Administrator and SOAP User Group Comparison

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VSTF (Volunteer Spam Task Force) are typically interpreted more or less by users as global administrators, although they do not outrank local administrators. But let's take a look at the tools that Administrators have that VSTF do not, and vice versa.

As it turns out, Administrators actually have more permissions than VSTF do, although VSTF tools are much more effective at combating spam and vandalism, and they have the ability to give themselves Administrator status in certain specific circumstances.

A close inspection reveals that Administrators actually share more of the same tools with Wikia Helpers than they do with VSTF. Another close inspection reveals that there isn't one tool that Administrators share with VSTF that they don't also share with Helpers.

VSTF cannot be blocked or globally blocked like Administrators can, and they can manage global blocks and spam filters.

Administrators — List of Abilities

 * The following abilities are those included with the administrator user group
 * Access Wikia's Video Tool (videopagetool)
 * Allows access to Special:GameGuidesContent (gameguidescontent)
 * Allows access to wiki admin tools, via Special:AdminDashboard (admindashboard)
 * Allows classifying multiple templates at once (template-bulk-classification)
 * Block a user from sending e-mail (blockemail)
 * Block other users from editing (block)
 * Bypass IP blocks, auto-blocks and range blocks (ipblock-exempt)
 * Bypass automatic blocks of proxies (proxyunbannable)
 * Can archive wall posts (wallarchive)
 * Can delete article comments (commentdelete)
 * Can delete message wall messages (walladmindelete)
 * Can delete videos (specialvideosdelete)
 * Can edit archived talk pages (editwallarchivedpages)
 * Can edit article comments (commentedit)
 * Can edit the old, archived forums (forumoldedit)
 * Can edit wall posts (walledit)
 * Can finish the wiki creation process (finishcreate)
 * Can kick/ban users from Chat (chatmoderator)
 * Can move article comments (commentmove)
 * Can move wall messages (wallmessagemove)
 * Can notify everyone about a Forum thread (notifyeveryone)
 * Can remove wall threads (wallremove)
 * Can toggle extensions available in Special:WikiFeatures (wikifeatures)
 * Change protection levels and edit protected pages (protect)
 * Create a theme for your wiki at Special:ThemeDesigner (themedesigner)
 * Delete comments on blog articles (blog-comments-delete)
 * Delete pages (delete)
 * Delete pages with large histories (bigdelete)
 * Delete user pages (deleteprofilev3)
 * Edit access to maintain allowed regular expressions and patterns (Semantic MediaWiki) (smw-patternedit)
 * Edit blog articles (blog-articles-edit)
 * Edit restricted form fields (editrestrictedfields)
 * Edit semi-protected pages (autoconfirmed)
 * Edit the user interface (editinterface)
 * Has admin access to the forums (forumadmin)
 * Have one's own edits automatically marked as patrolled (autopatrol)
 * Import pages from a file upload (importupload)
 * Is prompted to add a category to a blog post (becp_user)
 * Mark others' edits as patrolled (patrol)
 * Mark reverted edits as bot edits (markbotedits)
 * Moderate Song of the Day content on LyricWiki (moderatesotd)
 * Move blog articles (blog-articles-move)
 * Move files (movefile)
 * Move pages (move)
 * Move pages with their sub-pages (move-subpages)
 * Move root user pages (move-rootuserpages)
 * Move user pages (renameprofilev3)
 * Not be affected by rate limits (noratelimit)
 * Not create re-directs from source pages when moving pages (suppressredirect)
 * Override files on the shared media repository locally (reupload-shared)
 * Override the title black list (tboverride)
 * Overwrite existing files (reupload)
 * Perform CAPTCHA-triggering actions without having to go through the CAPTCHA (skipcaptcha)
 * Preview how a wiki mainpage looks in the Game Guides app (gameguidespreview)
 * Protect blog articles (blog-articles-protect)
 * Quickly revert the edits of the last user who edited a particular page (rollback)
 * Search deleted pages (browsearchive)
 * Toggle comments on blog articles (blog-comments-toggle)
 * Unblock themselves (unblockself)
 * Undelete a page (undelete)
 * Upload files (upload)
 * Upload files from a URL (upload_by_url)
 * Use higher limits in API queries (apihighlimits)
 * User can request database dumps on demand, via Special:Statistics (dumpsondemand)
 * User has chat admin rights on Chat (chatadmin)
 * User is eligible to earn achievement points (Overrides exempt) (achievements-explicit)
 * View a list of un-watched pages (unwatchedpages)
 * View deleted history entries, without their associated text (deletedhistory)
 * View deleted text and changes between deleted revisions (deletedtext)
 * allowedtoblank (allowedtoblank)
 * batchmove (batchmove)
 * canremovemap (canremovemap)
 * curatedcontent (curatedcontent)
 * deleteinterfacetrusted (deleteinterfacetrusted)
 * editlyricfind (editlyricfind)
 * flags-administration (flags-administration)
 * forum (forum)
 * linkstoredirects (linkstoredirects)
 * mobilesearches (mobilesearches)
 * places-enable-category-geolocation (places-enable-category-geolocation)
 * soapfailures (soapfailures)
 * wikianavlocal (wikianavlocal)
 * wteditimagelist (wteditimagelist)
 * Add groups: Chat Moderators and Discussion Moderators
 * Remove groups: Chat Moderators and Discussion Moderators
 * Remove group from own account: Administrators
 * Delete items from a Top 10 list page (toplists-delete-item)
 * Do string replacements on the entire wiki (replacetext)
 * Edit items in a Top 10 list page (toplists-edit-item)
 * Edit other users' CSS files (editusercss)
 * Edit other users' Java Script files (edituserjs)
 * Import pages from other wikis (import)
 * Override the spoofing checks (override-antispoof)
 * View page view statistics (pageviews)
 * View parser performance statistics (parserspeed)
 * licensedvideoswap (licensedvideoswap)
 * njordeditmode (njordeditmode)
 * wikiawidget (wikiawidget)

