Below are the guidlines for page protection.
When can a page be protected?[]
Because a wiki is open for everyone to edit freely, protecting a page should be your absolute last resort. You may protect any page on this site provided you have a valid reason for doing so. The criteria for protecting a page includes:
- Edit wars: any page activly involved in an edit war may be protected at an administaters discretion.
- Vandalism: any page can be protected to prevent vandalism at an administarters discretion.
- Requested Protection: If an anonoumous editer (an ISP adress) or User aproach you with a request for protection, you may protect the page. Pages protected at the request of a second or third party should be handled on a case by case basis. In other words, use your head and common sense to determine whether or not the page in question needs to be protected. When in doubt, ask.
What should I do when protecting a page?[]
Follow these steps:
- At the top of the page you should see a tab titled protect. Click on it.
- This takes you to a new page titled "Confirm protection". Below that will be the name of the page you are protecting.
- A box with "Reason for protecting" should be visable. Type in the reason for the page's protection. YOU MUST INCLUDE A REASON FOR PROTECTING THE PAGE. FAILURE TO PROVIDE A REASON FOR PROTECTING THE PAGE WILL TREATED AS AN ABUSE OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWER.
- Below the "Reason for protection" box is a check box titled "Protect from moves only" Only check this box if you wish to prevent users from moving the page you are protecting. Pages that recieve this type of protection can still be edited by the community. AS ABOVE, A VALID REASON FOR DISABLING THE "MOVE" FEATURE MUST BE GIVEN. FAILURE TO PROVIDE A REASON FOR DISABLING THE "MOVE" FEATURE WILL TREATED AS AN ABUSE OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWER.
- When you are satisfied that all of the above features have been met, press the "confirm" button. This will take you back to the protected page. To see if the protect was succsessfull, check the protect tab, it should now read "unprotect".
- Add the templete {{protected}} at the top of the effected page. This informs the community that the page can no longer be edited.
- On the protected page's talk page, create a new section titled "Protected". At the top of this section write "This page has been protected because (insert the reason here)". Sign the entry like such:~~~~ so that we know who protected the page and when it was protected.
- Lastly, add both the protected page and the protected page's talk page to your watchlist. This can be done by clicking the "watch" tab at the top of the page. The reason for this is so that you can observe the page and any changes to it. This is particularly true of pages involved in edit wars and pages that have been vandalised: In the case of the former, the parties involved in the edit war will likely post their comments on the protected pages talk page. This may result in mediation which can allow the page to be unprotected. In the case of the latter, a vandal who can not edit the page directly may vandalise the talk page. It is important that these edits be checked, and if nessicary, reverted.
When should I refrain from protecting pages?[]
You should refrain from protecting pages when one or more of the following are a factor:
- You are actively engaged in editing the page. If you are activlely engaged in editing a page and then protect the page people will consider this to be a violation of the wiki by promoting only your point of view. Incidents such as this will be treated as an abuse of administrative power.
- If you are part of an edit war. If you should find yourself involved in an edit war then refrain from protecting the page. This will be seen as protecting you view point and will be treated as an abuse of administrative power.
- User Pages: User pages, User Talk pages, and other User-related pages should not be protected. This is especially true of User Talk pages, which provide a place for users to talk with each other.
Should I edit protected pages?[]
As a rule of thumb, no. Pages that have been protected should not be edited by an administrator except under special or extreme circumstances. These include, but are not limited to:
- Correcting spelling and Grammar: If a page has spelling and grammar errors you should fix them.
- Removing dead links: Links to deleted media, such as pictures and audio files, and links to other webpages that no longer work should be removed by any admin who happens to catch them.
- Observing style and layout guidlines: A protected page can be editted to bring it in line with guidlines set forth for page style and page layout. Do not, for any reason whatsoever, delete, alter, or otherwise change the content on the page when rearranging sections. Set this work aside until the protected page becomes unprotected.