Encyclopedia Dramatica:Administrators
From Encyclopedia Dramatica
| Policy This article defines official ED Policy. Shortcut: ED:ADMIN |
ED Sysops or "admins" have special powers granted by a bureaucrat.
As time passes on ED, users become sysops, and sysops become inactive, thus new ones must be chosen for sacrifice. If you are a new sysop, or are just unfamiliar with where everything is on the site, this guide is for you. It covers basic responsibilities, and also contains a handy-dandy list of useful locations on the site.
Most of what you should and should not do is pretty much common sense, i.e., remove powerwords when seen, don't delete everything when it first pops up (there's a difference between people who come to talk shit on their 7th grade teacher and those who actually come to make a potentially worthwhile article, but who just.can't.quite.seem.to.write).
Contents |
SYSOP POWERS OMG!!!!
Deletion
Articles which have no drama, lulz, internets, or memes can be deleted. Users should be given enough time to add some links beforehand though. Stupid vanity pages and other crap articles can be insta-killed.
Don't delete images, period. MediaWiki makes these deletions permanent. It is acceptable to delete images only if a) it is a duplicate, or b) the image is of illegal content, such as child pornography.
Banning
Sysops ban users only when absolutely necessary. Vandalism and blanking pages are the most common reasons for blocking.
Users should not be blocked because they are 'unfunny'. If unfunny edits occur, a sysop should simply message the user and ask them to read some more articles and maybe help with stuff like organization, grammar, spelling, uploading pics, etc. If a user is genuinely trying to participate but continues to make dumb edits, revert them and try talking to them again. If it keeps not working, banning can be a last resort. Please add a reason for ban in the little box and please do NOT ban people for infinite. Ban for a day, week, month, etc. Whatever time you feel is appropriate.
It also allows you to block the IP address of a user if you want. Please avoid blocking entire IP ranges.
The banlist is purged every once in a while. IPs are left to expire (unless blocked infinitely) and some users are permabanned (Purelily and Zenofeller among them).
Protect
Sysops should protect pages only when absolutely necessary. Vandalism and excessive edit warring are good cases. When a sysop protects a page, they should remember to put the appropriate template on it.
You can view all currently protected pages (except for those that were not tagged properly as of May 2007) at Special:protectedpages. Some additional pages are protected via cascading at ED:PT, although this should generally be reserved for repeatably deleted vanity shit and Serious Fucking Business pages that should almost never be edited.
Check User
Check user allows a sysop to match an IP address to a username and vice versa. It is perfectly fine to have tons of accounts on ED. It's not ok to vandalize or blank pages though. So, it makes it easier to find people who are causing trouble. Certain vandals can get IP banned, but don't overuse this.
New users can be checkuser'd to make sure they're not past vandals. When you checkuser a vandal and see they have multiple accounts, ban the IP. One IP creating 3+ accounts with no edits and not using them for a little while is suspicious, so question the user(s) on their talk page.
Rollback
When a sysop is logged in they will see 'rollback' next to history entires. This allows sysops to roll back to the last version. It makes reverting vandals a piece of cake. A sysop can simply go to the offending user's contrib list and hit 'rollback' every time they see it.
Sysop Hotness
Sysops should be nice to new users. When you've been around a site for a long time, it is easy to just think everyone is a stupid fucking newbie, but everyone was at one time. Invite them to ED IRC and give them tips, general help, etc. Make yourself open to questions there, at TJC, and at your talk page.
Mailing List
The mailing list is some serious business. Top sekrit plans are discussed there. Policy, granting ops to users, etc. All sysops are encouraged to participate in the elist and required to be subscribed.
Sysop Roles and Responsibilities
- Contribute to the mailing list.
- Make sure ED keeps its direction, catalogs lulz, drama, internets, and memes.
- Defending the lulz.
- Helping n00bs, because ED cannot survive without n00bs. You were a n00b once.
- Winning the internets.
Removal of Sysop Powers
Sysop can be removed for several reasons, most often by the decision of one of the three bureaucrats, or a community agreement. Sysop can be removed for inactivity as well.
How to avoid it:
- Don't go on a deletion spree.
- Don't be a fuckwit.
- Don't go on long wikibreaks. Always remember that AE > RL.
Main Page Elements
How do I change the Did You Know? Where can I learn how to format the Article of the Now? These questions burn heavily, and are indeed expressions of the zeitgeist of our age. Hopefully, these are useful.
Main Page Banner
The main page banner resides comfortably at the top of the main page, and should rarely be changed. It is found here:
Article of the Now
Eons ago, it was difficult to see what dates we had Articles of the Now set up for, and what exactly they were going to be. Thus, the following came into creation:
- Article of the Now by date.
- Article of the Now by date, but done with an include which pulls the article from that date.
- Instructions for the proper care and formatting of the Article of the Now template.
An important thing to realize about the Article of the Now template is that it actually covers both the Article of the Now and the Picture of the Now. The date element in the template refers to the date of Picture of the Now, so leaving date set to June 6 when creating the AotN for June 7 will keep the picture from June 6.
Threatlevel
Changing the threatlevel is awesome, and we let anyone do it (unless they fuck something up). The template can be found here:
Did You Know
Also known as the Moar You Know, you can find the template for this main page element here:
However, as of November, Did You Know is cycling between 8 items, which cycle throughout the day. Go here for the links to change any of these items:
Site News, Good New Articles, Articles That Need Your Help
These can be all be found and changed here:
Tfo is currently contemplating ways to bring the magic of item cycling to this template as well. Give him feedback.
Currently Inactive Elements
- Spoiler of the Now - Used for Harry Potter book 7 release.
- Lulznews - Inactive as of relaunch.
- YouTube of the Now - Inactive as of relaunch.
Useful Tools
Users
Here are some useful tools when dealing with users:
- These are currently raped.
- Go here to rape.
- Go here to spy on those you suspect of being sockpuppets or vandals.
- Go here if account creation is borked, you can make new accounts here.
Articles
These links are helpful when trying to clean house on articles:
- New pages - extremely useful, start at the bottom and work your way to the top.
- These have baleetplz on them.
- Shit
- Uncyc nonsense
- Needs moar internet
- Sentenced to die.
- Orphan pages (not linked to anywhere), which need either a loving home, or to be drowned in the Thames.
- Prefixindex search - this will search a particular namespace for whatever you want.
- New image gallery
Other
- All special pages
- Logs
- Purge main page - you may need to do this on occasion when changing a main page element; it clears the site's cache.
