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Wikivoyage:Administrators

From Wikivoyage

Administrators are Wikivoyagers who have been nominated by the Wikivoyage community and been granted some additional privileges over and above normal. Administrators have shown a good appreciation of the Wikivoyage policies and guidelines and made significant contributions on Wikivoyage articles.

The main features available only to administrators are:

  • Deleting/restoring a page/file. Only administrators can delete an article or file; see the Deletion policy for details. They can also restore a page which has been deleted.
  • Selectively delete page revisions. Administrators can choose certain revisions from a page's history to remove from public view using RevisionDelete. Oversight, which also removes it from the view of administrators, is only available to the "oversighter" user group and stewards from Meta Wiki. See RevisionDelete on mediawiki.org for more details.
  • Protecting/unprotecting a page. An administrator can mark certain pages as protected; these pages can only be edited by other administrators (and in some cases, template editors and autoconfirmed users). See the Protected page policy for details.
  • Blocking and unblocking IP addresses and users. If an IP address or a user account has been used for vandalism, and the perpetrator does not comply with given warnings, an administrator can block (and unblock) the user. This feature is used as a last resort when other methods of engaging a user and encouraging a change of behaviour have failed.
  • Editing the AbuseFilter.
  • Adding or removing users from patroller, template editors and autopatroller groups. They can also set/remove the IP block exemption flag to any user. This cannot be done by global sysops.

The decision to give these privileges to certain users is pragmatic. Most vandalism and other changes that don't conform to policy can be reverted or changed by any Wikivoyager. And you only need the patroller rights in order to have the rollback tool, by which you can undo the most recent editor's consecutive edits on a page in a single action.

Note that plenty of longtime Wikivoyagers may not want the responsibility of being an administrator. Administrators are the plumbers and janitors of Wikivoyage, and are asked to help perform some mundane tasks. Administrator status is not a reward; the admin role simply indicates that the Wikivoyage community feels that a user has a good understanding of Wikivoyage's policies.

It's also important to remember that any user can edit, change, redirect, move, or otherwise muck with almost any article on Wikivoyage. It's not really necessary to wait for an administrator to do some "administrative" work; in fact, it's best to plunge forward and do the job yourself.

Becoming an administrator

Wielding a mop is serious business.

Nomination

If you think a Wikivoyager – including yourself! – should become a Wikivoyage administrator, post their name on the user rights nominations page with a brief description of why the Wikivoyager should have administrator privileges. Include some evidence of understanding and experience with community policies.

There are no carved-in-stone requirements, but the following are generally considered advantageous:

  • A track record of at least a few months
  • A firm understanding of Wikivoyage policies and conventions
  • Active participation in policy discussions and settling disputes
  • Doing janitorial work like cleaning up vandalism and spam
  • A demonstrated ability to work well within the community
  • Being nominated by another administrator

Discussion

All members of the community are invited to comment or give their opinion of the nomination.

If, after 14 days of discussion:

  • there is a consensus supporting the nomination from the community, including at least two administrators,
  • the user has indicated a willingness to take on the job of administration, and
  • attempts have been made to address any relevant objections to the nomination, and those who object have been given sufficient time to argue their case or withdraw their objection,

a bureaucrat will grant them admin status.

If valid concerns with a nomination are raised by a member of the community that cause them to oppose a nomination, it is courteous to allow the nominee or nominator some time to respond to the concern or to withdraw their nomination. The decision is not a vote, and piling on oppose votes adds no weight to the issues raised, and can be embarrassing to the nominee.

There is no requirement to wait for any specified period if it is clear that there is no support, or if the nomination does not comply with the nomination procedures or guidelines as listed on this page and the nominations page. After courteously notifying both the nominator and nominee, the nomination can be closed and archived.

Administrators are not expected to spend all their waking hours working on Wikivoyage; if anything, taking long vacations to travel around is encouraged!

Ending administrator privileges

Unused high-privilege user accounts are a security risk. For this reason, administrators who don't use their user accounts for two years will be notified and their privileges will be revoked. Administrators who know they don't have the time or interest to continue as admins should request to have their privileges revoked voluntarily.

The following sample message can be used to notify an admin of a pending permission removal due to inactivity:

== Administrator status (Official Notice) ==

:''A similar message was also sent via e-mail.''

Thanks for your service as a Wikivoyage administrator. As you may be aware, our [[Wikivoyage:Administrators]] policy indicates that administrators who have not edited on the English Wikivoyage in over two years should have their administrator flags removed. This is for account security purposes, not a reflection of a loss of trust or any disappointment.

As such, we will be removing your administrator flag on [add date here]. Should you wish to retain your status, simply come on back and make an edit! That resets the clock. And if you ever decide to return to Wikivoyage as an active editor, your administrator flag can be restored by request.

If you have any questions or concerns, let me know.

--~~~~

Administrators who abuse their privileges can have those privileges revoked via nomination. In an emergency, a steward can remove an administrator pending further local discussion. Inactive admins may have their privileges restored if they become active again, but admins who have had their privileges removed for other reasons must go through the nomination process again to regain those privileges.

Current administrators

Wikivoyage has 35 administrators. A full list of those that currently have administrator status on this project is at Special:Listadmins.

The following administrators have added their names here to indicate that they are available to answer any questions you may have. The best way to reach them is to leave a message on their talk page:

If they are not able to help you as quickly as you would like, you may want to raise the issue at the pub.

Non-regular administrators

This wiki allows global sysops (and thus by extension, stewards) to perform uncontroversial admin actions; hence, all global sysops have admin rights here.

Global sysops are permitted to use any of the rights associated with their role on the English Wikivoyage, unless otherwise requested not to by any local administrator. This can be appealed to the wider community.

See also

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