Help:User rights

All Wikia contributors have access to read and contribute to all of our wikias. A number of special user roles also exist on Wikia with advanced user rights, in order to help prevent spam and vandalism. Below is a description of these rights.

Any of these may be subject to change or variation on individual wikias.

To add or remove users from these groups, use Special:UserRights. You must be a bureaucrat or admin, however.

Local level

All users on the Wikia network have the ability to view and read wikia pages. Unregistered (anonymous) users also usually have the ability to edit and add pages to the wikia, though some wikias require logging into a Wikia account first.

Registered users

Users who have created an account and logged in are able to:

• Customize the appearance and features of the wikia by setting their preferences.
• Upload an image, video or other file to the wikia.
• Add pages to their watchlist, which can be used to track edits to a particular page.
• Maintain a user profile.
• Remove advertisements from all pages (except for the main page of each wikia).

Autoconfirmed users

Registered users who have been with Wikia for at least 4 days also have access to the following tools:

• No longer have to go through a captcha when inserting an external link into a page, blanking a page or creating a new account.
• Edit semi-protected pages.

Emailconfirmed users

Emailconfirmed users are users who have confirmed their email address in their preferences. With this permission, emailconfirmed users have the ability to receive emails from Wikia and request lost password information.

CheckUsers

Main page: Help:CheckUser

CheckUsers have the ability to check another user's IP address, as well as the ability to check what users have edited using a particular IP address, and view the CheckUser log. This ability is generally only available to Wikia Staff, Helpers and VSTF, but on large wikias where sockpuppetry is a major problem, access can be considered.

Administrators

The UserRights control panel.

A screenshot of changes in the user rights log

Administrators (also known as "admins" or "sysops") are trusted users, who are generally chosen by the community and also have access to the following tools:

• All privileges from the moderator, chat moderator, and rollback groups.
• Delete and undelete pages, as well as delete images or files.
• Lock (protect) both a page and a file so it cannot be edited or renamed by users without adminship privileges.
• Block users who are vandalizing the wikia from editing, etc.
• Grant and revoke both the chat moderator rights and forum moderator rights.
• Edit the wikia's skin and format.
• Edit MediaWiki pages.

For more details, see the Help:Administrators' how-to guide.

The state of being an administrator is also referred to as "adminship". Being an administrator makes "ADMIN" appear next to a user's name on their profile.

Bureaucrats

Bureaucrats are one level 'up' from administrators. Bureaucrats only have the ability to manipulate users rights, so is generally used in addition to the administrator group.

They have the ability to promote and revoke rollback, chat moderator and administrator rights as well as appointing new bureaucrats. While they cannot directly revoke another user's bureaucrat status, they can revoke their own. Bureaucrats also have the ability to revoke a user's bot status in case the bot is malfunctioning, but community consensus is required for the addition of users's bot status.

By default, bureaucrats are not identified on their userpages. If a bureaucrat is also an admin, only "ADMIN" will show, so Special:ListUsers must be used to tell bureaucrats from normal administrators.

Bureaucrat status can only be removed by Wikia Staff, or by themselves.

Moderators

Moderators are users who have additional tools available to manage thread conversations in the Forum and Message Wall features. These tools are:

• Removing and restoring threads and replies from any user.

• Closing and reopening threads.

• In the Forum feature specifically, moderators also have the ability to manage Forum boards, move threads from one board to another, and highlight and un-highlight threads.

Having this status causes "MODERATOR" to appear next to the username on the user's userpage.

Chat Moderators

Chat moderators are users who have chat moderator status in chat in order to moderate a wikia's chat room. They are able to block users from chat, which will kick a user out of the chat and ban them from returning until a chat moderator or an admin unbans them from the users' contributions page, or if the ban expires.

Having this status causes "CHAT MODERATOR" to appear next to the username on the user's userpage.

Rollbacks

Anyone can revert vandalism and bad-faith edits, but it takes a couple of clicks in the page history to get it done. Users with the "rollback" tool are able to undo bad edits with one click, by using the rollback link on diff pages, user contributions list, or the list of recent changes.

It is important to note that admins (including bureaucrats) already have rollback rights by default. The right can be optional for a user to have rollback and admin combined, but it will not add extra speed even with slower internet connections. Users with rollback rights are just users who are not necessarily an admin.

Rollbackers (users with Rollback rights) can be seen via Special:ListUsers, but they do not by default have any special title that appears on their userpage.

Founders

A wikia's founder is automatically given admin and bureaucrat rights during wikia creation. This allows them to edit the wikia's skin and format. As more contributors join, it's a good idea for bureaucrats to appoint trusted users as admins, rollbacks, moderators, and Chat Moderators.

The title of founder appears next to the founder's name even if they later abdicate their position as bureaucrat or administrator, and it overrides those titles. Founders are denoted with a "FOUNDER" banner on their profile.

Bots

A "bot" is any automated process, program, or script that makes it easier for a user to make tedious or repetitive edits and actions on a wikia. When a bot is running in quick succession, the recent changes log can sometimes be overtaken, making it harder to spot more substantial edits by regular users. Giving an account a "bot flag" will hide these edits from the recent changes list (although any editor can still choose to see them by clicking "Show bots").

