User Rollbackers

User Rollbackers are a fictional global usergroup. The intention was to come up with a fictional global usergroup that was based around the extension of the same name. So therefore the idea was a fictional volunteer usergroup whose primary task was to quickly revert all edits made by specific users across all wikis when Fandom Staff, Fandom Helpers, and Volunteer Spam Task Force members aren't around to take bigger action against global vandals.

Inspiration
The inspiration for the fictional usergroup started sometime in February 2016 when I was researching all the usergroup rights that all the usergroups had on Fandom. I was checking the Special:ListGroupRights page in order to update my own article page that listed all the permissions that each usergroup has or had since September 2014. Then I noticed the Userrollback permission that had been added on the list of permissions that Fandom Utilities had.

There was no description on the special page as to what the permission did, and because the permission had "rollback" in its name, I became curious as to what the permission did. I knew that it must have been a permission that only Utilities should have, but that was literally it. It wasn't too long though before I was told what the permission did. To quickly revert all edits made by specific users across all wikis.

Less than five months after the permission was added to the Utility usergroup, and less than a month after I got the idea for the fictional User Rollback usergroup, the permission was removed from the Utility usergroup in April 2016. In fact the extension was removed altogether. While it was around, the extension didn't appear on any wikis, aside from Fandom Community Central.

Despite this all being in November 2015 - April 2016, past MediaWiki messages indicate that the extension dated back from June 2015 at the latest. While various archives on GitHub confirm that the extension dated back from December 2011 at the latest. Even though the idea was that the fictional volunteer usergroup would be for non-Staff, it is highly unlikely that anyone without Staff or Utility rights would be given access to the usergroup, if the usergroup existed.

Abilities that the User Rollback usergroup has
Since the User Rollback usergroup is based around the userrollback extension, it does not have many other abilities. In fact most of the abilities currently extended to User Rollbackers aren't permissions that they had at the time of the usergroup's creation.

As the User Rollback usergroup has "rollback" in its name, and since the usergroup is intended to deal with global vandalism against specific global vandals from all affected wikis, I felt that User Rollbackers should have global access to the Rollback permission. However, unlike local Administrators, Assistants, Content Moderators, and Rollbackers, User Rollbackers are only permitted to use their rollback rights on quiet or inactive wikis, and only against obvious spam and vandalism.
 * Rollback

User Rollbackers do not replace or outrank local users with rollback rights. Any users that are part of the User Rollback usergroup must have Administrator, Assistant, Content Moderator, and/or Rollback rights on a wiki in order for them to be able to use rollback for the same reasons that a local user with rollback rights would on the said wiki.

Fandom Staff, Wiki Representatives, Fandom Helpers, Spam Obliteration and Prevention members, Global Discussion Moderators, Administrators, and Discussion Moderators have the ability to delete and undelete article and blog comments.
 * Posts : delete

Volunteer Spam Task Force members also had the ability to delete and undelete article and blog comments, prior to the usergroup's retirement. User Rollbackers were granted this ability in July 2020 so that they would be able to delete article and blog comments on UCP wikis, since the ability wasn't introduced on legacy wikis until August 2020.

However, unlike local Administrators, User Rollbackers are actually almost never permitted to use their delete tools. User Rollbackers were granted the ability to delete and undelete article and blog comments since they wouldn't be able to delete article and blog comments with the Userrollback extension.

Fandom Staff, Wiki Representatives, Fandom Helpers, Spam Obliteration and Prevention members, Global Discussion Moderators, Administrators, and Discussion Moderators have the ability to delete all posts by a specific user.
 * Posts : deleteall

Volunteer Spam Task Force members also had the ability to delete all posts by a specific user, prior to the usergroup's retirement. User Rollbackers were granted this ability in October 2020 so that they would be able to delete all posts by a specific user, in addition to the ability to delete and undelete article and blog comments.

However, unlike local Administrators, User Rollbackers are actually almost never permitted to use their delete tools. User Rollbackers were granted the ability to delete all posts by a specific user since they wouldn't be able to all posts by a specific user with the Userrollback extension.

