Bureaucrats

Bureaucrats are privileged users on local wikis with the technical ability to configure membership in certain user groups. They may use their abilities only according to the wishes of the community.

Traditionally, bureaucrats are also administrators.

Privileges

On all wikis, bureaucrats have the ability to:

• Add the administrator and bureaucrat groups
• Add and remove the bot, interface administrator, account creator, and transwiki importer groups
• Add and remove most custom groups configured on that wiki according to local consensus

Removing administrator access

While bureaucrats on all wikis can grant administrator access, only some wikis are configured to allow bureaucrats to remove administrator access. These wikis are:

• WickedGov (English)

On other wikis, administrator access removal is done by Stewards.

Appointment

Bureaucrats are appointed by local community consensus. As a matter of global policy, all bureaucrats must have two-factor authentication enabled. After that, a user with the appropriate permissions will add the technical flag.

By other bureaucrats

On wikis that already have bureaucrats, new bureaucrats can be added by existing bureaucrats.

By Stewards

On wikis with no active bureaucrats, the Stewards will grant bureaucrat access. In addition to local policies and consensus, Stewards use the following criteria when deciding whether or not to grant access:

• The Stewards will not grant temporary bureaucrat access.
• Appointments will be made by local community discussion, and there must be broad consensus to grant access.
• All users granted bureaucrat access by Stewards must be a permanent local administrator.
• All bureaucrats must have two-factor authentication enabled.
• The wiki must be large enough to require bureaucrats. Stewards will make the final determination of this point based on factors including the size of the community, the number of administrators and bots, and the frequency of permission changes being necessary.

Authentication checker privilege

Bureaucrats may, if they have identified to the WickedGov office and been listed on the identification noticeboard, be granted the authentication checker privilege on Meta, allowing them to verify whether users have two-factor authentication enabled. These checks are centrally performed and logged at Meta.

Removal

For security reasons, only Stewards can remove bureaucrat access. Bureaucrat access may be removed in emergencies, according to local policy/consensus, or according to the inactivity policy.

Handbook

If you are a bureaucrat, to give or remove another user administrator, bureaucrat or bot access (or any other access), go to Special:UserRights on the wiki where you are a bureaucrat. There is a link to this on the list of special pages.

Type the user's name into the box, and enter a reason for the change. Choose the rights you wish to assign/remove to the user by ticking/unticking the relevant boxes. Note that if the user group has an asterisk (*) next to it, you will not be able to remove it yourself. When you are done, press the Save user groups button.

The user will gain their access immediately, and the action will be recorded at the user rights log of the wiki.

If you make a mistake and need to remove an access level which you cannot remove, contact a Steward.