How to Manage Wiki User Rights

In MediaWiki, users that visit your site and perform various actions belong to one or more user groups. A group has rights/permissions that specify what the users in that group are allowed to do on the site.

WikiTeq

Published on Sunday, 30 October 2022

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MediaWiki comes preconfigured with some default user groups. Registered users can then be assigned to other user groups by other users with the permissions to do so, and in this way, they can be allowed to do even more things.

By inserting code in the LocalSettings.php file of your MediaWiki, custom groups can be created, and permissions can be changed.

User Groups in MediaWiki

Default MediaWiki groups are:

• * – all visitors, including anonymous ones
• user – registered users
• sysop – administrators with a lot of power
• bureaucrat – a special group with the important right to assign users to groups.

There are some other built-in groups (bots, interface administrators, etc). Other groups and permissions can be added by extensions. You can read more about user groups here.

Special:UserRights

Managing Wiki User Rights

To modify group memberships, navigate to Special:UserRights. This action requires one to be part of the bureaucrats group or have been granted the necessary permissions through the configuration file.

Tips for Wiki User Rights

• There is a section Users Rights on the special pages (usually located in Tools menu).
• If you want to see a list of the registered users and find a particular user, there's a special page on the site that lists all users: 

Special:ListUsers

• To view what the currently existing user groups are an what the permissions for each group are, use 

Special:ListGroupRights

How To Block Wiki Users

There's a feature that you can use to block users. The blocked user can only read and view the content on the site; they cannot edit content or perform any other actions with pages. To do so, navigate to the special page:

Special:Block

Note that you can:

• Block registered users by using either the username of the user's account or an IP address
• Block IP addresses of unregistered users
• Block accounts completely or partially
• Set block expiration
• Provide a reason for the account blocking

After filling the form, do not forget to press the Block this user button!

Creating custom groups and editing the LocalSettings.php file can be a tricky process, feel free to reach out to us for a free consultation! Make sure to check out our other MediaWiki blog articles that contain various wiki tutorials and more!