Replace "Super Admin" with "Network Administrator"

[flixos90]

After a note by @ocean90 (​https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/core-multisite/p1470482829000310) and a following discussion (see particularly ​https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/core-multisite/p1470579794000339), it was cleared that the term "Super Admin" is used inconsistently in Core at the moment.

Given that there is no Multinetwork UI in Core at the moment, all usages of the term "Super Admin" should probably be replaced by "Network Administrator". The term "super admin" should rather denote the user level where a user has control over all networks in an entire setup. While for a basic Multisite with one network "super admin" and "network administrator" denote a similar user level, the terms are different for a Multinetwork - and the way Core works currently, it should probably only use "Network Administrator".

[lukecavanagh]

@flixos90

Would it not make more sense to have the term of Super Admin be made consistent instead?

[flixos90]

Replying to lukecavanagh:

Would it not make more sense to have the term of Super Admin be made consistent instead?

The thing is that WP Core actually does not really use any super admin functionality. There's only a network administrator in a regular Multisite. While that network administrator is technically a super admin as well, I think the super admin should exclusively denote the next higher level in the hierarchy (which only becomes valid in a Multinetwork).

[vizkr]

So basically as I understand it this is a minimal code patch. Everywhere outside of multisite specific situations we want to ensure that the term Network Administrator is used in lieu of Super Admin.

The use of super admin will continue in those multisite specific areas.

[flixos90]

Replying to vizkr:

So basically as I understand it this is a minimal code patch. Everywhere outside of multisite specific situations we want to ensure that the term Network Administrator is used in lieu of Super Admin.

The use of super admin will continue in those multisite specific areas.

You're right, this patch would be about replacing all usages of the term "Super Admin" in translation strings with "Network Administrator". However, this will apply to any occurrences, including those in multisite specific areas. Basically, for the current state of Core we would like to get rid of the term "Super Admin".

[Mista-Flo]

Hi,

I have made a patch to update the current wording.

Do we need to also update PHP Doc and PHP functions with super_admin prefix ?

By the way, Do I have something to do with the pot file ? Or it will be automatically sync with the GlotPress ?

[Mista-Flo]

Update multisite wording : Super admin => Network admin

[vizkr]

@flixos90 look's like @Mista-Flo has completed this before I could get around to it. Not sure how to answer the PHP Doc and PHP functions with super_admin prefix? question.

[Mista-Flo]

I guess we don't have to update the PHP doc because the following ticket #37616 will replace every is_super_admin() calls with real capability checks.

Don't know how to get more consistency with naming for now, but it will be for another ticket maybe.

[flixos90]

Thanks for the patch @Mista-Flo!

@vizkr This ticket is only about the user-facing names in the admin, so we don't need to adjust any actual PHP code here (and we most likely couldn't because it would break backward compatibility).

Regarding the patch, it looks good for the most part. Only one thing, could you always use the term "administrator" instead of "admin"? I see you replaced some of the "super admin" terms with "network admin" instead of "network administrator". I think we should be consistent here. Furthermore there is a function is_network_admin() in Core that doesn't actually deal with the user, but the administration panel. My personal assumption is that "administrator" denotes a user while "admin" denotes an administration panel, so we should use the first here (these names are far from perfect, but somehow established themselves). Another opinion on this would be much appreciated though, what do you think @jeremyfelt?

[johnbillion]

While I agree with this change in terminology in general, I think we need to consider how this change is communicated to users.

The term Super Admin is not only used in core but also in documentation, tutorials, and blog posts across the web, and the is_super_admin() function becomes less clear when the "role" of Super Admin no longer exists.

[Mista-Flo]

Keep consistency for network administrator role

[Mista-Flo]

It should be good now for the consistency (check the last patch), there is no more missing string, I have also noticed some existing strings named "Network admin" that I have changed to "Network administrator".

By the way, I agree with @johnbillion about documentation, blog posts and tutorials that still use "Super admin" wording, we have to cummunicate about this change.

[jeremyfelt]

Replying to flixos90:

My personal assumption is that "administrator" denotes a user while "admin" denotes an administration panel, so we should use the first here (these names are far from perfect, but somehow established themselves). Another opinion on this would be much appreciated though, what do you think @jeremyfelt?

