The system-generated technical permissions are listed at
Special:ListGroupRights.
Standard user rights that are granted automatically Unregistered (IP or not logged in) users Edit screens of unregistered users are headed by a banner that reads:
Registered users may immediately e-mail other users if they activate an email address in their
user preferences. All logged-in users may mark edits as
minor. They may purge pages without a confirmation step, but are still required to answer a
CAPTCHA when adding external links. Edits that they make to a page that is under
pending changes protection will be accepted, but will not be immediately visible to non-logged-in users until they have been reviewed and approved. They may customize their Wikimedia interface and its options as they wish—either via
Special:Preferences, or by adding
personal CSS or
JavaScript rules to their
common.css or
common.js files. They may create and maintain a
watchlist.
Autoconfirmed and confirmed users You are not logged in, so you are not autoconfirmedYour account is autoconfirmedis not autoconfirmed.
Several actions on the English Wikipedia (such as
article creation) are restricted to user accounts that are at least 4 days old
and have made at least 10 edits to the encyclopedia. Users who meet these requirements are considered part of the pseudo-group
autoconfirmed. 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 more than four days old
and have made at least 10 edits (including deleted edits) are considered autoconfirmed. However, users with the
IP block exemption flag and who are editing through the
Tor network are subjected to much stricter autoconfirmed thresholds: 90 days and 100 edits.
[1]Autoconfirmed or confirmed users can
create articles (except for
create-protected pages),
move pages (except for move-protected pages), edit
semi-protected pages, and
upload files (including new versions of existing files, except for upload-protected files). Edits that they make to a page that is under
pending changes protection will be accepted and immediately visible to non-logged in users without requiring review or 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 a
CAPTCHA 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, the
Edit filter has a number of warning settings that will no longer affect editors who are autoconfirmed.
In some situations, it is necessary for accounts to skip the customary confirmation period and to be confirmed right away. The
confirmed group contains the exact same rights as the
autoconfirmed pseudo-group, but can be granted by administrators and event coordinators
[2] as necessary. It is redundant to grant the
confirmed right to an account that is already autoconfirmed since it provides the exact same abilities. To request this permission, see
Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/Confirmed. See
Special:ListUsers/confirmed for a list of the 529 confirmed users.
As of July 2021, there were approximately 2.1 million autoconfirmed users on the English Wikipedia, of which the vast majority were inactive. See
Special: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 the
new page reviewer right to do so.
You are not logged in, so you are not extended confirmedYour account is extended confirmedis not extended confirmed.
A registered editor becomes
extendedconfirmed automatically when the account has both existed for at least 30 days
and made over 500 edits.
[3] This user access right allows editors to edit and create pages that are under
extended confirmed protection. On the English Wikipedia, it also enables editors to use the
Content Translation tool to create articles and
the INDEX template on user pages. This access is included and bundled in the
bot and
sysop (
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.
[4]Administrators and bureaucrats Administrators, also commonly referred to as "admins" or sometimes "
sysops" (
system
operator
s), are editors who are granted the rights by the community following a successful
Request for Adminship (RfA). The RfA process involves in-depth and considerable discussion and examination of the candidate's activity and contributions as an editor and are granted the rights by community
consensus.
Administrators have exclusive access to
a number of tools to allow them to carry out certain functions on the wiki. The tools cover processes such as
page deletion,
page protection,
blocking and unblocking users, and the ability to edit
fully protected pages. Administrators also have the ability to grant and remove most access rights to other users (account creator, autopatrolled, confirmed, file mover, edit filter helper, edit filter manager, event coordinator, extended confirmed, IP block exempt, mass message sender, new page reviewer, page mover, pending changes reviewer, rollback, template editor, and AutoWikiBrowser) and to their own
alternate accounts. By convention, administrators also normally take responsibility for judging the outcome of certain discussions requiring these technical controls (such as deletions).
Administrators are not granted more editorial control over article content than other editors. They are required to follow all
policies and guidelines and are held to the same level of accountability as non-administrators.
Bureaucrats are exceptionally trusted editors who have the capability to perform certain actions on other users' accounts. These capabilities are granted by the community following a successful
Request for Bureaucratship (RfB).
Flags granted to users giving access to specialized functions Members of this group can review other users' edits to articles placed under
pending changes protection. This right is automatically assigned to administrators. Prior to September 2014, this right was known as
reviewer.
