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This page documents an English Wikipedia policy, a widely accepted standard that all editors should normally follow. Changes made to it should reflect consensus. |
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Wikipedia is built around the principle that anyone can edit it, and it therefore aims to have as many of its pages as possible open for public editing, so that anyone can add material and correct errors. However, in particular circumstances, because of a specifically identified likelihood of damage resulting if editing is left open, some individual pages may need to be subject to technical restrictions (often only temporary) on who is permitted to modify them. The placing of such restrictions on pages is called protection.
Protection can be applied or removed to and from pages by Wikipedia's administrators, although any user may request these actions. Protection can be indefinite, or expire after a specified time period.
The most commonly encountered types of protection are full protection, which means that a page can be modified only by administrators, and semi-protection, which means that a page can be modified only by users who are logged in and whose accounts have been confirmed (any account is automatically confirmed if it is at least four days old and has made at least ten edits or posts). Other forms of protection are detailed below. Protected pages are normally marked with a small padlock symbol in the top corner; different color padlocks represent different protection types, as shown in the images at the right.
It is possible to hover your mouse over the padlock symbol in order to view why and for how long a particular page has been protected.
This policy explains in detail the protection types and procedures for page protection and unprotection, and the reasons for which protection should and should not be applied.
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The following technical options are available to administrators for protecting pages:
Any type of protection or unprotection may be requested at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection. Changes to a fully protected page should be proposed on the corresponding talk page, and carried out by an administrator if they are uncontroversial or if there is consensus for them.
Except in the case of office actions (see below) or pages in the MediaWiki namespace (see below), administrators may unprotect a page if the reason for its protection no longer applies, a reasonable period has elapsed, and there is no consensus that continued protection is necessary. Contacting the administrator who originally protected the page is advised in unclear circumstances. A log of protections and unprotections is available at Special:Log/protect.
A fully protected page can be edited only by administrators. The protection may be for a specified time or may be indefinite.
Modifications to a fully protected page can be proposed on its talk page (or at another appropriate forum) for discussion. Administrators can make changes to the protected article reflecting consensus. Placing the {{Edit protected}} template on the talk page will draw the attention of administrators for implementing uncontroversial changes.
On pages that are experiencing edit warring, temporary full protection can force the parties to discuss their edits on the talk page, where they can reach consensus. Isolated incidents of edit warring, and persistent edit warring by particular users, may be better addressed by blocking, so as not to prevent normal editing of the page by others.
When protecting a page because of a content dispute, administrators normally protect the current version, except where the current version contains content that clearly violates content policies, such as vandalism, copyright violations, or defamation of living persons. Since protecting the most current version sometimes rewards edit warring by establishing a contentious revision, administrators may also revert to an old version of the page predating the edit war if such a clear point exists. Pages that are protected because of content disputes should not be edited except to make changes which are uncontroversial or for which there is clear consensus (see above).
Administrators should not protect or unprotect a page to further their own positions in content disputes.
Pre-emptive full protection of articles is contrary to the open nature of Wikipedia. Brief periods of full protection are used in rare cases when a large number of autoconfirmed accounts are used to make a sustained vandalism attack on an article. Persistent vandalism, or the possibility of future vandalism for highly trafficked articles, rarely provides a basis for full-protection. Semi-protection is used for articles, such as Jesus, that have a pattern of heavy sustained vandalism.
If a deleted page is undergoing deletion review, only administrators are normally capable of viewing the former content of the page. If they feel it would benefit the discussion to allow other users to view the page content, administrators may restore the page, blank it or replace the contents with {{TempUndelete}} or a similar notice, and fully protect the page to prevent further editing. The previous contents of the page are then accessible to non-admins via the page history.
Generic image names such as File:map.jpgorFile:Photo.jpg are tagged with {{Protected generic image name}} and fully protected to prevent new versions being uploaded.
Semi-protection prevents edits from unregistered users (IP addresses), as well as edits from any account that is not autoconfirmed (is at least four days old and has at least ten edits to Wikipedia) or confirmed.