I think this is correct. A user is a "super admin", now a "network administrator". The area used to manage the network is the "network admin".

We do seem to have a mix of "super admin" / "network admin" / "network administrator" in the help text. In one code comment we even use "super administrator". :)

It'd be nice to decode help text such as Super admin privileges cannot be removed because this user has the network admin email. into something that made more sense with all of this in mind.

Replying to johnbillion:

The term Super Admin is not only used in core but also in documentation, tutorials, and blog posts across the web, and the is_super_admin() function becomes less clear when the "role" of Super Admin no longer exists.

This is a good point. If we're committing to "network administrator" here, we need to make sure that's communicated well.

Also, before committing to changes in terminology here, let's make sure things are future proofed a bit.

Here's the future of roles in multisite that I imagine, plausible or not:

• Site administrator (one or more sites)
• Network administrator (one or more networks)
• Global administrator (full control of WordPress installation)
• Super Admin (sudo mode, emergency access controlled via global $super_admins, etc...)

With that, I think modifying our current uses of "super admin" to be "network administrator" does make sense, but I would want to be careful that we're not doing this again in a couple years.

[flixos90]

@Mista-Flo Thanks for the update, I reviewed your patch in detail. There seems to be something wrong with that patch since several files are included multiple times at different code stages. Could you look into that?

Regarding the patch itself, most parts look good, there are only a few changes it would need:

• in wp-admin/network/settings.php the term "network administrators" should be used instead of "network admins" (in the second version of that file you provided it is correct)
• in wp-admin/network/settings.php line 37 the sentence should be changed to Menu setting enables/disables the plugin menus from appearing for site administrators, so that only network administrators have access to activate plugins. to be more clear
• in wp-admin/user-edit.php the term "network administrator" should be used instead of "network admin" (in the second version of that file you provided it is correct)
• in wp-admin/user-edit.php line 333 the sentence should be changed to Network administrator privileges cannot be removed because this user has the network admin email. to be more clear (the term "network admin email" denotes the email stored as network option, so in this case it needs to remain network admin)

[Mista-Flo]

Thanks for the review @flixos90

For the patch, it's because I have made 4 commits, so the patch contains the 4 commits instead of one diff. I guess I have to put the patch with only one commit.

Here is a new patch with one diff and suggested changes.

[Mista-Flo]

Fix wording of strange sentences

[flixos90]

@Mista-Flo Hmm for some reason the latest patch still looks weird. It now has each file only once, but the changes in it denote exactly the opposite of what we wanna do (in the patch "Network Administrator" is replaced by "Super Admin"). The patch is also not based on the current state of trunk.

I have never contributed via Git, so I'm not an expert there either, but can you create a diff against trunk on develop.git.wordpress.org or github.com/wordpress/wordpress? It might also make sense to use git diff --no-prefix to create the patch.

[Mista-Flo]

Fix patch (git error)

[Mista-Flo]

@flixos90 Sorry for the error, it seems good now.

[Mista-Flo]

Sync to latest trunk branch

[jeremyfelt]

This patch is looking good, thanks @Mista-Flo.

A couple questions came to mind when reading through the help text that we're changing:

• Network Administrator Email in wp-admin/network/settings.php is more of a notification email. It starts as the network administrator email when the network is first setup, but then can be changed without affecting the role of the network administrator. We should think of another term to use for this field. See #34293 - If we concentrate these efforts there, we can probably leave that out of the patch.
• I think we can remove the "Network administrators can no longer be added on the Options screen...." paragraph from the wp-admin/network/settings.php text. Happy to hear other thoughts on that change.
• With the change to "Network administrators", can "This screen is for Network Administrators to add new sites to the network." now read "This screen is for Network Administrators to add new sites." so that "network" isn't used twice in the same sentence. Would that be clear enough?

[flixos90]

Replying to jeremyfelt:

Network Administrator Email in wp-admin/network/settings.php is more of a notification email. It starts as the network administrator email when the network is first setup, but then can be changed without affecting the role of the network administrator. We should think of another term to use for this field. See #34293 - If we concentrate these efforts there, we can probably leave that out of the patch.

