[Wikipedia-l] Sysop status

[lcrocker at nupedia.com]

> * Delete uploaded files
> o There's also a revert-to-previously-uploaded-version feature,
> I'm not sure if this is sysop or everybody.

Anybody can revert, and anybody can delete a single old revision;
but only sysops can delete the whole image and its description.

> * Protect and unprotect pages (locking them against edit by other
> users who are not also logged in as sysops).

Forgot about that one.

> Traditionally this was in fact used only on the main page, but
> some of the policy pages are also locked, which I'm not sure I
> approve of. Here are all the pages  currently protected:

>           o Wikipedia:Upload_log
>           o Wikipedia:Deletion_log

These are a special case: the software requires that they be in
a special format so that it can add to them.  While it would be OK
to make certain edits (adding text, etc.), some would break things,
so this is just a safety precaution.

>           o Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not
>           o Main_Page
>           o Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view
>           o Wikipedia:Copyrights
>           o Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines
>           o United_States_Constitution/Article_One (I'm a little
> confused by this one; I've since unprotected it. It's just a
> redirect anyway...)
>           o Wikipedia:IP_probation_watchlist
>           o Wikipedia:Most_common_Wikipedia_faux_pas
>           o 
Wikipedia:Wikipedia_policy_on_permanent_deletion_of_pages
>           o Wikipedia:Blocked_IPs
>           o Wikipedia:Naming_conventions
>           o Wikipedia:Administrators
>           o Wikipedia:Policy

I think some of these may have had a history of vandalism, but I'm
with you that most of them should be unprotected.  Anyone else
remember more details here--they seem to have been protected when
my head was buried in software, so I missed a lot of discussion.

> There are also a handful of 'developer' features available only
> to a few of the programmers for purposes of finding and fixing
> bugs: database queries, showing the PHP configuration variables,
> and enabling/disabling a read-only mode to prevent edits to the
> database in the middle of certain upgrades. --Brion VIBBER »

Sysops can do "SELECT" queries on the database.  Only developers
can do updates and deletes.