Help:Confirming accounts

This page explains how wiki admins can confirm new accounts that users request. Previously the wiki, like most wikis, was constantly hit by spam. This required daily monitoring and cleaning of said spam, and typically there's only one person ever checking at a given time. To combat this while still making getting an account mostly painless we have a wiki extension called ConfirmAccount.

Since enabling this extension we have had zero spam on the wiki.

Full technical documentation
See mw:Extension:ConfirmAccount for all the nitty gritty details about how this extension works. Most admins won't need to know this level of detail. Most information should be covered on this page you are currently reading.

What not to do
Just to make it clear, this process is only meant to filter out bots and people who have incorrectly requested an account. It is not to judge the quality of contributions for a user or to even judge if they have a good reason to want to edit. If their only reason is "I want to fix a single typo and never edit again", that is fine.

How to confirm a requested account
Go to Special:ConfirmAccounts/authors to see all account requests. In addition to e-mail confirmation and recaptcha, they are asked to say "why you want to edit the wiki". The answer can be almost anything as long as it sounds like a real human, isn't totally generic, and actually sounds like a reason to edit the wiki.

Eventually I'll have some step-by-step screenshots of all this, but the interface is fairly self explanatory. You'll see a list of open requests, then you click on one and you can then accept or reject the request. You can even include a message for both confirmation or rejection, if needed.

Confirm e-mail
Users must also confirm their e-mail address in order to edit. It is possible to confirm an account before the user clicks on the confirmation link they receive. Because of this, sometimes the users get confused because they get an e-mail that says "your account was created" and they can log-in, but they can't edit pages without confirming their e-mail address.

Examples of what to approve or not
When people request an account they are asked to say "why" they want to edit the wiki. This is really just a check to see if: 1) they are a human and not a spambot, and 2) if they are actually asking to edit the wiki, as some users mistake wiki registration for various other things.

Sometimes it's even a mix of "bot/automated" and confused person. Spambots these days often work by getting a real human to answer questions for them, either by having someone who is actually paid to get past anti-spam tools, or by hijacking someone's computer and injecting questions for them to solve in other websites.

People don't even need a good reason to edit the wiki, as long as it sounds like a valid one.

If you're not sure, feel free to err on the side of accepting people.

The following are real examples of what people put under "why you want to edit the wiki":

Accepted reasons

 * I'd like to add intel driver specific details to "how to configure resolution via xorg.conf".
 * 1. to remove typos from the openelec wiki page 2. to correct broken links (intra-openelec or external)
 * archive findings, share configurations, helping where needed, be sure i will not forget things.
 * There's some errors in some pages that I would like to help fix. For example, the power management/hibernation page.
 * I saw a grammatical error. Also, I have been using XBMC for months and I have a lot of experience.

Rejected reasons

 * I want to integrate with my soundcloud account via cloud player app on Google/ chromecast
 * i like xbmc chanel..good software
 * hi brother. soy español, gracias por admitirme.
 * Want to become a memnber
 * I would like to create account please
 * hello i am trying to set up my xbmc box
 * i m human and i m alive
 * I NEED TO HAVE ATV IN MY PHONE
 * Lisen am human i hope lol
 * i dont want to edit nothing i just want to be able to log in to my xbmc so i can possibly get faster downloads?
 * Can't read the damn thing
 * so I can check ot new thing
 * to learn somthing of wiki
 * I want to help
 * Because I want to use it
 * to have the best tv
 * why you want to edit the wiki

Looking up old requests

 * Special:UserCredentials can be used to see the e-mail address and answer for "why you want to edit the wiki" of approved accounts.


 * Special:ConfirmAccounts has links for things like recently rejected and expired requests. Rejected and expired requests eventually get purged from the database after a period of time (a month or so? Not sure exactly, but it's at least a month).
 * Recently rejected requests are where an admin has reviewed an account request and declined it. If you decline a request by mistake then you can go to Recently rejected and still have the option to approve the request.
 * Expired requests are requests that didn't get any admin attention and are purged from the active list of requests. The documentation for Confirm Accounts doesn't mention what the default is, but requests shouldn't expire for at least two weeks.


 * If you've accidentally approved an account then you can use Special:Block to block the account from editing. It doesn't happen often, so I haven't bothered to install the extension to delete users. An active account with a block can also prevent abusive users from spamming ConfirmAccount with new requests, since it will autoblock the recent IP addresses.

Other ways to make an account
 Both admins and non-admin users can also make additional accounts, either for themselves (like when running a wiki bot) or on the behalf of other users. A user simply goes to Special:UserLogin and clicks on "Create an account" while logged in. This allows existing users to vouch for other users without having to wait on an admin. Anyone who does this for another person should be sure to ask that the new user change their password ASAP.