Big 12 Wiki:Administrators

Administrators are users who have "sysop rights". Administrators are chosen from South of Nowhere Wiki contributors who are active and who have been around for a while and are generally known and trusted members of the community.

"'This should be no big deal,'-- Jimbo Wales, co-founder of Wikia, has said."

Administrators are not imbued with any special authority, and are equal to everybody else in terms of editorial responsibility. Some users consider the terms "Sysop" and "Administrator" to be misnomers, as they just indicate South of Nowhere Wiki users who have had performance- and security-based restrictions on several features lifted because they seemed like trustworthy folks and asked nicely. However, it should be noted that administrators do not have any special power over other users other than applying decisions made by all users.

The community does look to administrators to perform essential housekeeping chores that require the extra access administrators are entrusted with. Among them are keeping an eye on new and changed articles to swiftly delete obvious vandalism, and meeting user requests for help that require administrative access. Since administrators are expected to be experienced members of the community, users seeking help will often turn to an administrator for advice and information.

Bureaucrats
The "founder" of a wiki, the person who first requested it, is given administrator access automatically. Founders are also given bureaucrat access so they can make any other user on their wiki an administrator or bureaucrat. For a complete list of users with administrator access, see Special:Listusers/sysop.

You may also wish to list them on this page.


 * King Charles VI(Founder)
 * Steam-man(Administrator)

So, what's the deal?
The Wiki software has a few important features that are restricted. Of those restricted features, administrators have access to the following.

Protected pages
Big 12 Wiki:Editing protected pages]]. Big 12 Wiki:Protection policy]].
 * Directly edit protected pages. For information and guidelines, see [[Help:Page protection|
 * Protect and unprotect pages. Pages are only protected in certain rare circumstances&mdash;for information and guidelines, see [[

Deletion and undeletion

 * Delete pages and their history. For information and guidelines, see Big 12 Wiki:Deletion policy. To suggest a page to delete (after reading the policy and guidelines pages!). Sometimes deletion is a technical matter, in which a redirection page has to be removed to make way for renaming an article, or a page whose history has been broken up has to be deleted and the pieces recombined. Other times it's a matter of cleaning up simple junk edits on pages with no actual content, or removing material that has been pasted in from another site and infringes copyright.
 * View and restore deleted pages and their history.
 * Permanently delete images. This is a non-reversible change: once deleted, always deleted. For information and guidelines, see Big 12 Wiki:Images. To suggest an image to delete (after reading the policy), see Big 12 Wiki:Images and media for deletion. To challenge a decision to delete an image, make sure that you still have a copy of the image (else there is no way to restore it), then leave a post at Forum:Administrators' noticeboard. Note that there is no particular reason that image deletion should not be reversible; this is simply the way the software works at present.

Reverting

 * Revert pages quickly. Any user (logged-in or not) can revert a page to an earlier version. Administrators have a faster, automated reversion tool to help them revert vandalism by anonymous editors. When looking at a user's contributions, a link that looks like: [ rollback ] – appears 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 edit summary (Reverted edits by X (Talk); changed back to last version by Y) and marks it as a minor change. In a fairly recent change, admins can also rapidly revert changes when viewing a diff.

Hiding vandalism from recent changes

 * Sysops can hide vandalism from recent changes. To do this, add &bot=1 to the end of the URL used to access a user's contributions. When the rollback links on the contributions list are clicked, the revert and the original edit that you are reverting will both be hidden from the default recent changes display (by using the marker originally added to keep massive bot edits from flooding recent changes, hence the "bot"). This means that they will be hidden from recent changes unless you click the "bots" link to set hidebots=0. The edits are not hidden from contributions lists, page histories or watchlists. The edits remain in the database and are not removed, but they no longer flood recent changes. The aim of this feature is to reduce the annoyance factor of a flood vandal with relatively little effort. This should not be used for reverting a change you just don't like, but is meant only for simple vandalism, particularly massive flood vandalism.

