Commons:Guide to adminship

Wielding a mop is serious business.

This page offers advice for admins and would-be admins on Commons, about how to appropriately use the admin tools. This is not a policy page, it is an advice page!

There are two important differences between administration on another Wikimedia project and administration on Commons. They are:

1. Unlike actions taken on most Wikimedia projects, actions taken on Commons have the potential to affect the entire Wikimedia community—hundreds of other wikis. This has implications for both file deletion and user interaction.
2. Unlike users on most Wikimedia projects, Commons users cannot be assumed to understand a common language. Care should be taken to avoid discriminating against users who don't speak the same language(s) as you.

The similarities between Commons adminship and other Wikimedia projects are many:

• You are expected to enact the community's consensus.
• You are expected to act in the best interests of the wiki.
• You are expected to consult with other admins if you are unsure about an action.
• You should admit when you make a mistake and do your best to fix it.
• You should be contactable on the project you are admin on.
• You should help users when they request it, or point them to someone or somewhere else where they can get help. (Let people know when you're on a Wikibreak.)

Initial setup

• Add Babel info on your userpage, so other users will know which languages you speak or understand.
• Make sure you have enabled email in your preferences.
• It is considered bad practice for an admin to ask editors to leave them messages on some other wiki. You are expected to remain reasonably available on Commons, and to check your Commons talk page regularly.
• Mention on your user page (by userbox or some other method) what roles or rights you currently possess, such as if you are an OTRS member or a trusted reviewer. When you become an admin, be sure to add that as well.

Suggestions for new admins

• Subscribing to the commons-l mailinglist is useful if you want to know what's going on. You might also be interested in browsing through its archive.
• Read Commons:Deletion policy and the top section of Commons:Deletion requests.
• Activate Gadget QuickDelete in your preferences, so that you can quickly tag images with no source / license templates and notify the uploader with one click.
• Put these pages on your watchlist: Commons:Help desk, Commons:VPC, Commons:Administrators' noticeboard and its subpages: Vandalism, User problems, Blocks & protections and Disputes.
• Read the essay Commons:Staying mellow. Now read it again. It underpins the way we try to work here. We don't want to become like some other wikis you may have come across where it sometimes seems that more energy is expended on user conflicts than in actually doing any constructive work.
• Review the licensing policy and other copyright-related policies, such as Commons:Freedom of panorama, Commons:De minimis, and Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag. Copyright law is not by any means a simple area, and you are not expected to know everything, but admins should have a decent understanding of our current policies and practices.

Impact of file deletion

Commons is serving over 11 million files to other Wikimedia wikis. Therefore, a deletion on Commons is likely to impact dozens of other wikis. You can check whether the image is used on other wikis using the GlobalUsage tab at the top of file pages.

Care should be taken when deleting files. However, this does not mean that obvious copyright violations should not be deleted because they are in use. Free media is the keystone of Commons, more than in other wikis and as such actively removing copyright violations is important work that strengthens our claims of hosting only free media.

Impact of user interaction

Commons supports the other Wikimedia projects, but we can only succeed with the support of these other projects too. (Why? Because it's the attitude of local projects towards Commons, that determines whether or not those communities will encourage their users to upload locally, or to upload to Commons.) Therefore keep in mind that when communicating with other users, you may be seen as representing "Commons" in its entirety. It's important to be polite and patient.

When we perform actions whether as individuals (deleting single items) or as a community (deciding a particular license is acceptable or not), we must take care to explain the reasoning behind our actions, and accept and use the input of users of all Wikimedia projects. In community discussions, in many respects (but not always), Commons community is Wikimedia community. We have duties to all those users, not just the ones with active accounts at Commons.

Multilinguality

• Key policy: Commons:Language policy

No language should be prioritised over any other, when practicable. No user should be disadvantaged because of the languages they can or cannot speak. If you have hints that a user doesn't speak your language, make an effort to get your messages to them translated. The onus is on you, not the user. See Commons:List of administrators by language to find an administrator that does speak the other user's language.

Specific operations

Deletion and undeletion

• Key policy: Commons:Deletion policy
• List of deletion categories: Template:Deletion menu
• Commons:Deletion requests
• Commons:Undeletion requests

Commons' requests for (speedy) deletion are almost always backlogged. Your help is definitely needed in this area. Note that file deletion impacts all Wikimedia wikis. As an admin, you must always be willing to explain why you have deleted an image.

If an uploader returns with the relevant information after a file is deleted for having no source/license/permission, undelete quickly and willingly.

