StrategyWiki:Guide/Admin guide

StrategyWiki Administrators, also known as "sysops", are privileged users who, on top of adding content to the site, are able to perform administrative functions such as deleting pages and modifying protected pages. The following page is designed to be a reference for sysops who need a reminder on how to properly carry out such critical functions. For those wishing to become a sysop instead, please go here.

Beforehand
Whether it be spam, a copyright violation, or just a page that doesn't have any particular use, pages are constantly being "deleted" from StrategyWiki. Deleting a page is a simple process. All you have to do is click on the "delete" tab, put in a reason, then click "delete." However, there are a few things you should be aware of before doing this:
 * Are there any links to the page you are about to delete? Before you delete the page, click on the "What links here" link in the Toolbox. If there are pages that link to the page, point the links to a more appropriate page or remove them.
 * Is there a talk page? Deleting a page will not delete its talk page if one exists. Therefore, you need to check to see if there is one; a relatively simple procedure. The "Discussion" link/tab will be blue if a talk page exists, and red if it doesn't.

The reason
You will need to include a summary of why you are deleting the page. Most of the time, MediaWiki will give you a default summary. If it does, then use it. If not, then you need to explain exactly why you are deleting the page. The more specific you are, the better the summary. For example, the summary "copyvio from http://www.example.com " is better than simply "copyvio".

Viewing/Restoring deleted pages
If it is later decided that a deleted page should be restored, go to that page and click on "View or Restore # deleted edit(s)." You will then be brought to a screen showing all the past deletions/undeletions of the page, a restore box, and then a list of the page's history. By clicking on the history links, you can see the wiki code of each revision. You can either restore the entire page by just simply clicking "Restore" or just certain revisions of it by checking the check boxes near each history line, then entering a reason in the above box and clicking "Restore".

Suppressing data
Bureaucrats have the ability to suppress the deleted revision from being viewed and restored by normal sysops. In the vast majority of cases, such action is not necessary. Selecting this checkbox on the deletion form will also prevent the deletion from appearing on recent changes and the deletion log (although it will still be visible on the suppression log).

Mass-deleting pages
You can mass-delete pages added by a user via Special:Nuke. Enter their username to retrieve a listing of all deletable pages (only the pages that still appear in RecentChanges), then select the pages you wish to delete, enter a reason, and submit. Pages must be undeleted individually in the event of a mistaken mass-removal.

Why?
You will need to merge page histories when someone cuts (or copies) and pastes the content from one page into another, generally-empty page (simulating a page move without actually using the "Move" tab), or when content from 2+ pages with existing content need to become one. Splitting page histories is only done if a history merge from 2+ pages with existing content was later deemed incorrect and needs to be reversed.

Merging histories
Merging page histories is easy, but can be time consuming. Two methods are documented below, in order of preference. It is recommended that you try Method 1 first, as it is much easier to use, but if Method 1 fails to work for whatever reason, use Method 2.

Note: Before merging histories, ensure that the pages you are merging are actually the pages that need to be merged together, and once complete, the merge will not have to be split, as splitting page histories is much more time-consuming and difficult.

Method 1
This is the preferred method and utilizes a special page called Special:MergeHistory.


 * 1) Browse to Special:MergeHistory
 * 2) Enter the name of the source page and the name of the destination page into the respective boxes, then click "Show mergeable edits"
 * 3) If edits are found, you may use the radio button column to merge in only that edit and all edits before that edit. Leaving the column blank will merge every edit
 * 4) Enter in a comment of why you are merging, then click "Merge revisions"
 * 5) Optionally delete the redirect left at the old page

Method2
This method should be only used whenever Special:MergeHistory does not work for some reason.


 * 1) Delete the destination page (the page where the history from the other page(s) is/are being merged into).
 * 2) Use the "Move" tab to move the page containing the history needed to be merged to the now-deleted destination page.
 * 3) If there are more than two pages that need to be merged, repeat steps 1 and 2 until you move all of the histories that need to be merged.
 * 4) Undelete the revisions that you deleted to make way for the move
 * 5) Revert the page back to the version where all the needed content was present (or move content from various versions until all the desired content is present).
 * 6) Change all links from the redirect pages you made during the moves to the new location. You may want to delete the redirect pages as well.

