Help:Page protection

Page protection is the ability to limit who can edit a page. Administrators have the ability to both protect and unprotect pages should the need arise.

Uses
The majority of pages on a wikia should remain unprotected to encourage all users to participate.

Places where you may want to use protection may include:
 * Protecting frequently vandalised pages, such as the main page on busy communities.
 * Maintaining the integrity of the site's wordmark and favicon.
 * Protecting community policies that have been set in stone.
 * Templates containing complex code or are necessary for a particular wiki.

Temporary protection might be 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.

Protection levels
There are four protection levels admins can use when protecting a page.
 * Semi-protection: protection of a page against editing by an unregistered or non-autoconfirmed user.
 * Full protection: protection of a page against editing by a non-admin.
 * Cascading protection: protection of a page from editing by a non-admin, as well as any other pages on the wikia linked to on the page.
 * Move protection: protection of a page against moving by a non-admin.

Protecting pages

 * To protect a page, photo, template, click on the arrow on the "Edit" button next to the title to produce a dropdown menu. Then click "Protect".
 * On the protection page that then appears, you can set the desired protection level.
 * You may want the page move protection to be set at a different level than the editing protection. By default, they match. To set a different level, select the check box in the "Move" section, then choose which protection level you would like.
 * To set cascading protection, click the check box next to "Protect pages included in this page (cascading protection)"
 * Select a default reason for protection in the dropdown menu, or add in your own reason in the box below.
 * Click "Confirm" to save your changes.

Unprotect

 * To unprotect or change the protection for a specific page, use the Edit button dropdown to visit the protection page for it.
 * Remove or alter the protection options.
 * Click "Confirm" to save your changes.

Cascading Protection


Cascading protection is a form of page protection which allows you to protect a page so that all templates and images on the page will also be protected without needing to protect them individually. When a template is vandalized, especially on a page which uses many templates, it may not be immediately obvious which page/template needs to be fixed, prolonging the amount of time that the page remains vandalized.

To use cascading protection, just click the "protect" link as usual; cascade protect is there among normal protection options. The protection level must be "sysop" in order to activate cascading protection; it will not work at the "autoconfirmed" level, which only affects new and unregistered users.

Advice

 * Do not make the common mistake of protecting pages unnecessarily.
 * Do not protect a page you are involved in an edit dispute over. Admin powers are not editor privileges - admins should only act as servants to the user community at large.
 * Temporarily protected pages should not be left protected for very long.
 * Talk pages and user talk pages should not be protected except in extreme circumstances.
 * On a wiki where it is required to have an account in order to edit, be aware that semi-protected pages may not be useful. A majority of the editors on that wiki are likely to already have reached autoconfirmed status.

Next pages

 * Learn about protecting an entire wikia.
 * Read the administrators' how-to guide.

Further help and feedback
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