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Review Extension:StaffPowers
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Description

I would like to request a review of the StaffPowers extension.

This extension is used by ShoutWiki and it provides a userright that makes a group with that right unblockable (immune to blocking). I think that this should be assigned to bureaucrats by default, as I've seen several steward requests recently of a wiki founder being demoted and blocked by an abusive crat. This extension should eliminate that problem.

Event Timeline

Amanda created this object in space S1 Public.

I'd like to oppose this for reasons of security. A wiki founder should not be exempt from being blocked if they have committed offenses that have disrupted Miraheze's operations and have caused trouble severe enough that their blocking would be justified under Miraheze policy. Granting this would effectively hamstring the police powers of the Miraheze staff and allow a troublemaker to continue to wreak havoc.

If the wiki in question is not at the center of the dispute, it can be held in escrow in some fashion until the blocked founder is either unblocked or another party is able to adopt it after a suitable period of time.

I base this on a rather sensible idea used by Wikia (with some modification) to keep wikis from being let to rot while still leaving it open for the founder to resume control should their block be rescinded later.

First of all, if a wiki founder has committed abuse or other disruptive behavior, blocking them on their own wiki is not the way to go, as that could be seen as an abuse of sysadmin/steward global rights.

The way to go is to have a wiki creator or sysadmin "close" their wiki so that nobody can edit it, and if the abuse continues on Meta or elsewhere, perhaps lock their global account and send an email.

In any sense, blocking the founder of the wiki should never be done unless authorized by that founder themselves.

(quick question) I thought we stopped using the term 'wiki founder', since decisions are based on community (on the affected wiki) consensus?

In T1691#32365, @Amanda wrote:

First of all, if a wiki founder has committed abuse or other disruptive behavior, blocking them on their own wiki is not the way to go, as that could be seen as an abuse of sysadmin/steward global rights.

The way to go is to have a wiki creator or sysadmin "close" their wiki so that nobody can edit it, and if the abuse continues on Meta or elsewhere, perhaps lock their global account and send an email.

In any sense, blocking the founder of the wiki should never be done unless authorized by that founder themselves.

One problem with that. This service is provided at Miraheze's discretion, they are merely providing server space for us to host our wikis.

If I committed offenses so great my being blocked was justified, even on the wiki I founded, Miraheze Staff have absolute rights to block me, and I would have no say because I have no authority in that regard. I have the right to petition for them to change their mind, and if the evidence for why it was done is clear, then the petition would fail and I would have to accept that. Otherwise, they could decide, at their discretion, to review the decision and possibly reverse it, especially if evidence for just cause is lacking.

Regardless, they are kind enough to provide us server space at no cost to us, and thus we are here at their pleasure, not our own, and we thus must defer to their judgment in those matters.

So again, I request this be denied because it would rob Miraheze Staff of their police power over their own service, and thus allow miscreants to remain unchecked on their own wikis to sow more chaos, should they turn out to be troublemakers.

(quick question) I thought we stopped using the term 'wiki founder', since decisions are based on community (on the affected wiki) consensus?

We'll we did but what other people use is out of our control.

Amanda removed labster as the assignee of this task.
Amanda removed a project: Extension-Review.
Amanda moved this task from Backlog to Other on the Extensions board.
Amanda edited subscribers, added: labster; removed: John, Arcane21, NDKilla and 5 others.

Closing this task as invalid (self-withdrawal) per opposition above