Raster images (PNG, JPEG, GIF) should never be mass-replaced by a vector image (SVG)—this has caused controversy in the past. In most cases, any superseded image should not be deleted (exceptions should only be made if there's a consensus to do so and the file is unused). See Commons talk:Deletion requests/Superseded for more information.

Always remember that it's not our place to decide what version of a file is the "correct" one to use for all Wikimedia projects—editorial decisions like these should be decided locally. Only noncontroversial replacements should be made (e.g. replacing a scaled down image or exact duplicate). Also keep in mind that undoing a mass transwiki replacement by CommonsDelinker is not an easy task.

For categories, unless the category name is offensive or has non-standard capitalisation or spelling, consider making the old category a redirect rather than deleting it especially if it has been in use for a while (and likely linked from other projects). Although category redirects don't "work" in the sense that files aren't magically moved to the new category, their existence alerts users to the correct category and stops the old one being recreated (category "forking" is especially harmful to efficient browsing and searching).

Blocking and unblocking

• Key policy: Commons:Blocking policy

Have your email confirmed, so blocked users can contact you (and let them know this). Blocked users are also able to edit their talk page. Keep in mind the principles of #Multilinguality mentioned above.

Note that Commons currently has no formal three revert rule. This doesn't mean that edit warring or upload warring is acceptable. If you notice edit warring, push the participants to discussion, warn, and finally if necessary block.

Protecting and unprotecting

• Key pages: Commons:Administrators' noticeboard/Blocks and protections, Category:Commons protected edit requests, Commons:Protected against recreation
• Key policy: Commons:Page protection

Don't protect preemptively. Use semi-protection whenever possible. Never use semi-protection cascading, and in general avoid cascading protection.

In the case of disputes and revert wars, protect and send the users to the talk page to sort out consensus.

In the case of repeated vandalism, a short block to the user or IP is preferred because it attacks the problem at its source and doesn't disadvantage other well-meaning users.

Rollback

• Guideline: Commons:Rollback

This tool allows for fast reverting of the last edit(s) to a page. It's similar to the undo function, however, this will undo all consecutive edits by the same user, thus restoring the latest version made by a user other than the last. It generates a auto-summary and saves automatically. (Non-admins can request this ability here.)

Commanding bots

Some specific bots accepts commands from admins on User:CommonsDelinker/commands. Admins can mass-move categories around and also universally replace on all Wikimedia projects. Admins should be very careful with these tools and only use them in uncontroversial cases or cases that have consensus acceptance.

Vandalism and vandal fighting

Avoid labelling people's efforts as vandalism. True vandals know that what they are doing is wrong; you don't gain much from telling them again. For people who believe they really are editing in the best interests of the wiki, calling them "vandals" is inflammatory and unhelpful.

If you speak languages other than English

• Please participate at the Village pump in your language. This is one of the few places users can ask for help in their own language. If there is a version of Commons:Help desk in your language, please consider helping out there as well.
• Please at least take a look at Commons:Help page maintenance, a page for coordinating the translation of Commons pages to other languages.

Checklist of stuff you should know

This is stuff you should come across or be aware of before considering becoming an admin. It's not a complete list. (if the question doesn't have an answer in parenthesis... that's because you REALLY need to know the answer to it before you consider standing... and if you don't already know, or don't know how to find out on your own, you probably haven't been around enough to have picked up the norms here yet)

• Does Commons allow fair use?
• Does Commons allow "Wikipedia only" permission?
• Does Commons allow "educational use only" license terms?
• Which Creative Commons licenses are accepted, which are not?
• What is the best way to transfer files from other Wikimedia projects? (CommonsHelper)
• What is OTRS and how is it used? (Commons:OTRS)
• How to join/read the archives of the mailing list. (Commons:Mailing lists)
• When is it appropriate to use page protection (including cascading). (COM:P)
• When is it appropriate to block users. (COM:BP)
• What is the correct procedure for nominating a file for deletion/undeletion.
• How to "rename" or "move" a category. (User:CommonsDelinker/commands)
• How to find an admin that speaks a particular language, when you need to.
• Where users should seek opinions and help.
• Where to see an overview of a user's uploads, including untagged or uncategorised files.

Where your help is needed

Commons is frequently backlogged in the deletion area.

• Close old deletion requests on Commons:Deletion requests/Older Discussions.
• Delete images that are missing required information in Category:Unknown.
• Clean up the candidates for speedy deletion.
• Deal with Requests for unblock.
• Deal with Commons protected edit requests.