Volunteer Spam Task Forces — List of Abilities

 * The following abilities are those included with the volunteer spam task force user group
 * Access Wikia's Video Tool (videopagetool)
 * Allows access to Special:ImageReview (imagereview)
 * Allows access to Special:PromoteImageReview (promoteimagereview)
 * Allows access to a wizard that helps convert non-portable infoboxes to the new markup (templatedraft)
 * Allows classifying multiple templates at once (template-bulk-classification)
 * Block a user from sending e-mail (blockemail)
 * Block other users from editing (block)
 * Bypass IP blocks, auto-blocks and range blocks (ipblock-exempt)
 * Can archive wall posts (wallarchive)
 * Can delete article comments (commentdelete)
 * Can delete message wall messages (walladmindelete)
 * Can delete videos (specialvideosdelete)
 * Can delete wall messages with one click (wallfastadmindelete)
 * Can display background tasks (taskmanager)
 * Can edit archived talk pages (editwallarchivedpages)
 * Can edit article comments (commentedit)
 * Can edit wall posts (walledit)
 * Can kick/ban users from Chat (chatmoderator)
 * Can manage global blocks and spam filters (phalanx)
 * Can move article comments (commentmove)
 * Can move wall messages (wallmessagemove)
 * Can notify everyone about a Forum thread (notifyeveryone)
 * Can remove wall threads (wallremove)
 * Cannot be blocked (unblockable)
 * Change protection levels and edit protected pages (protect)
 * Check user's IP addresses and other information (checkuser)
 * Clear the contents of an user's profile masthead in one click (clearuserprofile)
 * Control memcached behaviour via request parameters (mcachepurge)
 * Create discussion pages (createtalk)
 * Create pages (which are not discussion pages) (createpage)
 * Create/execute background tasks (tasks-user)
 * Delete and undelete specific revisions of pages (deleterevision)
 * Delete many pages on a single wiki, or one page across many wikis (multidelete)
 * Delete pages (delete)
 * Delete pages with large histories (bigdelete)
 * Delete user pages (deleteprofilev3)
 * Edit other user's profile data (editprofilev3)
 * Edit semi-protected pages (autoconfirmed)
 * Edit the user interface (editinterface)
 * Exempt from Phalanx rules (phalanxexempt)
 * Find pages on many wikis (multiwikifinder)
 * Flags user as exempt from welcome tool messages (welcomeexempt)
 * Have one's own edits automatically marked as patrolled (autopatrol)
 * Limit actions that can be preformed for some groups for a limited time (protectsite)
 * Mark reverted edits as bot edits (markbotedits)
 * Mass delete pages (nuke)
 * Move files (movefile)
 * Move pages (move)
 * Move pages with their sub-pages (move-subpages)
 * Move root user pages (move-rootuserpages)
 * Move user pages (renameprofilev3)
 * Not be affected by rate limits (noratelimit)
 * Not create re-directs from source pages when moving pages (suppressredirect)
 * Not have their user name show up in block notices (hideblockername)
 * Override files on the shared media repository locally (reupload-shared)
 * Override the title black list (tboverride)
 * Overwrite existing files (reupload)
 * Perform CAPTCHA-triggering actions without having to go through the CAPTCHA (skipcaptcha)
 * Quickly revert and delete spam and vandalism (quicktools)
 * Quickly revert the edits of the last user who edited a particular page (rollback)
 * Undelete a page (undelete)
 * Use higher limits in API queries (apihighlimits)
 * User is ineligible to earn achievement points (achievements-exempt)
 * View Special:DiscussionsLog (specialdiscussionslog)
 * View IP actions across all Wikia (multilookup)
 * View deleted history entries, without their associated text (deletedhistory)
 * View deleted text and changes between deleted revisions (deletedtext)
 * View the check user log (checkuser-log)
 * View user edits across all Wikia (lookupcontribs)
 * editinterfacetrusted (editinterfacetrusted)
 * first-edit-dialog-exempt (first-edit-dialog-exempt)
 * Add groups to own account: Roll-backers, Bots and Administrators
 * Remove groups from own account: Roll-backers, Bots, Administrators and Bureaucrats
 * Allows access to Special:ScribeEvents (scribeevents)
 * Delete and protect articles in one action, via ?action=powerdelete (powerdelete)
 * forum (forum)
 * licensedvideoswap (licensedvideoswap)
 * Add groups: Roll-backers and Bots
 * Remove groups: Roll-backers and Bots

