Encyc:User access levels

The user access level of editors affects their abilities to perform specific actions on Encyc. The user access level depends on which rights (Also called: permissions, user groups, bits, or flags.) are assigned to accounts. There are two types of access leveling: automatic, and requested. User access levels are determined by whether the user is logged in, the account's age and edits, and what manually assigned rights the account has.

Anyone can use the basic functionalities of Encyc even if they are not logged in. Unless they are blocked, they may freely edit most pages. Being logged in gives users many advantages, such as having their public IP address hidden and the ability to track one's own contributions. Additionally, once user accounts are more than a certain number of days old and have made more than a certain number of edits, they automatically become autoconfirmed or extended confirmed, allowing the direct creation of articles, the ability to move pages, to edit semi-protected and extended-protected pages, and upload files. Further access levels need to be assigned manually by a user with the appropriate authority. An editor with more experience and good standing can attempt to become an administrator, which provides a large number of advanced permissions. Many other flags for specialized tasks are also available.

Overview

1. REDIRECT Template:Further

All visitors to the site, including unregistered users, are part of the Template:Mono group, and all logged-in registered users are also part of the Template:Mono group. Users are automatically promoted into the autoconfirmed/confirmed users pseudo-group of established users when their account is more than four days old and has ten edits, and the Template:Mono user group later on.

Other flags are only given upon request; some, such as Template:Mono or Template:Mono, are granted unilaterally if the user demonstrates a need for them (see Wikipedia:Requests for permissions and Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval). Others, such as Template:Mono and Template:Mono, are given only after community discussion and consensus at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship. Users are made members of such groups as Template:Mono and Template:Mono only with the approval of the Arbitration Committee, after signing the Wikimedia Foundation's confidentiality agreement for nonpublic information.

User groups have one or more rights assigned to them; for example, the ipblock-exempt (IP block exemptions) group have the 'Template:Mono' and 'Template:Mono' rights. All members of a particular user group will have access to these rights. The individual rights that are assigned to user groups are listed at Special:ListGroupRights. Terms like rights, permissions, bits and flags can refer to both user groups and the individual rights assigned to them.

Permissions requested at Requests for permissions only have local rights on the English Wikipedia wiki. Members of global user groups have rights across all Wikimedia Foundation wikis, although that access can sometimes be restricted by local wiki policies. Users registered at Wikimedia wikis also have registered user rights to other Wikimedia wikis if their account is a SUL or unified login account. Both local and global user group membership across Wikimedia wikis can be viewed at Special:CentralAuth.

User groups

The system-generated technical permissions are listed at Special:ListGroupRights.

Unregistered (IP or not logged in) users

"WP:IP" redirects here. For intellectual property, see Wikipedia:Copyrights.

Contributors who are not logged in are identified by their IP address rather than a user name, whether or not they have already registered an account. They may read all Wikipedia pages (except restricted special pages), and edit pages that are not protected (including Pending changes protected/move-protected articles). They may create talk pages in any talk namespace but need to ask for help to create pages in some parts of the wiki. They cannot upload files or images. They must answer a CAPTCHA if they wish to make an edit which involves the addition of external links, and click a confirm link to purge pages. All users may also query the site API in 500-record batches.

Edit screens of unregistered users are headed by a banner that reads:

Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you [$1 log in] or [$2 create an account], your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.

Registered (new) users

See also: Wikipedia:Why create an account?

Registered users may immediately e-mail other users if they activate an email address in their user preferences. All logged-in users may mark edits as minor. They may purge pages without a confirmation step, but are still required to answer a CAPTCHA when adding external links. They may save books to their userspace but not the Books namespace. They may also customize their Wikimedia interface and its options as they wish - either via Special:Preferences, or by adding personal CSS or JavaScript rules to their vector.css or vector.js files.

Autoconfirmed and confirmed users

Several actions on Encyc are restricted to user accounts which were created a certain number of days ago and which have made a certain number of edits. Users who meet these requirements are considered part of the pseudo-group Template:Mono. The conditions for autoconfirmed status are checked every time a user attempts to perform a restricted action; if they are met, permission is granted automatically by the MediaWiki software. Although the precise requirements for autoconfirmed status vary according to circumstances, most English Wikipedia user accounts that are more than four days old and have made at least 10 edits (including deleted ones) are considered autoconfirmed. However, users with the IP block exemption flag and who are editing through the Tor network are subjected to much stricter autoconfirmed thresholds: 90 days and 100 edits.

