It seems that category moderators may no longer turn a post into a wiki post if the global edit time limit has been exceeded, even though they can still edit the post due to their category moderator rights. This seems off and I would most likely consider this a bug.
AI-generated summary
The discussion centers on whether Category Moderators should be able to turn posts into wiki posts, especially after the global edit time limit has expired. Steradiant observes that while Category Moderators can edit others’ posts indefinitely, they cannot convert them into wikis past the edit window — which feels inconsistent. Moin clarifies that current permissions only allow admins, moderators, and TL4 users to convert any post into a wiki, and Category Moderators have no special wiki permissions unless they’re in a self wiki allowed groups and within the edit window. Steradiant highlights the oddity of edit time limits applying to wiki conversion but not to regular editing. Steradiant asks if a Pull Request adding this ability would be accepted. sam suggests this is more of a feature than a bug, noting potential documentation implications. pacharanero argues Category Moderators should have Moderator-level permissions within their category to avoid role confusion. The consensus leans toward this being a feature request, not a bug, with broader implications for permissions and documentation.
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I think the documentation says that only admins, moderators, and users with TL4 can turn every post into a wiki.
It doesn’t say anything about category moderators. So I would expect that category moderators currently have no special permissions regarding wikis.
That would mean they can convert their own posts into wikis when they belong to at least one of the self wiki allowed groups and within the edit windows specified in the post edit time limit site setting that is relevant for them.
Did you notice any additional permissions? Can they convert posts written by other users into wikis, like moderators can? Can they convert their posts into wikis without being in a self wiki allowed groups group?
There are lots of permissions in Discourse that are still based on trust level and group permissions even when the user is a category moderator.
For example, using topic timers also depends on the trust level.
So I guess adding special wiki permissions for category moderators is a feature request, not something that is currently expected to work. Maybe I am wrong. But I think it was mentioned in this feature request before: Allowing category moderators to have access to the full extents of moderation tools in their own category
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I see the point regarding turning other users’ post into wikis, and agree that it would be a feature request here.
I guess I find it rather counterintuitive that they may edit others’ posts freely, while being unable to “edit all their metadta”, e.g. turn them into wikis.
This however creates a particularly weird edge case: Usually, the post edit time limit does not concern category moderators for their own posts, as they may edit other users’ posts indefinitely.
However, it suddenly comes into play when they would like to turn them into Wikis after the fact, which seems a bit inconsistent.
Would a Pull Request patching in this ability for category moderators likely be accepted?
I think this is a good question for @hugh
It feel though not like a bug, more like a Contribute > Feature there are going to also be some documentation concerns here if we are hoisting this permission into category moderation.
It does seem to me that Category Moderators should get the same permissions as Moderators, but just on a per-Category basis. Otherwise trying to mentally keep track of the difference in role between Moderators and Category Moderators becomes tiring.
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