Managing users

It's easy to manage users using the below guide.

Who can manage users?

There are two primary user groups on your wiki that can manage users: administrators (also known as sysops) and bureaucrats.

Administrators can add and block users, whereas bureaucrats can change users' groups, rename users, merge users, and delete users.

Bureaucrats are not the same as administrators. Bureaucrats can manage other users, while administrators have permissions to manage other parts of the wiki.

There is always at least one administrator and one bureaucrat in a wiki. When a wiki is created, an initial admin account is created (named "Admin" by default). This initial account is always given both administrator and bureaucrat rights.

Generally, only the most trusted users should be assigned bureaucrat rights. Many wikis have more administrators than bureaucrats. Keep in mind that bureaucrats can assign themselves (and other accounts) any group on the wiki, including administrator and bureaucrat.

While it's possible that a bureaucrat is not also an administrator, in practice they can always easily assign themself the administrator group, so there's usually no point in keeping a user only a bureaucrat and not also an administrator simultaneously.

Adding users

There's several ways to add new users.

• For wikis that allow open signup (privacy levels public) simply tell your users to visit your wiki and press "Create account" on the top right corner of the page.
• For wikis that require account confirmation (i.e. any wiki whose privacy level includes F in the name), tell your users to visit your wiki and press "Request account".
• For wikis where only users can create new accounts, to create an account for someone, visit Special:CreateAccount while logged in. You'll most likely want to specify their email address so they can log in.
• Want to invite multiple people at once? Install the "Invite Signup" extension onto your wiki by going to MyWikis Self Service.

Changing user permissions

User permissions include the ability to read the wiki; upload files; edit, move, delete, and protect pages; rename and block users; and other actions.

Permissions are never assigned directly to users. They are assigned to groups. Users are then assigned to one or more groups. They gain the right to perform actions by virtue of being in a group with those permissions.

You can always visit Special:ListGroupRights to see which permissions are assigned to each group.

Bureaucrats can change user groups at Special:UserRights. Other users can visit Special:UserRights to see what groups to which a certain user is assigned.

Renaming users

Users who are bureaucrats can go to Special:Renameuser to rename wiki users.

Blocking users

Users who are disruptive or no longer welcome to use your wiki can be blocked by administrators. The administrator can visit Special:BlockUser to do this. There are several parameters to a block, such as whether it leads to the account's login being disabled.

Deleting users

Depending on the reason behind deleting a user, there are a few different actions you can take.

If you would like to terminate a user's access to your private wiki because they are no longer entitled to privileged information, you can either block them using Special:BlockUser, or you can install the UserMerge extension (formerly called User Merge and Delete), which allows you to truly delete the user. Blocking a user may prevent them from editing, but the user is still present. If you want to completely deactivate their ability to log in, we recommend you use UserMerge. However, if you want to keep the attribution of edits to each user, you should not use UserMerge; instead, block the user and make sure they cannot log in. Also, deleting a user cannot be done, whereas users can always be unblocked as easily as they can be blocked. Because deleting a user is more destructive than blocking a user, only bureaucrats can delete a user whereas administrators can block and unblock users.

To install the UserMerge extension, go to MyWikis Self Service and install it to your wiki. If your wiki isn't supported by MyWikis Self Service, open a support ticket and we will install the extension for you.

If only a few users are spamming on your wiki, you can choose to block them. However, if there is a massive spam attack on your wiki, please open an emergency priority support ticket and let us know so we can take care of it immediately.