Theuser access level of editors affects their abilities to perform specific actions on Wikipedia. A user's access level depends on which rights (also called permissions,user groups,bits, orflags) are assigned to accounts. There are two types of access leveling: automatic and requested. User access levels are determined by whether theWikipedian is logged in, the account's age and edit count, and what manually assigned rights the account has.
Anyone can use the basic functionalities of Wikipedia even if they are not logged in. Unless they areblocked, they may freely editmost pages. Being logged in gives users many advantages, such as having their publicIP address hidden and the ability to track one's own contributions. Furthermore, once user accounts are more than a certain number of days old and have made more than a certain number of edits, they automatically become autoconfirmed or extended confirmed, allowing the direct creation of articles, the ability to move pages, to edit semi-protected and extended-protected pages, and upload files. Further access levels need to be assigned manually by a user with the appropriate authority. An editor with more experience and in good standing canattempt to become anadministrator, which provides a large number of advanced permissions. Many different flags for specialized tasks are also available.
All visitors to the site, includingunregistered users, are part of the* group, and all logged-in registered users are also part of theuser group. Users are automatically promoted into theautoconfirmed/confirmed users pseudo-group of established users when their account is more than four days old and has ten edits, and theextended confirmed user group later on, at 30 days of age and 500 edits.
User groups have one or more rights assigned to them; for example, the IP block-exempt (IP block exemptions) group has the 'ipblock-exempt' and 'torunblocked' rights. All members of a particular user group will have access to these rights. The individual rights that are assigned to user groups are listed atSpecial:ListGroupRights. Terms likerights,permissions,bits andflags can refer to both user groups and the individual rights assigned to them.
Users who are notlogged in are identified by theirIP address rather than ausername, whether or not they have alreadyregistered an account. They may read all Wikipedia pages (except restrictedspecial pages), and edit pages that are notprotected (includingpending changes protected/move-protected articles). They may createtalk pages in any talknamespace, but need to ask for help to create pages in some parts of the wiki. Furthermore, they cannotupload files or images. They must answer aCAPTCHA if they wish to make an edit which involves the addition ofexternal links, and click a confirmation link topurge pages. All users may also query thesite API in 500-record batches.
Edit screens of unregistered users are headed by a banner displaying theAnoneditwarning system message.
User groups granted to accounts
Standard user rights
Each of Wikipedia's account permissions - whether systematically granted (automatically applied), or approved and granted by anadministrator orbureaucrat - are listed and described in-depth. This information can be located by clickinghere.
Youare not logged in or registered. You can log in or create an accounthere.Youare logged in.
Registered users may immediately e-mail other users if they activate an email address in theiruser preferences. All logged-in users may mark edits asminor. They may purge pages without a confirmation step, but are still required to answer aCAPTCHA when adding external links. They may customize their Wikimedia interface and its options as they wish—either viaSpecial:Preferences, or by addingpersonalCSS orJavaScript rules to theircommon.css orcommon.js files. They may create and maintain awatchlist.
You are not logged in, so youare not autoconfirmed.Your accountis autoconfirmedis not autoconfirmed.
Several actions on the English Wikipedia (such asarticle creation) are restricted to user accounts that are at least 4 days oldand have made at least 10 edits. Users who meet these requirements are considered part of the pseudo-groupautoconfirmed. The conditions for autoconfirmed status are checked every time a user attempts to perform a restricted action; if they are met, permission is granted automatically by the MediaWiki software. Although the precise requirements for autoconfirmed status vary according to circumstances, most English Wikipedia user accounts that are at least 4 days oldand have made at least 10 edits (including deleted edits) are considered autoconfirmed. However, users with theIP block exemption flag and who are editing through theTor network are subjected to much stricter autoconfirmed thresholds: 90 days and 100 edits.[1]
Autoconfirmed/confirmed users cancreate articles (except forcreate-protected pages),move pages (except formove-protected pages), editsemi-protected pages, andupload files (including new versions of existing files, except forupload-protected files). Edits that they make to a page that is underpending changes protection will be accepted and will immediately be visible to people who are not logged in without requiring reviewor approval (unless there are prior pending changes awaiting approval, in which case edits not made by reviewers or administrators will not become visible until the prior pending changes are accepted).