Tools that are shared between Administrators and Volunteer Spam Task Forces

 * Access Wikia's Video Tool (videopagetool)
 * Allows classifying multiple templates at once (template-bulk-classification)
 * Block a user from sending e-mail (blockemail)
 * Block other users from editing (block)
 * Bypass IP blocks, auto-blocks and range blocks (ipblock-exempt)
 * Can archive wall posts (wallarchive)
 * Can delete article comments (commentdelete)
 * Can delete message wall messages (walladmindelete)
 * Can delete videos (specialvideosdelete)
 * Can edit archived talk pages (editwallarchivedpages)
 * Can edit article comments (commentedit)
 * Can edit wall posts (walledit)
 * Can kick/ban users from Chat (chatmoderator)
 * Can move article comments (commentmove)
 * Can move wall messages (wallmessagemove)
 * Can notify everyone about a Forum thread (notifyeveryone)
 * Can remove wall threads (wallremove)
 * Change protection levels and edit protected pages (protect)
 * Delete pages (delete)
 * Delete pages with large histories (bigdelete)
 * Delete user pages (deleteprofilev3)
 * Edit semi-protected pages (autoconfirmed)
 * Edit the user interface (editinterface)
 * Have one's own edits automatically marked as patrolled (autopatrol)
 * Mark reverted edits as bot edits (markbotedits)
 * Move files (movefile)
 * Move pages (move)
 * Move pages with their sub-pages (move-subpages)
 * Move root user pages (move-rootuserpages)
 * Move user pages (renameprofilev3)
 * Not be affected by rate limits (noratelimit)
 * Not create re-directs from source pages when moving pages (suppressredirect)
 * Override files on the shared media repository locally (reupload-shared)
 * Override the title black list (tboverride)
 * Overwrite existing files (reupload)
 * Perform CAPTCHA-triggering actions without having to go through the CAPTCHA (skipcaptcha)
 * Quickly revert the edits of the last user who edited a particular page (rollback)
 * Undelete a page (undelete)
 * Use higher limits in API queries (apihighlimits)
 * View deleted history entries, without their associated text (deletedhistory)
 * View deleted text and changes between deleted revisions (deletedtext)
 * licensedvideoswap (licensedvideoswap)

