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Software should allow admins to give specific users permission to edit specific pages through blocks
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OdMishehu
Oct 3 2010, 12:13 PM
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Description

On English Wikipedia, we some times have the following situations, where things would be easier and better if we could allow specific users to edit specific pages despite being blocked:

  • Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) cases - these frequently involve problematic users, who will some times be blocked for some or all of the time the case is open; they should still be allowed to comment on their case.
  • Users getting a {{2nd chance}} - if a user blocked as a vandalism-only account requests an unblock, then we some times give the user a {{2nd chance}}: Show us that you can help improve one article, and we will unblock you. Unfortunately, the only place the user can do this is on his/her own talk page. It would make this process easier if we could give the user a subpage on which they can do it.
  • Discussions about unblocking - some times, we have such discussions at places outside of the user's own talk page, such as the Administrators' noticeboard. It would make things easier if the user could respond there directly.
  • At times, admins decide that a blocked user is essential for an on-going discussion, and copy comments the user makes on his/her talk page to the discussion in general. In such cases, it would be easier if the user could respond there directly.

In all these cases, things would be easier if admins could allow a given user to edit a given page despite being blocked. The new grant should be held in a publicly visible way, and be revokable by any admin either when the need is clearly no longer there, or in case of abuse.

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bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Lowest.Nov 21 2014, 11:23 PM
bzimport set Reference to bz25400.
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Cf bug 674 and bug 15821. I'm going to repeat part of Andrew's comment on the latter:

"We need to have a unified approach to access control, rather than just tacking on extra hacks when we need them. At least some portion of the access control system needs a rewrite."

On that note, cf bug 14636.

We could add a MediaWiki: message which additional pages that can still be edited when you are blocked but allowed to edit your talk page.

Such approach would affect everyone blocked, allowing them to edit the arbcom case or the noticeboard, not just the affected user (unless perhaps the user name was used inside the title).

Would that fulfill your needs ?
(you could of course remove the edit-talk flag to blocked users abusing that)

As there exist wikis beside en.WP: On de.WP the option to allow blocked users to edit "Wikipedia:Sperrprüfung" (appealing a block) would be appreciated. At least by some.

Sargoth added a subscriber: Sargoth.
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I guess this should be implemented such that:

  • There can be a global list of pages any blocked user can edit (maybe except if he also has "allow talk page edit" rewoked).
  • There can be a list of pages a specific user can edit despite he's blocked. This should also include cases such as "all pages in user space"

Implementing of sthg like that would be great - will help reducing the number of block log entries of a blocked account, and of sysop actions according to the given problem - all in all reducing wiki stress. Regards -- Rax

TBolliger renamed this task from Software should allow admins to give specific users permission to edit specific pages through blocks to Software should allow admins to give specific users permission to edit specific pages through blocks (whitelist).Aug 14 2018, 10:01 PM
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DannyS712 renamed this task from Software should allow admins to give specific users permission to edit specific pages through blocks (whitelist) to Software should allow admins to give specific users permission to edit specific pages through blocks.Jul 12 2020, 9:51 AM

Another example when this could be useful:

In ruwiki most users who are restricted from editing the entire WP namespace, can nevertheless vote dirung the ArbCom elections. Now, a sysop must exclude the WP namespace from the blocking settings, wait while the user votes, and then restore the block. If a user changes their mind and wants to change their vote, this must be repeated.
With the exclusions, voting pages could be included into the blocking settings.

It could also be possible to specify groups of pages, by using masks. Ruwiki arbcom election pages have the following structure, for example:
Википедия:Выборы арбитров/Лето 2021/Голосование/+/Michgrig
So, to allow the user to vote, I'd like to add to exclusions Википедия:Выборы арбитров/Лето 2021/Голосование/* (or simply Википедия:Выборы арбитров/Лето 2021/Голосование).