 | This is aninformation page. It is not anencyclopedic article, nor one ofWikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels ofconsensus andvetting. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Both thehuman administrative structure, as well as itsnon-human components, are briefly described within this article (with appropriatelinks to the more exhaustive articles on each topic). |
Wikipedia requires a certain amount ofadministration andgovernance in order to further theproject's goals. To achieve Wikipedia'spurpose, a wide range ofadministrative pages are made available in variousnamespaces which enumerate the variousprotocols and conventions created and implemented bycommunityconsensus for English Wikipedia. Of course, this process is not generallyautomated, and livehuman administration is necessary to ensure that the editing of project pages, whether administration pages or content pages, happenspeacefully and in accordance with thepolicies generally, and loosely,governing the creation and editing of all Wikipedia pages.
At the top of the human and legaladministrative structure is theWikimedia Foundation, a not-for-profit and charitable organization governed by aBoard of Trustees. Although the Wikimedia Foundation owns Wikipedia, it is largely uninvolved in the creation ofWikipedia's policies and dailyimplementation of those policies (seebelow). TheWikipedia community is generally self-organizing and -governing, aseditors withvarying administrative abilities and their elected project administrators are grantedconsiderable discretion over the means used to accomplishWikipedia's purpose. Editors are entrusted with the responsibility of upholding the integrity of Wikipedia while adhering tointellectual property rights, such asavoiding plagiarism, respectingcopyright laws, and presentingappropriate citations for article content.
Pursuant to theFive Pillars, English Wikipediadoes not occur according to firm rules. Wikipedia'sprotocols are principles, not a civil code or exacting law and are actualized usingcommon sense andeditor discretion. Wikipedia'spolicies,guidelines, andformatting norms are created and revised by the editing community to describe best practices, and clarify doctrine aimed at improving the encyclopedia andresolving disputes. These "official" protocols and conventions require discussion and a high level ofcommunity-wide consensus forpromotion to a guideline or policy, thus have a significant degree of influence during deliberations. Mostprocesses on Wikipedia depend on editor consensus in some form or another governed by Wikipedia'scontent andconduct policies. While consensus is the key method for making decisions, aconsensus amongst a small group of editors cannot override community wide policies such as "Neutral point of view". In order to determine community consensus and resolve ongoing disputes, a wide array ofdiscussion venues are made available covering topic specific issues editors encounter in writing and maintaining Wikipedia.
Ensuring the harmonious implementation of the project'seditor consensus-developed protocols governing the creation and development of all types of pages are editors elected or appointed to certain roles:i.e.,functionaries likestewards and theArbitration Committee, alongsidebureaucrats, andadministrators, all of whom ultimately derive their own authority from the Wikimedia Foundation. As well as beingvolunteer mediators, with theability (tools) torestrict editing on pages, "project custodians" have the authority tolimit,block orban individuals who would widely be seen asdisruptive,tendentious, ordishonest. In cases where the conduct dispute resolution procedure has been ineffective, theArbitration Committee has the authority to deal with highly disruptive or sensitive situations. Some matters of alegal nature with regards to thesafety of children,libel statements,legal threats orthreats of harm, arereported to administrators and may be deferred to theWikimedia Foundation for resolution and theedit history of the incident removed from public view.
TheWikimedia Foundation (WMF) owns and operates Wikipedia, along with several other collaborative,wiki-basedInternetprojects. The WMF organizes the raising of money, distributesgrants, develops software, deploys that software, controls the servers, and does outreach to supportWikimedia projects. The WMF does not edit Wikipedia content (except for occasionaloffice actions). Wikipedia editors handle content and internal policies.
The WMF is governed and guided by the terms of theirCharter,Corporate Bylaws,Mission Statement,Vision,Values, andStrategy (the last two of which are not officially adopted by the Foundation). In addition, theFounding Principles are a statement of the common principles guiding the founding of any Wikimedia project. Seeofficially adopted policies.
The global work of the Foundation is supported by "Wikimedia local chapters" (usually incorporated as non-profit corporations, according to the law of the locality), and each is governed by their own chapter board of trustees. Trustees of Wikimedia affiliates are assisted by a very small number ofWikimedia staff.
