Encyclopedia SpongeBobia
Register
Advertisement
Encyclopedia SpongeBobia

Wiki
Archive

The following page has been archived. Please do not edit this page.

Shortcut(s):

Encyclopedia SpongeBobia
Wiki
General
Policies
Community
Manual of style
Administration
  • Administrators
  • Requests
  • Reviews
Nominations
Social chatrooms
Other
Main page

Introduction

So you've become an admin? Congratulations! As an admin you have a lot of responsibility to maintain a cool and professional demeanor at all times because you are a representative of the community. Your action have long lasting and long reaching affects. Your every action is examined with great scrutiny and you are at all times a large target for attack. So think carefully and calmly when dealing with things. You were given the mop because you have the trust of the community do not abuse that trust. You are not above anyone. You are not more powerful than anyone. You are a servant to the community. You do what they want you to do and at any time they can take away what they gave to you. Think of yourself as the President of the United States. Given great power but bound to be weaker than the people. So use what you are given responsibly and for the community.

Deleting and restoring pages

Deleting a page is pretty simple, at the top of your area are tabs each of those tabs represents a tool that you can use. One of them is delete. It is the most powerful tool in the admin arsenal. With it the entire Wiki could be fell and as it is the most powerful tool that the admin possess it is the one that must be used with the most common sense and reserve.

When is it right to delete something?

Most of the time it is pretty obvious when a page should be deleted and should not be. The most common reason to delete a page is that it is an attack page, irrelevant to the project's goal, or just plain out-right stupidity. But then there are some pages that are very subtle. You should always make sure that if any pages that are marked with the {{delete}} template are checked thoroughly. Make sure that you check the history of the article to see if it has been moved or if it is just heavily vandalized. If has been moved, move it back to where it belongs then delete the redirect and also make sure to revert all vandalism. If it is a heavily vandalized article find the best version and revert to it. You really should do that for articles that aren't even marked with that template. Because remember this is a powerful tool and you have to think before using it or you will destroy the wiki!

When is it not right to delete something?

When ever it is in your favor to delete something! Also never ever delete user talk pages. Blanking them is suggested.

When is it right to restore something that was deleted?

It is really only appropriate to restore if it was deleted wrongly. Also, it is ok to restore a user page if it was deleted because the user requested it to be deleted and then later restored. If it was deleted for something like vandalism then ignore a request for restore. Basically restore if it was a bad delete or restore if it is a user with a good userpage.

Protecting pages

Protecting a page is also a very powerful tool. You can literally freeze a wiki and make it impossible for anyone to use. So you should also be very very responsible when using it.

When is it right to protect a page and for how long?

If you are not an administrator, you should never edit a page that is protected. The tool is to stop vandalism in its tracks as well as to stop edit wars by giving them a cool-down period. Page protection should never be forever unless otherwise noted. Like the main page should always be protected at the Sysop level because of vandalism from people with accounts or without accounts the same with certain lists. When it comes to a normal article a protection should only really last at the most a month and that is only when it is autoconfirmed. When it is sysop level you should make it at the most 3 days. When ever you protect something at the sysop level you should not edit the page yourself and in fact onlyadmin can edit a protected pages. Unless an agreement is done out by the users who were edit warring. Then you should add those additions to the page and no others remember you are a servant. You will do what they want you to do within reason. Remember like the president you also have final say. If you don't think some thing is not right let them know and explain to them that. But never ever let your personal feelings get in the way. The protection tool is a powerful little thing. It can go a long way. To change the protection level of the page, put {{editdisprotected}} on the discussion page.

Cascading protection? What is that?

To be honest, you rarely should have to use that. It is mainly for things like the main page. What it does is protect every thing that is transcluded in the page at the same level with the same reason. So it's wise to not actually use that unless otherwise told.

Blocking users

Blocking a user should be the last resort. Blocking is very powerful. It stops an editor from editing anything in general. A user who is blocked can be blocked at various levels and dates. This tool requires the most common sense to use as it has the longest reach and affect.
UPDATE: When a user is blocked, empty their page and press their banned/blocked user button, also protect the page so only admins can edit it.

To block or not to block?

This is a very hard thing to explain. So let us start from the beginning. When blocking someone, you should take into consideration several things.

  • Are they an IP? If yes you shouldn't block for too long (some IPs should be blocked forever, that means they can never create an account again.)
  • Are they a user? If yes then a block can be longer.
  • What did they do? Some forms of vandalism get very heavy penalties. Like Ahh Real Monsters or Rugrats Vandalism here gets a very long block and can even result in a ban. Other forms of vandalism like adding gibberish to pages shouldn't get too harsh a block but should still be given a decently long block (1 month should be the max unless they are repeat offenders). Very rarely should you put an infinite block on some one. But if you have to then make sure that you are clear as to why.
  • What should be the longest block length? Well it all depends, each admin has their own thing. However most agree on the same block lengths for the same offenses.
  1. Ahh Real Monsters/Rugrats vandalism: Admin's discretion, no one cares as long as their gone.
  2. Adding Gibberish to a page: 1 day to 1 month
  3. Uploading Improper Images: 2 weeks to infinite and if it is a serious offense a checkuser should be called if it is a user account and then said person should be reported to the proper authorities. If it is an IP, report to the proper authorities with the IP address.
  4. Blanking Pages: 1 day to 3 months
  5. Indecency/Intimidating Behavior: This is up to the discretion of the admin but very rarely should a block be too long
  6. Sockpuppeting/Using more than one account abusively (you ARE allowed more than one account if it is used right):Infinite. There are no exceptions. If you are using another account abusively you will be banned.

The list can go on and on but these are common examples of why people are blocked.

What is a ban and why is different from a block?

A ban is an agreement among the community that a user will never be unblocked and should not be allowed to edit ever. A person who has been banned is basically banished from editing forever. A ban can be overturned if the community gets together and agrees that a person is allowed to return. But very rarely does this happen. A block is something that can be overturned and rarely last forever. A person who is banned should be marked as being banned and they should have autoblock enabled (to block any IPs that they use(d))

MediaWiki namespace

Never ever ever touch the MediaWiki Namespace unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing! If you mess up the Namespace you WILL DESTROY the wiki.

Current Sysops that know how to use the MediaWiki namespace

Practice

Note: Please restore the deleted pages

Images

Admintoolsdelete

Deleting a page

Admintoolsprotect

Protecting a page

Admintoolsblock

Blocking a user

Admintoolsskinchange

Changing Default Skin

Admintoolsfrontpage

The Main Page

Advertisement