Splitting histories
Unlike merging page histories, splitting them is quite difficult, and very time-consuming. Follow these steps to properly split page histories:
 * 1) Delete the source page (the page that you are splitting the histories from).
 * 2) Undelete only the selected revisions you do not want to keep on the source page (aka, the revisions of the history that was previously merged into the page, but now need to be split up. If there were more than 2 pages merged, only undelete one of the pages).
 * 3) Move the page using the "Move" tab to the new desired location.
 * 4) If more than 2 pages were merged together, repeat steps 2 and 3 until all histories but the main one that you want to keep have been moved.
 * 5) Undelete the remaining revisions.
 * 6) Revert each split page to the correct version, if necessary.
 * 7) Change the links to the now-split page to their respective pages, if necessary.

Hiding/deleting information in page histories and logs
Under certain conditions, elements of an edit should be hidden.


 * Reasons for hiding content
 * Copyrighted material: this type of addition is not tolerable, and any edit in violation of our license should be hidden.
 * Offensive content (profanity or racism): only the individual elements that violate this should be hidden. If the revision text is the only thing that contains this, it is unnecessary to hide it. Because we revert all negative changes, a user browsing a history would only stumble upon the content if they were to inspect that particular edit's revision (it is relatively isolated). Unless a user brings the revision up as an issue, there is no need to hide the content.
 * Personal information: we are not a phone book, directory for looking up people, etc. The collection of personal information (i.e. not publicly disclosed on a company website or publication) should be treated as copyrighted material and a form of harassment. In the case of a user page, personal information (such as a name or email address) may be hidden if requested by that user.

To use this feature, go to a page's history or to a log page (like the deletion or banned user log) and click the "show/hide" link next to the entry you wish to modify. Then, check the boxes that you want to apply to this revision within the "Set visibility restrictions" box:
 * How to hide elements of a revision
 * Hide revision text: prevents non-sysops from seeing the text of that particular revision.
 * Hide edit comment: prevents non-sysops from seeing the edit summary of that particular revision.
 * Hide editor's username/IP: prevents non-sysops from seeing the username/IP of the editor of that particular revision.
 * Apply these restrictions to sysops as well as others: Bureaucrats can check this option to prevent even ordinary sysops from seeing the revision text/edit comment/editor's username/IP.

After you have selected all the options you want, add in a comment and hit "Apply to selected revision". The latest edit in a page's history cannot be hidden, so in order to hide information for that edit, you must first make a small edit to the page. If you wish to see the older version of this guide (using actual page deletion/restoration), see this revision.

Importing Pages
Importing a page is a means of transferring pages across various MediaWiki wikis while keeping the edit history intact (and thus satisfying the license). In most cases, this isn't necessary as you may just link to the page's history on the other wiki, but in cases where it is marked for deletion, you'd want to import the page here. Before you import a page, you have to export it on the other wiki. Go to Special:Export on that wiki and export the page or pages that you want to import here. Then, save the .xml file, go to Special:Import, browse to your saved .xml file, and click "Upload". After a while, the pages, with the edit history intact (if you exported them that way), will be on StrategyWiki. Chances are, the pages you've imported will need a large cleanup to meet our formatting standards, as well as to get rid of all of the red links.

Protecting an existing page
To protect a page, click on the "protect" tab. Then, select "Sysops only" from the Edit menu. It will automatically making Move Sysops only as well. Then, enter a valid expiry time (such as "1 year" or "infinite") and a reason for protection and click "Confirm". If you don't want to fully protect the page, the varying options you may choose are outlined below:
 * "(default)" means that all registered users may edit/move the page.
 * "Block unregistered users" means that all unregistered users and all registered users using an account less than four days old may not edit/move the page. If protecting due to vandalism by anonymous users, it is recommended you use this option instead of the "Sysops only" option.
 * "Sysops only" means that only sysops may edit/move the page. This is the most common mode of protection.