Editors, often referred to asWikipedians, are the individuals who comprise thecommunity of volunteers that write and edit the pages of Wikipedia as opposed toreaders, who simply read the articles. Some editors use their real life names as "user names", to identify themselves on Wikipedia, whereas others choose never to reveal personal information. Theoretically all editors are equal with no "power structure" or "law enforcement officers." There are however, within the editing community, editors withextra privileges (maintenance responsibilities or ability to perform certain administrative actions). Other categories of contributors have also emerged, such asWikipedians in residence andstudents with assignments related to editing Wikipedia (see below).
| To locate your user access levels, go toSpecial:Preferences. In the "user profile" tab is "Member of groups". |
User access levels (orUser rights and groups) are determined by whether an editor islogged into an account, whether the account is of sufficient age or by number of constrictive edits based on knowledge of Wikipedia protocols. SomeUser levels are granted automatically; for example, anautoconfirmed user is an account that is more than four days old. OtherUser rights are only given upon request, such asrollbacker,page mover ortemplate editor. Entry intoUser groups such asadministrator andbureaucrat, are determined by community discussion and consensus (see below).Oversight andCheckUserRights are only granted by theArbitration Committee, and only afterstrict scrutiny (see below). The system-generateduser rights are listed atSpecial:ListGroupRights.
The English Wikipedia currently has49,396,479 users who have registered a username. Only a minority of users contribute regularly (108,153 have edited in the last 30 days), and only a minority of those contributors participate incommunity discussions. An unknown but relatively large number ofunregistered Wikipedians also contribute to the site.Creating an account is free and has several benefits, for example, the ability to create pages, upload media, and edit without one's IP address being visible to the public.
Stewards arevolunteer editors with complete access to the wiki interface on all Wikimedia wikis, including the ability to change any and alluser rights and groups. They are tasked with technical implementation of community consensus, dealing with emergencies, and intervening against cross-wiki vandalism. The number of stewards is not limited by any policies. Stewards areelected annually by the global Wikimedia community. Candidates must have a support/oppose ratio of at least 80% with at least 30 supporting users. Current stewards are confirmed during each election. Stewards are subject to thestewards' policy; further documentation may be found in thesteward handbook.
The Wikimedia Foundation created the position of steward when it recognized the need to separate user rights management from software development and systems administration.
Members of theArbitration Committee (referred to asArbCom orArbs), arevolunteer editors who act in concert or in sub-groups imposingbinding solutions onconduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. ArbCom has very wide latitude in adjudication with the authority to imposegeneral sanctions and/orpersonal sanctions on editors or groups of editors. They impose sanctions, either as a result of remedies accepted during cases, or during requests for clarification or amendment, or as a result of motions. The arbitration process exists exclusively for Wikipediaconduct disputes (i.e., not content disputes that may require mediation). The committee also resolves issues by private hearings if factors such as privacy may preclude public consideration.
Arbitrators areelected annually in one-year or overlapping two-year terms. The original Committee was appointed by Jimmy Wales in December 2003 from a group of volunteers. Subsequently, elections were held on a yearly basis with Wales ratifying the results, but this role evolved into a purely ceremonial one and he has not been involved at all since 2013. The Wikimedia Foundation supports the technical side of the electoral process and requires that candidates meet the Wikimedia Foundation'scriteria for access to non-public data and sign the Foundation's non-public informationconfidentiality agreement.
Theelection rules are debated each year. Although nomination is subject only to ratherbroad criteria, in practice only Administrators have succeeded in being selected as Arbitrators.
Bureaucrats arevolunteer editors with the technical ability (user rights) to:
They are bound by policy and consensus to grant administrator or bureaucrat access only when doing so reflects the wishes of the community, usually after a successful request atWikipedia:Requests for adminship. In like fashion, they are expected to exercise judgement in granting or removing bot flags on the advice of theBot Approvals Group. They are expected to be capable judges of consensus, and are expected to explain the reasoning for their actions on request and in a civil manner. Users are granted bureaucrat status by community consensus. The process is similar tothe process of granting administrator status, but the expectations for potential bureaucrats are higher and community consensus must be clearer.
Bureaucrats do not have the technical ability to grant other levels of access (they cannot assign oversight or checkuser rights). These actions are performed bystewards, a small multilingual group that serves all Wikimedia projects. Additional stewards are elected annually; for more information seeRequests for permissions. Changes in user rights by stewards are recorded atm:Special:Log/rights. The English Wikipedia currently has 16 bureaucrats as of 13 July 2025. Though not required by policy, in practice all bureaucrats are also Administrators.