Users who are given the rollback flag (
rollbacker user group) may
revert consecutive revisions of an editor using the
rollback feature. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.
Members of this group have
autopatrol, which allows them to have their pages automatically patrolled on the
New Pages list. Prior to June 2010, it was known as
autoreviewer. Before December 2021 it was automatically assigned to administrators, but following
an RFC it was removed from the default toolkit. The 2021 RfC concluded that administrators are allowed to grant the user right to themselves, similar to
§ Edit filter managers.
New page reviewer (patroller) Members of this group have
patrol, which allows them to mark pages created by others as
patrolled or
reviewed. 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 edit
editnotices 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 the
request an account process (ACC), and so have signed the
Wikimedia 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 the
title blacklist. This right is automatically assigned to administrators and bureaucrats.
[7]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 to
confirmed 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 protected with
template protection, as well as create and edit
editnotices. Template protection is only applied to pages in the
template and
module 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 by
autoblocks, blocks of IP addresses and ranges that are made with the "Prevent logged-in users from editing" option enabled,
[8] and by
Tor 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 your
unblock request. If you are affected by an IP address range block, you must send your unblock request using the
Unblock Ticket Request System. If you are trying to edit through a blocked anonymous proxy or a VPN service, you must instead send your request to checkuser-en-wp
wikipedia.org, or contact a
CheckUser directly.
This right is automatically assigned to administrators and bots.
[9] If known, an administrator is also free to grant the right to affected good-faith editors without waiting for an unblock request.
Members of the edit filter manager group can create, modify, enable, disable, and delete
edit filters as well as view private filters and their associated logs. This right is not assigned to administrators by default but they are allowed to grant the user right to themselves. These capabilities can also be granted to non-admins following a successful request at
Wikipedia:Edit filter noticeboard.
Members of the edit filter helper group can view private
edit filters and their associated logs, but not edit them. The right is intended for those interested in helping with edit filters but do not yet meet the thresholds required to be able to modify them, currently active edit filter managers on other
Wikimedia wikis who would like to learn from the English Wikipedia, and
sockpuppet investigation (SPI) clerks.
This access is also included in the administrator groups. These capabilities can also be granted to non-admins following a successful request at
Wikipedia:Edit filter noticeboard.
Members of this group may send messages to multiple users at once. This right is automatically assigned to administrators.
Users who are given the interface administrator flag (
interface-admin user group) have the ability to edit site-wide
CSS,
JavaScript and
JSON pages (pages such as
MediaWiki:Common.js or
MediaWiki:Vector.css, or the gadget pages listed on
Special:Gadgets), CSS/JS/JSON pages in another user's userspace, and pages in the MediaWiki namespace. Interface administrator access, along with access to another group that has
undelete 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] with
two-factor authentication enabled on their accounts.
[11] These capabilities can be granted following a successful request at
Wikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard.
Users who are given the CheckUser flag (
checkuser user group) have access to
Special:CheckUser, a
function page that allows them to view a list of all
IP addresses that have been used by a user account to edit the English Wikipedia, an extended list of
all 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 the
Checkuser log, which logs each time a Checkuser uses their tools to view any of the information listed. This user right is only granted to
exceedingly few users and after a high level of scrutiny and review by the community, and after review and the support of the
Arbitration Committee, typically around once a year (see
Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/CheckUser and Oversight § Appointments). Users must also be at least 18 years old and have signed the
Wikimedia 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]Accounts used by approved
bots 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 in
recent changes or
watchlists 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 the
API in batches of 5,000 rather than 500.
The
researcher 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]Importers and transwiki importers Transwiki importers is a group which gives editors the
(import) permission for use on
Special:Import. This interface allows users to copy pages, and optionally entire page histories, from certain other
Wikimedia wikis. The
import permission is also included in the administrators and importers user groups. There are currently 0 users in the transwiki importers group. This group is mostly deprecated and is only available for assignment by stewards following a special community approval discussion.
Importers is a similar group which gives editors the
(importupload) permission as well as the
(import) permission for use on
Special:Import. Importers have the additional ability to import articles directly from XML (which may come from any wiki site). The
importupload permission is also included in the stewards group. See
Special:ListUsers/import for the 2 importers. 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 use
Special:Export to create an XML export of a page and its history.
