Stewards policy
Policies
Don't decide
Stewards are not allowed to make decisions, such as 'this user should (or should not) be promoted'. Their task is to implement valid community decisions. If there are any doubts on the election, the steward will not act or take decisions before the uncertainty is eliminated. The only exceptions are in emergency cases where no local user with that right is available, or for projects that demonstrably have no community.
Stewards should always be neutral. They can vote in elections, but when executing the result of the election the steward has to act according to the result, even if they disagree.
Don't promote users on projects with existing bureaucrats
Local bureaucrats are responsible for promoting users. Only in cases where there is no local active bureaucrat available, or where there is an emergency need to promote users, will stewards take action on such projects.
If a steward also has local bureaucrat access, they should promote users on their own wiki using their bureaucrat access, and not on meta with their steward access. This increases transparency since the action will be logged on the local wiki, and reduces confusion of roles.
Don't change rights on your own project
Stewards should not change rights on their own project with their steward tools, unless the subject requested it themselves. It is better to leave such cases to neutral stewards. This also applies to members of local arbitration committees.
Transparency
Requests are usually made on requests for permissions or the relevant page. When a community asks that rights be changed, it will provide a link to the page where the decision was taken by the community. Steward activity is visible in the Meta rights log. When a request is fulfilled, stewards should note what they did at the local request page (each new request should be accompanied by a link to this) or on the Meta request page.
Steward discussions should occur on Meta, rather than by email, so people can understand the stewards' decisions and ways of working. If a steward decides to wait before granting a request, they should let the other stewards know so the request will not be granted by another steward.
Check local policies
Some projects have local policies for certain rights, such as en-Wikipedia's bot policy or en-Wikisource's administrator policy. These policies are normally linked to from the local request page; please make sure the request conforms to the policy before granting. If the project is in a language you don't understand, a consensus in favour of giving the right can be assumed to show that they conform to the community's requirements.
Suggestions
Checking facts
If a user claims they already have a certain right, you can verify this by checking Special:Listusers on the local project. If the steward has any doubts about the request, they should discuss with one or more regular users of the local project.
Promoting very new users
There is no approved policy regarding the promotion of very new users for projects with no local community. New users should generally not be given rights until they have spent more time editing projects. However, stewards might grant new users temporary rights until a community has time to build up, at which point it can hold a vote to confirm the user's status.
Processes
Elections
Candidates
Stewards elections are usually held annually or when new stewards are needed. Elections are announced on Meta and on many local projects. Voting is typically open for three weeks; although you can list yourself after voting starts, you'll have less time to reach the minimum support.
Because stewardship may require actions with legal consequences, only those individuals who have attained the age of 18 years are eligible to stand for election. You must identify yourself personally to the Wikimedia Foundation office and supply proof of your age and real-life identity. The grant of administrative powers through stewardship is not to be taken lightly. These requirements are the same as those required of persons running for the Board of Trustees.
Applicants must attain the following criteria during voting to be eligible for stewardship. The Board will select a number of users from the eligible candidates.
- at least 30 votes in favor;
- at least 80% overall votes in favor, with neutral votes not counting toward the overall total;
- have an account on Meta with a linked account on another project;
- be active for at least 3 months on that project;
- preferably be active on Meta as well. Link to your contributions, mention user rights such as administrator access, and write short statement regarding your background on Wikimedia, current activity and anything else you consider relevant.
Voters
Anyone can vote provided that they have a valid account on meta with a link to at least one user page on a project where they participated in the project for at least three months (not just edits to their own user page).
Loss of steward access
Inactivity
Any steward inactive (as a steward) on meta for a full year will have their steward permissions removed. "Inactive" means no steward action in the past 6 months and less than 10 stewards action in the last year. They may re-apply through the regular process.
Poll after a year
Stewardship is not a lifetime status. Users get it if they need it, keep it if people trust them, and lose it if they do not need it or are no longer trusted. Steward status is granted until the next yearly elections, where users will be invited to comment and in particular to ask for removal of status.
However, since stewardship is typically a position likely to get into trouble and since the steward group can easily control itself, the confirmation itself will be done by other stewards. If the majority of other stewards request removal of steward access, the steward will lose their status. Stewards will be specifically careful to review situations when opposition from the community is registered.
See the yearly confirmation page.