Manual talk:Administrators

Please do not post support questions here.

Instead, use one of these channels:

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Further options for contacting appropriate people can be found at Communication .

Bureaucrats

I don't understand the point of bureaucrats. It seems that they are there because they can't remove sysops, only make them. But all they have to do, is make themselves into a sysop (since they can make sysops) and then use their new-found power to remove everyone else's sysop status.

Is there any way to create a user who can delete pages, etc, but can only make other users into bureaucrats, not full-blown sysops? Kidburla 23:50, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Blocking by Username

In trying to block a user by username I discovered it is possible to block users that don't yet exist. With the initial capitalization of usernames I am not sure that user Igloo is distinct from user igloo, but you can block them both whether they exist or not, which is a little confusing.

Creating a sysop

There was no sysop created with the installation. How do I make a sysop in mysql? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.227.221.112 (talk • contribs) 11:49, 25 March 2005

Have you looked at Special:ListUsers/bureaucrat on your wiki to see who is already a sysop and who has permission to promote people to sysops? --DavidCary (talk) 16:39, 13 February 2016 (UTC)

There's also the maintenance script: createAndPromote.php. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 18:45, 13 February 2016 (UTC)

Assigning a username to an IP address

Is it possible to assign user names to given IP addresses? either permanantly or post post?

Thanks

Deletion of pages by non-administrators

I would argue that in certain cases, it would be convenient for a (non-admin) user to be able to delete a page or image. The preconditions would be:

• The user created the page;
• Nobody other than the user has modified the page;
• No other page currently links to the page.

The reason is to fix up accidental creation of a page, or accidental uploading of the wrong image file, without delay and without needing to hassle an administrator.

Possibly, there could also be a time limit between creation and deletion.

Bureaucrat

• Please explain how a developer creates a Bureaucrat. Does this apply to my own installation of MediaWiki? Oct 29, 05 User:NickD

Dealing with an automated signup script

Hi, I think someone is signing up to my website automatically somehow. Actually, the signups are more than a few mintues apart, but the only information is the username which is a hex string (for example, the last two usernames are 0c0f89 and 10e4b0). Does anyone know what this person is trying to do and how I can see what IP is doing this? I thought these strings would appear in my access logs but they don't. -Thanks Tbsmith

I'm new

Hi...

I'm brand new at this, but ran across something that I intend to use here:

m:Password protected user registrations

In my case, it will be a security code that I give out, but I think you could use it with the code (password) published right above it. Obviously, the person could come to your login page and read the published password and then add it to their script, but you might get an IP number from that login page vist anyway. Hope that helps...

ASN

Flow Chart or Comprehensive Guide?

I've been lost for days trying to ascertain exactly what the core structure of this application is. Is there a flow chart or something that explains the hierarchy of things?

As an example of what seems confusing, consider this:

If you look inside include/DefaultSettings.php you are told to make changes in LocalSetting.php. There you see a ton of stuff you can change, but it doesn't seem to change anything in the application. Better it seems is to go to http://localhost/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Allmessages and make changes there that actually do show up. Yet there are things (like the footer) that seem to be missing from the choices. Of course, there's no footer.php or similar file to track down.

Most curious is the seemingly complete absence of an administrator's control panel - a place you can add users, create groups, etc. Is this some kind of intentional ommission to discourage use of the application by non-tech types? I mean, the application looks WAY to advanced to believe nobody could figure out how to make a admin panel, but yet you see references to working directly with the database file.

(By the way, I found http://localhost/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Allmessages on Google - not here. Seems kind of odd that it wasn't more prominent in the install announcements.)

Thanks in advance for any pointers to a more orderly approach to understanding tis app.)

...

Any way to disable 'view source'

... to discourage the copying of certain (copyrighted) pages? Jonathan1 20:15, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

How to assign sysop status with brand new mediawiki ?

I have installed mediawiki on my pc using xampp Streamlined Windows Install Guide. I would now like to make myself a sysop so I can have admin rights over page editing etc. I cannot find out how to set this on my wiki. Help please... Jamesh008 09:51, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

I fixed it myself...used Help:Setting user rights in MediaWiki and phpmyadmin to set myself as sysop. I love mediawiki. Jamesh008 09:51, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

"To grant "bureaucrat" status after installation, a developer, or someone with developer skills, needs to directly manipulate the database records within MySQL." This directs to Manual:Setting user rights in MediaWiki which is complex and difficult to understand. Odessaukrain 20:25, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

unprotect a special page

When i try to upload a file on my wiki (as a user not a sysop) I get an upload warning that it is a protected page. how do i unprotect a special page? Nazly.elshazly 14:43, 29 January 2007 (UTC) fixed it...turns out it's one of my hooks that prevents users from uploading!

Semi-protection Private Wiki

I want to enable Semi-protection on all pages in our private Wiki. How do we do this? 142.156.1.223 13:44, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Special:Import

Should access to Special:Import be mentioned also as a sysop power? Tisane 10:57, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

Rollback and "Add pages I edit to my watchlist"

I just noticed that when you roll back a page, it will not add it to your watchlist even if you have "Add pages I edit to my watchlist" checked in your preferences. Is this by design? Tisane 06:36, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

wiki turned blank after protecting main page

After i protected my wiki main page it came to blank everything. What the reason would it be? Thanks

A blank page or HTTP 500 error usually indicates a fatal PHP error. For information on debugging (including viewing errors), see Manual:How_to_debug. Sumana Harihareswara, Wikimedia Foundation Volunteer Development Coordinator 21:16, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Losing deleted revisions

"This archive is occasionally lost in database crashes." Why would the archive table be any more susceptible to that problem than any other table, e.g. the revision table? Leucosticte (talk) 23:23, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

Why so freaking hard?

This is such crap. You make everything difficult for no reason. When I click on a user why do I go to a page? Why can't i just set his user rights and access from clicking his name? You are making it impossible to do it easy.

Skins and Buttons

Where are the buttons' icons in Edit Page defined?
I'd like to change the definision for some of the buttons, but I cant find the file which defines them.
For example the existing definision for creating a table is:
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/he/6/60/Button_insert_table.png"
and I want to update it to:
"/skins/common/images/button_insert_table.png" but,
Where is the file to make the change?
Can anyone help?

Mismatched/Confusing Default Permissions and Docs

• In 1.35.1
  • The permission setting referenced on the Administrators Manual page as editsitejs is actually editsitejson in $wgGroupPermissions
    • Not sure if this changed from previous MediaWiki versions, but the actual setting does not match the docs.
  • The sysop group is displayed on various "Special" pages as "Administrator" but it is subtle (at best) in the docs that those are the same thing
  • Then in includes/DefaultSettings.php
  • sysop has editinterface and editsitejson, but not editsitecss
    • This weird combination of default permissions for an Administrator/sysop creates a mystery where users in the sysop group still can't edit MediaWiki:Common.css, but if they're added to interface-administrator group then they do have permission, and the edit button shows up.