Autoconfirmed users are no longer required to enter aCAPTCHA for most edits, including, but not limited to, adding external links. Autoconfirmed users may email users that have their "allow emails from brand-new users" checkbox off. In addition, theedit filter has a number of warning settings that will no longer affect editors who are autoconfirmed. Autoconfirmed/confirmed users gain access to additional tools such asWikipedia:Twinkle.
As of April 2024[update], there were approximately 2.38 million autoconfirmed users on the English Wikipedia, of which the vast majority were inactive. SeeSpecial:ActiveUsers for a list of recently active users.
Before 16 November 2016, confirmed and autoconfirmed users could also mark new pages as patrolled. This has been changed and now requires thenew page reviewer right to do so.
Confirmed users
Sometimes, it is necessary for accounts to skip the customary confirmation period and to be confirmed right away. Theconfirmed group contains the exact same rights as theautoconfirmed pseudo-group, but can be granted by administrators and event coordinators[2] as necessary. It is redundant to grant theconfirmed right to an account that is already autoconfirmed since it provides the exact same abilities. To request this permission, seeWikipedia:Requests for permissions/Confirmed. SeeSpecial:ListUsers/confirmed for a list of the 584 confirmed users.
You are not logged in, so youare not extended confirmed.Your accountis extended confirmed.does not have the extended confirmed flag, but youare an administrator, so your account is extended confirmed by default.
A registered editor becomesextendedconfirmed automatically one edit after the account has existed for at least 30 daysand has made at least 500 edits.[3][4] This user access right allows editors to edit and create pages that are underextended confirmed protection. The English Wikipedia also enables editors to use theContent Translation tool to create articles andthe INDEX template on user pages. This access is included and bundled in thebot andsysop (administrator) user groups. This group was primarily created to deal with specific arbitration remedies and community issues; the Arbitration Committee has since left community-use decisions up to the community.[5]
Membership in theextendedconfirmed group is revoked if a user is in another group with which it is redundant, and in rare cases may be revoked for other reasons, such as if a usergames the system by making many trivial edits. If extended confirmed is revoked, it may be re-granted atWikipedia:Requests for permissions/Extended confirmed. That page may also be used to request early grants of the group, but requests are almost never accepted except forlegitimate alternate accounts of users who are extended confirmed on other accounts.
Unless otherwise noted, seeWikipedia:Requests for permissions to request the following rights. Some of these rights are automatically assigned to administrators.
Members of this group can review other users' edits to articles placed underpending changes protection. This right is automatically assigned to administrators. Prior to September 2014, this right was known asreviewer.
Users who are given the rollback flag (rollbacker user group) mayrevert consecutive revisions of an editor using therollback feature. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.
Members of this group haveautopatrol, which allows them to have their pages automatically patrolled on theNew Pages list. Prior to June 2010, it was known asautoreviewer. Before December 2021, it was automatically assigned to administrators, but followingan RFC, it was removed from the default toolkit. The 2021 RFC concluded that administrators are allowed to grant the user right to themselves without approval or a discussion beforehand, similar to theedit filter manager user right.
Members of this group havepatrol, which allows them to mark pages created by others aspatrolled orreviewed. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.
The file mover right is intended to allow users experienced in working with files to rename them, subject to policy, with the ease that autoconfirmed users already enjoy when renaming Wikipedia articles. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.
The page mover user right (extendedmover user group) is intended to allow users who have demonstrated a good understanding of the Wikipedia page naming system to rename pages and subpages without leaving redirects, subject to policy. They are also able to create and editeditnotices as well as move categories. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.
