Wikipedia:Office actions
 | This is aninformation page. It describes actions that are taken by theWikimedia Foundationpursuant to the Foundation'soffice actions policy. |
 | This page in a nutshell:Sometimes the Wikimedia Foundation may have to delete,protect,or blank pages,suppress revisions,blockorglobally lockusers, or take other actions without going through the normal site/community processes to do so. These measures may be temporary or permanent and are taken to prevent legal trouble or personal harm. They must not be undone by any user without permission from the Wikimedia Foundation. |
Office actionsare actions performed byWikimedia Foundationstaff accounts (usually through the authorizedrole account,User:WMFOffice), and pursuant to theWikimedia Foundation official policy.Office actions are described by the Foundation as"official changes to or removals of content on the Wikimedia projects, or actions against specific individuals, performed by Foundation staff members and under the authority of the Wikimedia Foundation, upon receipt of one or multiple complaints from the community or the public, or as required by law."Complaints or issues that may lead to enforcement of office actions may involve, but are not limited to,privacy violations,child protection,copyright infringementor systematicharassment.All office actions are performed pursuant to the Wikimedia FoundationTerms of Use.
On the subject of modifying office actions, the Foundation states:
Wikimedia administrators and others who have the technical power to revert or edit office actions are strongly cautioned against doing so. Unauthorized modifications to office actions will not only be reverted, but may lead to sanctions by the Foundation, such as revocation of the rights of the individual involved. When in doubt, community members should consult the Foundation member of staff that performed the office action, or their line manager. However, details regarding an office action are only shared to the extent that they do not compromise the safety of users, the public or the project.
For the full text of the Wikimedia Foundation official policy, seemeta:Office actions.
For pages currently protected by office action, seeCategory:Wikipedia Office-protected pages.For editing restrictions placed by office action, seeSpecial:Contributions/WMFOffice.(The former log,Wikipedia:Office actions/Log,is obsolete.) For some other office actions, seeSpecial:Log/WMFOffice,meta:Special:Log/WMFOffice,andmeta:Special:Contributions/WMFOffice.
On the English Wikipedia, WMF Office deletions are covered under criterionG9of the Wikipediacriteria for speedy deletionpolicy.
Historical background
editThe office actions policy wasoriginally launchedon the English Wikipedia byJimmy Wales,back in February 2006, and shortly afterwards onMeta,in order to solidify long-standing practices and processes followed by the Foundation that were not officially recorded elsewhere in the projects at that time. Its original scope focused on page protections andBLParticle content changes, in response to increasingly rising number of escalated calls for action, placed directly to the Foundation's staff, by affected individuals.Danny Woolwas the first designated Foundation staff member[1]mandated to accept, review, and act on such requests,[2]with the exception ofWikipediaco-founderJimmy Wales.
The office actions page has undergone several iterations since, on both sites, and has been expanded to include a variety of office actions that have been taken over the years as common practice, broadening its original scope. At the same time, strict internal processes have been developed by the Foundation in order to complement as well as standardize office actions and staff use of advanced rights. In June 2019, the English Wikipedia page was changed to an information page referring to the Wikimedia Foundation office actions page located atmeta:Office actions.
Office actions were originally intended to be temporary actions,[3]alleviating pressures caused by controversial situations and calling community attention to them in the hopes of resolution.[4]However, certain office actions have since evolved to be permanent and non-appealable due to the nature of the issues dealt with, whileothers have become defunct.
Office actions do not necessarily have widespread community consensus, in part because shared office role accounts, such asUser:WMFOffice,may lack sufficient communication and accountability.[5]
See also
edit- Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Reversion of office actions
- wmf:Policies,a list of all official policies of the Wikimedia Foundation
- Test account policy
References
edit- ^Wool, Danny (March 12, 2006)."[WikiEN-l] I am Danny".lists.wikimedia.org.
- ^Wool, Danny (March 12, 2006)."[WikiEN-l] Phone calls".lists.wikimedia.org.
- ^Wales, Jimmy (March 12, 2006)."[WikiEN-l] Apology".lists.wikimedia.org.
- ^Wales, Jimmy (April 21, 2006)."[WikiEN-l] Libel chill".lists.wikimedia.org.
- ^"Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive309",Wikipedia,2023-02-04,retrieved2024-11-07