Administrators, commonly known asadmins orsysops (systemoperators), are volunteer editors who have been trusted with access to restricted technical features ("tools"). For example, administrators canprotect anddelete pages, andblock other editors. SeeWikipedia:Administrators/Tools. Administrators are appointed after a successful community review process atrequests for adminship in whichconsensus is determined by the bureaucrats, or following anadministrator election. The English Wikipedia currently has 835 administrators as of 13 July 2025.
Administrators assume responsibilities asvolunteers; thus are never required to use their tools, and must never use them to gain an advantage in a dispute in which they are involved (see:Wikipedia:What adminship is not). Only theWikipedia Arbitration Committee or community consensus following anadministrator recall may authorize theremoval of administrator privileges, and this authorization may be executed by anybureaucrat orsteward.
AWikipedian in residence is avolunteer editor who accepts a placement with an institution, typically an art gallery, library, archive or museum or institute of higher education (such as a university) to facilitateWikipedia entries. Typical duties of such posts include outreach to other staff and members of the public, as well as making contributions to articles relevant to the institution's materials and mission. Such outreach work may include the arranging of training events andeditathons. SeeWikipedia:GLAM for more information.
TheEducation program helps with the coordination ofeducators and students around the worldcontribute to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in an academic setting. Educatorsassign their students to contribute to Wikipedia based on course-related topics. Programs are run byWikimedia local chapters (usually incorporated as non-profit corporations, according to the law of the locality), affiliate organizations, and dedicated volunteer Wikipedia editors. Supporting the program is a limited number ofstaff members at the Wikimedia Foundation, who help program leaders start and scale their programs sustainably.
Development of the Wikipediadata structure occurs within variousnamespaces. Namespaces allow for the organization and separation ofcontent pages fromadministration pages. Each namespace also segregates and organizes data according to its function within the overall project schema (articles, portals, files, drafts, templates etc.). Namespaces separate data into core sets, those intended for public viewing, and those intended for the editing community. Unlike theArticle namespace, and other content related namespaces, such as thePortal namespace, administrative namespaces are used toassist the building of content andshould be seen to be mutually exclusive of content pages, except for cases where a linkage is required. In other words, administration pagesshould be in the background andnot visible to the reader.
| Namespaces | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Subject namespaces | Talk namespaces | ||
| 0 | (Main/Article) | Talk | 1 |
| 2 | User | User talk | 3 |
| 4 | Wikipedia | Wikipedia talk | 5 |
| 6 | File | File talk | 7 |
| 8 | MediaWiki | MediaWiki talk | 9 |
| 10 | Template | Template talk | 11 |
| 12 | Help | Help talk | 13 |
| 14 | Category | Category talk | 15 |
| 100 | Portal | Portal talk | 101 |
| 118 | Draft | Draft talk | 119 |
| 126 | MOS | MOS talk | 127 |
| 710 | TimedText | TimedText talk | 711 |
| 828 | Module | Module talk | 829 |
| 1728 | Event | Event talk | 1729 |
| Former namespaces | |||
| 108 | Book | Book talk | 109 |
| 442 | Course | Course talk | 443 |
| 444 | Institution | Institution talk | 445 |
| 446 | Education Program | Education Program talk | 447 |
| 2300 | Gadget | Gadget talk | 2301 |
| 2302 | Gadget definition | Gadget definition talk | 2303 |
| 2600 | Topic | 2601 | |
| Virtual namespaces | |||
| -1 | Special | ||
| -2 | Media | ||
| Current list | |||
Administration pages, includinguser pages,draft pages,policies pages,information pages,maintenance pages,talk pages andinteractive forums fall completely within the bounds of administration, as distinguished from content. In this regard,categories are utilized for both content and administration butshould not have both types of pages within the same category.Templates are also used for both content and administration pages and therefore, unlike other administrative pages, are collected together and entirely as sub-categories ofCategory:Wikipedia templates.
Excluding the Article namespace all namespaces use a prefix; for example, alluser pages are prefixed byUser:, andhelp pages by the prefixHelp:. Somenamespaces also have abbreviated identifiers, for example typingWT: is ashortcut redirect for the "Wikipedia talk" namespace andH: for the "Help" namespace. By defaultWikipedia's search engine is restricted to the Article namespace. However typing a namespace "name" (prefix) followed by a colon limits search results to that namespace (seeSpecial:Search for details). Namespace prefixes should not be confused with prefixes forinterwiki linking. Each namespace is given a numerical value – intended for hiding pages on a watchlist (seeHide Pages in Watchlist for details).