Block and unblock

 * Block IP addresses, IP ranges, and user accounts, for a specific time, or indefinitely.
 * Unblock IP addresses, IP ranges, and user accounts.
 * See Big 12 Wiki:Blocking policy for more information on when blocks are appropriate and when they are not. See Special:BlockList for currently blocked addresses and usernames

Design and wording of the interface

 * As of December 6, 2003, sysops can change the text of the interface by editing the pages in the MediaWiki namespace. This includes the text at the top of pages such as the "Special:WhatLinksHere" and the page that a blocked user will see when they try to edit a page (MediaWiki:Blockedtext).
 * As of June 3, 2004, sysops can edit the style of the interface by changing the CSS in the monobook stylesheet at MediaWiki:Monobook.css.

Responsibilities
Administrators should keep an eye on the following pages to help keep the wiki "cleaned up" and running the way it should. Administrators are expected to play an active role in helping out on any or all of these pages.


 * Orphaned pages
 * Uncategorized pages
 * Uncategorized categories
 * Unused images
 * Wanted pages
 * Dead-end pages
 * New pages &mdash; Watch for compliance with Manual of Style
 * Recent changes &mdash; Watch for vandalism; ban appropriately
 * Big 12 Wiki:Vandalism in progress &mdash; Watch for vandalism; ban appropriately
 * Harassment in progress &mdash; Watch for harassment; ban appropriately
 * Images and media for deletion
 * Category:Candidates for speedy deletion
 * Date-ordered CSD
 * Big 12 Wiki:Copyright problems &mdash; Address the concerns here and modify the articles so they will not violate copyrights
 * Fanon to be redirected and locked &mdash; Redirect proven and re-occurring fanon to Big 12 Wiki:Constantly recreated pages
 * Consensus track &mdash; Vote and carry out decisions

Becoming an administrator
If you would like sysop access, and you are willing to take on a little more responsibility in the Big 12 Wiki community, add your name to Requests for adminship according to the guidelines mentioned there, and a voting will take place by fellow editors in order to determine if you should become an administrator.

It's recommended that you write for Big 12 Wiki for at least six months before requesting administrator status, since other users will have to recognize you before they can agree on your promotion.

Be careful, please! If you are granted access, we ask that you exercise care in using these functions, especially the ability to delete pages and their history, to delete images, and the ability to block IP addresses. You can learn about your newfound powers at the Big 12 Wiki:Administrators' how-to guide. You should also take a look at the pages linked from the Administrators' reading list before using any of your sysop abilities.

Extended leaves of absence
In the event that an administrator enter into a protracted absence from the wiki, some form of explanation, be it even a simple "I'm taking a break" or vacation template, is desired. In the absence of any explanation, if an administrator does not edit or use admin tools for four months or more, the following steps are to be taken outside of the RFRA process:

Likewise, in order to maintain their sysop rights administrators are required to make at least 50 mainspace edits in any six month span, excepting prior explanation of inactivity.

Note that these rules also apply to bureaucrats and users with Rollback.

Any Administrators who after a six month absence has there user rights removed may apply to any Bureaucrat upon there return to have there user rights restored with out going through a second Requests for adminship

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 users with rollback.)

Signed-in users
Users with ordinary access, including visitors who haven't "signed in," can still do most things, including the most important: editing articles and helping with Big 12 Wiki maintenance tasks.

But only signed-up users can upload files or rename pages; see Special:UserLogin to sign up for yourself.

Rollback
Users with the rollback have the ability to use and have a rollback button without making them administrators. The rollback button is a faster, automated reversion tool to help them revert vandalism.

Bureaucrats
Users with "bureaucrat" status can turn other users into sysops. Bureaucrats are created by other bureaucrats on projects where these exist, or by Wikia staff on those who don't yet have one. Sysoppings are recorded in Special:Log/rights.

Staff
Some Wikia staff members have full access to all wikis. They will be shown in Special:ListUsers/staff on any wiki. Please see contact us for details on how to contact Wikia staff.

Technical Team
The Wikia technical team can make direct changes to the Wikia software and database. These people, by and large, do not carry out administrative functions. The best way to report problems or bugs to them is via Special:Contact.

Administrator abuse
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, please post on Forum:Administrators' noticeboard.

Administrators can be removed if they continually misuse their powers. If you feel that an administrator is no longer fit to hold that position, you may post on Big 12 Wiki:Requests for removal of user rights. Before posting your request, please be sure to check that your request fulfills the requirements stated on that page. If you are unable to do so (because of a block), you can attempt to e-mail an administrator listed on this page.