Administrator Requirements
From AgeofWiki
Administrators are users who have "SysOp rights". Current AgeofWiki policy is to grant this access liberally to anyone who has proven themselves a valued member of the design community and who shows an interest in furthering the project.
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 users who have had performance- and security-based restrictions on several features lifted because they seemed like trustworthy folks and asked nicely. However, administrators do not have any special power over other users other than applying decisions made by all users.
Of course, any user can behave as if they are an administrator, provided that they do not falsely claim to be one, even if they have not been given the extra administrative functions. Users doing so are more likely to be chosen as full administrators.
The community does look to administrators to perform essential housekeeping chores that require the extra access administrators are entrusted with. Among them are watching for spam, 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.
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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
•Edit the Main Page, and other protected pages. You can suggest changes at Talk:Main Page. The main page used to receive a lot of vandalism; protecting it is an unfortunate compromise to keep our welcome mat free of random profanity. •Protect and unprotect pages. Pages are only protected in certain rare circumstances.
Deletion and undeletion
•Delete pages and their history. 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.
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 says "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 an edit summary of (Reverted edits by X to last version by Y) and marks it as a minor change. •Do not use one-click rollback on edits that are not simple vandalism; please use manual rollback with an appropriate edit summary.
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.
Becoming an administrator
If you would like sysop access you should email spitfire.23@gmail.com or aro@heavengames.com with your request.
It is recommended that you write for AgeofWiki for a while before requesting administrator status, since other users will have to recognize you before they can agree with 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 (which is permanent!), and the ability to block IP addresses. You can learn about your newfound powers from Wikipedia's guide.
Administrator abuse
Administrators can be removed if they abuse their powers. Currently, administrators may be removed either at the decree of Aro, Zen, or Spitfire. At their discretion, lesser penalties may also be assessed against problematic administrators, including the restriction of their use of certain powers. Some of the things that might get an administrator suspended are:
- Spamming
- Posting Offensive Images
- Deleting a page without warrant
- Banning a user without evidence of a serous offense committed
- Attempting to threaten the security of the wiki
- Failure to maintain his or her section of the wiki.
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, you can take further action through an email to Spitfire: spitfire.23@gmail.com.
