Wikipedia:Protection policy

This page documents an English Wikipedia policy.

It describes a widely accepted standard that all editors should normally follow. Changes made to it should reflect consensus.

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[[:|WP:PPol
WP:PPOL]]

Administrators have the ability to protect pages so that they cannot be edited, or images so that they cannot be overwritten, except by other administrators. Administrators can also protect pages from moves only. Administrators have the additional ability to protect pages from being edited by unregistered or very new users.

These abilities are only to be used in limited circumstances as protected pages are considered harmful.

Admins must not protect pages they are actively engaged in editing, except in the case of simple vandalism.

If a page is protected because of an edit war, please do not ask for it to be protected in some other version than it currently is. A protection is not an endorsement of the current version. Instead, go to the talk page and attempt to resolve the dispute. Non-admins can propose changes to protected pages on the talk page.

If an administrator moves a protected page, the page will be protected at the new location, and the redirect will be unprotected at the page's original location.

Uses

A permanent or semi-permanent protection is used for:

Protecting high visibility pages such as the Main Page from vandalism.
Maintaining the integrity of the site's logo.
Maintaining the integrity of key copyright and license pages (for legal reasons).
Maintaining the integrity of press releases.
Protecting certain "system administration" pages. This includes many editorial templates, such as deletion notices and stub templates.
Protecting the often-used texts in the MediaWiki namespace.
User pages and their subpages that are subject to repeated vandalism.
Some admins feel the need to protect their own userpage. Some others feel they shouldn't do this. This is not generally a big deal.

A temporary protection is used for:

Enforcing a "cool down" period to stop an "edit war," upon request.
Protecting a page or image that has been a recent target of persistent vandalism or persistent edits by a banned user.
Preventing changes to a page while investigating a possible bug in the MediaWiki software.

The protection of a page on any particular version is not meant to express support for that version and requests should therefore not be made that the protected version be reverted to a different one.

Talk pages and user talk pages are not protected as a rule, except in extreme circumstances.

Important Note: When a page is particularly high profile, either because it is linked off the main page, or because it has recently received a prominent link from offsite, it will often become a target for vandalism. It is not appropriate to protect pages in this case. Instead, consider adding them to your watchlist, and reverting vandalism yourself.

How

Do not edit or revert a temporarily protected page, except to add a protected page notice, a link to Wikipedia:Accuracy dispute or Wikipedia:NPOV dispute, or a similar disclaimer about the current state of an article, unless there is widespread agreement that the page was protected in violation of these policies.
Do not protect a page you are involved in an edit dispute over.
Add {{protected}} (or {{vprotected}} for vandalism) to the top of the temporarily protected page and make mention of the protection in the edit summary. If protecting a template, place the notice inside <noinclude></noinclude> tags so that it does not show up when the template is transcluded. Alternatively, the tag can go on the template's talk page.
List pages you protect on Wikipedia:Protected page
Consider encouraging a resolution between the disputing parties
Remove {{protected}} from the top of an unprotected page and make mention of the removal in the edit summary

Admins should not protect pages in which they are involved. Involvement includes making substantive edits to the page (fixing vandalism does not count), or expressing opinions about the article on the talk page before the protection. Admin powers are not editor privileges — admins should only act as servants to the user community at large. If you are an admin and you want a page in an edit war in which you are somehow involved to be protected, you should contact another admin and ask them to protect the page for you. Not only is this the preferable method, it is also considered more ethical to do so as it helps reduce any perceived conflict of interest.

In addition, admins should avoid favoring one version of the article over another, unless one version is vandalism. In this case, the protecting sysop may choose to protect the non-vandalism version. In cases of 3RR violations, admins may protect the version immediately before the first violation i.e. immediately before the first occurrence of a fourth revert. See Wikipedia talk:Revert#The protection option for the discussion on this.

In general, temporarily protected pages should not be left protected for very long, and discussion pages should be left open.

There is no need to protect personal css and js pages like user/monobook.css or user/cologneblue.js. Only the account associated with these pages and administrators are able to edit them.

Editing protected pages

Administrators must be cautious about editing protected pages and do so in accordance with consensus and any specific guidelines on the subject. In all cases, administrators should first raise the issue on the relevant talk page.

In the following specific cases, an exception is made:

Adding a {{protected}} or {{vprotected}} template
Adding a link to Wikipedia:accuracy dispute or Wikipedia:NPOV dispute, or a similar disclaimer about the current state of an article.
Reverting to an old version of the page from a week or so before the controversy started if there is a clear point before the controversy.
Reverting to a favored version, as described above.
Correcting spelling mistakes or typos.

Special caution is needed in editing permanently and semi-permanently protected pages. In nearly all cases, administrators should not unilaterally make substantial changes to pages protected for legal reasons. Because of their visibility and importance, most MediaWiki namespace pages should be approached with extreme caution and only by those who adequately understand the consequences of their changes.

Edits can be made to already protected pages via {{Editprotected}} requests.

Page-move protection

Similar considerations apply to protecting a page against being moved, only. In particular, page move protection is appropriate:

in cases of frequent or on-going page-move vandalism;
for persistent page-move disputes, on request;
or where such a dispute continues during the course of a listing on Wikipedia:Requested moves.

Protecting the talk page of a blocked user

Blocked users now have the ability to edit their talk pages during a block. These may be protected for the duration of the block period if they are being used to make personal attacks or similar, or if the account has been blocked indefinitely.

Pages protected due to WP:OFFICE guidelines

Per Jimbo Wales, some articles may be protected by User:Danny or his alias for official duties User:Dannyisme, due to complaints at the Wikimedia Foundation Office.

Do not unprotect or revert a WP:OFFICE edit unless and until you are authorized by Danny or the Wikimedia Foundation to do so. There may at times be legal reasons for this.

List of protected pages

If you protect (or move-protect) a page, or find a protected page not listed on Wikipedia:Protected page, please add it to the list. Please also add a short description of ten words or fewer indicating why you protected it. If you need to say more, discuss on the talk page of the page you protected.

Unprotecting

With the exception of any pages tagged with the {{office}} or {{reset}} templates, any admin may unprotect any page after a reasonable period has lapsed, particularly if there is no discussion on the talk page. However, unless a request for unprotection has been made on WP:RfPP, pages should not be unprotected soon after protection without prior consultation with the admin who first locked the page. This is particularly important in the case of controversial pages, where the conflict may start up again and the protecting admin may be in touch with the disputants. See Wikipedia:Wheel war.