Bureaucrat

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Within Wikimedia projects, a bureaucrat is a user who has the technical ability to:

  • Promote other users to administrator or bureaucrat;
  • Grant and revoke a user's bot flag;
  • Add and remove users from the interface-admin group;
  • Add and remove users from custom local groups created by local consensus like account creator, deleter, etc.;
  • Remove a user's administrator and/or bureaucrat flags on some projects listed .

Stewards fulfill these roles on wikis without bureaucrats using the requests for permissions page. A small community generally doesn't require a local bureaucrat, because stewards can easily handle the low traffic of requests from that wiki with little delay; generally a user with this access is not needed until several local administrators are present. Other positions may be subject to global policies like the Checkuser policy and the Oversight policy, which define minimum community requirements. The default configuration of the MediaWiki software permits bureaucrats with access to Special:UserRights to add and remove users from all user groups. On Wikimedia projects only stewards have full access to Special:UserRights, while bureaucrats can add/remove only a subset of rights.

Promoting users and bots[]

If you are a bureaucrat, to give or remove another user administrator, bureaucrat or bot access (or any other access), go to Special:UserRights on the wiki where you are a bureaucrat. There is a link to this on the list of special pages.

You will see the following form:

Screenshot showing the interface of Special:UserRights on a local wiki.

Type the user's name into the box, and enter a reason for the change. Choose the rights you wish to assign/remove to the user by ticking/unticking the relevant boxes. Note that if the user group has an asterisk (*) next to it, you will not be able to remove it yourself. When you are done, press the Save user groups button.

The user will gain their access immediately and the action will be recorded at the User rights log.

If you make a mistake and need to remove an access level which you cannot remove, contact a steward.

Removing access[]

Below is a list of public wikis where bureaucrats can remove sysop and/or bureaucrat access. Normally these removals have to be done by the stewards. On all private or fishbowl wikis, bureaucrats are able to remove both administrator and bureaucrat flags.


both administrator and bureaucrat flags
Wiki Bug Fixed on Notes
Meta 2008-04-24 Removed per .
ru.wikisource 2008-07-05 It looks like this was set inadvertently. Now removed
se chapter wiki 2008-07-05 It looks like this was set inadvertently, but the Swedish chapter board this configuration.
no.wikibooks 2009-06-03 It looks like this was set inadvertently.Now removed
fi.wikipedia No bug 2009-03-04 Originally very likely to have been set inadvertently in March 2009.
2013-01-04 Local consensus reached (see bugs and , and this summary).
fi chapter wiki 2010-10-27
wikimania2014 wiki 2013-10-11 Wiki closed, reset to default.
hu.wikipedia 2014-10-16
pt.wikipedia 2015-08-11 Local consensus
co.wikimedia 2022-02-02 Non-fishbowl chapter wiki.
2022-10-16 Fishbowl chapter wiki
only administrator flag
en.wiktionary No bug Per and , enwiktionary bureaucrats lost the power to remove the bureaucrat right (which was apparently never asked for).
pa-us chapter wiki 2008-09-16 Wiki was closed.
uk chapter wiki 2009-02-26 Wiki was redirected.
simple.wikipedia 2009-09-24
simple.wiktionary 2010-02-22
en.wikinews 2010-05-08
hi.wiktionary 2011-07-11 Removed per .
en.wikipedia 2011-08-11
ru.wikipedia 2011-08-11 Community consensus
ba.wikipedia 2012-01-17
fr.wikipedia 2012-04-12 Community consensus
en.wikivoyage 2013-01-17 Community consensus
test.wiki
fa.wikipedia 2016-07-20
outreach.wiki 2010-04-09 Ability to remove bureaucrat flag was removed in .
nyc.wikimedia 2019-06-26 Wikimedia New York City Chapter wiki.
commons 2020-10-06 Community consensus
test2.wiki
de.wikipedia 2023-04-20 Community consensus
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