This is the central page for information for admins on this wiki. We are developing guidelines for proper procedures and behavior of admins. I will link to all the articles and example I can find that are relevant.
This page is still developing...
Intro[]
Wikia has several levels of officials.
- Content Moderators are responsible for the contents of the article pages.
- Discussion Moderators are responsible for the discussion areas - the forum, the talk pages and the article comments.
- Administrators have all the above responsibilities and also can lock or unlock pages and block users.
We have two admins: 'Aylin' and 'Colby'
- Bureaucrats can promote people to the other official status or demote them, as necessary. ONLY
A bureaucrat is usually an admin as well, but doesn't need to be. Stanimus is currently the only bureaucrat and an admin.
Administrator Duties[]
Policing[]
The first and foremost responsibility of an admin is to keep the wiki safe. This means quick response to 'thugs' - especially those who use unacceptable language or make threats. Often another user will spot this and send a notice to an admin - we may need to monitor each other's message walls for such. Even without this monitoring, you can spot that notice as well as the original offense when looking through the recent changes page. This is ALWAYS my first task here. Glance through the changes to see if there's anything that needs IMMEDIATE attention.
Then I'll go through ALL the changes on the recent changes page to see what else was changed. This is where it really helps when people put something in the 'summary of your edit' box. If you trust the editor and you understand what she put in the summary, you can bypass that change and look at the next one. Some changes will need to be looked over just to make sure they're correct, that there's no misspelling, and it keeps consistency, etc. The easiest way is to right-click on the "diff" link and 'open in new tab'. This will show exactly what was changed. Usually a quick look is enough and you can close that tab.
Admins Only[]
There are several features available exclusively to admins. The most noticeable is the "Admin" tab at the bottom of your browser window. This gives you access to admin only functions.
Housekeeping[]
Admins need to perform 'behind-the-scenes' duties, as well as help the editors. A wiki requires maintenance and upkeep not typically noticed by the normal user.
One helpful page to look over is the insights page. This is generated by the wikia code and lists pages that may need help in various ways. Perhaps the most important section shows the 'red links' or 'wanted pages', which lists all page names which have links TO them but which do not exist. We need to either create the page pointed to, or change the link to point to an existing page, or delete the open link.
For example, there are currently 73 links that point to an "Alpaca" page. Since Alpacas were never implemented, there is no Alpaca page. Each page with such a link needs to be edited to remove the link.
HOWEVER - looking over that list shows that the great majority of these were posted on "Welcome to the Survivalcraft Wiki" notices of first-time editors. These pages do NOT need to be edited. Two other links were found on the page 'Alpaca Sounds', which has been deleted. Another was in a forum question about how to find the alpaca. The question was left for reference but the link and all replies except one were deleted. The final one was on a user's profile page and was just converted to 'normal' text - no link.
A similar process needs to be done on every other 'missing page' entry on the wanted pages list.
Deletion Reasons[]
When deleting comments, were are asked for a reason for the deletion. There are many reasons to delete comments. Here are some:
- Inappropriate language
- False Information
- Off-topic
- Obsolete Information
- Duplicated Information
If a comment includes useful info, that info may be included in the article. Once this is done the comment should be deleted with a reason of "Included Information", to show that it was not duplicate info when first posted.
Content[]
We want users to have a consistent experience across the whole wiki so they can quickly find what they are looking for. Admins may need to reformat information added by other users to make this so. See the article consistency blog. This blog details our community's standards for laying out the article pages and what information should be incuded as well as how it should be arranged. It has links to the appropriate wikia standards and general mediawiki references. You don't need to know everything in those links, however. They get very technical.
User Notices[]
Users are expected to have read the Wiki Rules page and all officials must be familiar with it. This is where 'proper behavior' is defined.
This is a page with some examples of notices that may be modified for an individual case.
A Content Moderator is responsible ONLY for monitoring the actual articles' contents.
Talk[]
We have allowed comments on the article pages. Not all wikis do this - they may only allow comments on 'talk' pages or in the forums. That means we have to watch what people comment on the articles. The Wiki Rules page also defines what is NOT accepteble in comments.
The usual 'violations' are off-topic or personal comments. Most of thise aren't helful to people looking for solid information on that subject and should be removed. If there is something in the comment that the poster might want to keep, you should notify them of the violation and give them the chance to put that in the forum or their blog, before deleting the comment. They may need help to copy/paste their post. Remember, our purpose here is not to be a bully cop but to help the users achieve their goals.
Likewise, if they offer useful advice in a comment, it should be added to the article (or Tips and Tricks...). We can direct them on how to do that or offer to do it for them.
A Discussion Moderator is responsible ONLY for the contents of the forums, talk pages and comments. They can still edit the article contents, like any user as well.