Wikipedia:Request an account/Guide

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a manual to using the account creation request interface. All new users to the interface should read this page carefully.

Contents 1 Registering for use 2 Using the interface 2.1 Preferences 2.2 Similar? 2.3 Bans 2.4 Checking for multiple requests 2.5 Other options 3 Interface Administrators 3.1 Access 3.2 Qualifications for using the interface

[edit] Registering for use

To use the interface to fill requests, you must register here. Your account must be approved by an interface administrator, and the administrator who approves your account will notify you, usually on your talk page (note, however, that the interface administrators (who will be referred to as 'admins' in this manual), are not necessarily Wikipedia administrators (who will be referred to as 'sysops' in this manual), or vice versa).

[edit] Using the interface

After logging in, you will see the main interface (see screenshot to right), which displays a list of open requests, requests needing sysop attention, and a list of the last five closed or requests. Each open request or request needing sysop attention has a string of links, like this:
Zoom (CMT) [ FastLizard4[at]gmail[dot]com / 71.118.163.8 c b w ] LizardSock (Creation Contribs) Create! | Done! - Similar - Taken - UPolicy - Invalid - Defer to admins - Drop Ban: IP | E-Mail
Note that the colors shown here do not appear in the interface, but are here for ease of reference
The green group contains a link to the comments a user left when requesting the account (if any was left, otherwise, CMT disappears and the link becomes simply "Zoom") as well as other information, such as other requests from these addresses (see below), the e-mail address of the requester (here, the @ was substituted with [at] and the . substituted with [dot] due to it's visibility here, this does not happen in the interface), the IP address of the requester, and three links. "c" links to the IP's contributions, "b" links to the IP's block log, and "w" runs a WHOIS on the IP. It is strongly recommended that you check the comment associated with a request if there is one. The blue group contains the desired username (in this case, LizardSock) and three links to check the creation logs of the requested account, the contributions of the requested account, and to create the requested account. The orange group contains the possible resolutions that can be given to a request, Done if you were able to create the account, Similar if it is too similar (see below for details), Taken if the username was already taken, UPolicy if the requested username violates the username policy, Invalid if it contains bad characters (such as #), "Defer to admins" if a sysop needs to handle the request, and Drop if the request is a bad request, for example (usually, a ban accompanies a drop, see below). Note that all resolutions except the Defer... and Drop resolutions send an e-mail to the requester indicating what has happened to their request. The red group contains the two ban links, one for banning the IP address and the other to ban the E-Mail address. If the request was already closed or deferred to sysops, then the "Defer to admins" link becomes "Defer to users," which returns it to the main queue.

The "Last 5 Closed Requests" queue displays just that, the last five closed requests. Click the requested username brings you to the username's interface log, w brings you to that user's userpage, and Reset defers the request to users.

[edit] Preferences

Clicking Preferences brings you to your SQLBot-Hello setup page. It is pretty self-explanatory, so won't be covered in-depth here. In short, turning it on tells User:SQLBot-Hello to welcome all the users you create.

[edit] Similar?

Sometimes, Wikipedia will not allow you to create an account if it is too similar to an existing account, however, administrators can override this if the account the request is too similar to is inactive. These are the generally accepted qualities that make an account inactive:

1. Created over one year ago
2. Last edit was made over one year ago (if edited at all)
3. Last entry in logs occurred over one year ago
   

If the account the request is too similar to is inactive, defer the request to sysops by clicking "Defer to admins." If the account the request is too similar to is active, then click "Similar" to close the request as too similar to an active account.
Wikipedia sysops: It is recommended that you create a non-sysop sockpuppet to try to create accounts with - this will allow you to see if an account is inactive or active when attempting to create an account that is too similar to another account.

[edit] Bans

Any interface user can ban/unban an IP address, an E-Mail address, or a Name from submitting requests. A ban should be placed in these circumstances (as an example, there are a few more conditions, which are also more rare):

1. The IP is a recent vandal or spammer
2. The IP has sent multiple requests in a short period of time
3. The E-Mail address is invalid (bad domain,etc.)
4. The E-Mail address is obviously made-up (strings of random letters/numbers, etc.)
5. The Name Violates the username policy (This will prevent any future requests using the name from showing up in the interface)
6. The Name has been the subject of multiple Vandal/Grawp requests
   

Bans can be commented (and should be commented) at the time of the ban, and have three length options: Forever, One week, or One month. Again, anyone can ban/unban an IP address or E-Mail address, but abusing bans will result in loss of access (see below). Remember WP:BLOCK here - IP addresses can frequently change, so extended blocking periods are not recommended. The maximum period to use in non-exceptional circumstances is 1 week for IP addresses. Fake email addresses can be banned indefinitely, whereas a user who appears to have a valid email address can be blocked for a period of time, to allow the user to reform. Users blocked on enwiki are automatically redirected to the unblock mailing list, so we shouldn't have to handle those.

[edit] Checking for multiple requests

You can check for multiple requests from an IP address or an E-Mail address. To do so, either click the "Zoom" or "Zoom (CMT)" button next to an open request or click the requested username in the list of last 5 closed requests, or go to the logs (see below) and click a request number. At the end of the request line (like you see normally for all open requests), you will see the UTC date/time the request was submitted, and, farther down the page, a list of other requests (if any) from that IP address or E-Mail address. If there are multiple requests, please ban the offender from sending requests to the list.

[edit] Other options

At the bottom of every page, there are four links: Home, Ban management, Message management, and Logs. Home returns you to the request queue, Ban management shows all active bans, Message management allows you to see interface messages (much like the MediaWiki namespace on-wiki), and Logs, which shows you recent activity. All of these are found under the "Tools" heading.

[edit] Interface Administrators

Interface administrators are trusted users who can, among other things, edit interface messages (they can use the Edit! buttons in Message management), and have access to a fifth option invisible to other users, User management, which allows them to approve, promote, demote, and suspend users (see below). Becoming one is easy, simply ask another interface admin, and if they trust you, you will probably get the extra tools. However, abuse of these tools is not tolerated, and the interface is not a toy. Abuse will result in immediate loss of access/tools.

[edit] Access

Admins can change users' access to the interface via User management. Available options (which vary based on the target user's status), are as follows:

1. Approve! - This allows newly-registered users to log in and use the interface
2. Count! - Checks the edit count of users that need to be approved
3. Promote! - Makes an approved user an interface admin
4. Demote! - Makes an interface admin a regular user
5. Suspend! - The equivalent of a block on Wikipedia. It is issued by an interface admin and prevents the target user from logging in
6. Unsuspend! - The equivalent of unblocking someone. Undoes suspension and allows the user to resume using the interface
   

An example user readout is like this:
5. [ FastLizard4 / FastLizard4 ] Suspend! - Demote! (Promoted by Rjd0060 [P:1|S:0|A:11])
Note that the colors shown here do not appear in the interface, but are here for ease of reference.
The number really dosen't mean much, but the first name (in red) is the user's name on the interface. The second (in green) displays and links to the user's username on Wikipedia. The two links in black (Suspend! - Demote!) are described above, the text in blue indicates who approved/suspended/promoted the target user, and the text in purple is the statistics for that admin being described in the entry (not the promoting admin). P is the number of promotions, S is the number of suspensions, and A is the number of approvals. As such, the purple statistics only appear for interface admins.
NOTE: The User Management interface described here is only available to interface admins.

[edit] Qualifications for using the interface

A user simply needs to be trusted by the approving administrator. There are no set-in-stone requirements for getting approved.