Role account

A role account is an account that is not associated with a particular person, but with an office, position, or task. Those doing the task use the account only to do the task. They have other accounts for other work.

Use of role accounts is not officially sanctioned on most Wikimedia Foundation projects, though their use has been proposed.

All Wikimedia wikis

The following role accounts were created globally and exist for the use of the Wikimedia Foundation.

The following are no longer used:

Wikimedia Commons

See Commons:Commons:Role account for available information.

English Wikipedia

On the English Wikipedia, five role accounts are currently permitted.

User:Oversight^diff account was created by the Arbitration Committee in February 2008 to make reporting of privacy violations easier.^{[en 1]}
User:Wikipedia Information Team^diff account was created to send emails to accounts where an email address exists; or for emails to be sent directly to VRTS. The account makes no edits.

The following role accounts exist on the English Wikipedia for historical purposes and are inactive:

User:User Advocate^[ref?] ^{[en 2]}
User:Mediation Committee,^[ref?] the account for contacting the members of the Mediation Committee on the English Wikipedia. This account does not edit.
User:Bureaucrats^[ref?] account was created by bureaucrats on the English Wikipedia as of March 2009 to enable people to contact the private mailing list.^{[en 1]} The email list for the Bureaucrats was closed in 2017.^{[en 3]}

Any other accounts with multiple users are likely to be blocked.

↑ ^a ^b A special:emailuser points directly to the oversight list, however this account does not edit.
↑ Role accounts were created unilaterally in 2003 and are no longer used. However, the User:Mediator role account helped lay the groundwork for the Mediation Committee and the Arbitration Committee, and the User:User Advocate role account did the same for the Association of Members' Advocates.
↑ Bureaucrats' noticeboard discussion to retire mailing list

Spanish Wikipedia

In the Spanish Wikipedia one role account is currently permitted:

Usuario:Supervisor~eswiki is a special account used to contact the oversight mailing list for the Spanish Wikipedia via Special:EmailUser. The account does not edit.

French Wikipedia

Current status

Per fr:Wikipédia:Nom d'utilisateur, accounts under the name of a legal person, such a corporation, are frowned upon, but not forbidden, as long as they respect policies, mainly about self promotion and paid contributions.

If a contributor has a doubt about the identity of such account, the account owner has two choices:

send a proof of identity to info-fr wikimedia.org, and a VRT members will note the legitimate use
ask an account rename

See also the essay fr:Wikipédia:Compte collectif.

Historical notes

A "gardener" role account exists on the French Wikipedia and was used for a while without any opposition.

Un autre role existe également sur la wikipédia française, la jardinière. Il a fonctionné un certain temps, sans la moindre opposition de quiconque.

Hungarian Wikipedia

On the Hungarian Wikipedia, one role account is currently permitted.

Szerkesztő:Wikitanács, the account only for contacting (secretly, via e-mail) the members of the Arbitration Committee on the Hungarian Wikipedia. This account does not edit.

Portuguese Wikipedia

On Portuguese Wikipedia, one role account is currently permitted:

Usuário(a):Supressor is a special account used to contact the oversight mailing list for the Portuguese Wikipedia via Special:EmailUser. The account does not edit. Its creation was proposed here.

Meta-Wiki

On Meta-Wiki, the following role accounts is currently permitted:

User:Wikimedia Stewards is a role account for the stewards so users can contact their VRTS queue easily using Special:EmailUser/Wikimedia Stewards. Intended to facilitate users making oversight requests. The account is only present at Meta and, except an edit on the userpage, this account will not edit^{[meta 1]}
User:Meta-Wiki oversighters is a role account for Meta:Oversighters so users can contact their mailing list using Special:EmailUser. Account was created by MarcoAurelio.
User:WMF Surveys is a role account for the Wikimedia Foundation's Learning and Evaluation team. It will be used on Meta to send MassMessages for survey invitations.
User:Indic-TechCom is a role account created by Jayprakash12345 for Indic-TechCom activities^{[meta 2]}.

↑ Account was created by MarcoAurelio following agreement from stewards. A special page may be set up in the future.
↑ Account creation log for User:Indic-TechCom

[reporting-1] A special:emailuser points directly to the oversight list, however this account does not edit.

[unilaterally2003-2] Role accounts were created unilaterally in 2003 and are no longer used. However, the User:Mediator role account helped lay the groundwork for the Mediation Committee and the Arbitration Committee, and the User:User Advocate role account did the same for the Association of Members' Advocates.

[retired-3] Bureaucrats' noticeboard discussion to retire mailing list

[info-4] Account was created by MarcoAurelio following agreement from stewards. A special page may be set up in the future.

[5] Account creation log for User:Indic-TechCom

[en 1]

[en 2]

[en 3]

[meta 1]

[meta 2]