Tools that the Administrator User Group has that the Volunteer Spam Task Force User Group does not

 * Allows access to Special:GameGuidesContent (gameguidescontent)
 * Allows access to wiki admin tools, via Special:AdminDashboard (admindashboard)
 * Bypass automatic blocks of proxies (proxyunbannable)
 * Can edit the old, archived forums (forumoldedit)
 * Can finish the wiki creation process (finishcreate)
 * Can toggle extensions available in Special:WikiFeatures (wikifeatures)
 * Create a theme for your wiki at Special:ThemeDesigner (themedesigner)
 * Delete comments on blog articles (blog-comments-delete)
 * Edit access to maintain allowed regular expressions and patterns (Semantic MediaWiki) (smw-patternedit)
 * Edit blog articles (blog-articles-edit)
 * Edit restricted form fields (editrestrictedfields)
 * Has admin access to the forums (forumadmin)
 * Import pages from a file upload (importupload)
 * Is prompted to add a category to a blog post (becp_user)
 * Mark others' edits as patrolled (patrol)
 * Moderate Song of the Day content on LyricWiki (moderatesotd)
 * Move blog articles (blog-articles-move)
 * Preview how a wiki mainpage looks in the Game Guides app (gameguidespreview)
 * Protect blog articles (blog-articles-protect)
 * Search deleted pages (browsearchive)
 * Toggle comments on blog articles (blog-comments-toggle)
 * Unblock themselves (unblockself)
 * Upload files (upload)
 * Upload files from a URL (upload_by_url)
 * User can request database dumps on demand, via Special:Statistics (dumpsondemand)
 * User has chat admin rights on Chat (chatadmin)
 * User is eligible to earn achievement points (Overrides exempt) (achievements-explicit)
 * View a list of un-watched pages (unwatchedpages)
 * allowedtoblank (allowedtoblank)
 * batchmove (batchmove)
 * canremovemap (canremovemap)
 * curatedcontent (curatedcontent)
 * deleteinterfacetrusted (deleteinterfacetrusted)
 * editlyricfind (editlyricfind)
 * flags-administration (flags-administration)
 * forum (forum)
 * linkstoredirects (linkstoredirects)
 * mobilesearches (mobilesearches)
 * places-enable-category-geolocation (places-enable-category-geolocation)
 * soapfailures (soapfailures)
 * wikianavlocal (wikianavlocal)
 * wteditimagelist (wteditimagelist)
 * Add groups: Chat Moderators and Discussion Moderators
 * Remove groups: Chat Moderators and Discussion Moderators
 * Remove group from own account: Administrators
 * Delete items from a Top 10 list page (toplists-delete-item)
 * Do string replacements on the entire wiki (replacetext)
 * Edit items in a Top 10 list page (toplists-edit-item)
 * Edit other users' CSS files (editusercss)
 * Edit other users' Java Script files (edituserjs)
 * Import pages from other wikis (import)
 * Override the spoofing checks (override-antispoof)
 * View page view statistics (pageviews)
 * View parser performance statistics (parserspeed)
 * njordeditmode (njordeditmode)
 * wikiawidget (wikiawidget)

Tools that the Volunteer Spam Task Force User Group has that the Administrator User Group does not