Autoconfirmed or confirmed users can create articles, move pages, edit semi-protected pages, and upload files (including new versions of existing files). Autoconfirmed users are no longer required to enter a CAPTCHA for most events and may save books to the Books namespace. In addition, the Edit filter has a number of warning settings that will no longer affect editors who are autoconfirmed.

In some situations, it is necessary for accounts to be exempted from the customary confirmation period and instead confirmed right away. The Template:Mono group contains the exact same rights as the Template:Mono pseudo-group, but can be granted by administrators and event coordinators as necessary. It is redundant to grant the Template:Mono right to an account that is already autoconfirmed, since it provides the exact same abilities. To request this permission, see Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/Confirmed. See Special:ListUsers/confirmed for a list of the 0 confirmed users.

As of February 2019, there were approximately 1.7 million autoconfirmed users on the English Wikipedia, of which the vast majority are inactive. See Special:ActiveUsers for a list of recently active users.

Before 16 November 2016, confirmed and autoconfirmed users could also mark new pages as patrolled. This has been changed and now requires the new page reviewer right to do so.

Extended confirmed users

"WP:EXTENDEDCONFIRMED" redirects here. For extended confirmed protection, see Wikipedia:Protection_policy § Extended_confirmed_protection.

A registered editor becomes Template:Mono automatically when the account is both 30 days old and has made 500 edits (including deleted edits). This user access right allows editors to edit pages that are under extended confirmed protection. This access is included and bundled in the Template:Mono and Template:Mono (Administrator) user groups. This group was primarily created to deal with specific arbitration remedies and community issues; the arbitration committee has since left community-use decisions up to the community.

See Special:ListUsers/extendedconfirmed for a list of the 0 extended confirmed users.

Administrators and bureaucrats

Administrators

See also: Wikipedia:Administrators

Administrators, also commonly referred to as "admins" or "sysops" (system operators), are editors who are granted the rights by the community following a Request for Adminship (RfA). The RfA process involves in-depth and considerable discussion and examination of the candidate's activity and contributions as an editor and are granted the rights by community consensus. Users who are members of this user group have access to a number of tools to allow them to carry out certain functions on the wiki. The tools cover processes such as page deletion, page protection, blocking and unblocking, and the ability to modify fully protected pages. Administrators also have the ability to grant and remove the account creator, autopatrolled, confirmed, file mover, edit filter helper, edit filter manager, event coordinator, extended confirmed, IP block exempt, mass message sender, new page reviewer, page mover, pending changes reviewer, rollback, template editor, and AutoWikiBrowser access rights to other users, and to their own alternate accounts. By convention, administrators also normally take responsibility for judging the outcome of certain discussions requiring these technical controls (such as deletions). Administrators are not granted special editorial control over article content than other editors. They are required to follow all policies and guidelines, and are held to the same level of accountability as non-administrators. They are not employees of the Wikimedia Foundation, and should not be confused with Wikimedia system administrators ("sysadmins").

See Special:ListUsers/sysop for a full list of the 7 English Wikipedia administrators.

Bureaucrats

See also: Wikipedia:Bureaucrats

Bureaucrats are exceptionally trusted editors who have the capability to perform certain actions on other users' accounts. These capabilities are granted by the community following a successful Requests for Bureaucratship (RfB).

Bureaucrats have access to Special:UserRights, enabling them to add users to the Template:Mono group (but not remove them), and add users to and remove users from the Template:Mono, Template:Mono, and Template:Mono user groups.

See Special:ListUsers/bureaucrat for a list of the 6 bureaucrats.

Flags granted to users giving access to specialized functions

Pending changes reviewer

See also: Wikipedia:Reviewing pending changes

Members of this group can review other users' edits to articles placed under pending changes protection. This right is automatically assigned to administrators. Prior to September 2014, this right was known as "reviewer".

See Special:ListUsers/reviewer for a list of the 0 reviewers.

Rollback

See also: Wikipedia:Rollback

Users who are given the rollback flag (Template:Mono user group) may revert consecutive revisions of an editor using the rollback feature. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.

See Special:ListUsers/rollbacker for a list of the 0 rollbackers.

Autopatrolled

See also: Wikipedia:Autopatrolled

Members of this group have 'autopatrol', which allows them to have their pages automatically patrolled on the New Pages list. This right is automatically assigned to administrators. Prior to June 2010, this right was known as "autoreviewer".

See Special:ListUsers/autoreviewer for a list of the 0 autopatrolled users.

New page reviewer (patroller)

See also: Wikipedia:New pages patrol/Reviewers

Members of this group have 'patrol', which allows them to mark pages created by others as patrolled or reviewed. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.

See Special:ListUsers/patroller for a list of the 0 new page reviewers.