Such users can request edits to a semi-protected page by proposing them on its talk page, using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template if necessary to gain attention. If the page in question and its talk page are both protected please make your edit request at Wikipedia:Request for edit instead. New users may also request the confirmed user right by visiting Requests for permissions.
Administrators may apply indefinite semi-protection to pages that are subject to heavy and persistent vandalism or violations of content policy (such as biographies of living persons, neutral point of view). Semi-protection should not be used as a preemptive measure against vandalism that has not yet occurred, nor should it be used to privilege registered users over unregistered users in (valid) content disputes.
In addition, administrators may apply temporary semi-protection on pages that are:
Today's featured article may be semi-protected just like any other article. But since this article is subject to sudden spurts of vandalism during certain times of day, administrators should semi-protect it for brief periods in most instances. For the former guideline, see Wikipedia:Main Page featured article protection.
Administrators can prevent the creation of a page through the protection interface. This is useful for articles that have been deleted but repeatedly recreated. Such protection is case-sensitive. A list of protected titles may be found at Special:Protectedtitles (see also historical lists).
Pre-emptive restrictions on new article titles are instituted through the title blacklist system, which allows for more flexible protection with support for substrings and regular expressions.
Pages that have been creation-protected are sometimes referred to as "salted". Contributors wishing to re-create a salted title with more appropriate content should contact an administrator (look for one who was previously involved) or use the deletion review process.
Move-protected pages cannot be moved to a new title except by an administrator. Move protection is commonly applied to:
Fully protected pages are also move-protected.
As with full protection, protection because of editwarring should not be considered an endorsement of the current name. When move protection is applied during a requested move discussion the page should be protected at the location it was at when the move request was started.
Upload protected files cannot be replaced with new versions except by an administrator. Upload protection does not protect file pages from editing. Upload protection may be applied by an administrator to:
As with full protection, administrators should avoid favoring one file version over another, and protection should not be considered an endorsement of the current file version. An obvious exception to this rule is when files are protected due to upload vandalism.
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Pending changes protection is a tool used to suppress vandalism and certain other persistent problems, while allowing all users to continue to submit edits. Pending changes protection can be used as an alternative to semi-protection to allow unregistered and new users to edit pages, while keeping the edits hidden to most readers until they are accepted by a reviewer.
When a page under pending changes protection is edited by an unregistered (also called IP) editor or a new user, the edit is not directly visible to the majority of Wikipedia readers, until it is reviewed and accepted by an editor with the reviewer right.
Pending changes are visible in the page history, where they are marked as pending review. The latest accepted revision is displayed to the general public. Logged-in users see the latest revision of the page, with all changes applied. When editors who are not reviewers make changes to an article with unreviewed pending changes, their edits are also marked as pending and are not visible to most readers.
Both logged-in users and anonymous users who click the "edit this page" tab may edit the latest version as usual. If there are pending changes awaiting review, there will be a dropdown box next to the article title, pointing to the pending changes. For more details, see Help:Pending changes.
Reviewing of pending changes should be resolved within reasonable time limits. Backlog management should be coordinated at a community level.
Pending changes may be used to protect articles against:
Pending changes protection should not be used as a preemptive measure against violations that have not yet occurred. Like semi-protection, PC protection should never be used in genuine content disputes, where there is a risk of placing a particular group of editors (unregistered users) at a disadvantage. Pending changes protection should not be used on articles with a very high edit rate, even if they meet the aforementioned criteria. Instead semi-protection should be considered.
In addition, administrators may apply temporary pending changes protection on pages that are subject to significant but temporary vandalism or disruption (for example, due to media attention) when blocking individual users is not a feasible option. As with other forms of protection, the time frame of the protection should be proportional to the problem. Indefinite PC protection should only be used in cases of severe long-term disruption.
Only what is known as "Pending changes level 1" should be used, which is labeled "Require review for revisions from new and unregistered users". Pending changes level 2, or "Require review for revisions from everyone except Reviewers", should not be used at this time per WP:PC2012/RfC 1.
