Howdypedia:Administrators
From Howdypedia, the Bang! Howdy wiki
Administrators are Howdypedians who have "SysOp rights". Such rights are extended to active members of the wiki who demonstrate the necessary temperament and skills.
Administrators are not imbued with any special authority, and are equal to everybody else in terms of editorial responsibility. Still, in the pecking order that develops on a wiki, administrators tend to be closer to the top—ideally because of their expertise and experience, rather than their titles.
Even without administrative powers, users can still perform most of an administrator's tasks: Administrators have only a few additional powers within the confines of the wiki software. Administrators use these powers to delete pages and block users when necessary, and can revert vandalism more easily. Administrators are also expected to be on the front line when it comes to helping editors with questions, and with mediating disputes.
Contents |
[edit] Administrative powers
Theoretically, any user should be able to do anything on the wiki. Two problems would arise from this: Certain powers (such as deleting pages) might be used disruptively, and there would be no practical way to stop abusive users from editing maliciously. Having administrators ensures that disruptive users can be taken care of, and that power on the wiki remains reasonably distributed.
[edit] Protecting pages
Administrators can protect pages so that only other administrators can edit them. Because of the open nature of Howdypedia, this is usually something to avoid, so protection is usually limited to the main page and policy/legal articles. Sometimes pages are protected to allow for a calming period if chronic vandalism or an edit war breaks out, although blocks are usually better-suited to this purpose. If an article suffers vandalism from a range of IP addresses, semi-protection (registered users whose accounts are more than one day old can still edit) is an option.
[edit] Deletion and undeletion
When an article or image and its edit history need to be removed from the wiki, an administrator can delete the page; this can always be reversed by another administrator. Reasons for deletion vary: A user might have created a page that that is gibberish or vandalism, or that is a copyright violation, or that is otherwise unsuitable for Howdypedia. Deletion might also be necessary for removing unneeded redirects, for moving an article over a redirect, or for fixing copy and paste moves. Since images can't be renamed, misnamed images have to be re-uploaded, and then an administrator must delete the old image. While only administrators can actually perform deletions, any user can request deletion when need be.
Deletion hides articles' contents and edit history from regular users, but administrators can still see the deleted material (it is never permanently removed). The undeletion policy allows any user to request that an administrator restore an article temporarily to be evaluated, and fully restored if the deletion was in error.
[edit] Reverting edits
Anybody can manually revert or undo changes made to an article, but administrators have a reversion tool that makes the process easier. When looking at a user's contributions or an edit history, administrators see a rollback link ([rollback]) next to edits that are at the top of the edit history. Clicking on the link reverts to the last edit not authored by that user, with an edit summary of (Reverted edits by X to last version by Y), and marks it as a minor change. This is most useful for reverting large-scale vandalism, where manual reverts would be time-consuming. In such cases, administrators can also perform a bot rollback to hide vandalism from the recent changes page. Edits reverted in this way can still be viewed when viewing a user's contributions or an article's history (such edits can even be visible on the recent changes page if a user toggles the appropriate setting).
[edit] Blocking and unblocking
Sometimes an administrator needs to block (ban) a user who is causing harm to the wiki. Administrators can block IP addresses, ranges of IP addresses, and user accounts. They can set the duration any suck block. While blocks can be indefinite, any administrator can always unblock a user or IP: Since blocking is such a powerful ability, it is important that any block can always be removed if need be.
[edit] Changing the interface
Administrators can change the text of the interface by editing the pages in the MediaWiki namespace. Since Howdypedia has different needs than those of Wikipedia or other wikis, editing the header, footer, sidebar, and other interface messages can ensure that navigation remains easy and messages are as informative as is necessary.
[edit] Becoming an administrator
Howdypedia does not use the traditional requests for adminship process to select new administrators, for various reasons. Instead, users can send nominations to the bureaucrat (Emufarmers) via email or IRC. The bureaucrat will then solicit the opinions of available editors on IRC (publicly, privately, or both), and come to a determination in whether or not to grant administrator rights.
Prospective administrators should have experience with Howdypedia, Bang! Howdy, and with the MediaWiki software itself, and should be respected (if not necessarily adored) within the community.
[edit] Other access types
In addition to administrators, there are other types of identified users, listed here in roughly ascending order of power. (Administrators, clearly, go after signed-in users.)
[edit] Logged-out users
Users who have not created an account can edit the wiki using their IP addresses as their usernames. They can edit existing articles, but they cannot create new articles (although they can create new talk pages), nor can they move pages or upload files.
[edit] Signed-in users
Users with ordinary access can still do most things, including the most important: editing articles and helping with Howdypedia maintenance tasks.
Signed-in users can upload files, edit articles, move/rename pages, create their own user page. Users can create a new account or log in at Special:Userlogin.
[edit] Bots
Bots have no special powers, but their edits are hidden from the recent changes log by default. (Users can view the recent changes with bots if they wish.) Bot status is usually assigned either for true bots (of which Howdypedia has none), or for users performing a massive number of highly similar, minor edits or uploads. Administrators can set bot status on themselves and others.
[edit] MultiUpload
MultiUpload status grants access to the multiple image upload form; administrators can access the form freely. The form has access restrictions because it could be highly disruptive—and be hard to clean up after—if abused. If you need to use this form (you can upload up to 40 images in one go with it), hop on IRC and ask for MultiUpload and bot statuses.
[edit] Bureaucrats
Users with "bureaucrat" status can assign any of the user levels (sysop, bureaucrat, bot, CheckUser, tech admin) to other users, or to themselves. Bureaucrats are created by other bureaucrats. Bureaucrat actions are recorded in Special:Log/rights.
[edit] CheckUser
CheckUser status allows a user to view the IP addresses which logged-in users have edited from, to prevent abusive behavior. See the CheckUser policy for more information.
[edit] Tech admins
This user level provides the ability to lock the database during maintenance. Tech admins may also have access (FTP and database) to the server, as well as DNS and mail settings. They are in charge of upgrading the MediaWiki software when new versions of it are released, adding extensions, ensuring that the site loads quickly, making frequent backups for when something goes wrong, and fixing any problems that come up. Emufarmers is the owner of the server, and is currently the only tech admin.
[edit] Administrator abuse
Administrators can be removed if they abuse their powers. The technical ability to remove administrator status rests with the bureaucrat (Emufarmers).
[edit] Dealing with grievances
If you think an administrator has acted improperly against you or another editor, you should express your concerns directly to the administrator responsible. Try to come to a resolution in an orderly and civil manner. However, if the matter is not resolved between the two parties, make sure you've tried the methods in Wikipedia's dispute resolution and then ask other administrators or bureaucrats for help resolving it.
