Help:Sysop tools

'''This is a work-in-progress. Feel free to add to this page any more buttons, functions or pages useful for sysops.'''

This is intended as a reference for new administrators.

General things you should check now
No requirements are made of new sysops, to do any blocking, deleting or whatnot. But here are a few recommendations you may find useful as a new administrator:


 * 1) Visit WT:PREFS and check the desired "Sysop-only" checkboxes at the very bottom.
 * 2) Add WT:VIP to your watchlist.
 * 3) Add WT:WL to your watchlist.  (Especially if you use the WT:PREFS "patrolling enhancements" items.)
 * 4) Add CAT:SD to your personal to-check list (e.g. bookmark it.)
 * 5) Revisit Wiktionarians, double check that you are listed.
 * 6) Update the WT:VOTE/WT:A page one week after you are promoted; make any corrections to your information; de-link the vote archive thing; make sure you are listed properly in the main "current admins" section, etc.  (Fix any other mistakes/old cruft you see there.)
 * 7) Double-check that your Special:Emailuser link still works.
 * 8) Double-check your Babel templates - they are supposed to appear on your userpage.
 * 9) Protect your userpage from moves (for practice with protection and because new sysop pages are usually move-vandalized.)
 * 10) Protect your talk page from moves (same.)  Make sure anon-IPs can edit your talk page.

Buttons
As a sysop, you will see a number of new buttons at the top of each page and in Special:Contributions, Special:Recentchanges and in the history of any page:

Protect
Protect is a tab at the top of each page, to the right of the history tab. Upon clicking, you will be sent to a "Confirm protection" page. It is used for protecting pages against user interaction (moving and editing) or just moving (toggled using the checkbox found on that page). You can also protect pages only against edits from anonymous users.

It is highly recommended that you state why you are protecting it, which you type in the "Reason for protecting" textbox. Common reasons to protect a page are if it is a high-profile page (such as the Main Page) or if it is the subject of continuous vandalism over a short time period. In the latter case, make a note to unprotect the page after a week or so. If someone persists in adding an article that should not exist at all, delete the page and protect it.

Notes:
 * 1) A sysop will always be able to interact with a page, whether it is protected or not.
 * 2) There is a list of protected pages, and a protection log.

Delete
This is to be found as a tab at the top of each page, to the right of the protect tab, and upon clicking, you will be sent to a "Confirm deletion" page. It is used for deleting pages when they do not conform to our criteria for inclusion (see Page deletion guidelines). It is highly recommended that you give a reason for deletion, prepended to any pre-generated text produced by the MediaWiki software. This text will consist of the content and the sole contributor, where applicable.

Note: A sysop may undelete any deleted page. See the Additional special pages section below.


 * See also: WT:DELETE.

Undelete
On a deleted page, an undelete n edits tab appears, allowing a sysop to view deleted contents and previous edits and editors. It also includes a "restore" button.

Move log
A special (revert) tag follows all entries in the move log, so that you can "easily" zap move vandalism, as long as you carefully go last-to-first.

Block
Links to the block page for a user appear in the sidebar when viewing a user page or user talk page, and are available on a user's Contributions page, in Diffs and in Special:Recentchanges. A sysop may block a user or an IP for any amount of time, ranging from 0 seconds (to quickly undo an existing block) to infinity.

Note: the shortest block always wins, so if someone is blocked for a week and you want to increase that block period, you first have to unblock via Special:Ipblocklist. There is also a block log.

Blocking is one of the most powerful tools in the sysop arsenal, and it should be used with care. Refer to the blocking policy at WT:BLOCK for details about its proper use.

Unblock
On Special:Ipblocklist, sysops have an unblock button for each active block listed.

Rollback
Available on Special:Contributions and in Diffs, this button allows quick one-click revert, leaving an automated edit summary ''Reverted edits by xxx. If you think this rollback is in error, please leave a message on my talk page.''

Additional special pages

 * Special:Blockip. Used to block users and IPs. Can be used as Special:Blockip/Username.
 * Special:Import
 * Special:Undelete (with specified target, as Special:Undelete/Page) allows a sysop to view deleted pages (not images!), and to restore them.
 * Special:Unwatchedpages lists all pages that are not in anyone's watchlist.
 * Special:Protectedpages lists pages that are protected.
 * Special:DeletedContributions lists user contributions to deleted pages.

Patrolled Edits
See Help:Patrolled edits

External tools

 * Vandal Fighter
 * There is a Recentchanges feed available on IRC.