Global Discussion Moderators, Administrators, and Discussion Moderators have the ability to delete and undelete message wall messages and discussion posts. Fandom Staff, Wiki Representatives, Fandom Helpers, and Spam Obliteration and Prevention members were subsequently granted the ability in October 2020.
 * Threads : delete

Volunteer Spam Task Force members were also subsequently granted the ability in October 2020, prior to their retirement. User Rollbackers were granted this ability in August 2020 so that they would be able to delete message wall messages and discussion posts on legacy wikis, since the ability wasn't introduced on UCP wikis until a few days after it was introduced on legacy wikis.

However, unlike local Administrators, User Rollbackers are actually almost never permitted to use their delete tools. User Rollbackers were granted the ability to delete and undelete message wall messages and discussion posts since they wouldn't be able to delete message wall messages and discussion posts with the Userrollback extension.

User Rollbackers were subsequently granted the ability to delete pages. However, unlike local Administrators and Content Moderators, User Rollbackers are actually almost never permitted to use their delete tools. User Rollbackers were granted the ability to delete pages in case they ever fail to successfully delete the target pages with the Userrollback extension.
 * Delete

The code for the Userrollback extension allows access to a special page titled "Special:UserRollback" that lets a user enter a username and revert and delete their edits from all wikis. Of course, the user in question would need to have the Userrollback permission.

Userrollback works on the server side, so there's no notification of "user permissions", as the extension has direct access to the database. But User Rollbackers still have the Delete permission, in case they ever need it. Despite having the ability to delete pages, User Rollbackers are only permitted to delete pages if for some reason they run into a page that the Userrollback extension is unable to revert and delete.

Fandom Staff, Fandom Helpers, and Administrators have the ability to mark reverted edits as bot edits. Assistants and Wiki Representatives were subsequently granted the ability in October 2017 and December 2019, respectively. Spam Obliteration and Prevention members were also granted the ability, following their introduction in July 2020. Admin Mentors and Volunteer Spam Task Force members also had the ability to mark reverted edits as bot edits, prior to the usergroups' respective retirements.
 * Markbotedits

User Rollbackers were subsequently granted the ability to mark reverted edits as bot edits in November 2020. I was inspired to do this, since all the usergroups that currently have the Quicktools permission also have the Markbotedits permission, with the exception of Wiki Specialists. I was inspired to give User Rollbackers the ability to mark reverted edits as Bot edits because it is one of the optional abilities that can be accessed via the Quicktools permission which User Rollbackers were granted on the same day.

However, unlike local Administrators, User Rollbackers are actually almost never permitted to mark reverted edits as bot edits. They must only mark reverted edits as bot edits through the use of Quicktools, which in turn must only be used if they fail to quickly revert all edits made by specific users with the Userrollback extension, disregarding the fact that the Userrollback extension does not have an option to mark reverted edits as bot edits.

Fandom Staff, Wiki Representatives, Wiki Specialists, Fandom Helpers, Spam Obliteration and Prevention members, and Assistants have the ability to be exempted from rate limits. Content Volunteers, Bots, Administrators, and Content Moderators also had this ability until May 2018 when it was removed from all the default local usergroups and Content Volunteers, due to the ability becoming more conservative due to abuse.
 * Noratelimit

Volunteer Spam Task Force members also had the ability to be exempted from rate limits, prior to the usergroup's retirement. When the ability was removed from Administrators, Content Moderators, Bots, and Content Volunteers; Global Bots were granted with the ability to be exempted from rate limits. As of May 2018, there aren't any local usergroups with the ability, excluding a few custom usergroups on certain wikis.

User Rollbackers were subsequently granted the ability to bypass rate limits, in case they ever ran into a situation where being unable to bypass rate limits complicates their performance with quickly reverting global vandalism. Userrollback works on the server side, so there's no notification of "user permissions", as the extension has direct access to the database. But User Rollbackers still have the Noratelimit permission, in case they ever need it.