If you check the "Unlock move permissions" check box, you may assign varying levels of protection for Edit and Move. For example, an Edit level of "(default)" and a Move level of "Sysops only" means that any registered user may edit the page, but only Sysops may move it to a new location using the "move" tab (this is called "move protection").

If the Edit level is set to "Sysops only", a checkbox called "Protect pages included in this page (cascading protection)" will be enabled. Checking that means that all templates and such included in the page will be protected at the same level of the page. This is how the title blacklist works.

To enter an expiration date, make sure it is in a valid format (either "infinite" or "indefinite" or something with "A Years, B Months, X Days, Y Hours" (any combination will work provided they are in the correct order). Please use common sense when deciding on an expiration date. Critical or "high-risk" pages should normally be protected indefinitely, while perhaps only a week or so is justified on a page where an edit war is taking place to allow enough time for both sides to cool down.

Protecting a nonexistent page
Protecting an nonexistent page follows the same method as protecting existing pages. Simply go to the page that you wish to restrict from creation, and click the "protect" tab.

Then, decide if you want all users, only logged-in users, or only sysops to be able to create the page. Enter in an expiration time (optional), a summary of why you are protecting the page, and submit the form.

Another method of protecting pages from being created is by using the "cascading protection" option on an existing page, and transcluding the nonexistent page into it. This method is no longer the preferred method of protecting nonexistent pages and should not be used unless the method detailed above is no longer working. See Title blacklist for more details on this method.

Unprotecting
To unprotect a page, click on the "unprotect" tab. Then, select "(default)" from the Edit menu (or Create menu for nonexistent pages) and enter a reason for unprotection, then click "Confirm".

Protection checklist
Only certain pages really need to be protected, so use the following checklist to determine if the page you are thinking of protecting really needs it or not.
 * Is it a highly used template such as the Header Nav?
 * Is it a highly visible page that doesn't need to be changed all that often such as the Main Page?
 * Is it an archive of past discussion that should not be edited?
 * Does the page exist here for some sort of legal reason?

For nonexistent pages:
 * Is it constantly being recreated as a test page? Consider making the page and redirecting it to the Sandbox instead of locking its creation
 * Is it a spam page that is unlikely to hold any real content?
 * Is it constantly being recreated but doesn't fit into our scope?

If a page doesn't fit into any of the above categories, then use your best judgment before protecting it, or ask the community. If you are still unsure, it is best not to protect the page.

Protecting entire guides
This technique should only be used in emergency situations when many registered users are vandalizing multiple pages of a guide. To fully protect the entire guide without having to protect each page individually, copy (and modify) the code below and put it into Title blacklist. Please note that this will fully protect the guide (so that only sysops can edit it), so do not do this without a very good reason (it also is quite server-intensive).  titlematch=Guidename/%|Guidename namespace=Namespace include=0%[0] format=,\n* %PAGE%,, 

Replacements to make in above code:
 * Replace both instances of "Guidename" with the name of the guide (NO namespace)
 * Replace "Namespace" with the namespace the guide is in (use "namespace=" if it is in the Main namespace)

Note: Semi-protecting entire guides is currently impossible, so just semi-protect pages if they start getting heavy vandalism.

Editing Protected Pages
Editing a protected page is exactly like editing any other page in terms of procedure, but there are a few things to keep in mind before you hit "save page":
 * Did you use "Show Preview" and found no mistakes in your edit?
 * Is the edit really necessary? If it is like a superfluous edit to a widely used template, it adds meaningless jobs to the job queue.
 * Did you discuss the edit you were going to make first? Getting input before editing a protected page is valuable to see what other edits might need to be made to the page, as well as if editing it is even a good idea to begin with.

