Janitor Powers

Note: For historical reasons, janitors are also sometimes known as editors.

See also: Janitors' Guidelines.

Wiki

The janitors have a wiki for their own use, in which to discuss janitorial issues. It is one place where the scope of janitorial powers is hashed out. It is accessible only to janitors.

The editors wiki is periodically archived. (The archives are also only accessible to janitors.)

Janitor's Message Inbox

Users can send a private message to the whole janitors group at once: /msg janitors.
Such messages go into the Janitors' Message Inbox. All janitors can read, reply to, archive, and delete these messages, like their own private message inbox.

Editors Nodelet

The Editors Nodelet typically appears as follows, for nodes that are (or may be*) editable by janitors:

* The "edit" link still appears in the Editors Nodelet for certain non-editable node types. In these cases, you won't know for certain that the node is non-editable until you click the "edit" link and you get a "Not an editor editable type" message.

• Edit mode: Clicking the "edit" link gives a janitor full read-write access (and a temporary lock) to the current node. The link is available for nodes in all sections, Q&A, and notes (there may be some other editor-editable types). Home nodes are off limits, as well as useful nodes like The Monastery Gates, offering plate and E-mail node. When a janitor is finished modifying the node, s/he clicks the "update" button. On the resultant page, an option is available to send a /msg to the node owner that says "I've updated Your_Node_Name"; this message is editable by the janitor, but there is no requirement that any message be sent at all.
  NOTE: Despite the fact that the edit link appears on ALL nodes in the system, the nodes off-limit to the janitors spit back "Not an editor editable type" if they try to work their r00t-ly magic on it.
• Display mode: The "display" button puts a node in edit mode back into display mode and (theoretically) removes the lock.
• Revoking approvals: If the current node is a root node which has been approved for its section, or additionally for the front page, the Editors Nodelet will contain links to remove such approvals. This is necessary to move a node cleanly from one section to another, if the node has been approved. You must first unapprove, then move, then re-approve in the new section (if desired).
• Editor shortcuts: Abbreviated links are:
  • retitle = Thread Retitler
  • reparent = The editors' hall of mirrors and trickery
  • promote = Reply Promoter
  • ntc = Nodes To Consider
  • nre = Nodes Requiring Editing
  • er = Editor Requests
  • rje = Recent Janitorial Edits
  • guide = Janitors' Guidelines
  • tools = Janitor Tools
  
  Note that in the cases of retitle, reparent, and promote, the links in the nodelet actually link to those functions with the current node's node ID pre-loaded, as appropriate.
  Janitor Tools is an index of various tools, including the above three, as well as node mover functions for special node types.
  
  

Nodes Requiring Editing

Nodes Requiring Editing lists those nodes which have been "approved" by popular acclamation to be acted upon by janitors (via the consideration process).

Nodes which have been sent to ntc and given two "edit" votes appear in this janitors-only list.

Note that janitors are not required to wait until a node appears in nre before editing it.

This tool includes a "Resolved" checkbox for each node, which, when checked, will take the node off both ntc and nre. The node may be re-considered at any time thereafter with a new reason. Editing the node is not required in order for it to show up on nre or for it to be "resolved". Janitors will often vote "edit" on a node that was considered accidentally or nodes that just shouldn't be in ntc, just to get the node to nre so it can be resolved.

Nodes Requiring Editing typically looks like the following (example):

Nodes To Consider

See What is consideration? and How does Nodes to Consider work?.

Nodes To Consider is a list of nodes under active consideration, meaning monks can vote on their disposition. Janitors can look at this to see what actions might be hitting nre soon.

Janitors have no special powers in ntc itself. However, janitors do have the power to unconsider a node via the Approval Nodelet.

Note that janitors are not required to wait until a node appears in ntc before editing it.

Moving Nodes

There are essentially two distinct types of node moving:

1. Moving a root post from one section to another
2. Putting a node under another node as a reply

Moving root posts between sections

For root posts in the "normal" sections, which are all mutually conversion-compatible, moving can be done with the Approval Nodelet. See the Janitor's Guidelines for instructions. The "normal" sections are:

• PMD (monkdiscuss)
• Med (perlmeditation)
• SOPW (perlquestion)
• Tut (perltutorial)
• CUFP
• poem
• Obfu (obfuscated)
• News (perlnews)

If the current node is a root post in one of the three "strange" sections, a special link appears in the Editors Nodelet, as follows:

Current node type	Special link text
review (bookreview or modulereview)	"Move review"
code (in the Code Catacombs section)	"Move sourcecode"
snippet	"Move snippet"

These special links allow the janitor to move the node to another section.

If the current node is a note (that is, a reply), a special link labeled "Promote to root node" appears in the Editors Nodelet. Executing this link yanks the node out from under its parent and makes it a root node in its current section.

Making a node be a reply to another node

This second kind of move, called "reparenting", is done with a special tool called "The editors' hall of mirrors and trickery" (abbreviated "ehomat").

The operation of ehomat is to make node N be a reply to node P — that is, to make P the parent of N.

Upon the successful completion of ehomat, N will always be a note. If it is a note already, good. If not, it must be of a type which is conversion-compatible with note. Note is conversion-compatible with the "normal" section root post types, listed above.

The other requirement is that P must be of a node type which is allowed to have replies. The node types which fit this requirement are:

• the "normal" section root types, listed above
• bookreview
• modulereview
• snippet
• Code (sourcecode)
• reply (note) - irrespective of section