Stewards

Stewards are users with the permission and authority to use any part of the MediaWiki interface on any wiki. Stewards work with communities to address issues facing them locally such as disputes, abusive or disruptive behaviour as well as global issues such as disruptive behaviour across multiple wikis. This includes global and local right assignment, use of routine administrator permissions (delete, blocking, etc.) on local wikis and in a global sense (locking accounts, renaming them, etc.), CheckUser and Suppression permissions, and more.

Appointment
Users may nominate themselves or other users to fulfill the Steward role, or the current Stewards may call for an election if they, as a group, decide more Stewards are needed. After an accepted nomination, self-nomination, or Steward-requested election is called, any Miraheze user who created their account prior to the permissions request in question will be allowed to express positive, opposing, or neutral !votes on the nominee(s). Any other Miraheze users may ask pertinent questions related to a nominee(s)' suitability or otherwise add comments in the comments section of the permission request.


 * Users will be given an adequate time to comment on nominations
 * Any issues raised should be acknowledged or fixed by the nominee
 * If possible, any issues raised should be addressed before the closing of the nomination/election
 * Users may /  /  nominees, but this alone will not decide the outcome
 * An existing Steward will close the nomination/election after taking into consideration the arguments made, not just the support/oppose count
 * For the nomination/election to be successful, there must be at least 20 user's comments and a support ratio of at least 80%
 * In order for a request for Stewardship to be successful, the request must remain open for at least seven days. Requests may be closed before if it is clear that there is no chance of consensus in favour or if no valid reason/rationale has been given for the request
 * In order to fulfill their role, Stewards are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with Miraheze since they have access to private user information

Eligibility criteria
Stewards are elected by users. However, the following conditions must be met in order for a user to be eligible to run for Steward. If these conditions are not met, the user may not be a candidate for and any support votes will not matter. A candidate must:


 * Have at least 1000 total global edits on Miraheze (on more than one wiki, unless that wiki is Meta Wiki) (Note: These edits may not consist of directly copy/pasting content from other wikis, they must be edits done by the user);
 * Have had their Miraheze account for at least 2 months; and,
 * Be involved in some way in community matters (in discussions on Community noticeboard, etc.)
 * Have two-factor authentication enabled on their user account in order to perform certain Steward-restricted functions

Delegation of rights
In the event of an increase in requests for Steward assistance, Stewards may delegate some of these responsibilities to other users. As an example, routine administrator actions may be delegated to Global Sysops or similar, if a need arises.

Inactivity
Stewards who do not participate in the community in some form (responding to questions, dealing with issues, administrative tasks on Meta as a minimum) for 6 months will be deemed inactive and will have their Steward rights revoked. For the purpose of community, this includes all wikis and Phabricator.

This is and should be seen as a pretty relaxed requirement. Like everyone else here, Stewards are volunteers. Stewards should feel comfortable performing any of their responsibilities when it is possible for them to do so. Six months time should be enough time for any Steward logging in to acknowledge their responsibilities. This inactivity requirement is mainly to prevent having users with elevated access after they have moved on.

Revocation of rights
Stewards can have their permission revoked through a vote of no confidence or a request for removal. If at least 50% of user comments are for the removal of rights, then the Steward shall remove their own rights upon closure of the vote or have their rights removed by another Steward.
 * The person starting the vote or opening the request must provide a valid reason for removal of Steward rights (mistrust, abuse, inactivity, etc.)
 * At least 20 users must comment on the vote of no confidence or request for removal (the same number of users required to appoint a Steward)

If Stewards as a group feel that a user is intentionally calling for votes of no confidence or requests for removal without valid reasons, Stewards may decide to ignore requests or votes started by said user. If there is actually an issue, another user may bring it up with the Stewards.

Readdition of rights
A Steward who lost their rights for any reason must successfully reapply for rights again per the appointment section above.

Term length
Stewards terms are not limited to a set time length. Users may call for a vote of non-confidence or request for removal at any time, as above.

Background
The following Requests for Comment have shaped this policy.


 * Requests for Comment/Miscellaneous RfGR and WC rules (amended) (June 2022)
 * Requests for Comment/Stewards (created) (December 2016)