Don't be ban-happy
As the title of this section implies, don't go nuts with this feature. Before banning a user, make sure that what they did deserves a ban. Generally, the following actions are the only ones that deserve a ban:
 * Vandalising, spamming, trolling, etc.
 * First offense:
 * Warning (use either Vandalism warning or Vandalism only)
 * Two hour ban (one week if really bad).
 * Second offense:
 * Second warning(if second offense wasn't all too bad and the first warning was Vandalism warning).
 * One week ban (one month if really bad).
 * Using automated spam or vandal bots: immediate ban.
 * Sockpuppeteering (using a sockpuppet): one month ban on each account, block account creation. Check the New User log to find any other accounts by that person and ban those as well.
 * The Sockpuppets should be banned permanently.
 * Breaking official policies.
 * First offense: notice on the user's talk page.
 * Second offense: another notice on the user's talk page, make it sound a bit more urgent/harsh.
 * Third offense: temporary two hour ban, notice on user's talk page.
 * Further offenses: increased ban length.

If you are thinking of banning someone for a reason other than those listed above, please use good judgment and determine if a ban is truly the best course of action. Also, please note that the actions per offense are merely guidelines. If you believe that a user has done something bad enough to be banned without warning, then do so. It is typically inadvisable to ban IPs for longer than one month since most users have dynamic IPs.

Banning
To ban a user, either click on the "block" link next to their names (on Special:RecentChanges, a page's history, or their contributions page), or go to Special:Block and enter that user's name in the "IP Address or username" field. Then, select a time from the "Expiry" drop-down (if you want to enter a time not listed on the drop-down, select other, then fill in the "Other time" field). Finally, enter a valid reason for blocking the user and check/uncheck the boxes for additional restrictions (see below). When all done, click on the "Block this user" link. Meanings of the check boxes: Once you've banned the user, make sure to blank their user page and replace it with the banned template (if the ban is infinite or lengthy). You will probably also want to leave a message on their talk page explaining why they've been banned, unless they were spamming, in which case they're probably a bot, and leaving them a message is unnecessary.
 * "Block anonymous users only": This only applies to when you are blocking an IP Address instead of a user's name. When blocking an IP Address with this box checked, any registered and logged-on users editing from that IP Address will still be able to edit. If it is unchecked and you are blocking an IP Address, any registered and logged-on users from that IP Address will be unable to edit as well. If you are blocking a username, this check box does absolutely nothing.
 * "Prevent account creation": If this box is checked, the user will be unable to create an account from that IP Address (if you blocked an IP Address), or while logged on as the blocked username. However, if you block a username, be wary that they will still be able to create accounts once they log out.
 * "Automatically block the last IP address used by this user, and any subsequent addresses they try to edit from": fairly self explanatory. It blocks the user's IP Address for 24 hours (you do not get to see the address), and automatically blocks any other IP Addresses the user tries to edit from for a period of 24 hours as well (again, you do not get to see the addresses). This check box is pointless when blocking an IP Address.
 * "Prevent user from sending e-mail": This will prevent the user from using the "Email user" feature to send emails via StrategyWiki. If they know you email address, this does not prevent them from emailing you using their own client such as Outlook or Thunderbird. This option is only available if blocking a user name.
 * "Watch this user's user and talk pages": This will add the user and user talk page of the person you are blocking to your watchlist.

Unbanning
To unban a user, go to Special:BlockList and locate the user that you want to unban. Then, click the "unblock" link, enter a valid reason to unban that user, and click "Unblock this address". Also, if the entry did not say "autoblock disabled" in it, make sure to unblock any of the autoblocked numbers as well.

Range blocks
It is possible to block a range of IPs at once by specifying a CIDR range in the "IP Address or username" field. See Help:Range blocks at mediawiki.org for more information.

Beforehand
A "rollback" is the process of reverting every edit by a user until it reaches a version not by that user (for example, if user "A" edited a page, then user "B" edited it, then user "A" edited it another 5 times, the "rollback" would revert the last 5 edits by user "A"). Accessing this feature is relatively simple. The last edit of each page's history has a [rollback] link next to it, as well as a user's contributions page and while viewing the latest diff from recent changes. However, if only one user has edited a page or someone else has edited after that user, you cannot roll back that user's edits. Do not click the rollback link just to find out what it does. Unlike almost every other action on StrategyWiki, rollback does not have a confirmation page. The action is carried out the moment you hit the rollback link. So, before you hit the link, make sure that you truly want to revert all of those edits.

