Help:User rights and groups

User rights and user groups form the backbone of MediaWiki's user permissions system.

User rights give you permission to do certain tasks – for example, the   right allows you to edit unprotected pages, and the   right allows you to delete pages.

User rights are bundled into user groups, which correspond to the various roles on the wiki – for example, , , and .

All users on a wiki belong to the "" group by default.

Privileged users (normally bureaucrats) may assign users to one or more additional user groups.

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Assigning and revoking user groups
Adding and removing user groups is done using the Special:UserRights special page.

For regular users, Special:UserRights is read-only.

If you would like to join a new group or leave one you are already in, contact a bureaucrat on your wiki.

A list of bureaucrats can be found at <tvar|1>Special:ListUsers/bureaucrat</>.

You will be able to assign or revoke user groups when at least one of the following applies:


 * You belong to a user group with the <tvar|rights> </> right. This right is assigned to bureaucrats on most wikis.


 * You belong to a user group that is specifically allowed to add and/or remove a specific set of user groups.


 * You are viewing <tvar|rights>Special:UserRights</> for your own account, and you belong to a user group that has permission to assign user groups to your own account only.

User group expiry
A user may be assigned to a user group for a limited duration.

This can be done by selecting a duration from the "<tvar|expires></>" drop-down menu.

Alternatively, you can select "<tvar|other></>" and enter your own time period in the box.

Relative periods like "<tvar|1>10 weeks</>", as well as absolute dates or times like "<tvar|2>2020-12-31</>", are accepted.

When the expiry time arrives, the user is no longer considered to be a member of that group.

No log entry is written at that time, similar to what happens when a user's block or a page's protection expires.

If you have permission to add a certain user group, but not to remove it, you may only move that group's expiry time further into the future (that is, lengthen the user's membership of that group).

This is to prevent the circumvention of restrictions on removing groups by changing the expiry to (say) 1 second.

When this restriction exists, the "<tvar|1>#</>" symbol appears next to the name of the user group.

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