Wikipedia:Administrators' guide/Cleaning backlogs

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Wikipedia is a backlog, in and out – there's always plenty of work to do as an admin. This page documents the venues that often require admin attention.

Your best friend for finding work to do is the admin dashboard. Note that anything highlighted in red in the "immediate requests" table have priority - either due to its severity or that it is heavily backlogged. Many admins transclude this template {{admin dashboard}} in their userspace, providing it options to show only the venues and backlogs they specialize in.[1] See the template documentation for more information.

List of venues

The following noticeboards are those that do or might require administrator attention.

The citations indicate user scripts or gadgets that can assist you in responding to reports at that noticeboard. Usage of these is recommended as you may find yourself doing repetitive tasks, and anything to expedite your work means more work can be done and the project is overall better maintained.

Administrators' noticeboards

Urgent matters

These noticeboards fill up quickly, and usually involve matters that require immediate administrator intervention in the form of blocks, page protection, or deletion.

Deletion

The following venues (not necessarily referred to as a noticeboard) are for pages or items that might require deletion or merging.

Other

How to respond to reports

Every noticeboard differs in some way. Specific instructions for any given noticeboard may be found at the /Administrator instructions subpage. If such page exists, you will see a link to it at the top-right of the noticeboard page. For instance, Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Administrator instructions (notice the link to this page at the top-right of WP:AfD).

Instructions are sometimes also found in the edit notice.

Semi-automation

Working at some noticeboards can involve repetitive tasks, for which there are some useful scripts to expedite your work. Above in the list of noticeboards, look for citations that denote scripts that may pertain to that venue.

Twinkle applies to any area where you might need to delete, block or protect. Note especially its usefulness when mass-deleting or mass-protecting pages.

Notes

  1. ^ You could also add a link to your sidebar to your customized dashboard. E.g. if your dashboard is located at Special:MyPage/Dashboard, add the code mw.util.addPortletLink('p-navigation', mw.util.getUrl('User:MyUserName/Dashboard'), "DASHBOARD"); to your common.js and you will have a nifty link to it from anywhere on Wikipedia.
  2. ^ a b c d e responseHelper – makes it easier to respond to requests/reports at WP:AIV, WP:ANEW, WP:PERM, WP:RFPP and WP:UAA. Links are added to your sidebar to quickly insert administrator notation templates and supply an informative edit summary.
  3. ^ DiscussionCloser – simplifies closing discussions
  4. ^ a b c SpamUserPage (WP:SUPG) – allows you to delete a userspace page, block the user, and issue them with a block notice, all in one click, with options for types of blocks, deletion rationale, etc.
  5. ^ a b c User:Mr. Stradivarius/gadgets/Draftify (WP:DFY) – allows you to move a userspace draft to the draft namespace, tag it with a draft template, and notify the user of your action
  6. ^ a b c spamublock – delete a userpage, block the user, and issue {{uw-spamublock}} with one click
  7. ^ a b CSD Helper (source) – helps admins delete speedy deletions much more quickly, including changing rationales, and assists everyone in declining/contesting speedy deletions and changing speedy deletions to PRODs
  8. ^ User:Mr.Z-man/closeAFD.js – helper to close discussions at WP:AfD
  9. ^ a b c d e User:King of Hearts/closexfd.js – helpers to close discussions at WP:TfD, WP:FfD, WP:CfD, WP:RfD and WP:MfD
  10. ^ User:Timotheus Canens/spihelper.js – essentially a must if you regularly work at WP:SPI
  11. ^ editProtectedHelper (WP:EPH) – adds the ability to respond to edit requests quickl
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