Wikipedia:Bureaucrats

"WP:BUR" redirects here. For the "Wikipedia is not a bureaucracy" policy, see Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not § Wikipedia is not a bureaucracy.

Bureaucrats are Wikipedia users with the technical ability to:

• promote other users to administrator or bureaucrat status;
• grant and revoke an account's bot status; and
• rename user accounts.

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 at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship. In like fashion, they are expected to exercise judgment in changing usernames, and in granting or removing bot flags on the advice of the Bot 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.

Bureaucrats do not have the technical ability to remove administrator or bureaucrat rights from users or to grant certain levels of access such as oversight or checkuser rights. These actions are performed by stewards, a small multilingual group of individuals who serve all Wikimedia projects and are elected and reconfirmed annually. Changes in user rights by stewards are recorded at meta:Special:Log/rights; for more information see meta:Requests for permissions.

Users are granted bureaucrat status by community consensus. The process is similar to the process of granting administrator status, but the expectations for potential bureaucrats are higher and community consensus must be clearer. See Wikipedia:Requests for adminship#About RfB.

Current bureaucrats

See also: Special:ListUsers/bureaucrat

Former bureaucrats

• Rlevse (talk · contribs · rights · renames), resigned 31 October 2010
• Angela (talk · contribs · rights · renames), resigned 29 July 2010
• Nichalp (talk · contribs · rights · renames), removed by ArbCom 13 June 2009
• Danny (talk · contribs · rights · renames), resigned 21 March 2007
• Dannyisme (talk · contribs · rights · renames), 21 March 2007 (Danny's office actions account)
• Essjay (talk · contribs · rights · renames), resigned 4 March 2007 (background)
• Francs2000 (talk · contribs · rights · renames), resigned 29 March 2006
• Optim (talk · contribs · rights · renames), removed 9 February 2006 (resigned 6 March 2004)
• Ed Poor (talk · contribs · rights · renames), resigned 12 September 2005 (background)
• Eloquence (talk · contribs · rights · renames), resigned 26 May 2005
• Ugen64 (talk · contribs · rights · renames), resigned 12 October 2004

Instructions

These are instructions for bureaucrats, regarding bureaucratic actions and processes.

Promotions and RfX closures

Note: As in the case with non-admins and AFD, Requests for adminship can be closed by non-bureaucrats in certain cases; for example if the user has withdrawn the request or the outcome is very unlikely to be positive (see WP:NOTNOW). Non-bureaucrats should be very careful in the latter case and only close RfAs when they are not in doubt. In such cases the requesting user should always be asked to consider withdrawal first.

• Wait at least seven days after the listing was made on Wikipedia:Requests for adminship.
• Check the history for the transcluded page to be reasonably sure that the comments are genuine.
• Determine whether there is a consensus that the person should be promoted using the traditional rules of thumb and your best judgement.
• Edit the nomination. Add the relevant header and footer to the discussion page, remembering to substitute:

Discussion	Header	Footer
Successful RfA	{{subst:rfap}}	{{subst:rfab}}
Unsuccessful RfA	{{subst:rfaf}}	{{subst:rfab}}
Successful RfB	{{subst:rfbp}}	{{subst:rfbb}}
Unsuccessful RfB	{{subst:rfbf}}	{{subst:rfbb}}
Bureaucrat discussions	{{subst:bdtop|a|p}} (passed RfA) {{subst:bdtop|a|f}} (failed RfA) {{subst:bdtop|b|p}} (passed RfB) {{subst:bdtop|b|f}} (failed RfB)	{{subst:bdbot}}
On hold RfA	{{subst:rfah}}	{{subst:rfab}}
On hold RfB	{{subst:rfbh}}	{{subst:rfbb}}
Successful BAG	{{subst:rfbagp}}	{{subst:rfbagb}}
Unsuccessful BAG	{{subst:rfbagf}}	{{subst:rfbagb}}

• Remove the "Voice your opinion" and talk page link (example).
• Replace the {{rfatally}} template with the accurate tally.
• Place the word "Final" before the parenthetic voting results, change "Scheduled to end" to "ended" and update the ending time and date to reflect the current time and date.
• If there is a consensus, promote to admin or bureaucrat using Special:Userrights. If present, remove userrights made redundant by the sysop flag. Please reference the RfA (or RfB) when making the promotion.
• Remove the request from requests for adminship.
  • For successful nominations, add a summary of the outcome to successful requests for adminship or successful bureaucratship candidacies.
  • For unsuccessful nominations, add the summary to Wikipedia:Unsuccessful adminship candidacies (Chronological) and Wikipedia:Unsuccessful adminship candidacies (Alphabetical) or Wikipedia:Unsuccessful bureaucratship candidacies.
• Inform the user of the result, whether it is successful or unsuccessful (perhaps using one of the optional templates).