User Rollbackers lost the ability to bypass rate limits in May 2017, after it was decided that being able to bypass rate limits was irrelevant to User Rollbackers. And even if it was relevant, User Rollbackers would still have been able to bypass rate limits when using the userrollback extension. Otherwise they would still have been able to temporarily flag themselves as a Content Moderator or Assistant during that time, should they have ever needed to bypass rate limits.

If User Rollbackers still had the ability to bypass rate limits by May 2018, it is possible that they would have lost the ability, after the ability had become more conservative due to abuse. Though it is possible that since they are a volunteer group that is involved in counter vandalism globally, they may have been one of the few usergroups to have retained the ability.

Since Content Moderators no longer have the ability to bypass rate limits, and since Assistants are a custom usergroup that only exists on a couple of wikis, not to mention User Rollbackers are no longer able to flag themselves as a Content Moderator or Assistant, User Rollbackers eventually regained the ability to bypass rate limits in December 2018, to ensure that not having it didn't complicate their performance with quickly reverting global vandalism.

User Rollbackers were subsequently granted the ability to delete pages with large histories. However, unlike local Administrators, User Rollbackers are actually almost never permitted to use their delete tools. User Rollbackers were granted the ability to delete pages with large histories in case they ever fail to successfully delete the target pages with the Userrollback extension, or with the Delete permission.
 * Bigdelete

Userrollback works on the server side, so there's no notification of "user permissions", as the extension has direct access to the database. But User Rollbackers still have the Delete and Bigdelete permissions, in case they ever need them. Despite having the ability to delete pages with large histories, User Rollbackers are only permitted to delete pages if for some reason they run into a page that the Userrollback extension is unable to revert and delete.

Fandom Helpers have the ability to view a user's contributions across all wikis. Fandom Staff were subsequently granted the ability sometime between December 2014 and 2015. Volunteer Spam Task Force members also had the ability, prior to the usergroup's retirement.
 * Lookupcontribs

Wiki Representatives, Wiki Specialists, and Spam Obliteration and Prevention members were also granted the ability, following their respective introductions in May and July 2019, and July 2020. User Rollbackers were subsequently granted the ability to view a user's contributions across all wikis, so that they would have an easier time finding and reverting edits made by specific users across all wikis.

Fandom Staff and Fandom Helpers have the ability to view IP actions across all wikis. Volunteer Spam Task Force members also had the ability, prior to the usergroup's retirement. Wiki Representatives were subsequently granted the ability in June 2019.
 * Multilookup

Spam Obliteration and Prevention members were also granted the ability, following their introduction in July 2020. User Rollbackers were subsequently granted the ability to view IP actions across all wikis, so that they would have an easier time finding and reverting edits made by a specific IP address across all wikis.

In addition to the ability to delete pages, Fandom Helpers were subsequently granted the ability to quickly block users, and revert and delete spam and vandalism with quick tools in July 2016. Wiki Representatives, Wiki Specialists, and Spam Obliteration and Prevention members were also granted the ability, following their respective introductions in May and July 2019, and July 2020. Fandom Staff were also subsequently granted this ability, following this wiki's migration to Fandom 's Unified Community Platform in October 2020.
 * Quicktools

Volunteer Spam Task Force members were also previously able to quickly block users, and revert and delete spam and vandalism with quick tools, prior to the usergroup's retirement. Fandom Utilities also previously had access to Quicktools, prior to this wiki's migration to UCP. However they weren't able to quickly block users, and revert and delete spam and vandalism as a standalone usergroup, as those actions required the Block, Rollback, and Delete permissions which Utilities didn't have.

User Rollbackers were subsequently granted the ability to quickly revert and delete spam and vandalism with quick tools in November 2020. I was inspired to grant them the ability as an alternative in case they ever failed to quickly revert all edits made by specific users with the Userrollback extension. Both extensions are similar in some ways. Both allow users to quickly revert and delete spam and vandalism. Though the Userrollback extension can be used to revert all edits by specified users on all the wikis they've targeted, whereas Quicktools can only be used locally.