The account creator user right (accountcreator user group) is intended for users involved in therequest an account process (ACC), and so have signed theWikimedia Foundation's confidentiality agreement for nonpublic information. They are not affected by the 6 account creation limit per day per IP, and can create accounts for other users without restriction. Users in this group can also override the anti-spoof checks on account creation. Additionally, account creators are able to create accounts with names that are otherwise blocked by thetitle blacklist. This right is automatically assigned to administrators and bureaucrats.[6]
The event coordinator flag (eventcoordinator user group) is intended for individuals involved with off-wiki outreach events to create accounts for their attendees. Event coordinators are not affected by the 6 account creation limit per day per IP. In addition, they can allow their event attendees to create new articles by temporarily adding newly created accounts toconfirmed user group. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.
Users who are given the template editor flag (templateeditor user group) are allowed to edit pages that aretemplate-protected, as well as create and editeditnotices. Template protection is only applied to pages in thetemplate andmodule namespaces, as well as a few pages in the Wikipedia namespace. This right is intended to allow experienced template and module coders to make changes without having to request that an administrator make the edits for them. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.
Users who are given the ipblock-exempt flag (ipblock-exempt user group) are not affected byautoblocks, blocks of IP addresses and ranges that are made with the "Prevent logged-in users from editing" option enabled,[7] and byTor blocks.
The flag is intended for trusted users in good standing who are unfortunately affected by such blocks. Requests for this permission may be included with yourunblock request. If you are affected by an IP address range block, you must send your unblock request using theUnblock Ticket Request System. If you are trying to edit through a blocked anonymous proxy or a VPN service, you must instead send your request tocheckuser-en-wpwikipedia.org, or contact aCheckUser directly.
This right is automatically assigned to administrators and bots.[8] Administrators are also free to grant the right to good-faith editors known to be affected by IP blocks, without waiting for an unblock request.
Members of the edit filter manager group can view, create, modify, enable, disable, and deleteedit filters, including private edit filters that are hidden from public view. They can also view any associated logs that are generated by any edit filter. This right is not assigned to administrators by default, but they are allowed to grant the user right to themselves without approval or a discussion beforehand. The edit filter manager user right can also be granted to non-administrators following a successful request at theedit filter noticeboard.
Members of the edit filter helper group have the ability to view alledit filters (including private edit filters that are hidden from being publicly viewed), as well as view their associated logs. It doesnot grant them the ability to modify or make any changes to edit filters. The user right is intended for editors who are interested in helping with edit filters or have demonstrated experience with helping with public edit filters on appropriate discussion pages, but do not yet meet the thresholds required to be able to modify them. The user right is also intended for users who are currently active administrators or edit filter managers on otherWikimedia wikis who would like to learn from the English Wikipedia, as well as, at the discretion of any checkuser,sockpuppet investigation (SPI) clerks and trainee clerks.
This access is also included in the administrator groups. These capabilities can also be granted to non-administrators following a successful request at theedit filter noticeboard.
Users who are given the interface administrator flag (interface-admin user group) have the ability to edit site-wideCSS,JavaScript, andJSON pages (pages such asMediaWiki:Common.js orMediaWiki:Vector.css, or the gadget pages listed onSpecial:Gadgets), all CSS, JavaScript, and JSON pages regardless of location[9], and pages in the MediaWiki namespace. Interface administrator access, along with access to another group that hasundelete access, is required to view deleted versions of pages only editable by this group. Because it provides the potential to send malicious CSS, JS, and JSON code to execute in other users' browsers, this right may only be granted to existing administrators[10] withtwo-factor authentication enabled on their accounts.[11] These capabilities can be granted following a successful request atWikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard.
