Thread:Project:Support desk/Changing rights for users with @ in their name/reply (2)

I just inherited this MediaWiki, all the other beauracrats (who all have userids like fred@xx.yy.com) have left my department. As I'm not a beauracrat, I fudged my access by setting

#$wgGroupPermissions['user']['userrights'] = true;

in the LocalSettings.php file. I'm a little uneasy about upgrading until I can get proper beauracrat access for myself and I understand how MediaWiki works better. And the previous beauracrats must have been able to get round this problem, as they managed to get themselves into the bearacrat table. How badly downlevel is 1.16 ?