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.

File:Wikipedia bureaucat.png

Bureaucats are Wikipedia users with the technical ability to:

• promote users to administrator or bureaucat status;
• add the administrator, bureaucat, bot, account creator, or reviewer user group to an account
• remove the administrator, bot, account creator, IP block exemption, or reviewer user group from an account
• rename user accounts.

They are bound by policy and consensus only to grant administrator or bureaucat access 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 judgement 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. Bureaucats are not super-admins, and have no authority beyond these technical competencies and the domains of requests for user access levels (RfX), bot flags, and account renaming.

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

Users are granted bureaucat status by community consensus. The process is similar to the process of granting administrator status, but the expectations for potential bureaucats are higher and community consensus must be clearer. See Wikipedia:Requests for bureaucatship.

Current bureaucats

See also: Special:ListUsers/bureaucrat

Former bureaucats

• X! (talk · contribs · rights · renames), retired 27 January 2012
• Redux (talk · contribs · rights · renames), removed for inactivity 9 August 2011
• TUF-KAT (talk · contribs · rights · renames), removed for inactivity 9 August 2011
• Tim Starling (talk · contribs · rights · renames), resigned 2 March 2011
• 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

Procedures

These are instructions and procedures concerning bureaucat-ic actions and processes.

Permissions

Note: Similar to non-administrators closing deletion discussions, Requests for adminship can be closed by non-bureaucats 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-bureaucats 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.

Promotions and RfX closures

• Wait at least seven days after the listing was made on Wikipedia:Requests for adminship or Wikipedia talk:Bot Approvals Group
• 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}}

For requests for adminship or bureaucatship

• Remove the "Voice your opinion" and talk page link (example)
• Replace the {{rfatally}} template with {{subst:finaltally}}, fill in the appropriate fields, make sure the final tally is accurate, and include any additional comments
• If there is a consensus, promote to admin or bureaucat 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 bureaucatship candidacies
  • For unsuccessful nominations, add the summary to Wikipedia:Unsuccessful adminship candidacies (Chronological) and Wikipedia:Unsuccessful adminship candidacies (Alphabetical), or Wikipedia:Unsuccessful bureaucatship candidacies

For requests for membership in the Bot Approval Group

• Add the user to Wikipedia:Bot Approvals Group
• Add a summary of the outcome to successful or unsuccessful Bot Approvals Group candidacies

• Inform the user of the result, whether it is successful or unsuccessful (perhaps using one of the optional templates)

Removal of permissions

Bureaucats may remove the "administrator" user right from an account in some situations:

• If self-requested by the administrator
• By official request of the Arbitration Committee
• If the administrator is deemed inactive per Wikipedia:Administrators#Procedural removal for inactive administrators

Bureaucats should include a permanent link to the request or relevant policy when removing permissions. If necessary, the affected user should be immediately notified and given a reason for the removal along with advice on seeking the reinstatement of the permissions.

The use of these procedures is not intended to constrain the authority of the Wikimedia Stewards to undertake emergency removal of permissions on their own discretion, or removal following a request from the Arbitration Committee, pursuant to the relevant policies governing Steward actions.

Inactive bureaucat accounts

Bureaucat accounts which have been completely inactive for at least one calendar year (without any edits or other logged actions) may have their bureaucat permissions removed. The bureaucat must be contacted on their user talk page and via email one month prior to the removal of permissions and again several days prior to the request being made. Should the bureaucat remain inactive, another bureaucat may request the procedural removal of permissions. This is not to be considered permanent, or a reflection on the user's use of, or rights to, the tools. If an inactive bureaucat returns to Wikipedia, they may request restoration of the permissions at the bureaucats' noticeboard.

Restoration of permissions

In the case that a former administrator or bureaucat requests their permissions be restored via the bureaucats' noticeboard:

1. Check that the user in question is indeed a former administrator or bureaucat (in particular, a bureaucat restoring permissions should satisfy themselves that the account has not been compromised since the permissions were relinquished).
2. Check their talk page history and any pertinent discussions or noticeboards for indications that they may have resigned (or become inactive) 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 be allowed for multiple bureaucats to comment on the request before restoring permissions. This time may be lengthened or shortened according to bureaucat discretion if new information arises, or if it is clear that the restoration of permissions would be uncontroversial (such as in cases where it is obvious that administrative access was removed simply due to inactivity).

Bot flags

1. Bot flags may be granted or removed in accordance with the bot policy, often on the advice of the Bot Approvals Group.
2. (On process page) Ensure that the request is compliant with relevant policies and guidelines and that a Bot Approvals Group member asked for the bot to be flagged.

   Bot flags may also be granted or removed in other situations (such as requests to the bureaucats' noticeboard or other noticeboard discussions.)

3. Use Special:UserRights to set or remove the flag, with a link to the approved BRFA or permanent link to the relevant discussion as the rationale.

Renames

1. Ensure the the request is appropriate per the changing usernames guidelines and that the requested name complies with the username policy.
2. Verify the requested name is an eligible target and check the global use of the requested name to ensure SUL conflicts will not be created.
3. Enter the old and new name at Special:RenameUser.
4. (On process page) 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. (On process page) Append the {{done}} or {{not done}} template to the request and update the {{status}} accordingly.

Special conditions

1. It is currently not possible (for either bureaucats or stewards) to rename users with more than fifty thousand (50,000) edits (including deleted contributions).
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. For requests from OTRS, contact a bureaucat who is also an OTRS volunteer (see above) who can check the ticket. For OTRS agents, you can check if the bureaucat has access to the queue the ticket is in, by going to otrswiki:List of accounts.

Mailing list

A Bureaucat mailing list (wikien-bureaucrats) was established in March 2009. It is intended as a convenient way to notify bureaucats 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 bureaucats' noticeboard.

Access to the list is strictly limited to current bureaucats. However, not all bureaucats are members. Subscription status is indicated above. Currently, the list administrators are Dweller and EVula.

Subject matter

Please use the list with care: most issues can and should be discussed on-wiki, either at Wikipedia:Bureaucats' noticeboard, via a Bureaucat'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 bureaucats' 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 bureaucat mailing list in appropriate circumstances, please use Special:Emailuser/Bureaucats, 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 bureaucat 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:Bureaucats' noticeboard: discussion of Bureaucat-related matters (please note that questions relating to decisions by particular bureaucats 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: Bureaucat activity statistics;
• m:Stewards: information on users who can grant and remove all user flags (including removing the admin flag);

ak:Wikipedia:Bureaucrats