How to Act as a wikiHow Admin

To report something that needs immediate administrator attention, please post it on our Administrator Notice Board.

Administrators are those dedicated fanatics who willingly undertake some additional responsibilities to help ensure that wikiHow keeps on being a great place for all readers and contributors. Here are some tasks that require admin status.

Steps

1
Approve or reject requested topics.
2
Deletion. Delete pages carefully. While spam, profanity, and nonsense pages should be deleted immediately, borderline cases should be simply nominated for deletion by writing {{nfd|reason for deletion}} on the page and the edit summary. Leave a comment on the discussion page. Then the community will have a period of a week or two to collect comments from other community members. A specially designated administrator will read the votes and make the final decision in accordance with the deletion policy.

Deletion.
3
Blocking. Block users who are repeatedly attempting malicious acts. While a 24 hour block is often sufficient to discourage a person, longer blocks may be necessary in some cases. Feel free to block users for up to one month at your discretion. Even longer blocks are acceptable for repeat offenders and spambots. See How to Block IP Addresses and Disruptive Users. Also, when spam is posted on wikiHow, see How to Block Wikispam on wikiHow.
4
Retitling. Rename or move popular pages carefully. In general we want page names to be the simplest, most commonly searched way to describe the activity. That said don't simplify titles to the point of subtracting meaning from the title. Before making a title change, find out whether any pages link to the page you are about to change. If so, you will need to follow those links and amend them.
5
Protection. Protect pages that are under vandalism attacks or are vandal-prone because they have been posted on the Digg homepage or some similar vehicle. Try to remember to unprotect these pages once the attack has passed.

Tips

Experience with patrolling can help make a wikiHow member a more attractive candidate for adminship.
Use your admin powers only for the forces of good.
All wikiHow users are eligible to become an admin. Read How to Become a wikiHow Admin for details.
To ensure that all admins work for the best interest of the community, all changes made by a wikiHow admin can be reversed by other wikiHow admins.
Gain trust from other admins. If you are a non-admin and wish to be, when it comes time for elections, if other admins know you and can trust you, you have a better chance of being elected.
Be yourself. It is important that you don't get out of touch with being who you are. You don't have to have a "real name" and be all serious and whatnot. You can place fun and personal templates on your userpage. Reflect yourself, but don't be rude.
Volunteer. Volunteer for specific administrator projects such as maintaining the categories, selecting the featured articles and other housekeeping projects that appear from time to time. You can of course dream up your own project ideas too.

Warnings

Administrators are entrusted with responsibilities to ensure that wikiHow works the way it should for everyone in the wikiHow community. In the rare event than an admin might be found to be abusing such responsibilities, he or she may be subject to a loss of admin privileges. This is not done lightly because the Community trusts you and expects that trust to be returned. If you are having difficulties at any stage with any aspect of the admin responsibilities, immediately request assistance from other admins, wikiHow's steward (Jack H) or the wikiHow staff.
Additionally, admins are expected to use wisdom in applying the responsibilities vis-à-vis all users; there is no tolerance for misuse or unethical usage of admin powers in relation to other users on the site. (This warning does not relate to appropriate use of the powers in relation to vandals.)
Admins may not be under the age of 13. If an admin is appointed without revealing that he or she is under this age and this is later discovered, adminship will be decommissioned immediately. This is not a personal reflection but a rule about adminship on wikiHow that meets both legal and ethical requirements.
Adminship is not a trophy. Admins are equal in status with all regular contributors on wikiHow. Practically speaking, admins take on some additional responsibilities requiring an exercise of reasoned judgment that ensures the smooth running of wikiHow for the whole Community. In doing so, we also recognize and appreciate the efforts and willingness of admins to take on such responsibilities and do not place unrealistic expectations or burdens on our admins.
Remain cool when personally attacked. When carrying out administrator duties, you may anger others who don't understand why you reverted their edits, merged their page, etc. When this happens, listen carefully to the complaint and then respond in a fair, calm and civil manner. You are entitled to seek assistance from other admins and you are also entitled to ignore or seek help for trolling, baiting and abuse.

Related wikiHows

Articles for You to Write

Here is a list of suggested articles that have not yet been written. You can help by researching and writing one of these articles. To get started writing one of these articles, click on the red link of a title below.