SmashWiki:Autoconfirmed users

This page documents an official SmashWiki policy, a widely accepted standard that all users should follow. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. If in doubt, consider discussing changes on the talk page.

Autoconfirmed users are defined as users who have had an account on the SmashWiki for at least seven (7) days and have made at least ten (10) edits. New users gain certain rights upon becoming autoconfirmed.

The rights that are gained upon being autoconfirmed are:

• Moving pages and files
• Editing semi-protected pages
• Uploading files from a URL
• Uploading new versions of files
• Purging page caches without needing confirmation

In addition, if the wiki is in a heavily active state (such as surrounding the release of a new game), the creation of new pages and uploading any images may also be restricted to autoconfirmed users. The wiki is currently in this state.

Autoconfirmed FAQ

Q. What rights do new users have?

A. New users have all the same rights as autoconfirmed users except for those listed above.

Q. What is the purpose of autoconfirmation?

A. While SmashWiki believes that accountless users and new users have the right to contribute as any other user, there are certain abilities that we choose to restrict for the purposes of security against vandalism and spam. Specifically:

• Moving pages and files can be burdensome to undo even for admins.
• The purpose of semi-protection is to disallow edits from accountless and new users to combat vandalism or spam.
• Uploading images from a URL is generally unnecessary anyway, and makes it significantly easier to upload undesired images.
• While the most important images are often protected, uploading new versions of images can be abused by new-account vandals to quickly insert unwanted images into multiple pages.
• Limiting cache purging is simply a MediaWiki default, likely done to prevent possible denial-of-service attacks by bots.

Q. Can a user become autoconfirmed without making any edits?

Q. Can a user become autoconfirmed in less than seven days?

Q. Can users bypass autoconfirm?

A. No. All users must pass both parts of the autoconfirm criteria with no exceptions.

Q. Do users have to be autoconfirmed to be given rollback?

A. No. If one makes enough valid reverts within one's first week to create and pass an RfR, there is no reason to withhold the position.

Q. Do users have to be autoconfirmed to be promoted to administrator?

A. Not technically, but it is virtually certain that a user who has yet to be autoconfirmed cannot have the experience and community support to feasibly run a successful request for adminship.

Q. Why does the wiki require autoconfirmation to make new pages or upload images?

A. Usually, we allow accountless users and new users to do these things. However, there are times when traffic is high enough that two things happen: we have enough autoconfirmed users active to handle new pages and images, and the risk of vandalism by abusing these abilities increases. Once activity dies down, these abilities will be "unlocked" once more.

Established users

Established users are a step up from autoconfirmed users, requiring an account age of ninety (90) days and a total of a hundred (100) edits. Established users have a singular additional permission: editing pages under established-protection. This allows more granular control over how pages are protected:

• Pages that can be edited by anyone
• Pages that new users and IPs cannot edit, but everyone else can (used as a simple anti-spam or anti-vandalism measure)
• Pages that only users with a fair amount of experience can edit (used on pages that are nice for non-staff to edit but too complex/important for newer editors, or pages where autoconfirmed-protection against vandalism has proven ineffective)
• Pages that only staff may edit (used for pages too important to leave open)

As with autoconfirmed, users cannot skip ahead to obtaining the permission, and is it not a requirement to be given rollback or administrator status.