Sysop policy

This page describes policies for **bureaucrats**, **administrators**, **content moderators** and **rollbacks**, known as **sysops**.

## Reverting

An administrator, a content moderator or a rollback have the option to revert a user's edits on a page, to the point when another user has edited the page. It is recommended that the sysop tells the user why their edits were reverted, except in cases of foul play, like vandalism.

## Protecting pages

An administrator or a content moderator can **protect** and **unprotect** pages, including ones that do not exist. Protection of a page or image usually means that a non-admin cannot modify it.

The majority of pages on the wiki should remain publicly editable, and **not protected**. Pages may, however, be temporarily or permanently protected for legal reasons (for example, license texts should not be changed) or in cases of extreme vandalism, edit warring or abusive re-creation.

A page can be permanently protected for following reasons:

* Protecting highly vandalized pages.
* Maintaining the integrity of key copyright and license pages.
* Preventing repeatedly created vandal or spam pages from creation. See Special:Protectedtitles.

MediaWiki pages are automatically protected, leaving only administrators and bureaucrats with the option to edit them.

A **temporary** protection is used for:

* Enforcing a "cool down" period to stop an "edit war", upon request.
* Protecting a page or image that has been a recent target of *persistent* vandalism or *persistent* edits by a banned user.

An administrator or a content moderator can protect the page from any other user without their user rights. This includes rollback users.

These are the guidelines for protecting pages:

1. Do not make the common mistake of protecting pages unnecessarily. For example, do not protect a page simply because it is the Main Page.
2. Do not edit a temporarily protected page except to add a notice explaining the page is protected.
3. Do not protect a page you are involved in an edit dispute over. Admin powers are not editor privileges - admins should only act as servants to the user community at large.
4. Avoid favoring one version of the article over another, unless one version is vandalism.
5. Temporarily protected pages should not be left protected for very long.
6. Talk pages and user talk pages are not protected except in extreme circumstances. This includes a personal attack from another user, by writing slurs or posting inappropriate content.
7. The protection of a page on any particular version is not meant to express support for that version and requests should therefore not be made that the protected version be reverted to a different one.

## Blocking

In case a user has violated the rules, a bureaucrat or an administrator can block them.

Depending on the severity of the crime, a user can be blocked from either three days or longer. The administrator or bureaucrat must provide a reason for blocking a user.

After the block expires, if a user returns to the site and violates another rule, the administrator or bureaucrat can block them for a longer period of time. In case where the user has violated the rules repeatedly (four or more times), the block placed is permanent. Blocks for vandalizing articles can be granted without warning; in other cases the user should be warned to stop their behavior.

The blocks in question can be reconsidered through an administration vote on the forum. If the vote passes, the user can be unblocked, or at least their block shortened.