Removal of pending changes protection can be requested of any administrator, or at requests for unprotection.
The reviewing process is described in detail at reviewing.
Some areas of Wikipedia are permanently protected by the MediaWiki software. The MediaWiki namespace, which defines parts of the site interface, is fully protected; it is impossible for administrators to remove this protection. In addition, user CSS and JavaScript pages, such as User:Example/monobook.css and User:Example/cologneblue.js, are automatically fully protected. Only accounts that are associated with these pages or administrators are able to edit them. This protection applies to any user subpage with a ".css" or ".js" extension, whether an equivalent MediaWiki skin exists or not. Administrators may modify these pages, for example, to remove a user script that has been used in an inappropriate way.
In addition to the hard-coded protection, the following are usually permanently protected:
{{tl}}or{{ambox}}, to prevent vandalismordenial of service attacks. This includes images or templates used in other highly visible or frequently transcluded pages. See Wikipedia:High-risk templates for more information.
As outlined at Wikipedia:Office actions, pages may be protected by Wikimedia Foundation staff in response to issues such as copyright or libel. Such actions override community consensus. Administrators should not edit or unprotect such pages without permission from Wikimedia Foundation staff. A list of pages under the scrutiny of the Wikimedia Foundation can be found here.
Cascading protection fully protects a page, and extends that full protection automatically to any page that is transcluded onto the protected page, whether directly or indirectly. This includes templates, images and other media that are hosted on English Wikipedia. Files stored on Commons will not be protected by cascading protection, and need to be temporarily uploaded to English Wikipedia or protected at Commons. Cascading protection:
<includeonly> tags or transclusions that depend on template parameters, but will protect the template's documentation subpage. See the "Protection of templates" section below for alternatives.The following table compares the effects on editors, of different protection tools.
| Unregistered, New | Autoconfirmed, Confirmed | Reviewer | Administrator | Appropriate for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No protection | can edit; changes go live* immediately; no acceptance required |
The vast majority of articles | |||
| Pending changes level 1 protection |
can edit; changes will go live after being accepted by a reviewer; |
can edit; changes go live immediately (if no previous pending changes remain to be accepted) |
can edit; changes go live immediately**; can accept pending changes |
Infrequently-edited articles that are experiencing high levels of vandalism or BLP violations from unregistered and new users | |
| Semi-protection | cannot edit | can edit; changes go live immediately; no acceptance required |
Articles experiencing high levels of vandalism or edit warring from unregistered and new users | ||
| Pending changes level 2 protection |
can edit; changes will go live after being accepted by a reviewer; |
can edit; changes go live immediately; can accept pending changes |
No consensus for use on the English Wikipedia per WP:PC2012/RfC 1 | ||
| Pending changes level 2 with Semi-protection | cannot edit | can edit; changes will go live after being accepted by a reviewer; |
can edit; changes go live immediately; can accept pending changes |
No consensus for use on the English Wikipedia per WP:PC2012/RfC 1 | |
| Full protection | cannot edit | can edit; changes go live immediately; no acceptance required |
Articles experiencing persistent vandalism or edit warring from (auto)confirmed accounts and for important templates | ||
| * "Go live" means the edits will be visible to readers who are not logged in. In all cases, edits are always visible to readers logged into Wikipedia. ** When editing articles with un-reviewed pending changes, Administrators and Reviewers are prompted to review the pending changes before saving their edit. |
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Modifications to a protected page can be proposed on its talk page (or at another appropriate forum) for discussion. Administrators can make changes to the protected article reflecting consensus. Placing the {{Edit protected}} template on the talk page will draw the attention of administrators for implementing uncontroversial changes.
Talk pages are not usually protected, and are only semi-protected for a limited duration in the most severe cases of vandalism.
User talk pages are rarely protected, and are semi-protected for short durations only in the most severe cases of vandalism from IP users. Users whose talk pages are semi-protected should have an unprotected user talk subpage linked conspicuously from their main talk page to allow good faith comments from non-autoconfirmed users.
