User:Ricken/SandboxPG/Page protection policy

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AmtWiki 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 some 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 but sometimes indefinitely) on who is permitted to modify them. The placing of such restrictions on pages is called protection.

Protection can only be applied to or removed from pages by administrators, although any user may request protection. Protection can be indefinite or expire after a specified time period.

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.

Types of protection

• Full protection prevents editing by everyone except administrators. Fully protected media files cannot be overwritten by new uploads.
• Semi-protection prevents editing by unregistered contributors and contributors with accounts that are not confirmed.
• Creation protection prevents a page (normally a previously deleted one) from being recreated (also known as "salting").
• Move protection protects the page solely from renaming/moving.

Any type of protection may be requested at Amtwiki:Admin noticeboard. Changes to a fully protected page should be proposed on the corresponding talk page, and carried out by an administrator.

Full protection

A fully protected page can be edited or moved 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.

Content disputes

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.

Vandalism

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.

Permanent protection

Some areas of AmtWiki 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. 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 hard-coded protection, the following are usually permanently protected:

• Pages that are very visible, such as the Main Page or File:Wiki.png.
• Pages that should not be modified for copyright or legal reasons, such as the general disclaimer or the local copy of the site copyright license.

Semi-protection

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. This level of protection is useful when there is a significant amount of disruption or vandalism from new or unregistered users, and/or to prevent sock puppets of blocked or banned users from editing. Such users can request edits to a semi-protected page by proposing them on its talk page.

Administrators may apply indefinite semi-protection to pages that are subject to heavy and persistent vandalism or violations of content policy. 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:

• Subject to significant but temporary vandalism or disruption (for example, due to media attention) when blocking individual users is not a feasible option.
• Subject to vandalism or edit-warring where unregistered editors are engaging in IP-hopping by using different computers, obtaining new addresses by using dynamic IP allocation, or other address-changing schemes such as IP address spoofing.

Creation protection

Administrators can prevent the creation of a page through the protection interface. This is useful for bad articles that have been deleted but repeatedly recreated. Such protection is case-sensitive.

Contributors wishing to re-create a protected title with more appropriate content should either contact an administrator (preferably the protecting administrator), file a request at AmtWiki:Admin noticeboard.

There are two levels of creation protection that can be applied to pages. One version is similar to semi-protection which allows autoconfirmed editors and administrators to create the page. The other version is similar to full protection which allows only administrators to create the page.

Move protection

Move protected pages cannot be moved to a new title except by an administrator. Move protection is commonly applied to highly visible pages that have no reason to be moved, such as the Admin noticeboard|.

Fully protected pages are also implicitly move-protected. All files are implicitly move-protected; only file movers and administrators can move files.