Users who are granted and possess the CheckUser flag (checkuser user group) have access toSpecial:CheckUser, afunction page that allows them to view a list ofIP addresses that have been used by a user account to edit the English Wikipedia, an extended list of edits made from an IP address or range (which includes edits that were made by any user accounts while using the specific IP or range), or a list of all user accounts that have used a given IP address or range to edit the English Wikipedia. They also have access to theCheckuser log, which logs each time a Checkuser uses their tools to view any of the information listed. This user right is only granted toexceedingly few users and after a high level of scrutiny and review by the community, and after review and the support of theArbitration Committee, typically around once a year (seeWikipedia:Arbitration Committee/CheckUser and Oversight § Appointments). Users must also be at least 18 years old and have signed theWikimedia Foundation's confidentiality agreement for nonpublic information. As CheckUsers have access to deleted revisions, they are also required to have passed an "RfA or RfA-identical process" first.[12]
Users who are granted and possess the Oversight flag (suppress user group[13]) have access to additional options on the page deletion, revision deletion, and blockfunction pages through which they can hide logs or revisions of pages (partially or entirely) from any form of usual access by all other users, includingadministrators. They also have access to thesuppression log, where they can view actions made by other oversighters, as well as the content of the hidden revisions. This user right is only granted toexceedingly few users and after a high level of scrutiny and review by the community, and after review and the support ofArbitration Committee, typically around once a year (seeWikipedia:Arbitration Committee/CheckUser and Oversight § Appointments). Users must also be at least 18 years old and have signed theWikimedia Foundation's confidentiality agreement for nonpublic information. Oversighters are also required to have passed a "RfA or RfA-identical process" first.[12]
Accounts used by approvedbots to make pre-approved edits can be flagged as such. Bot accounts are automated or semi-automated, the nature of their edits is well defined, and they will be quickly blocked if their actions vary from their given tasks, so they require less scrutiny than human edits.
For this reason, contributions from accounts with the bot flag (bot user group) are not displayed inrecent changes orwatchlists to users who have opted to hide bot edits. Minor edits made by bot accounts to user talk pages do not trigger the"you have new messages" banner. Bot accounts can query theAPI in batches of 5,000 rather than 500.
Acopyviobot is an approved bot that is given the(pagetriage-copyvio) permission, allowing it to use theAPI to tag pages listed onSpecial:NewPagesFeed as likelycopyright violations.
Thefounder group was created on the English Wikipedia by developerTim Starling, without community input, as a unique group forJimmy "Jimbo" Wales—althoughLarry Sanger is aco-founder, hehas never been a member of this group—seeSpecial:ListUsers/founder. The group formerly gave Wales full access touser rights, and no longer has any function but continues to exist as a courtesy. Wales is also a member of the founderglobal group, which grants several more rights across the Wikimedia network.
Theresearcher group allows individuals approved by the Wikimedia Foundation to perform a title search for deleted pages, view deleted history entries, and view deleted contents. It was created in 2010 and expanded in 2020.[14][15]
TheTranswiki importers group gives editors theimport permission for use onSpecial:Import. This interface allows users to copy pages, and optionally entire page histories, from certain otherWikimedia wikis. Theimport permission is also included in the administrators and importers user groups. There are currently1 user in the transwiki importers group. This group is only available for assignment by stewards following a special community approval discussion.
Importers is a similar group which gives editors theimportupload permission as well as theimport permission for use onSpecial:Import. Importers have the additional ability to import articles directly from XML (which may come from any wiki site), as well as to merge the history of pages together using themergehistory right (seeWP:HM for more information). Theimportupload permission is also included in the stewards group. There are currently2 user(s) in the importer group. This access is highly restricted and is only available for assignment to a limited number of very trusted users by stewards following a special community approval discussion.
All users can useSpecial:Export to create an XML export of a page and its history.
Any user account can be blocked, regardless of which user group(s) it belongs to. While the account is blocked, the blocking flag disables the user or IP's existing editing privileges depending on whichblock options are set by the administrator. Apartial block still allows some parts of Wikipedia to be edited.
If an editor isblocked indefinitely but notsite-banned, their rights should generally be left as is. Rights specifically related to the reason for blocking may be removed at administrators' discretion;[16] certain rights might also later be removed under applicable inactivity rules.
When an editor is indefinitely site-banned by the community, all manually-granted permissions should be removed. If the ban is reversed due to actual error (e.g. votestacking in the ban thread), the rights should be restored, but otherwise a user who successfully appeals their ban is not automatically entitled to regain the rights.[17]
Stewardship is an elected role, and stewards are appointed globally across all public Wikimedia wikis.
