Last modified: 2014-08-12 15:48:14 UTC
Users have wanted a way to let certain users bypass AbuseFilter's restrictions for a long time. Wikia has already written a hack to allow it. It's also recently become a problem for us with global rename. I propose that we create a proper way to do it, with the following characteristics: 1. The filter checks themselves are not bypassed. Hits will still be logged, tagged, etc. The only effect will be that the action isn't disallowed. 2. In most cases*, users will be required to explicitly state their intention to bypass abuse filters with each action. This would take the form of a checkbox from the UI (like titleblacklist currently does for account creation) and an additional parameter from the API. 3. If a filter has Warn as an action, and it's practical to show a warning*, the warning will not be bypassed. These rules will strongly encourage wikis to still properly set user_groups/user_rights conditions in their filters, while still providing the bypass ability when necessary. *Global rename is one case where explicitly choosing to bypass wouldn't be required and where showing warnings wouldn't be practical.
