers and VSTF.
 * Edit or move pages
 * Delete or protect pages
 * Upload files
 * Change the rights of others

How can I find different users?
See Special:ListUsers and choose the "administrators", "rollback", or "bureaucrats" check boxes, and click "Show". You will also see a column showing the date of the user's most recent edit, so you can find users that have been active most recently.

Can user rights messages be edited?
You can customize the user rights message by altering MediaWiki:Userrights-groups-help on your wiki.

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