Renames

1. Check at Special:ListUsers that the requested name is not taken locally and sulutil: to ensure SUL conflicts will not be created.
2. Be sure that the user has no history of abuse and that the request is in the best interest of the project. Check the changing usernames guidelines and use your judgement.
3. Enter the old and new name at Special:Renameuser.
4. Append the {{done}} or {{not done}} template to the request.

Usurpations

When usurping a target name (User:Target) with a current name (User:Current):

1. Confirm that User:Target is eligible to be usurped and has not objected to the usurpation.
2. Check sulutil: to ensure SUL conflicts will not be created.
3. Using Special:RenameUser, rename User:Target to User:Target (usurped) with the "Do not create redirects" option checked; this vacates the target name and userspace.
4. Using Special:RenameUser, rename User:Current to User:Target.
5. Append the {{done}} or {{not done}} template to the request and update the {{status}} accordingly.

Special conditions

1. For anonymization requests where the username was created by someone else, or has no license-worthy edits, the request should first be sent to the Oversight list at oversight-en-wpwikipedia.org to determine whether or not HideUser should be used instead of Rename.
2. For requests from OTRS, contact a bureaucrat who is also an OTRS volunteer (see above) who can check the ticket. For OTRS agents, you can check if the bureaucrat has access to the queue the ticket is in, by going to otrswiki:List of accounts.
3. After renaming an administrator, create a redirect from Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/NEWNAME to their successful RFA with [[Category:Redirects to requests for adminship|NEWNAME]] included.

Bot flags

1. Check that a member of the Bot Approvals Group approved the bot request and requested that it be flagged.
2. Use Special:UserRights to set the flag, linking the approved BRFA as a rationale.
   • Bot flags can also be removed using Special:UserRights.
3. Update the listing on Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Approved.

Resysopping

In the case that a former admin requests their adminship back on the bureaucrats' noticeboard:

1. Check that the user in question is a former admin.
2. Check their talk page history and any pertinent discussions for indications that they may have resigned for the purpose, or with the effect, of evading scrutiny of their actions that could have led to sanctions.
3. To allow time for these requests to be checked thoroughly, it is strongly recommended that time is allowed for multiple bureaucrats to comment after the request was made before resysopping. This time may be lengthened or shortened according to bureaucrat discretion if new information arises or if it's clear that resysopping would be uncontroversial.

Mailing list

A Bureaucrat mailing list (wikien-bureaucrats) was established in March 2009. It is intended as a convenient way to notify bureaucrats about urgent matters or, on rare occasions, to discuss private matters. Any issue that is neither urgent nor necessarily private should instead be handled at the appropriate on-wiki venue, for instance at the bureaucrats' noticeboard.

Access to the list is strictly limited to current bureaucrats. However, not all bureaucrats are members. Subscription status is indicated above. Currently, the list administrator is Dweller and Pakaran is the co-administrator.

Subject matter

Please use the list with care: most issues can and should be discussed on-wiki, either at Wikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard, via a Bureaucrat's talk page, or in the appropriate on-wiki forum. Please do not email regarding matters that are neither urgent nor concern private information. If an email sent to the list is urgent but does not involve private information, a copy of the text of the email should be posted to the bureaucrats' noticeboard. Please do not contact the list with concerns about edit-warring, conflict, or need for specialist tools, such as CheckUser or Oversight.

To contact the bureaucrat mailing list in appropriate circumstances, please use Special:Emailuser/Bureaucrats, or e-mail wikien-bureaucratslists.wikimedia.org. Please include links to any relevant on-wiki discussion. If you have a private request, please explain why it must remain private. If you prefer to contact an individual bureaucrat directly, you do not have to contact the mailing list.

See also

• Special:Log/rights: log of user rights changes;
• Special:Log/renameuser: log of username changes;
• Wikipedia:Bureaucrat log: for Bureaucrat activity (user rights adjustments) prior to 24 December 2004;
• Wikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard: discussion of Bureaucrat-related matters (please note that questions relating to decisions by particular bureaucrats should be directed to their talkpage in the first instance);
• Wikipedia:User access levels: general information on the English Wikipedia's user rights system;
• User:NoSeptember/crat stats: Bureaucrat activity statistics;
• m:Stewards: information on users who can grant and remove all user flags (including removing the admin flag);

ak:Wikipedia:Bureaucrats