Users who are members of thesteward user group may grant and revoke any permission to or from any user on any wiki operated by theWikimedia Foundation which allows open account creation. This group is set onMetaWiki, and may usemeta:Special:Userrights to set permissions on any Wikimedia wiki; they may add or remove any user fromany group configured on metawiki. Stewards generally act only when there is no user on a particular wiki that can make the necessary change. This includes granting of theadministrator orbureaucrat access levels on wikis which do not have any local bureaucrats, and removing such flags if the user resigns or the account is acting maliciously. Stewards are also responsible for granting and revoking access levels such asoversight andcheckuser, as no other group is capable of making such changes exceptFoundation sysadmins andTrust and Safety staff.
Stewards can also act ascheckusers,oversighters,bureaucrats oradministrators on wikis which do not have active local members of those groups. For example, if a wiki has a passing need for an edit to be oversighted, a steward can add themselves to theoversight user group on that wiki, perform the necessary function, and then remove themselves from theoversight group using their steward rights.
Other global groups include WMF staff, sysadmins (system administrators), ombuds,Volunteer Response Team (VRT) members, global bots, global rollbackers, global sysops (not enabled on English Wikipedia), and interface editors. SeeGlobal rights policy andmeta:User groups for information on these, as well as a full list.
Table
On the English Wikipedia, bureaucrats are generally also administrators, meaning they have all the permissions of thesysop user group in addition to theirbureaucrat-specific rights. However, this is not a requirement of theMediaWiki software, nor is it a formal requirement of theWikipedia:Requests for bureaucratship process. Technically, a user can holdbureaucrat rights without being an admin.
Deprecated permissions are either no longer assigned to any user group, or assigned to a user group that is no longer populated.
Special:ListGroupRights is an automatically generated list of granted user group rights. The below table is manually updated, and also includesglobal groups with local access.
^abcdIncludes IP users. Any permission granted to all users will be inherited by the other user groups.
^abcdAny permission granted to registered accounts will be inherited by the other (registered) user groups.
^abcdAny user listed in this column has the relevant permission. Italics indicate a global permission.
^Irrelevant since theSUL finalisation in 2015 where all mergeable accounts were merged.
^abcdPerWikipedia:Global rights policy, Global rollbackers are only allowed to use this right in the context of counter-vandalism efforts.
IPs and new users are limited to eight (8) edits per minute. Autoconfirmed or confirmed users who are in no usergroup with thenoratelimit userright are limited to eight moves per minute, except that those granted thepage mover usergroup are subject to an increased limit of sixteen moves per minute.[18] Rollbackers in the same situation are limited to 100 rollbacks per minute.[19] Account creations are subject to an IP based limit,set at 6 for WMF wikis, but users withnoratelimit are unaffected.
^1 Because bureaucrats weregranted the ability to do this, stewards would refer most ordinary requests for removal of the sysop permission to them, but retain the right to remove the sysop permission when appropriate (such as emergencies or requests from theArbitration Committee).
Former levels
Course coordinator, instructor, online and campus volunteer
Enabled users to manage course pages in the "Education Program:" namespace, which wasshut down in June 2018.
Afttest and Afttest-hide
Only granted by WMF staff, these enabled users to delete and/or hidearticle feedback. Removed in March 2014 after one year as the article feedback feature was discontinued.
EP staff, administrator, campus-ambassador, online-ambassador, and instructor
Used by users to coordinate and work with students, instructors, and institutions as part of theeducation program. Deprecated since 2013.
See also
This page is referenced in the Wikipedia Glossary, underAutoconfirmed.
^This flag only grants the exempted user toedit behind the IP address. IP block exempt users are not able to create accounts while behind an IP address that is also blocked with the "Prevent account creation" option enabled.
^Administrators and bots are not affected byautoblocks andhard IP address blocks. However, the ipblock-exempt flagmust be added to the administrator or bot account as a separate user right to allow them to edit from IP addresses affected byTor blocks.
^Specifically, they can edit these pages - even if they're located within the user space of another account.
