How to be a Wikimedia sysop/Wikiversity

In addition to the generic content about How to be a Wikimedia sysop, which is about being an administrator on Wikimedia Foundation sister projects, this page provides guidance on sysop-related matters for Wikiversity. Note that on Wikiversity, sysop status is referred to as custodianship.

What is Wikiversity?

One of the first starting points should be for custodian candidates to appreciate and understand Wikiversity's scope, mission, and vision. Since these are all in development, candidates are strongly encourage to contribute to improvements. An understanding of Wikiversity's history is also advisable. Sysops coming from other WMF projects are enouraged to appreciate that the Wikiversity scope for acceptable content is considerably broader than on the other projects because the mission is about providing learning content and learning spaces. Sysops coming from other projects are encouraged to engage in discussion with other contributors to help determine what content what or may not be considered to be within Wikiversity's scope.

Policies

Secondly, candidate custodians on Wikiversity are strongly encouraged to familiarise themselves with Wikiversity:Policies. Policies attempt to make clear what processes to follow. But many of the policies are still in draft format. The most common issues on Wikiversity involve:

determining whether content is appropriate fore the main namespace; and
managing disruptive user behaviour, including spillover from disputes on other sister projects

These two issues are often interconnected.

Also note that not everything about what makes a wiki work/not work can be found in these policies. One of the common debates, for example, is over how users, curators, custodians, and bureaucrats interpret and act/don't act on the policies. Other key debates include application of the policies and support staff attitudes towards fostering a "developist" culture compared to a "deletionist" culture.

People and tools

Thirdly, caandidate custodians on Wikiversity should familiarise themselves with people and tools.

Regarding people, communication is vital, so correspond with your mentor, share about yourself on your user page, discuss ideas and questions on talk pages, and possibly also on the mailing list, IRC etc. See if you can work out how to add News, Announcements, and Site notices.
Regarding tools, probationary custodians should already be familiar with Help:Editing but a thorough review is recommended (e.g., do you understand templates?) and should try out the sysop tools during their probationary period, including deleting (see also oversight), blocking, protection. Since use of each of these tools runs a potentially strong risk of community upset, but also to not use these tools when appropriate similar runs risk of community upset, you should get familiar with how they work (each action can be undone) and you should then seek guidance from others about their subsequent use in real situations.

Reading list

Since deletion can be particularly controversial, see further advice here:

Deletion (on Wikiversity)

Policies

Community task: Make a reading list of policies which the community thinks should be read and understood by custodians. Use a helpful order for reading.: