This page documents a procedural policy of Wikipedia. It documents various processes by which the English Wikipedia operates.

Shortcut WP:GRP

This page in a nutshell: Users with global rights should not use them on the English Wikipedia except as detailed below. The use of global rights which are prohibited by this policy may result in blocking and requested rights removal.

The implementation of global user rights on Wikimedia projects extends to the English Wikipedia. This policy defines their use on this wiki.

Staff

Members of this group are paid employees of the Wikimedia Foundation. Similar to the Ombuds, they hold global checkuser rights as well as global adminship and global oversight rights. They will perform office actions when needed such as complaints related to defamation, privacy violations or copyright infringement. Not all members of the Foundation staff are granted access to this group; it is based upon need for access. Staff rights are not limited by decision-making processes that involve global or local communities.

• List of users with staff rights

Stewards

Stewards may use their global rollback permission on the English Wikipedia, and may use Special:Undelete to view deleted revisions in the course of their duties as stewards. They are also permitted to use the oversight tool to suppress abusive usernames. According to m:Stewards, stewards will not use their technical access when there are local users who can use that access, except in emergencies. In emergency situations where local users are unable or unavailable to act (example), stewards are asked to use their global rights to protect the best interests of Wikipedia.

In their global role, stewards grant CheckUser and Oversight permissions to all projects (per Arbitration Committee or Board decision), and can remove all permissions (in an emergency situation, in response to a user's self-request, per Arbitration Committee or Board decisions). These actions can affect the English Wikipedia, but are done at meta:Steward requests/Permissions and logged at meta:Special:Log/rights.

• List of users with steward rights

Sysadmins

Wikimedia system administrators are people who do systems administration work on the Wikimedia servers. They can change a Wikimedia site's live copy of MediaWiki, read server logs, etc. Those with server access can also carry out various non-development tasks.

The Wikimedia Foundation legally controls the servers, so the Wikimedia Board of Trustees are ultimately responsible for determining who has sysadmin access. However, they generally delegate this responsibility. On a day-to-day basis, various sysadmins with root access manage the server accounts.

System administrators may use their global rights in whatever manner they deem necessary to manage the Wikimedia Foundation's assets.

• List of users with sysadmin rights

Ombuds

The ombuds commission is tasked with investigating complaints about violations of the privacy policy (in particular concerning the use of CheckUser and oversight tools) on any Wikimedia project for the board in an official manner. The users who make up the ombuds commission are given the ability to run checks, view the checkuser log, view suppressed content, and view the suppression log on every project. To file a complaint, please contact the Ombuds Commission privately.

The Ombuds may use their global rights for investigating complaints about violations of the privacy policy. Their use of the global rights is at the discretion and restriction of the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees.

• List of users with Ombuds rights

VRT-permissions

Users in this group are a subset of Volunteer Response Team agents. These particular users have access to the permissions queues within OTRS and assist with copyright verifications. All users with permissions access will be in the global group.

Users are in this group for identification purposes and there are no special rights associated with it. Users who add or modify OTRS permissions templates without the vrt-permissions flag have their edits marked for review via an edit filter.

• List of users assigned to the global VRT permissions agent

Global bots

The English Wikipedia allows the use of Global bots approved by the Meta policy to update interwiki links only without the need to request permission from the Bot Approvals Group (original discussion). While active, a global bot's userpage should indicate that it has global approval - ((bot|bot operator name|globalbot=yes|status=active)) may be used for this. Use of global bots for any other purpose is currently not permitted - a local bot request for approval must be filed for tasks other than interwiki linking.

• List of bots with global bot rights

Global deleters

Global deleters can use their rights to help users transition to global user pages via the Synchbot service.

Global rollbackers

Global rollbackers can use their rights subject to the provisions below, provided they have not previously had rollback removed at the English Wikipedia. If removal has previously occurred, they must request and be granted rollback locally by an English Wikipedia administrator.

Global rollbackers may use the rollback, suppressredirect, markbotedits, and noratelimit functions on the English Wikipedia only in the context of counter-vandalism efforts (unless they hold such rights separately in a usergroup permitting local use for other reasons).

Any English Wikipedia administrator can ask a global rollbacker to stop using rollback if what they deem to be misuse occurs, and the global rollbacker must comply with such a request. Such a decision by an administrator can be appealed at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard. Failure to comply may result in a local block.

• List of users with Global rollback rights

Global sysops

The global sysop group is not activated on the English Wikipedia as community consensus to opt in was not attained. By default, the proposal applies only to wikis with fewer than 10 sysops and/or fewer than 3 active sysops.

• List of users with Global sysops rights

Global interface editors

Global interface editors can use their rights by default, provided they have not previously had the administrator or interface administrator right removed at the English Wikipedia. If removal has previously occurred, they must request and be granted interface administrator and/or administrator access locally by an English Wikipedia Bureaucrat. Furthermore, any English Wikipedia bureaucrat can ask a global interface editor to stop using their global privilege if what they deem to be misuse occurs, and the global interface editor must comply with such a request. Such a decision by a bureaucrat can be appealed to the wider community. Failure to comply may result in a block. Interface editors are reminded that some interface pages, such as the watchlist, require discussion prior to use.

• List of users with Global edit interface rights

A user who abuses their global rights by knowingly or recklessly using their global rights on the English Wikipedia in contravention of this policy should be reported to meta:Stewards' noticeboard or #wikimedia-stewards immediately, where the stewards will determine whether an emergency removal of tools is required. An indefinite block may also be placed on the account locally during this period if necessary to prevent further abuse (see the above section).

In addition to the above there are additional global groups not defined in this policy. They are: API high limit requestors, Abuse filter maintainers, Abuse filter helpers, Recursive export group, New wikis importers, WMF Researcher, Founder, CAPTCHA exemptions, Global IP block exemptions, Two-factor authentication testers, WMF ops monitoring and Global Flow creators. Two global account flags are Locked global accounts and Unified login accounts.

Also, some Meta-Wiki local groups have global effects. These are Meta Administrators, Meta Interface Administrators, Meta Central notice administrators, Meta Global renamers and Meta MassMessage senders. Additionally, WMF staff in WMF Office IT and the Meta WMF Support and Safety group meta groups have global effects.

• Wikipedia:Administrators
• Wikipedia:Global blocking
• Wikipedia:User access levels
• m:User groups#Global user groups
• m:Steward handbook#Adjusting global groups & rights