Afterwards
Since the rollback feature gives an automated summary, you cannot specify why you reverted all of those edits. Therefore, it is generally common courtesy to leave a message on the user's talk page as to why you reverted all of those edits.

"Bot" rollback
If a user has a mass flood of edits that you want to revert, you may want to do a "bot" rollback. To accomplish this, go to the user's contributions page, then look at the URL. If the part after strategywiki.org says "/wiki/", then add ?bot=1 to the end of the URL. However, if the part after strategywiki.org says "/w/index.php?", add &bot=1 to the end of the URL instead. After adding that part to the URL, browse to the new address. Then, click the rollback links next to the pages you want to roll back. Once it is completed, it will hide the original edits and the reversion of them from Special:RecentChanges unless they click on "Show bots". This does not hide the edits from contribution pages or the page's history, however, so it should not be used to hide edits, merely to prevent a mass amount of them from flooding Special:RecentChanges.

Adding an edit summary
An edit summary can be added by copying the URL of the rollback link, pasting it into your browser's URL bar, and adding &reason=insert+reason+here to the end of the URL ("+" will be converted to a space).

Patrolling Edits
Patrolling edits is a key part in making sure that every edit made to StrategyWiki is effectively and efficiently looked over by an administrator. Unpatrolled edits have a ! by them in Special:RecentChanges and Special:NewPages, so if you have some free time, browse through their diffs (either via the "diff" link or "last" link). When you get to the page, you should see a link saying [Mark as patrolled]. Once you look over the edit and determine that it isn't vandalism or doesn't need any cleanup/copyediting, then click that link to notify other administrators that the edit was valid and they don't need to check it. Ideally, every edit should be patrolled. However, since some administrators don't look at edits already marked as patrolled, don't click on the [Mark as patrolled] link without actually looking over the diff first.

Enforcing Policies
Every administrator should know the policies here at StrategyWiki and be able to uphold them. When enforcing these policies, use the message templates to notify users that they are breaking them, and be kind about it. Chances are they didn't know that it was a policy. For the sequence of warning users, please see the banning section.

Changing a User's Rights
Changing a user's rights is limited to Bureaucrats. To change a user's rights, go to Special:UserRights, enter the name of the user, and select the rights you wish to give that user or remove from that user via the checkboxes. The rights applicable are outlined below:
 * "Sysop": Sysop access. This gives the user access to everything mentioned above.
 * "Bot": Bot access. This hides the user's edits from Special:RecentChanges unless "Show bots" is selected.
 * "Bureaucrat": Checking this box will give the user Bureaucrat rights. Use this in tandem with setting "Sysop"
 * "Rollback"": Checking this box will give the user the ability to roll back pages and have their edits automatically patrolled. See Requests for permissions/Rollback for more information.

This should be obvious, but do not change a user's rights mindlessly.

Welcoming users
If you see an edit (in recent changes) made by a user with a non-existent talk page, please create the talk page and create it with the content   to welcome the user. Your signature will automatically be appended.

If the user making the edit is an anonymous user (not logged in), use instead the following markup, which encourages them to register and contribute more:  . Again, your signature will automatically be appended.

Removing anon permissions
This should only be used in drastic moments (such as a DDoS, heavy anonymous bot edits from proxies/multiple IPs, or a flood of bot account creations). Edit MediaWiki:Anonrights by putting a bulleted list containing the right to remove. The rights that can be removed this way are below (with explanations)
 * read: setting this prevents anonymous users from being able to view pages
 * edit: setting this prevents anonymous users from editing all pages
 * createpage: setting this prevents anonymous users from creating new pages
 * createtalk: setting this prevents anonymous users from creating new talk pages
 * createaccount: setting this prevents anonymous users from creating new accounts

Again, do not use this without a really good reason. Follow the directions here if you need more assistance in using this.