Forum:How do I prevent non-registered users creating and editing pages?

I've just started up a wikia, with the intentions of using it as an encyclopedia for my webcomic, and I would like to prevent anyone but registered users from posting to the wikia. How do I stop guest users?Andy Frogman 11:43, May 29, 2012 (UTC)
 * This isn't normally something that is offered by Wikia (although it has been offered in the past in some special circumstances). See the Wiki Creation policy for more details. You can contact staff to ask, but they tend to decline these requests. --  Random Time  11:54, May 29, 2012 (UTC)
 * So what you are saying is... our only protection agains spam is reactive? Andy Frogman 12:02, May 29, 2012 (UTC)


 * There are some proactive ways to protect against spam. For instance, you could ask staff to enable the AbuseFilter extension and then create filters that would prevent vandals from adding profanity to articles or removing large sections of articles.
 * To expand on Randomtime's answer, Wikia may temporarily block anonymous editing on a wiki in extreme circumstances. For instance, in the past some gaming wikis have requested that staff disable anonymous editing in the time period immediately before and after a major game release because they anticipate an increase in vandal activity which local admins would not be able to handle. --Gardimuer { ʈalk } 16:38, May 29, 2012 (UTC)


 * I would ask if you can restrict your wiki before assuming that Wikia will turn you down. Try to make a compelling argument. "It's my stuff." is not a compelling argument. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 31 May 2012 1:14 PM Pacific


 * I'm actually having this done on two of my wikis. I went to Special:Contact/general and told them my problem with anonymous users editing. I gave examples and sent them some links as to where the problem was occuring. They replied to me, telling me that the wiki community must decide together and they want an entire discussion. So I made a talk page where users could all state their opinion. I sent them the link to the talk page today after we got enough users to give their take on it and I am currently waiting for a response. I say just go ahead and talk to wikia about it. Anonymous users can be very anonying. Honestly, I don't think you should have to ask to get anonymous editing disabled. Admins should be able to disable the feature themselves.
 * Jessie1010.png My Page  22:33, June 3, 2012 (UTC)

Admins can do it themselves - you change the protection on the page to registered users only, also known as semi-protection. Wiki-wide this is generally a bad idea as IPs often can be useful editors even if they aren't the most prolific. It's just the perception that the majority of vandals tend to be anonymous that gives the rest of them a bad name. And just as a note, protecting every page with semi-protection without a discussion and staff notification is likely to be a violation of ToU. 23:33, June 3, 2012 (UTC)


 * I just pulled this from the Wiki creation policy Randomtime linked to above:
 * "Wikis are about working together, and all Wikia projects are open to the public to edit. There is no option to restrict editing to the founder or to a particular group."
 * For me, registered users is a group same as admins and bureaucrats, although others may disagree with my interpretation. User groups may be different to social groups but as the policy doesn't go as far to expand upon the definition of a group it is a somewhat gray area. 23:38, June 3, 2012 (UTC)