Wikipedia:Global rights policy
 | This page documents a procedural policy of Wikipedia. It documents various processes by which the English Wikipedia operates. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Users with global rights should not use them on the English Wikipedia except as detailed below. The use of global rights which are prohibited by this policy may result in blocking and requested rights removal. |
| New users |
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| Administrators and bureaucrats |
| Other flags giving access to specialized functions |
| Other flagged accounts |
| Global user groups |
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For all user permissions see this table. For other global user groups see Wikipedia:Global rights policy and meta:User groups. |
The implementation of global user rights on Wikimedia projects extends to the English Wikipedia. This policy defines their use on this wiki.
Use of rights
editStaff
editMembers of this group are paid employees of the Wikimedia Foundation. Similar to ombuds, they hold global CheckUser as well as global adminship and global oversight rights. They will perform office actions when needed, such as complaints related to defamation, privacy violations or copyright infringement. Not all Foundation staff are granted access to this group; it is based upon need for access. Staff rights are not limited by decision-making processes that involve global or local communities.
- List of users with staff rights
Stewards
edit
Stewards may use their global rollback permission on the English Wikipedia, and may use Special:Undelete to view deleted revisions in the course of their duties as stewards. They are also permitted to use the oversight tool to suppress abusive usernames. According to m:Stewards, stewards will not use their technical access when there are local users who can use that access, except in emergencies
. In emergency situations where local users are unable or unavailable to act (example), stewards are asked to use their global rights to protect the best interests of Wikipedia.
Stewards, along with staff and sysadmins, are able to delete pages with more than 5,000 revisions.
In their global role, stewards grant CheckUser and Oversight permissions to all projects (per Arbitration Committee or Board of Trustees decision), and can remove all permissions (in an emergency situation, in response to a user's self-request, per Arbitration Committee or Board decisions). These actions can affect the English Wikipedia, but are done at meta:Steward requests/Permissions and logged at meta:Special:Log/rights.
- List of users with steward rights
Sysadmins
editWikimedia system administrators are people who do systems administration work on the Wikimedia servers. They can change a Wikimedia site's live copy of MediaWiki, read server logs, etc. Those with server access can also carry out various non-development tasks.
The Wikimedia Foundation legally controls the servers, so the Wikimedia Board of Trustees are ultimately responsible for determining who has sysadmin access. However, they generally delegate this responsibility. On a day-to-day basis, various sysadmins with root access manage the server accounts.
System administrators may use their global rights in whatever manner they deem necessary to manage the Wikimedia Foundation's assets.
- List of users with sysadmin rights
Ombuds
editThe ombuds commission is tasked with investigating complaints about violations of the privacy policy (in particular concerning the use of CheckUser and oversight tools) on any Wikimedia project, for the Board in an official manner. The users who make up the ombuds commission are given the ability to run checks, view the CheckUser log, view suppressed content, and view the suppression log on every project. To file a complaint, please contact the commission privately.
The ombuds may use their global rights for investigating complaints about violations of the privacy policy. Their use of the global rights is at the discretion and restriction of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.
- List of users with Ombuds rights
VRT-permissions
editUsers in this group are a subset of Volunteer Response Team agents. These particular users have access to the permissions queues within VRTS and assist with copyright verifications. All users with permissions access will be in the global group.
Users are in this group for identification purposes and there are no special rights associated with it. Users who add or modify VRTS permissions templates without the vrt-permissions flag have their edits disallowed via edit filter 642.
- List of users assigned to global VRT permissions agent
Global bots
editThe English Wikipedia only allows the use of global bots approved by Meta policy to update interwiki links without the need to request permission from the Bot Approvals Group (original discussion). While active, a global bot's user page should indicate that it has global approval - {{bot|bot operator name|globalbot=yes|status=active}} may be used for this. Use of global bots for any other purpose is currently not permitted - a local bot request for approval must be filed for tasks other than interwiki linking.
- List of bots with global bot rights
Global deleters
editGlobal deleters may use their rights only to help users transition to global user pages or otherwise manage their user space via the Synchbot service.
- List of users with global deleter rights
Global rollbackers
editGlobal rollbackers may use their rights subject to the provisions below, provided they have not previously had rollback removed involuntarily, other than procedurally for inactivity. If removal has previously occurred, they must request and be granted rollback locally by an English Wikipedia administrator.
Global rollbackers may use the rollback, suppressredirect, markbotedits, and noratelimit functions on the English Wikipedia only in the context of counter-vandalism efforts (unless they hold such rights separately in a usergroup permitting local use for other reasons).
Newly-created articles that are autopatrolled only by virtue of their creator's global rollbacker status should be marked as unreviewed.
Any English Wikipedia administrator can ask a global rollbacker to stop using rollback if what they deem to be misuse occurs, and the global rollbacker must comply with such a request. Such a decision by an administrator can be appealed at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard. Failure to comply may result in a local block. In particular, admins who carry out a request for removal of local rollback permissions from an editor with possible recent and related inappropriate conduct may invoke this clause.
- List of users with Global rollback rights
Global sysops
editThe global sysop group is not activated on the English Wikipedia as community consensus to opt-in was not attained. By default, the proposal applies only to wikis with fewer than 10 sysops and/or fewer than 3 active sysops.
- List of users with Global sysops rights
Global interface editors
editGlobal interface editors may use their rights by default, provided they have not previously had the administrator or interface administrator right removed involuntarily, other than procedurally for inactivity. If such a removal has previously occurred, they must request and be granted interface administrator and/or administrator access locally prior to using this access. Furthermore, any English Wikipedia bureaucrat can ask a global interface editor to stop using their global privilege if what they deem to be misuse occurs, and the global interface editor must comply with such a request. Such a decision by a bureaucrat can be appealed to the wider community. Failure to comply may result in a block. In particular, bureaucrats who carry out a request for removal of local interface administrator permissions from an editor with possible recent and related inappropriate conduct may invoke this clause. Interface editors are reminded that some interface pages, such as the watchlist, require discussion prior to use. Interface editors must comply with local policies, such as the protection policy.
- List of users with Global edit interface rights
Removal of rights
editA user who abuses their global rights by knowingly or recklessly using their global rights on the English Wikipedia in contravention of this policy should be reported to meta:Stewards' noticeboard or #wikimedia-stewards on IRC immediately, where the stewards will determine whether an emergency removal of tools is required. An indefinite block may also be placed on the account locally during this period if necessary to prevent further abuse (see the above section).
Additional global groups
editIn addition to the above there are additional global groups not defined in this policy. They are: Abuse filter maintainers, API high limit requestors, Abuse filter helpers, CAPTCHA exemptions, Founder, Global Flow creators, New wikis importers (not enabled on the English Wikipedia), Two-factor authentication testers, Recursive export group, Global IP block exemptions, WMF ops monitoring and WMF Researcher.
Also, some Meta-Wiki local groups have global effects. These are Meta Administrators, Meta Central notice administrators, Meta Interface Administrators, OAuth administrators, push subscription managers, Meta MassMessage senders, Meta Global renamers, WMF Office IT and WMF Support and Safety.