View source for AHWiki:Administrators/Tools

The wiki software ("[[MediaWiki]]") has a number of technical and maintenance features that are restricted. '''[[AHWiki:Administrators|Administrators]]''', commonly known as '''sysops' (system operators), are AHWiki editors who have access to these features (known as "tools") that help with maintenance.

This page lists the details of the MediaWiki tools accessible to administrators, and what administrators are able to do with them.

==List of tools==
 
===Protected pages===
* Edit the [[Main Page]] and other protected pages. You can suggest changes at [[Talk:Main Page]]. 

* Protect and unprotect pages, with different kinds of protection against editing by certain classes of users, and page moving. Pages are generally protected rarely and temporarily. For information and guidelines, see [[AHWiki:Protection policy]].

===Deletion and undeletion===
* Delete pages, including images, and their history. For information and guidelines, see [[AHWiki:Deletion policy]] and (most definitely) [[AHWiki:Deletion guidelines for administrators]]. To suggest a page for deletion ('''''after''''' reading the policy and guidelines pages), see [[AHWiki:Articles for deletion]]. Sometimes deletion is a technical matter, in which a redirection page has to be removed to make way for renaming an article, or a page whose history has been broken up has to be deleted and the pieces recombined. Other times it is a matter of cleaning up junk edits on pages with no actual content, or removing material that has been pasted from another site, thereby causing [[AHWiki:Copyrights|copyright]] infringement.

* View and restore deleted pages, including images, and their history. See [[AHWiki:Viewing and restoring deleted pages by sysops]] for guidelines. To challenge a decision to delete a page, contact the deleting administrator or see [[AHWiki:Deletion review]].

=== Block and unblock ===
* Block IP addresses, IP ranges, and user accounts, for a specific time or indefinitely.

* Unblock IP addresses, IP ranges, and user accounts.

* See [[AHWiki:Blocking policy]] for more information on when blocks are appropriate and when they are not. See [[Special:Ipblocklist]] for currently blocked addresses and usernames.

=== Design and wording of the interface ===
Sysops can:
* change the ''text'' of the interface by editing the pages in the [[AHWiki:MediaWiki namespace|MediaWiki namespace]], which includes the text at the top of pages such as "[[Special:Whatlinkshere]]" and the page that a blocked user will see when they try to edit a page ([[MediaWiki:Blockedtext]]);

* edit the ''style'' of the interface by changing the [[Cascading Style Sheets|CSS]] in the monobook stylesheet at [[MediaWiki:Monobook.css]]; and

* edit some of the site-wide and skin-specific items of the software at places like [[MediaWiki:Common.js]].

=== Other ===
Sysops can also:
* move pages protected against moves;
* view [[Special:Unwatchedpages]] to see pages which may be more vulnerable to vandalism;
* view the history of [[AHWiki:Deletion policy|deleted]] pages, and the deleted contributions of users