Roles

This page is a general plain-English guide to the different roles a member account can occupy on a wiki.

For a more in-depth technical explanation of user roles, visit user groups and permissions.

Editor
All registered users are generally referred to as editors, whether or not they have additional rights.

Administrator
Administrators (also known as admins or sysops) are editors who can delete and restore pages, block and unblock editors, protect and unprotect pages, use rollback to undo groups of edits, and edit the wiki's skin and interface elements. The role can be removed if the Administrator becomes inactive and promotion of a different user to that position becomes necessary.

On Gamepedia wikis, this role is usually assigned to representatives of a game's developer or publisher.

Administrators are promoted by Gamepedia staff, or by a wiki's Bureaucrats (see below). Game developers and publishers wishing to become involved in their game's wiki should contact Gamepedia support, or message their wiki's Wiki Manager directly, in order to request this role.

All Gamepedia staff have the Administrator role by default for all Gamepedia wikis.

Wiki Guardian
On Gamepedia wikis, Wiki Guardian is the title given to game fan community leaders who have been appointed through Gamepedia's wiki claims system. Wiki Guardians are expected to take a prolonged interest in a wiki, act professionally, and assume a leadership role in the editing community.

This role is functionally equivalent to Administrator in every way. The role can be removed if the Guardian becomes inactive and promotion of a different user to that position becomes necessary. Wiki Guardians have the same abilities as Administrators: They can delete and undelete pages, block and unblock editors, protect and unprotect pages, use rollback to undo groups of edits, and edit the wiki's skin and interface elements. An ordinary editor may apply to become a Wiki Guardian by clicking the Claim This Wiki button, or by visiting a wiki's Special:ClaimWiki page.

Bureaucrat
Bureaucrats are almost the same as administrators, but they have the additional ability to change the user rights of other editors. They can, for example, promote editors to the role of administrator, or remove the administrator role (demote) from an editor's account.

On Gamepedia wikis, this role may be occasionally given to admins on a case-to-case basis, if other admins agree to it and the user can be trusted - otherwise, bureaucratic duties are instead performed by Gamepedia Staff. It is also often assigned when it previously existed on a wiki that has been migrated from another wiki host.

Gamepedia Staff
Gamepedia Staff are Gamepedia employees. They have access to all roles on all wikis.

Checkuser
Checkusers have the ability to investigate the IP addresses that editors are editing from.

This role has been deprecated and is no longer used. If an IP check becomes necessary (eg. in case of sock puppetry), you should contact Gamepedia staff.