Content namespaces are intended for use by readers as part of the encyclopedia such as articles.
TheMain namespace orArticle namespace is the namespace of Wikipedia that contains the encyclopedia proper—that is, where content—Wikipedia articles reside. The main namespace is the default namespace and does not use a prefix in article page names. This is distinct from other namespaces where page names are always prefixed by an indicator of the particular namespace in which the page resides. Thus, any page createdwithout such a prefix will automatically be placed in the article namespace. The Main namespace number is zero (0).
ThePortal namespace is intended to serve as "main pages" for content (articles) to specific topics or areas. The idea of a portal is to help readers and/or editors navigate their way through Wikipedia topic areas through pages similar to theMain Page. In essence, portals such as theContents portal, are useful entry-points to Wikipedia's content. Portals may be associated withWikiProjects; however, unlike WikiProjects, portals are meant for both readers and editors of Wikipedia, and should promote content and its navigation.
A portal link box may be added to a page by typing{{Portal|<portal name>}} for example{{Portal|Energy}}. If more than one portal is to be linked use a second parameter, for example{{Portal|Energy|Cycling}}. At present, there are 550 portals on Wikipedia. Pages in this namespace will always have the prefixPortal: and aliasP:. The Portal namespace number is one hundred (100). SeeWikipedia:Portal guidelines for general guidelines and best practices.
TheCategory namespace is a software feature ofMediaWiki, which enables pages to be added to automatic listings. These help structure Wikipedia's contents and administrative pages by grouping together pages on similar subjects. A category page lists the articles (or administrative pages) that have been added to a particular category. There may also be a section listing thesubcategories of that category. The subcategorization feature makes it possible to organize categories into tree-like structures to aid navigation.
Article pages should be kept out of administrative categories if possible. There are separate administrative categories for different kinds of non-article pages, such astemplate categories,disambiguation page categories,project page categories etc. SeeWP:PROJCATS for details.
To add a page to a category, include "[[Category:Category name]]" or "[[Category:Category name|Sortkey]]" in that page'swikimarkup. The categories to which a page belongs appear in a box at the bottom of the page. Pages in this namespace will always have the prefixCategory: and aliasCAT:. The Category namespace number is fourteen (14). SeeWikipedia:Categorization for generally accepted standards.
Administrative namespaces are intended for use by editors or by automated tools for the administration and governance of the encyclopedia. See alsoCategory:Wikipedia project content guidelines.
For every type of namespace (including the Main namespace) there is a correspondingTalk namespace orTalk page, reached by clicking theTalktab just above the title. The accompanying talk namespace for each namespace page is a place where editors may discuss and dialogue on their work in the various administrative and content pages in the corresponding namespaces. (Note: oninteractive noticeboards discussion happens on the main page.)
The talk pages are designated by appending the wordtalk to the namespace name. The talk namespace associated with the article namespace isTalk:. Whereas the user and project namespaces are even-numbered, the talk namespaces are odd-numbered and are assigned the odd number that follows the corresponding substantive namespace number. SeeHelp:Using talk pages for general advice.
Wikipedia provides personaluser pages in theUser namespace to facilitate communication among participantshere to build an encyclopedia. Generally, substantial content on a user page that is unrelated to Wikipedia is avoided.Wikipedia is not a general hosting service, so a user page is not used as a personal website. However, a user page may be about the particular editor's "persona" as a Wikipedian, including the pages to which the user has contributed or their general interests in regard to subjects or projects related to Wikipedia, its administration and content. In addition, there is broad agreement that an editor may not include in their user space any material that is likely to bring the project into disrepute.
To reach a user page, simply typeUser:username, where "username" is the user's Wikipedia username. The talk namespace associated with the user namespace has the prefixUser talk:. The User namespace is assigned the namespace number two (2). SeeWikipedia:User page design center for some fun.
Although it may appear from its name that theWikipedia namespace or theProject namespace might contain the actual content of the Wikipedia articles, this is not correct. The Main namespace is the default namespace and therefore does not use a prefix in article page names. The Project namespace is a namespace consisting of pages with information or discussion about Wikipedia itself. As such, Wikipedia namespace pages are purely administrative, and the inclusion of substantive content should be avoided unless the content itself is about administration. The project namespace includes,policies, guidelines,essays,WikiProjects,informative,discussion,maintenance and process pages likeWikipedia:Articles for deletion. This "information page" is contained within theWikipedia namespace.