 * Allows access to Special:ImageReview (imagereview)
 * Allows access to Special:PromoteImageReview (promoteimagereview)
 * Allows access to a wizard that helps convert non-portable infoboxes to the new markup (templatedraft)
 * Can delete wall messages with one click (wallfastadmindelete)
 * Can display background tasks (taskmanager)
 * Can manage global blocks and spam filters (phalanx)
 * Cannot be blocked (unblockable)
 * Check user's IP addresses and other information (checkuser)
 * Clear the contents of an user's profile masthead in one click (clearuserprofile)
 * Control memcached behaviour via request parameters (mcachepurge)
 * Create discussion pages (createtalk)
 * Create pages (which are not discussion pages) (createpage)
 * Create/execute background tasks (tasks-user)
 * Delete and undelete specific revisions of pages (deleterevision)
 * Delete many pages on a single wiki, or one page across many wikis (multidelete)
 * Edit other user's profile data (editprofilev3)
 * Exempt from Phalanx rules (phalanxexempt)
 * Find pages on many wikis (multiwikifinder)
 * Flags user as exempt from welcome tool messages (welcomeexempt)
 * Limit actions that can be preformed for some groups for a limited time (protectsite)
 * Mass delete pages (nuke)
 * Not have their user name show up in block notices (hideblockername)
 * Quickly revert and delete spam and vandalism (quicktools)
 * User is ineligible to earn achievement points (achievements-exempt)
 * View Special:DiscussionsLog (specialdiscussionslog)
 * View IP actions across all Wikia (multilookup)
 * View the check user log (checkuser-log)
 * View user edits across all Wikia (lookupcontribs)
 * editinterfacetrusted (editinterfacetrusted)
 * first-edit-dialog-exempt (first-edit-dialog-exempt)
 * Add groups to own account: Roll-backers, Bots and Administrators
 * Remove groups from own account: Roll-backers, Bots, Administrators and Bureaucrats
 * Allows access to Special:ScribeEvents (scribeevents)
 * Delete and protect articles in one action, via ?action=powerdelete (powerdelete)
 * Add groups: Roll-backers and Bots
 * Remove groups: Roll-backers and Bots

Tools that the Administrator and Volunteer Spam Task Force User Groups have combined