File mover

See also: Wikipedia:File mover

The file mover user right is intended to allow users experienced in working with files to rename them, subject to policy, with the ease that autoconfirmed users already enjoy when renaming Wikipedia articles. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.

See Special:ListUsers/filemover for a list of the 0 additional filemovers.

Page mover

See also: Wikipedia:Page mover

The page mover user right (Template:Mono user group) is intended to allow users who have demonstrated a good understanding of the Wikipedia page naming system to rename pages and subpages without leaving redirects, subject to policy. They are also able to create and edit editnotices as well as move categories. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.

See Special:ListUsers/extendedmover for a list of the 0 page movers.

Account creator

See also: Wikipedia:Account creator

Users who are given the accountcreator flag (Template:Mono user group) are not affected by the 6 account creation limit per day per IP, and can create accounts for other users without restriction. Users in this group can also override the anti-spoof checks on account creation. This right is automatically assigned to administrators and bureaucrats. Additionally, account creators are able to create accounts with names that are otherwise blocked by the title blacklist.

See Special:ListUsers/accountcreator for a list of the 0 additional account creators.

Event coordinator

See also: Wikipedia:Event coordinator

Users who are given the eventcoordinator flag ('eventcoordinator' user group) are not affected by the 6 account creation limit per day per IP. In addition, they can temporarily add newly created accounts to confirmed user group, so that those accounts can create new articles.

See Special:ListUsers/eventcoordinator for a list of the 0 event coordinators.

Template editor

See also: Wikipedia:Template editor

Members of this group (Template:Mono user group) are allowed to edit pages protected with template protection, as well as create and edit editnotices. Template protection is only applied to pages in the template and module namespaces, as well as a few pages in the Wikipedia namespace. This right is intended to allow experienced template and module coders to make changes without having to request that an administrator make the edits for them. It is automatically assigned to administrators.

See Special:ListUsers/templateeditor for a list of the 0 template editors.

Ipblock-exempt

See also: Wikipedia:IP block exemption

Users who are given the ipblock-exempt flag (Template:Mono user group) are not affected by autoblocks, blocks of IP addresses and ranges that are made with the "Prevent logged-in users from editing" option enabled, and by Tor blocks. This right is automatically assigned to administrators and bots.

See Special:ListUsers/ipblock-exempt for a list of the 0 affected users.

Edit filter managers

See also: Wikipedia:Edit filter

Members of the edit filter manager group can create, modify, enable, disable, and delete edit filters as well as view private filters and their associated logs. This right is not assigned to administrators by default but they are allowed to grant the user right to themselves.

See Special:ListUsers/abusefilter for a list of the 0 edit filter managers. All users can check their Template:Special on the Special:AbuseFilter pages.

Edit filter helpers

See also: Wikipedia:Edit filter helper

Members of the edit filter helper group can view private edit filters and their associated logs. This access is also included in the administrator groups.

See Special:ListUsers/abusefilter-helper for a list of the 0 edit filter helpers. All users can check their Template:Special on the Special:AbuseFilter pages.

Mass message sender

See also: Wikipedia:Mass message senders

Members of this group may send messages to multiple users at once.

See Special:ListUsers/massmessage-sender for a list of the 0 mass message senders.

This access is included with the administrator permission.

Interface administrators

See also: Wikipedia:Interface administrators

Interface administrators have the ability to edit site-wide CSS, JavaScript and JSON pages (pages such as MediaWiki:Common.js or MediaWiki:Vector.css, or the gadget pages listed on Special:Gadgets), CSS/JS/JSON pages in another user's userspace, and pages in the Mediawiki namespace. Interface administrator access, along with access to another group that has undelete access is required to view deleted versions of pages only editable by this group.

See Special:ListUsers/interface-admin for a list of the 1 Interface administrators.

Functionary user levels

CheckUser

See also: Wikipedia:CheckUser and meta:CheckUser policy

Users who are given the CheckUser flag (Template:Mono user group) have access to Special:CheckUser, a function page that allows them to view a list of all IP addresses used by a user account to edit the English Wikipedia, an extended list of all edits made from an IP (which includes edits that were made by any user accounts while using the specific IP), or a list of all user accounts that have used a given IP address. They also have access to the Checkuser log, which logs each time a Checkuser uses their tools to view any of the information listed. This right is only granted to exceedingly few users who are at least 18 years old and have signed the Wikimedia Foundation's confidentiality agreement for nonpublic information. As CheckUsers have access to deleted revisions, they are also required to have passed an "RFA or RFA-identical process".

See Special:ListUsers/checkuser for a list of the 0 CheckUsers.