A user's request to have his or her own talk page protected is not a sufficient rationale to protect the page.
Blocked users' user talk pages should not ordinarily be protected, as this interferes with the user's ability to contest their block through the normal process. It also prevents others from being able to use the talk page to communicate with the blocked editor.
In extreme cases of abuse by the blocked user, such as abuse of the {{unblock}} template, re-blocking the user without talk page access should be preferred over protection. If the user has been indefinitely blocked from editing the talk page, they should be informed of off-wiki ways to appeal their block, such as the UTRS tool interfaceorban appeals subcommittee of the Arbitration Committee.
When required, protection should be implemented for only a brief period, not exceeding the duration of the block.
Confirmed socks of registered users should be dealt with in accordance with Wikipedia:Sockpuppetry; their pages are not normally protected.
User pages and subpages are sometimes protected at the user's request if there is evidence of vandalism/disruption or other good reason to do so. For example, retired users may have their user pages (but not user talk pages) protected upon request.
In the event of the confirmed death of a user, the user's user page (but not the user talk page), should be fully protected.
Highly visible templates which are used on an extremely large number of pages or substituted with great frequency are particularly vulnerable to vandalism, as vandalism to the template may introduce vandalism to hundreds of other pages. Therefore, they are frequently semi- or fully protected based on the degree of visibility, type of use, content, and other factors.
Semi and fully protected templates should normally have the {{documentation}} template. It loads the unprotected /doc page, so that non-admins and IP-users can edit the documentation, categories and interwiki links. It also automatically adds {{pp-template}} to protected templates, which displays a small padlock in the top right corner and categorizes the template as a protected template. Only manually add {{pp-template}} to protected templates that don't use {{documentation}} (mostly the stub and flag templates).
Cascading protection should generally not be applied directly to templates, as it will not protect transclusions inside <includeonly> tags or transclusions that depend on template parameters, but will protect the template's documentation subpage. Instead, consider any of the following:
Note: All editnotice templates (except those in userspace) are already protected via MediaWiki:Titleblacklist (which can, however, be overridden by account creators).
Wikipedia:Sandbox and other sandboxes should also not ordinarily be protected since their purpose is to let new users test and experiment with wiki syntax. These pages are automatically cleaned every 12 hours, although they are frequently overwritten by other testing users much faster than that. Those who do use the sandboxes for malicious purposes, or to violate policies such as no personal attacks, civility, and copyrights, should instead be warned and/or blocked.
The following templates may be added at the very top of a page to indicate that it is protected:
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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{{pp-meta}} |
Full | Semi | Move |
| Dispute: | {{pp-dispute}} |
N/A | {{pp-move-dispute}} |
|
| Vandalism: | {{pp-vandalism}} |
{{pp-move-vandalism}} |
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| High visibility templates and images: | {{pp-template}} |
N/A | ||
| User talk of blocked user: | {{pp-usertalk}} |
{{pp-semi-usertalk}} |
N/A | |
| Sockpuppetry: | N/A | {{pp-semi-sock}} |
N/A | |
| WP:BLP: | N/A | {{pp-semi-blp}} |
N/A | |
| Long-term: | N/A | {{pp-semi-indef}} |
{{pp-move-indef}} |
|
| Generic (other protection): | {{pp-protected}} |
{{pp-move}} |
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| Scrutiny of the Office: | {{pp-office}} |
{{pp-reset}} |
N/A | |
| Talk page info: | {{permanently protected}} |
{{temporarily protected}} |
N/A | |
| Create protection: | {{pp-create}} |
N/A | ||
| Pending changes protection level 1: | {{pp-pc1}} |
N/A | ||
| Pending changes protection level 2: | {{pp-pc2}} |
N/A | ||
On redirect pages, add Category:Protected redirects below the redirect line. A protection template may also be added below the redirect line, but it will only serve to categorize the page, as it will not be visible on the page.
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