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 can read the wiki.

Logged-in 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 or other file to the wiki.
 * bookmark pages to their watchlist
 * maintain a user profile and talk page
 * add video into the wiki
 * request lost password and account information

Administrators
Admins are trusted users, who are generally chosen by the community and can:

For more details, see the Help:Administrators' how-to guide.
 * delete and undelete pages, page histories, images, or files
 * lock (protect) a page so it cannot be edited or renamed by users without admin rights
 * block a bad user name or IP address from editing
 * revert bad edits
 * grant and revoke chatmoderator rights
 * edit the wiki's skin and format
 * edit MediaWiki interfaces
 * kickban users from chat and remove kickban status from users

Bureaucrats
A bureaucrat is a user who is already a trusted admin, with the same rights as admins plus the ability to:
 * grant bureaucrat rights, but can only revoke their own
 * grant and revoke administrator rights
 * grant and revoke rollback rights
 * grant and revoke chatmoderator rights
 * ban and unban a user from chat

Rollback permission
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 already have rollback rights by default. Users with rollback rights are just users who are not necessarily an admin.

Founders
If you are a wiki's founder, you are automatically given admin and bureaucrat rights during wiki creation. This allows you to edit the wiki's skin and format. Once more contributors join you, it's a good idea to appoint trusted users as admins.

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.

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 Wikia 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.

Why can't some users without user rights access tools?
Users cannot access some tools when they don't have user rights. If a user has its bureaucrat and admin rights revoked by a Wikia Staff, they cannot re-grant them back. They can be revoked for one of the reasons:
 * The rights were abused and vandalized.
 * A user is inactive.
 * 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, harrasment, 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 Terms of Use or a local community's guidelines, they may be blocked by staff or a local admin. Blocked users can't:
 * Edit or move pages
 * Delete or protect pages
 * Upload files
 * Change the rights of others

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.

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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