Manual:Setting user groups in MediaWiki

By default MediaWiki has several user groups that can grant a user a set of user rights. See also the list of groups.

Special:UserRights (MediaWiki 1.10 and higher)
There is a simple interface (Special:UserRights) for adding a user to or removing a user from one or more user groups. To do this the acting user must have the  userrights user right, which by default is granted to the 'Bureaucrat' user group. You can access Special:UserRights directly or via Special:SpecialPages in the toolbox on the left (as of MediaWiki 1.16.0).

To help in using Special:UserRights, refer to Help:Assigning permissions.

Older versions of MediaWiki (prior to 1.15) do not have a general interface for setting the user rights field of user accounts (use Special:Makesysop instead).

Related pages

 * Manual:User rights (Explanation of the different "rights" which can be assigned to a group)
 * Extension:Page access restriction
 * Manual:Preventing access
 * Extension:Hidden pages