Page 1
Intoduction to Wikipedia
Vandalism And The Colbert Effect
Page 2
Trusted Users Concept
Wikipedia trusted user levels
Page 3
Technocracy not Democracy
The Wikipedia Test
Wikipedia has Sources
Sources
Trusted Users Concept
This is a concept that almost all large companies(espically that use computers) use as well as Wikipedia. Image that a company did not have this, any employee can login to the pay roll and change there salary. It would be a total mess, almost all companies employ some means of control at least over certain tasks(for example at Mcdonalds, you would not have a low level cashier deciding what days people work, how much they make or other controlled tasks). The concept is simply that there are different levels of users, and each type of users can do different things. This concept is sometimes known as specializing
For example, a non logged in users IP is tracked. If they make a bunch of edits, you can easily find out where that person is from from there IP address(which is logged with every anonymous entry). Enough vandalism and that IP address gets blocked from anonymous entries. You can still log into an account and continue vandalizing articles until a more trusted user reports you and they ban your account.
You could try and get another account but most people have better things to do than create Wikipedia accounts all the time. Besides you begin as a low level user.
After you have made enough edits, your edits are not checked as much and once you have edited a certain amount of articles and do not post false, biased or plain vandalism to Wikipedia you may get the opportunity to vote for administrators.
Trusted User Levels
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Anyone can edit most of the articles here. Some articles are protected due to vandalism or edit-warring, and can only be edited by certain editors.
1.Anyone with an account that has been registered for four days or longer and made 10 edits becomes Autoconfirmed, and can do three things that IP users (also referred to somewhat incorrectly as 'anonymous editors') cannot do:
They can move articles.
They can edit semi-protected articles.
They can vote in certain elections.
2.Many editors with accounts obtain access to certain tools that make editing easier and faster. Most of those tools, few learn about, but one common privilege granted to editors in good standing is 'rollback', which is the ability to undo edits more easily.
3.Administrators ('admins' or 'sysops') have been elected by the community, and have access to a few more tools. They can delete articles, can block accounts or IP addresses, and can edit fully protected articles.
4.The Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) is kind of like Wikipedia's supreme court. They deal with disputes that remain unresolved after attempts at dispute resolution have failed. Members of ArbCom are elected to three-year terms on a rotating schedule, and they tend to be selected from among the pool of admins.
5.Bureaucrats are elected via a process similar to how admins are selected. There are not very many B-crats, and they can add or remove admin rights, approve or revoke 'bot' privileges, and rename user accounts.
6.Stewards are the top echelon, other than the Wikimedia Board of Directors. Stewards can do a few technical things, and one almost never hears much about them, as they normally only act when a local admin or bureaucrat is not available, and hence almost never on the English Wikipedia. There are very few stewards.
Page 1
Intoduction to Wikipedia
Vandalism And The Colbert Effect
Page 2
Trusted Users Concept
Wikipedia trusted user levels
Page 3
Technocracy not Democracy
The Wikipedia Test
Wikipedia has Sources
Sources