 * Access Wikia's Video Tool (videopagetool)
 * Allows access to Special:GameGuidesContent (gameguidescontent)
 * Allows access to Special:ImageReview (imagereview)
 * Allows access to Special:PromoteImageReview (promoteimagereview)
 * Allows access to a wizard that helps convert non-portable infoboxes to the new markup (templatedraft)
 * Allows access to wiki admin tools, via Special:AdminDashboard (admindashboard)
 * Allows classifying multiple templates at once (template-bulk-classification)
 * Block a user from sending e-mail (blockemail)
 * Block other users from editing (block)
 * Bypass IP blocks, auto-blocks and range blocks (ipblock-exempt)
 * Bypass automatic blocks of proxies (proxyunbannable)
 * Can archive wall posts (wallarchive)
 * Can delete article comments (commentdelete)
 * Can delete message wall messages (walladmindelete)
 * Can delete videos (specialvideosdelete)
 * Can delete wall messages with one click (wallfastadmindelete)
 * Can display background tasks (taskmanager)
 * Can edit archived talk pages (editwallarchivedpages)
 * Can edit article comments (commentedit)
 * Can edit the old, archived forums (forumoldedit)
 * Can edit wall posts (walledit)
 * Can finish the wiki creation process (finishcreate)
 * Can kick/ban users from Chat (chatmoderator)
 * Can manage global blocks and spam filters (phalanx)
 * Can move article comments (commentmove)
 * Can move wall messages (wallmessagemove)
 * Can notify everyone about a Forum thread (notifyeveryone)
 * Can remove wall threads (wallremove)
 * Can toggle extensions available in Special:WikiFeatures (wikifeatures)
 * Cannot be blocked (unblockable)
 * Change protection levels and edit protected pages (protect)
 * Check user's IP addresses and other information (checkuser)
 * Clear the contents of an user's profile masthead in one click (clearuserprofile)
 * Control memcached behaviour via request parameters (mcachepurge)
 * Create a theme for your wiki at Special:ThemeDesigner (themedesigner)
 * Create discussion pages (createtalk)
 * Create pages (which are not discussion pages) (createpage)
 * Create/execute background tasks (tasks-user)
 * Delete and undelete specific revisions of pages (deleterevision)
 * Delete comments on blog articles (blog-comments-delete)
 * Delete many pages on a single wiki, or one page across many wikis (multidelete)
 * Delete pages (delete)
 * Delete pages with large histories (bigdelete)
 * Delete user pages (deleteprofilev3)
 * Edit access to maintain allowed regular expressions and patterns (Semantic MediaWiki) (smw-patternedit)
 * Edit blog articles (blog-articles-edit)
 * Edit other user's profile data (editprofilev3)
 * Edit restricted form fields (editrestrictedfields)
 * Edit semi-protected pages (autoconfirmed)
 * Edit the user interface (editinterface)
 * Exempt from Phalanx rules (phalanxexempt)
 * Find pages on many wikis (multiwikifinder)
 * Flags user as exempt from welcome tool messages (welcomeexempt)
 * Has admin access to the forums (forumadmin)
 * Have one's own edits automatically marked as patrolled (autopatrol)
 * Import pages from a file upload (importupload)
 * Is prompted to add a category to a blog post (becp_user)
 * Limit actions that can be preformed for some groups for a limited time (protectsite)
 * Mark others' edits as patrolled (patrol)
 * Mark reverted edits as bot edits (markbotedits)
 * Mass delete pages (nuke)
 * Moderate Song of the Day content on LyricWiki (moderatesotd)
 * Move blog articles (blog-articles-move)
 * Move files (movefile)
 * Move pages (move)
 * Move pages with their sub-pages (move-subpages)
 * Move root user pages (move-rootuserpages)
 * Move user pages (renameprofilev3)
 * Not be affected by rate limits (noratelimit)
 * Not create re-directs from source pages when moving pages (suppressredirect)
 * Not have their user name show up in block notices (hideblockername)
 * Override files on the shared media repository locally (reupload-shared)
 * Override the title black list (tboverride)
 * Overwrite existing files (reupload)
 * Perform CAPTCHA-triggering actions without having to go through the CAPTCHA (skipcaptcha)
 * Preview how a wiki mainpage looks in the Game Guides app (gameguidespreview)
 * Protect blog articles (blog-articles-protect)
 * Quickly revert and delete spam and vandalism (quicktools)
 * Quickly revert the edits of the last user who edited a particular page (rollback)
 * Search deleted pages (browsearchive)
 * Toggle comments on blog articles (blog-comments-toggle)
 * Unblock themselves (unblockself)
 * Undelete a page (undelete)
 * Upload files (upload)
 * Upload files from a URL (upload_by_url)
 * Use higher limits in API queries (apihighlimits)
 * User can request database dumps on demand, via Special:Statistics (dumpsondemand)
 * User has chat admin rights on Chat (chatadmin)
 * User is eligible to earn achievement points (Overrides exempt) (achievements-explicit)
 * User is ineligible to earn achievement points (achievements-exempt)
 * View Special:DiscussionsLog (specialdiscussionslog)
 * View IP actions across all Wikia (multilookup)
 * View a list of un-watched pages (unwatchedpages)
 * View deleted history entries, without their associated text (deletedhistory)
 * View deleted text and changes between deleted revisions (deletedtext)
 * View the check user log (checkuser-log)
 * View user edits across all Wikia (lookupcontribs)
 * allowedtoblank (allowedtoblank)
 * batchmove (batchmove)
 * canremovemap (canremovemap)
 * curatedcontent (curatedcontent)
 * deleteinterfacetrusted (deleteinterfacetrusted)
 * editinterfacetrusted (editinterfacetrusted)
 * editlyricfind (editlyricfind)
 * first-edit-dialog-exempt (first-edit-dialog-exempt)
 * flags-administration (flags-administration)
 * forum (forum)
 * linkstoredirects (linkstoredirects)
 * mobilesearches (mobilesearches)
 * places-enable-category-geolocation (places-enable-category-geolocation)
 * soapfailures (soapfailures)
 * wikianavlocal (wikianavlocal)
 * wteditimagelist (wteditimagelist)
 * Add groups: Chat Moderators and Discussion Moderators
 * Remove groups: Chat Moderators and Discussion Moderators
 * Add groups to own account: Roll-backers, Bots and Administrators
 * Remove groups from own account: Roll-backers, Bots, Administrators and Bureaucrats
 * Allows access to Special:ScribeEvents (scribeevents)
 * Delete and protect articles in one action, via ?action=powerdelete (powerdelete)
 * Delete items from a Top 10 list page (toplists-delete-item)
 * Do string replacements on the entire wiki (replacetext)
 * Edit items in a Top 10 list page (toplists-edit-item)
 * Edit other users' CSS files (editusercss)
 * Edit other users' Java Script files (edituserjs)
 * Import pages from other wikis (import)
 * Override the spoofing checks (override-antispoof)
 * View page view statistics (pageviews)
 * View parser performance statistics (parserspeed)
 * licensedvideoswap (licensedvideoswap)
 * njordeditmode (njordeditmode)
 * wikiawidget (wikiawidget)
 * Add groups: Roll-backers and Bots
 * Remove groups: Roll-backers and Bots