[Wikipedia-l] is_sysop

[Jimmy Wales]

Lorraine Lee wrote:
> I didn't even know there was a sysop privilege.  Does 
> wikipedia come with a long laundry list of specific 
> privileges, like VMS?

No, just is_sysop.

>  When was sysop implemented?

In the old site, we locked the homepage due to people putting
disgusting pictures there.  I said that anyone who wanted the password
could have it, so as to preserve the wiki-consensus-nature of the
homepage.

When we moved to the new software, it became the case that there isn't
just a single password, but each member can have privileges.

And I just now got around to saying "anyone who wants can have".

> What does it consist of?

Very little.  First, it means you can edit the homepage.  Second, it means
that you can delete pages including all traces that the page ever existed.
But this latter will probably change.

We don't want sysops to be special or set apart from regular users.
Anyone can be a sysop.  All it means is that you're not a vandal.

> According to the Reality Cracking school, it's impossible 
> for anyone to delete anything.  So why make it a rule for 
> people to obey?

Well, I'm afraid I don't know anything about that.

> > If we have fights about deleted pages, then I think the best thing to
> > do is to implement some form of nondestructive delete.
> 
> I assumed you already had.  Perhaps periodic posts of 
> compressed content to obscure administrative regions of 
> usenet?  Or if even that is no longer part of the commons, 
> maybe intellectual commoners like myself could be 
> recruited as volunteers for the relatively simple tasks 
> involved in downloading and archiving compressed 
> wikipedia content.

Now I really don't even know what you are talking about, sorry.  :-)

The issue of deletion is that administrative deletion, unlike deletion
by an end user who merely blanks the content of the page is (a)
irreversible, in that the history is deleted as well and (b)
beneficial, in that it turns the page back into a nonexistent state so
that links to it will not indicate incorrectly that the page exists.

Administrative deletes should be reserved for mere uncontroversial
typos that don't serve any useful function, and for really awful
vandalism that shouldn't exist on the site.  It should also exist for
copyright violations!  If someone puts copyrighted material on the
site, we have to delete it bigtime.

--Jimbo