On Wikia, a user who wishes to use a bot should set up a separate account for it, then talk with other users on the wiki if they approve of the creation of a bot. After discussing it with the community, the bot owner or admin can request the bot be flagged.

Global level

VSTF

The Volunteer Spam Task Force, abbreviated to "VSTF", are experienced and involved Wikians who have administrator access to all Wikia. They also have tools allowing them to combat cross-wikia spam and vandalism. See Help:SpamTaskForce for more info, or Special:ListUsers/vstf for a list. VSTF users will have a "VSTF" tag on their accounts.

Helpers

Helpers consist of volunteers working to support and improve non-English wikia communities. They have most staff rights on all of Wikia's wikias and they have the tag in their signatures. See Help:Helper Group for more info, or Special:ListUsers/helper for a list. Users in this group will have a "HELPER" tag on their accounts.

Staff

Staff are {{#NewWindowLink:homepage:About|Wikia}} employees and they have full access to all Wikia wikis. They are shown in Special:Listusers/staff on any wiki, and often have a special Staff signature () when they sign their comments. Staff have tools to support them in helping to maintain all of Wikia. Please see Help:Contacting Wikia for details on how to contact Wikia Staff. These users will have a "STAFF" banner on their profile.

Utilities

Utilities are staff tools which they use for more features. These are shown in Special:Listusers/util on all other wikias. The identity to their profile is not shown but may not have a staff signature unless if they have Wikia Staff privileges.

Wikia Stars

Main articles: homepage:Stars and Wikia Stars

Wikia Stars are recognized as leaders within their communities and as experts on their fandoms. They may be invited to join Wikia programming initiatives or even, in some cases, travel to live events. Stars are denoted with a "WIKIA STAR" banner on their profile, but it does not come with any global rights.

Admin Mentors

Main Article: {{#NewWindowLink:homepage:w:Admin Support:Main Page|Admin Support:Main Page}}

The Admin Mentor Program (AMP) is a group of experienced admins on Wikia using their expertise to empower community admins with the knowledge and skills they need to best manage their wikias. Even though this right is in the global group rights section, this right is only applied locally. These users have an "ADMIN MENTOR" tag on their accounts.

Authenticated

Authenticated users are the official accounts of large companies, typically from the video game industry. The group signifies that the veracity of the account was checked for by Staff. They are users who are notable or famous IRL for some reason, maybe they represent a game designer or developer, maybe they're a famous musician. A user must be verified by Wikia Staff as legitimately being that important person before they get this right. Users in this group will have an "AUTHENTICATED" tag on their profiles.

Volunteer Developers

Main article: w:c:dev:Volunteer Developers

The Volunteer Developers program is an initiative that aims to enable technically skilled members of the Wikia community to contribute to Wikia not only by editing and wiki-administration, but also by fixing bugs and improving Wikia's software. These users will have a "VOLUNTEER DEVELOPERS" tag on their profiles.

Community Council

Main page: Help:Community Council

The Community Council is Wikia's product testing and feedback group. Members of the Community Council are selected by Wikia Staff to provide preliminary feedback on new features and products that are under development. Users in this group will have a tag on their accounts named "COUNCILOR".

How do you grant admin rights to another user?

Granting admin rights on your wiki

Watch this quick video on how to grant another user admin rights.

Why can't I give another user privileges?

Users cannot access some tools when they don't have user rights. If a user has their bureaucrat and admin rights removed by {{#NewWindowLink:http://community.wikia.com/index.php?title=Staff%7CWikia Staff}}, they cannot re-grant them back. They can be removed for one of the following reasons:

• The rights were abused and vandalized.
• A user is inactive (by request of the community).
• User request.
• Found to be as an alternative account (sockpuppet).
• A user was denied from adopting a wikia and still has it on a wikia for one of the following reasons:
  • The user was founded, adopted or given admin access on a wikia and has not waited 60 days and sneaked for admin rights by telling an admin to grant user rights on the wikia even if contributions are good.
  • An admin granted the user rights to a user and someone contacted a staff if a user doesn't have enough edits.
  • A user was blocked from another wikia.
• Editing MediaWiki interfaces into nonsense, spam, harassment, hate speech, threats, vandalism and more.
• Mass promoting users with few edits.

What can't blocked users do?

If a user is suspected of breaking Wikia's {{#NewWindowLink:http://www.wikia.com/index.php?title=Terms_of_Use%7CTerms of Use}} or a local community's guidelines, they may be blocked by staff or a local admin. Blocked users can't:

• Edit or move pages
• Delete or protect pages
• Upload files
• Change the rights of others

In some cases, blocked users are also prevented from creating new accounts, and editing their own message wall/user talk page only if decided by the local admins, Wikia Staff, Helpers and VSTF.

How can I find different users?

See Special:ListUsers and choose the "administrators", "rollback", or "bureaucrats" check boxes, and click "Show". You will also see a column showing the date of the user's most recent edit, so you can find users that have been active most recently.

Can user rights messages be edited?

You can customize the user rights message by altering MediaWiki:Userrights-groups-help on your wikia.

Further help and feedback

• Browse and search other help pages at Help:Contents
• Check Fandom Community Central for sources of further help and support
• Check Contacting Fandom for how to report any errors or unclear steps in this article