Tools of the Trade
Administrators have access to the following tools:
Deletion - This, unlike blanking or removal of text, will completely delete a page as well as its history. Other administrators may still view the page at Special:Undelete/(Name of page). This should only be done to pages in the article namespace that are irrelevant to the Kingdom Hearts series, pages that become obsolete, redirects after moves when it is desirable to leave the redirect open for editing (since it is difficult for inexperienced users to edit redirects), and pages created from page-move vandalism.
- Images may also be deleted when they are copyright violations or used for vandalism only. Make sure to remove the image from any pages it appears in before deleting it.
- Categories that are renamed via consensus should not be deleted, but instead have {{category redirect}} placed on them. These categories should be emptied.
- Remember to remove the links from a deleted page from all other articles by checking Special:Whatlinkshere/(Name of page). This is especially important with templates.
Protection - This will prevent other editors from editing pages. If a reason for protection says "edit=autoconfirmed", only unregistered users and users whose accounts are 4 days old or older can edit it. If it says "edit=sysop", it means only sysops can edit it. A page may be protected without an expiry time (in which case an administrator will have to remove the protection manually) or for a set amount of time.
- Semi-protection is normally used to alleviate vandalism. It should only be used in cases of heavy vandalism from multiple usernames or IP addresses. Putting the page on your watchlist and reverting vandalism may be a better alternative. Semi-protection may also be used on formatting templates or templates dealing with copyright info, such as {{fairuse}}.
- Full protection should only be used for important formatting templates, templates that require virtually no change or depict a special character (such as {{!}}, or pages dealing with legal concerns such as the site's copyright notice. Full protection should never be used to prevent vandalism unless semi-protection does not do the job after a while. Full protection may be used, however, to alleviate edit wars between established users.
- It's possible to protect pages from moves only, in case a page is particularly susceptible to page-move vandalism.
- Allowing "cascading protection" when protecting a page will protect all pages that are transcluded in that page, including any templates used in it. Avoid using cascading protection if possible, since it may protect pages needlessly. However, cascading protection also allows for disabling the recreation of spam pages by means of the KHWiki:Title blacklist.
Blocking - This can be used to prevent an editor from editing or moving pages, and from uploading pictures. Blocked editors may still edit their talk pages. If blocking a vandal, consider leaving a welcoming warning first - they may simply be experimenting or goofing around, and may have an interest that can be channeled into something productive. Blocks for vandalism, especially of IP addresses, should be pretty short.
- Blocking can also be used on established editors who make insulting comments towards others or use excessive profanity, or are otherwise disruptive or belligerent. When possible, let an uninvolved administrator make the call if you are in a dispute with the person.
- Unblocks may be granted toward users who pledge to stop the disruptive behavior they were blocked for or agree to certain restrictions. It's best to consult the blocking admin beforehand, but not entirely necessary (especially if they are not around).
Rollback - Rollback may be used to quickly revert vandalism. If you see in the edit summary, "Reverted edits by XXX; changed to last version by ---", it means the edit was reverted via rollback. This should only be used to revert vandalism and not content edits.
Editing MediaWiki pages - administrators have the ability to change the interface text of the site.