I just left a comment on that ticket to get a discussion started. I think it makes sense to wait for that ticket to be merged until this one here will. This might mean it's not going to make it into 4.7, but I think the two should be handled together as they're so closely related.

I think we can remove the "Network administrators can no longer be added on the Options screen...." paragraph from the wp-admin/network/settings.php text. Happy to hear other thoughts on that change.

I agree, we should probably open a ticket for that. I don't know when this was changed, but it's likely a long time ago so that this information is not relevant anymore.

• With the change to "Network administrators", can "This screen is for Network Administrators to add new sites to the network." now read "This screen is for Network Administrators to add new sites." so that "network" isn't used twice in the same sentence. Would that be clear enough?

Yes that sounds strange, I agree we need to change it. I think the way you proposed is clear enough. This is something we can fix on this ticket. :)

[Mista-Flo]

Update wording

[Mista-Flo]

I have updated the patch to fix the second point of @jeremyfelt comment. Are we ready for the merge ?

[ocean90]

wp-admin/network/site-new.php

Let's not capitalize "Network Administrator" to make it consistent with the other help texts.

[Mista-Flo]

Fix capitalize strings

[Mista-Flo]

Done. Thanks for the review.

[flixos90]

Reminder: #34293 should be figured out before we merge this, although it is almost ready.

[jorbin]

Won't making this change make all the existing documentation outdated and also cause additional confusion between the code and the admin (which there is already plenty of). There are over 100k articles about "super admin" and WordPress when I do a quick google search.

With #34293 set as a blocker and not in the 4.7 milestone, I'm moving this one out of the milestone. If the blocker is fixed and it is still before Beta, this could come back. But as of right now, I think this needs more thought.

[flixos90]

@Mista-Flo I just did another review on the latest patch: When @ocean90 mentioned not capitalizing the term "Network Administrator" I think he meant only when the term occurs in a sentence. When standing as its own outside of a sentence (for example in wp-admin/includes/class-wp-ms-users-list-table.php) the term should be capitalized.

Since we're still waiting on #34293, we'll be fine to address the above once that is done, I just wanted to leave this note here.

[johnjamesjacoby]

@jorbin functionally speaking, this is a zero-sum change, and all of the documentation surrounding "Super Admin" terminology will catch-up on its own eventually.

@jeremyfelt's 4 steps to administrator happiness also match my imagination, needs, and expectations. It's basically what we already functionally have always had, we are only aiming to clarify the verbiage and unblock any specific bugs in and around the Network Administrator vs. Super Administrator conflation problem.

This is all looking really good IMO.

[johnbillion]

It's worth noting that at WCUS the idea of a network role was discussed among some of the multisite contributors. Terminology such as Network Editor was proposed, which would mean it would conflict with the Network Administator terminology if a user was given a network-wide role of Administrator.

I'm feeling less inclined to make this change. The Super Admin terminology really is everywhere, and changing it may cause a lot of unwarranted confusion.

[johnbillion]

Chatted with Felix about this. We need some clearer ideas over terminology, especially around the idea of network-wide roles.

[johnjamesjacoby]

I'm feeling less inclined to make this change.

After WCUS, it seemed like we had a consensus and momentum. The latest patch here seems (to me) like a logical first step towards clearer communication around what network roles will eventually become.

[Mista-Flo]

Replying to flixos90:

@Mista-Flo I just did another review on the latest patch: When @ocean90 mentioned not capitalizing the term "Network Administrator" I think he meant only when the term occurs in a sentence. When standing as its own outside of a sentence (for example in wp-admin/includes/class-wp-ms-users-list-table.php) the term should be capitalized.

Hello, I think I did not understood well, when I'm reading my last patch, It seems that not capitalize terms occur only when the term is in a sentence.

[karmatosed]

Could we have more insights from the WCUS conversations? Design wise it's hard to make a decision without the full picture and it's tagged for a design input.

[karmatosed]

As we have no insights right now into what ux feedback is needed, for now removing this keyword. We can always add back in with more context.