Pages in this namespace will always have the prefixWikipedia:. They can also be reached by aliasWP: or the standard (for anyMediaWiki site) prefixProject:. The Wikipedia namespace number is four (4).
TheHelp namespace consisting of Wikipedia pages whose titles begin with the prefixHelp: and aliasH:, such asHelp:Link. These pages contain information intended to help use Wikipedia or its software. Some of these pages are intended for readers of the encyclopedia; others are intended for editors, whether beginning or advanced. Some of the pages in the Help namespace are copied fromMeta-Wiki.
There is a large amount of overlap between the Help namespace and theWikipedia namespaces. For this reasonredirects andhatnotes are often set up between these two namespaces. SeeHelp:About the help pages for more information. The Help namespace number is twelve (12).
TheFile namespace contains millions of illustrativeimages and otherelectronic media. The File Namespace is the namespace in which all of Wikipedia's media content resides including data files for images, video clips, or audio clips, including document length clips; or midi files (a small, computer-instructions file). The media filenames all begin with the prefixFile:. The File namespace number is six (6).
A typical file can be inserted with the line code[[File:...|thumb|...]].Image: can be substituted forFile: with no change in effect for images, the choice between the two is purely a matter of editorial preference. Onlylogged in users canupload files under anappropriate title. SeeWikipedia:Creation and usage of media files for more information.
TheTemplate namespace is used to store templates, intended for inclusion on multiple pages.Templates are an administrative feature that generally duplicate the same content across more than one page while helping reducewikitext andHTML markup. Changes to a template will immediately propagate to the pages that use it. Common uses include to displayadministrative notices,infoboxes,navigational boxes, standard warnings, special text formatting, unit conversions, calculations and many other purposes. The most common method of inclusion is calledtransclusion, where the wikitext of the target page contains a reference to the template, using the{{Template name}} syntax.
Pages in this namespace will always have the prefixTemplate: and aliasT:. The Template namespace number is ten (10). SeeHelp:Template for information on developing templates and syntax details. For a table of some useful templates, seeWikipedia:Template messages. For detailed templating documentation seem:Help:Template.
TheDraft namespace is where new articles may be stored allowing them to be developed and receive feedback before being moved to Wikipedia'smainspace. Editors may also createdraft pages in their userspace. Drafts arenot indexed by most search engines including Google, meaning most readers will not find them. However anyone may search and view drafts on Wikipedia directly by using theSpecial:Search option. Pages in this namespace will always have the prefixDraft:. The Draft namespace number is one hundred and eighteen (118).
TheMediaWiki namespace is the database structure namespace used byMediaWiki software, on which Wikipedia runs. The pages in this namespace (whose titles beginMediaWiki:) contain the text to be displayed in certain places in the web interface. Onlyadministrators can edit this namespace, but all editors can propose changes on the appropriate talk pages. SeeWikipedia:Village pump (technical) andWikipedia:Developers for more information. SeeWikipedia:MediaWiki messages for discussions about the content of MediaWiki pages. The MediaWiki namespace number is eight (8)
There are two virtual namespaces that do not relate to pages stored in the database:Special andMedia.
Special pages are pages that have nowikitext, but are generated by the software on demand. They are found in the "Special:" namespace. It is not possible to make a redirect to a special page, or to create normal pages beginning with the "Special:" prefix. Special pages often take parameters. Sometimes these can be supplied after a slash (as inSpecial:Log/block); in other cases an index.php call is used (as inSpecial:RecentChanges). Also the content of some special pages depends on preferences that have been set by the user, e.g. classic or enhanced Recent Changes, the number of titles in Recent Changes and the watchlist, etc.
The special pages can be accessed fromSpecial:SpecialPages, which is found in the sidebar of every page on Wikipedia. It is located in the Toolbox section. The namespace number for a special namespace page is negative one (-1).
TheMedia namespace is used to render a link which can activate the image or audio or video of a data file directly, on its own page (separate from the rendered page or the file page), for exampleMedia:Great Feeling.ogv. The Media namespace number is negative two (-2).
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Jimmy Wales: The birth of Wikipedia, 2005 TED (conference), 20 mins. |