Help:User rights

What is a user right?
A user right is a special type of permissions a user has to make some change or perform some task for a community. A "user rights group" is a set of permissions or abilities. The most commonly recognized user rights group is an "admin", also known as a sysop user rights group. A list of user rights by groups can be seen at Special:ListGroupRights.

To add or remove users from these groups, admins or bureaucrats can go to Special:UserRights. Some groups can only be added or removed by bureaucrats or staff.

Some communities have custom groups, but the information below applies to most.

Local level
Everyone visiting Wikia can view and read pages. Unregistered (anonymous) users also usually have the ability to edit and add pages to the wiki, though some communities require logging into a Wikia account first.

Registered users
Users who have created an account and logged in can:


 * Customize the appearance and features of the community by setting their preferences.
 * Upload an image, video or other file.
 * Add pages to their watchlist, which can be used to track edits to a particular page.
 * Maintain a user profile.
 * Remove advertisements from all pages (except for the main page of each community).

Autoconfirmed users
Registered users who have been with Wikia for at least 4 days also have access to the following tools:


 * They no longer have to go through a captcha when inserting an external link into a page, blanking a page or creating a new account.
 * They can edit semi-protected pages.

Powerusers
This is not an actual user right, but more of an internal status flag used by Wikia. In most cases, it doesn't grant any extra abilities or rights. It also cannot be used to filter users via Special:ListUsers.

Administrators


Administrators (also known as "admins" or "sysops") are trusted users, who are generally chosen by the community and also have access to the following rights:


 * All privileges from the Discussions Moderator and Content Moderator groups.
 * Delete and undelete pages, as well as delete images or files.
 * Lock (protect) both a page and a file so it cannot be edited or renamed by users without adminship privileges.
 * Block users who are vandalizing the wiki from editing and other actions.
 * Grant and revoke both the Chat Moderator and Discussion Moderator rights.
 * Edit the community's skin and format.
 * Edit whitelisted MediaWiki pages.

For more details, see the Help:Administrators' how-to guide.

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 profile.

Bureaucrats
Bureaucrats are one level 'up' from administrators. Bureaucrats only have the ability to manipulate user rights, as well as block and unblock users, so this right is generally used in addition to the administrator group.

They have the ability to promote and revoke rollback, Content 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' 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.

Bureaucrat status can only be removed by Wikia Staff, or by themselves.

Discussions Moderators
Discussions Moderators are users who have additional tools available to manage conversations in various features across the community where users are having social discussions. These tools are:


 * Removing and restoring threads and replies from any user.
 * Closing and reopening threads
 * In the Forum feature specifically, moderators also have the ability to manage Forum boards, move threads from one board to another, and highlight and un-highlight threads.
 * Moderating chat
 * Deleting blog comments
 * Editing and deleting article comments
 * Moderating the Discussions feature, if enabled.

Having this status causes "DISCUSSIONS MODERATOR" to appear next to the username on the user's userpage, unless changed on MediaWiki:User-identity-box-group-threadmoderator

Content Moderators
Content Moderators are users who have additional tools available to moderate specific parts of the community. These tools are:


 * Deleting and moving protected pages
 * Deleting and moving files
 * Undeleting pages and files
 * Rollback
 * Reupload files
 * Protecting and unprotecting pages
 * Patrol pages if the community has the RecentChanges patrol feature enabled

Chat Moderators
Chat moderators are users who have chat moderator status in chat to moderate a community's chat room. They can 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 unbans them from the users' contributions page, or if the ban expires.

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

Rollbacks
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" tool can 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 Content Moderators and admins already have rollback rights by default. The right can be optional for a user to have rollback and admin combined, but it will not add extra speed and strength even with slower internet connections. Users with rollback rights are just users who are not necessarily an admin.

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

Founders
A community's founder is automatically given admin and bureaucrat rights during the community's creation. This allows them to edit the community's skin and format. As more contributors join, it's a good idea for founders to appoint trusted users as admins, Content Moderators, Discussion Moderators, and rollbacks. Founders are denoted with a "FOUNDER" banner on their profile, unless they later lose their bureaucrat and admin rights.

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 community. 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 community members to ask whether they approve of the creation of a bot. After discussing it with the community, the bot owner or admin can request the bot be flagged.

CheckUsers
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 very large communities where sockpuppetry is a major problem, access can be considered.

Staff
Staff members are Wikia employees and they have full access to all Wikia communities. They are shown in Special:Listusers/staff on any wiki, and often have a special Staff signature when they sign their comments. The Staff has tools to support them in helping to maintain all of Wikia. Please see Help:Contacting Wikia for details on how to contact Wikia Staff. These users will have a "STAFF" tag on their profile.

Vanguard
Vanguard is a group of Wikia users who have volunteered to help make Wikia's content available on the widest possible range of devices. To do so, Vanguard users have a few extra rights that allow them to edit a Wikia community's interface. See Special:ListUsers/vanguard for a member list. Vanguard users will have a "VANGUARD" tag on their profile.

VSTF
The Volunteer Spam Task Force, abbreviated to "VSTF", are experienced and involved Wikians who combat cross-wikia spam and vandalism. Therefore, they have extended user rights on all Wikia communities, including access to many additional tools that help them to detect spam and vandalism. See Special:ListUsers/vstf for a member list. VSTF users will have a "VSTF" tag on their profile.

Helpers
Helpers are volunteers working to support and improve non-English Wikia communities. Because they exercise staff tasks in their respective language, they share many user rights with Wikia staff. See Special:ListUsers/helper for a member list. Users in this group will have a "HELPER" tag on their profile and a special tag in their signatures.

Community Council
The Community Council is Wikia's product testing and feedback group. Members of the Community Council are selected by Wikia Staff to provide preliminary feedback on new features and products that are under development. See Special:ListUsers/council for a member list. Users in this group will have a tag on their accounts named "COUNCILOR".

Authenticated
Authenticated users are the official accounts of large companies, typically from the video game industry. The group signifies that the veracity of the account was checked for by Staff. They are users who are notable or famous, such as a game designer or developer, or a renowned musician. A user must be verified by Wikia Staff as legitimately being that important person before they get this right. Users in this group will have an "AUTHENTICATED" tag on their profiles.

Volunteer Developers
The Volunteer Developers program is an initiative that aims to enable technically skilled members of the Wikia community to contribute to Wikia not only by editing and wiki administration but also by fixing bugs and improving Wikia's software. These users will have a "VOLUNTEER DEVELOPER" tag on their profiles.

Other groups
Some other groups shown on Special:UserGroupRights and Special:ListUsers are connected to staff only Extensions and unused.

How do you grant admin rights to another user?


Why might rights be removed?
Bureaucrats can remove admin or some other rights when they feel it necessary. In most cases, the community should be consulted.

Only staff can remove bureaucrat rights, but do so rarely. Examples of situations when staff will remove bureaucrat of other rights include:


 * The rights were abused.
 * A user is inactive and the community asks for the removal.
 * Community request, after a discussion among more active users.
 * They are found to be editing abusively as an alternative account (sockpuppet).
 * They have used their rights to edit the interface something very unsuitable.
 * They have broken Wikia's Terms of Use.

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. Among other restrictions, blocked users can't:


 * Create, edit or move pages
 * Delete or protect pages
 * Upload files
 * Change the rights of others
 * Add blog posts or add comments
 * Perform some admin-specific actions
 * Perform rollback-specific actions

In some cases, blocked users are also prevented from creating new accounts and editing their own message wall/user talk page.

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.

Further help and feedback
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