Userrollback does not require any additional permissions to use, since it works on the server side, so there's no notification of "user permissions", as the extension has direct access to the database. Quicktools requires the Rollback permission to revert edits, the Markbotedits permission to mark reverted edits as bot edits, the Delete permission to delete pages, the Block permission to block users, and the Blockemail permission to block the emails of users when blocking them. Userrollback couldn't be used to mark reverted edits as bot edits, delete pages, block users, or block emails. And it didn't appear on any wikis, aside from Fandom Community Central.

Fandom Utilities previously had the ability to quickly revert all edits made by specific users across all wikis. However the ability was removed from the Utility usergroup in April 2016, and the extension was removed from the Fandom network. Despite this, User Rollbackers still have access to the ability to this day, because if they didn't still have the ability, they would no longer serve their central purpose.
 * Userrollback

User Rollbackers are able to quickly revert all edits made by specific users across all wikis whenever they find a user that has engaged in cross-wiki vandalism, and there isn't a SOAP, Helper, Wiki Representative, or Staff member around to take bigger action against the global vandal.

User Rollbackers don't use their Userrollback abilities for any other reason than dealing with global spam and vandalism. They do not use their Userrollback abilities against local spam or vandalism. And they do not use their Userrollback abilities against any troublesome users, global spammers, or vandals that have made any edits that aren't pure spam or vandalism.

What do User Rollbackers do?
User Rollbackers are volunteers that are entrusted with the Userrollback permission, which allows them to quickly revert all edits made by specific users across all wikis. They use their userrollback rights to revert all contributions made by users that have spammed and vandalised on multiple wikis, as long as the said users haven't made any edits on any wikis that aren't pure spam or vandalism.

In cases where their userrollbacks fail, they may occasionally be found reverting the edits or deleting the pages that they failed to revert or delete with the Userrollback permission. But these occasions are rare and kept to a minimum. User Rollbackers may occasionally be found using their Rollback permission to revert spam and vandalism made by a user on a quiet or an inactive wiki.

In situations where the user that they have previously reverted all the edits of continues to make more spam or vandal edits, User Rollbackers will also be found on the SOAP Wiki where they report the users that are doing the cross-wiki spam or vandalism. User Rollbackers are advised to report the said users to SOAP anyway, so that the SOAP can take bigger action against the global spammers or vandals.

Sometimes User Rollbackers need to use their Multilookup permission to lookup the contributions made by a specific IP address, in order to pin down all the wikis they've hit, so they can revert all the edits that they've made. To lookup the contributions made by a specific account, User Rollbackers need to use their Lookupcontribs permission, in order to pin down all the wikis they've hit, so they can revert all the edits that they've made.

What do User Rollbackers not do?
User Rollbackers do not use their userrollback rights to revert all contributions made by users that have made any edits that aren't pure spam or vandalism. They do not use their userrollback rights to revert spam or vandalism made by a user that has only edited on one wiki. User Rollbackers do not use their deletion tools to manually delete pages unless they somehow fail to do so using the Userrollback permission.

User Rollbackers do not use the Rollback permission to revert spam or vandalism on very large or very active wikis. They do not use their rollback tool to revert spam or vandalism on wikis, unless the wikis are quiet or inactive. Or if they have previously failed to revert the spam or vandalism with the userrollback extension. They do not use the rollback tool for any other purpose. Instead they must use the undo button to undo edits, as would a regular user.

User Rollbackers generally do not revert global spam or vandalism made by users that have been reported on the SOAP Wiki. They also do not remove reports on the SOAP Wiki, since they can't block or globally block users. If a User Rollback has reverted all the edits made by specific users across all wikis, and they continue to spam or vandalise, User Rollbackers are advised not to use their Userrollback rights to revert edits made by the same users twice. Instead, they must report the spammers or vandals to the SOAP or Staff.

User Rollbackers also do not lookup the global contributions of users or IP addresses if another user asks them to. They only use their Multilookup and Lookupcontribs permissions if they need to quickly locate all the wikis where certain users or IP addresses have edited.

System Messages associated with the usergroup
Listed below are the system messages associated with the User Rollback usergroup.

System Messages associated with the ability
Listed below are the system messages associated with the Userrollback right. While these are related to the permission that inspired this fictional usergroup and not related to the fictional usergroup itself, I decided to include them on this page for interest.