Wikipedia

Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/Rollback/Administrator instructions

< Wikipedia:Requests for permissions | Rollback

Rollback is a feature of the MediaWiki software that runs Wikipedia. It allows the last user's consecutive edits on a given page to be undone with a single mouse click. On Wikipedia, rollback is used to undo problematic edits such as vandalism.

Prerequisites

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Shortcut

Rollback may be a rudimentary feature given one could accomplish similar tasks with Twinkle and undo. However administrators should be careful who they grant it to as the right also allows access to powerful semi-automated tools such as Huggle and STiki.

In general, the user should:

  1. Have at least 200 edits in the mainspace
  2. Demonstrate an ability to distinguish well-intentioned edits with minor issues from unconstructive vandalism (more)
  3. Be a somewhat experienced editor. Rollback is not for very new users, even if they exceed the 200 mainspace edit figure.

Responding to requests

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Tools that may assist in evaluating the candidate's suitability:

Note if a request was recently declined for a given user/permission, a bot will comment with a link to that discussion. You may wish to ping the administrator who declined the previous request asking for their input before responding to the new request.

To grant the permission:

  • Grant the user right(s) to the user at Special:UserRights. Indicate the request was approved at WP:PERM (or a specific page therein) in the "Reason", along with any other information you deem appropriate.
  • Issue the corresponding notification template to the user for the permissions that were added:
Notification templates

To respond to the request:

  • On the permissions page, mark the request as approved or denied using {{done}} or {{not done}}. Include any relevant rationale for the decision. If you are revoking a permission, use the template {{revoked}} which will archive as done. If the user has withdrawn their request, you can mark it as {{withdrawn}} which will archive as not done. There is a convenient template for canned responses to rollback requests at {{RFPR}}. It's documentation is as follows:
Notation templates

This template is used to answer requests for permissions, especially the rollback user right.

::{{subst:RFPR|option}} ~~~~

The second (unnamed) parameter is optional. It can be omitted or used to specify the admin when marking a request as already done or the number of edits when declining due to inexperience.
Result Code Normalized code
  Done ::{{subst:RFPR|d}} ~~~~ ::{{subst:RFPR|done}} ~~~~
  Already done by {{admin|X}} ::{{subst:RFPR|ad|X}} ~~~~ ::{{subst:RFPR|alreadydone|X}} ~~~~
  Revoked ::{{subst:RFPR|r}} ~~~~ ::{{subst:RFPR|revoked}} ~~~~
  Not done ::{{subst:RFPR|nd}} ~~~~ ::{{subst:RFPR|notdone}} ~~~~
  Not done. Please see the notice at the top of this page. With only {{{X}}} edits to the mainspace, I don't think you have sufficient editing experience yet. Take a moment to check out what counter-vandalism is at WP:CVU, and if you decide you'd like to get involved, you can enroll at the Counter Vandalism Academy to learn more. ::{{subst:RFPR|exp|X}} ~~~~ ::{{subst:RFPR|moreedits|X}} ~~~~
  Not done. Please see the notice at the top of this page. I see you just also applied for Pending Changes Reviewer. Let's see how you get on with that first and then we'll take another look again when you've made a few more edits. ::{{subst:RFPR|rvw}} ~~~~ ::{{subst:RFPR|alsorequestedreviewer}} ~~~~
  Not done. Please see the notice at the top of this page. This is not what Rollback is for. Take a moment to read Wikipedia:Rollback and if that's what you would like to do, you can then check out the Counter Vandalism Unit to learn more. ::{{subst:RFPR|nrb}} ~~~~ ::{{subst:RFPR|notrollback}} ~~~~
  • 36 hours after the last comment was made (or whatever is specified in the config), a bot will automatically archive the request. You can force the bot to archive as soon as possible with the code {{User:MusikBot/archivenow}}

Helper script: The above process can be expedited using the script User:MusikAnimal/userRightsManager.js. Once installed, click "assign permissions" on any PERM page, enter optional closing remarks in the popup dialog, and the script will grant the right with a permalink to the discussion, and issue the corresponding talk page template.

To override where the bot archives, use {{User:MusikBot/override|d}} for approved, or {{User:MusikBot/override|nd}} for denied. This will override any other {{done}} or {{not done}} templates, and make the bot ignore the user's rights.

To re-open a request, deactivate the resolution template using the code {{tl|template name}}, as with {{done}} or {{not done}}. Strikethroughs like <s>{{done}}</s> or other means to suppress the original resolution template will still be registered as resolved by the bot. Only deactivating or removing the template will work.

Archiving

All requests are archived at Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/Archive as approved or denied. This is done as a historical reference, namely so that admins can review previously declined requests.

N hours after the last comment was made on a request (as specified by the bot's config), the discussion is removed from that page and an entry containing a PermaLink to the discussion is added to the archives, noting the user and the permission. This archiving process is fully automated and should not be attempted manually.

Bot clerking

For convenience, the requests for permissions pages are clerked by MusikBot. See User:MusikBot/PermClerk for more information on the tasks and how to configure them.

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