If you check MessagesEn.php you will find that Administrator(s) and Sysop(s) are both used. In r45154 I (arbitrarily) changed the remaining [Ss]ysop(s) to [Aa]dministrators. In hindsight most probably because "sysop" is either archaic, or MediaWiki specific, while "administrator" is a more known term for someone with administrative rights in a piece of software. In r45249 brion reverted this change with the comment "Let's not go changing core terminology around without making sure there's general agreement". A few observations/opinions: (a) general agreement is impossible (and agreement among whom? Developers, users, those that read this mailing list, ...) (b) consistent naming of a role is important to not confuse users of the software I think that it is clear that at least something should be harmonised if you observe the messages below: $ egrep "([Aa]dministrator|[Ss]ysop)" MessagesEn.php * While logged in as a sysop user, go to [[Special:Allmessages]] The administrator who locked it offered this explanation: $1', Please report this to an [[Special:ListUsers/sysop|administrator]], making note of the URL.', You can contact $1 or another [[{{MediaWiki:Grouppage-sysop}}|administrator]] to discuss the block. You may contact $1 or one of the other [[{{MediaWiki:Grouppage-sysop}}|administrators]] to discuss the block. The administrator who locked it offered this explanation: $1', 'protectedpagewarning' => '<strong>WARNING: This page has been locked so that only users with sysop privileges can edit it.</strong>', 'cascadeprotectedwarning' => "'''Warning:''' This page has been locked so that only users with sysop privileges can edit it, because it is included in the following cascade-protected {{PLURAL:$1|page|pages}}:", As an administrator on {{SITENAME}} you can view it; 'revdelete-hide-restricted' => 'Apply these restrictions to Sysops and lock this interface', 'revdelete-suppress' => 'Suppress data from Sysops as well as others', 'revdelete-restricted' => 'applied restrictions to sysops', 'revdelete-unrestricted' => 'removed restrictions for sysops', 'suppressionlogtext' => 'Below is a list of deletions and blocks involving content hidden from sysops. 'userrights-nologin' => 'You must [[Special:UserLogin|log in]] with an administrator account to assign user rights.', 'group-sysop' => 'Sysops', 'group-sysop-member' => 'Sysop', 'grouppage-sysop' => '{{ns:project}}:Administrators', 'right-suppressrevision' => 'Review and restore revisions hidden from Sysops', Please contact an [[Special:ListUsers/sysop|administrator]].', If the problem persists, contact an [[Special:ListUsers/sysop|administrator]].', 'protect-level-sysop' => 'Sysops only', 'restriction-level-sysop' => 'full protected', The actual text of these deleted revisions is only available to administrators.', 'range_block_disabled' => 'The sysop ability to create range blocks is disabled.', Cheers! Siebrand -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: wikitech-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikitech-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] Namens MZMcBride Verzonden: woensdag 31 december 2008 22:20 Aan: wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Onderwerp: [Wikitech-l] Deprecate 'sysop' throughout MediaWiki? There's been a bit of recent discussion about deprecating the term 'sysop' throughout MediaWiki by replacing it with 'admin' or 'administrator'. The primary advantage here would be that 'admin' or 'administrator' is more clear and better defines the role that these users play within a wiki. See also related bug: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16737 There are a number of different places that 'sysop' is used throughout the software, and it may or may not be advantageous to change all of them (for example inside the user_groups table). On the other hand, however, changing only some of the software while not changing other parts may simply lead to more confusion. Thoughts on the idea in general? Thoughts on the details? MZMcBride public(a)mzmcbride.com

2008/12/31 Techman224 &lt;techman224(a)yahoo.ca&gt;ca>: It's always been a matter of confusion that "sysop" means "administrator on the content server" while "dev" means "sysop".

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Siebrand Mazeland wrote: :) At a minimum, a major terminology change such as these really ought to be pre-announced. Making sure that there's general interest in it before changing all the translations and the various UI elements that it affects also seems wise. - -- brion

On Wed, Dec 31, 2008 at 6:00 PM, Chris Down &lt;neuro.wikipedia(a)googlemail.com&gt; wrote: Note that individual wikis could change back if they liked it. We're talking about the software defaults here, not enwiki or any other single wiki.