Admin test wikis: where to practise the sysop tools

Four public admin test wikis

Test Wikipedia does not give out admin rights for practice; instead its page Wikipedia:Requests/Tools lists wikis that do. The table shows what that list said in October 2026. Every wiki writes its own rules, so read its main page and policies before you ask.

The version column matters more than it looks. A wiki on the latest release shows you the interface new editors see today; one on an older branch may lack recent features or show them differently.

How each one grants rights

Public Test Wiki (publictestwiki.com)

Hosted on the Miraheze wiki farm. Test Wikipedia's list asks for an account at least 10 days old and shows the latest MediaWiki, 1.46.2, with VisualEditor. CheckUser is restricted, its chat channel is on the Libera IRC network, and problems go to Miraheze's issue tracker.

Test Wiki (testwiki.wiki)

A wiki on its own domain, also on MediaWiki 1.46.2 with VisualEditor. The list gives no account requirement, so check the wiki's own request page. Unusually, CheckUser is open for checking yourself, so you can see what the tool shows about your own account. It has its own Phabricator, an IRC channel on Libera and a Discord server.

The Test Wiki (thetestwiki.org)

Running since January 2010, with the strictest identity rule of the four. Its administrators page asks you to be known elsewhere, such as on Wikimedia, Fandom or Miraheze; to link that account from your user page; to confirm on the linked page with I am (account) on The Test Wiki; and then to file a request and wait for a bureaucrat. A rejected request may be repeated after at least a month. To become a bureaucrat you must have been a sysop there for 30 days and show you understand its policies.

In October 2026 it ran MediaWiki 1.44.0, a branch that reached end of life in July 2026, without VisualEditor, and counted 252 administrators among 890 registered users. It shares its name and rules with The Test Wiki of 2006–08 at wiki.xyrael.net.

Fandom Test Wiki (testmw.fandom.com)

A wiki on Fandom for testing Fandom's and MediaWiki's tools. The list asks for an account at least 4 days old with 10 edits. Requests go on its Request permissions page, where users ask for the moderator or admin group. It runs MediaWiki 1.43.9, from the long-term support branch, which the list labels legacy; it is the place to see the tools on Fandom's own platform.

What to practise once you are a sysop

Practise the jobs an administrator does every day, on pages made for testing rather than on other people's tests.

• Deleting and restoring. Delete a test page, then bring it back from Special:Undelete, including only some of its revisions.
• Protecting. Protect a page against editing or moving, set an expiry, and see what a logged-out visitor sees.
• Blocking. Block a test account, try a block that covers only certain pages, then unblock it. Range blocks of IP addresses work the same way.
• Interface messages. Edit pages such as MediaWiki:Sidebar to change the wiki's own menus.
• Merging histories. Join the history of two pages on Special:MergeHistory.
• User rights. As a bureaucrat, add and remove groups on Special:UserRights.

Every one of these actions is recorded in a public log on Special:Log. Reading your own entries there is part of the lesson: on a real wiki, the log is how others check an admin's work.

Rules that hold on every test wiki

• Test on your own pages. Deleting or blocking in the middle of someone else's test is the oldest kind of test-wiki vandalism.
• Expect to lose the rights if you stop visiting: some wikis remove inactive admins, and any can remove them for misuse.
• Do not use a test wiki to host content; pages there can vanish at any time.

When an admin test wiki is not enough

A test wiki gives you a user's rights, not the server. To change settings, add extensions or try an upgrade, install MediaWiki yourself: you become administrator and bureaucrat the moment the installer finishes. For changing templates and modules safely on a real wiki, see template sandboxes and test cases.