Wikipedia:Protected page

Certain wikipedia users, known as "Administrators", have the ability to "protect" pages such that they cannot be edited except by other admins. This ability is only to be used in limited circumstances.

This ability is used semi-permanently in some cases:

• Protecting the Main Page from vandalism.
• Maintaining the integrity of the copyright and license pages.
• Maintaining the integrity of past press releases.
• Protecting certain "system administration" pages.

This ability is also intended to be used temporarily in some cases:

• Enforcing a "cool down" period to stop an "edit war", upon request.
• Protecting a page that has been a recent target of persistent vandalism or persistent edits by a banned user.
• Preventing changes to a page while investigating a possible bug.

If an admin who has not been contributing to a page intervenes to stop an edit war, they may revert to an earlier revision; but should not continue editing content while people with different points of view who are not admins are unable to do so. Admin powers are not editor privileges - admins should only act as servants to the user community at large. If you are an admin and you want a page in an edit war in which you are involved to be protected, it is recommended that you contact another admin and ask them to protect the page for you.

In general, pages should not be left protected for very long, and discussion pages should be left open. If you protect a page, or find a protected page not listed here, please add it to this list.

Semi-permanently protected pages:

• Main_Page (protect from vandalism)
• Wikipedia:Copyrights, Wikipedia:Text of the GNU Free Documentation License (copyright and license pages)
• Text of the GNU Free Documentation License, GNU FDL (redirects to the above)
• Wikipedia:Wikipedia press release 1, Wikipedia:2003 Press Release (past press releases)
• Wikipedia:Database queries
• wikipedia:designated agent (see meta:designated agent)

temporarily protected pages:

• user:Zoe - persistent vandalism by Michael
• user:Jar Jar Binks - almost certainly the latest Michael creation but with possible legal implications. (On the page he claimed to be a the actor Ahmed Best. Actions carried out, specifically any abuse of users, under this 'stolen' identity could lead to complaints from the actor, his lawyers and/or the actors' union Equity. It could raise legal issues. I have removed all claims on the page to be Ahmed Best, all links claiming association with Star Wars - which could have raised legal and copyright problems with George Lucas' production company - and protected the page to ensure the claims cannot be reinserted. Details of the issues raised have been circulated on the wiki-list) FearÉIREANN 06:02 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)

The following automatically generated pages are also usually protected for (system administration) reasons:

• Wikipedia:Deletion log
• Wikipedia:Upload log
• Wikipedia:All pages by title (for Special:Allpages)
• Wikipedia:Long articles (for Special:Longpages)
• Wikipedia:Most wanted articles (for Special:Wantedpages)
• Wikipedia:Orphaned articles (for Special:Lonelypages)
• Wikipedia:Short articles (for Special:Shortpages)

Recently unprotected Most recent at the top.

• Gaia theory, Gaia Theory, Gaia hypothesis, Gaia theory (biology), Gaia theory predecessors - all subject to an edit war between two users. --Dante Alighieri 19:31 1 Jul 2003 (UTC)
  • The "warring factions" have been very productive and constructive as of late. Unprotected as of now. --Dante Alighieri 20:07 6 Jul 2003 (UTC)
• Bouncing Souls - originally protected to stop a Michael edit war. FearÉIREANN 06:02 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)
• User:ChuckM - His highly disruptive activities force me to put a warning on this user's page so that innocent Wikipedians don't get fooled by his constant request for copyright clarification. Evercat 03:41 27 Jun 2003 (UTC)
  • forced are you?... the entire IP range has now been blocked, so I unprotected the page. Martin 17:53 28 Jun 2003 (UTC)

• User:jtdirl - given Michael's history of vandalising user pages of people who clash with him, I have placed a temporary protection on my own user page to stop him laying seige to it, in the view of my above two interventions against him. The talk page is not protected. FearÉIREANN 20:44 23 Jun 2003 (UTC)
  • pre-emptive page protection isn't in accordance with the wiki way :) Martin 17:53 28 Jun 2003 (UTC)

• User:Michaelism - banned vandal Michael's latest user page, to stop removal of a demand from a user that Michael stop the vandalism he has been carrying out tonight. FearÉIREANN 20:44 23 Jun 2003 (UTC)
  • I'm uncomfortable with that protection... I just redirected the page to user:Michael (and added a contribs link to same)... maybe I'm just being finicky... Martin 20:01 27 Jun 2003 (UTC)

• User:Joe Canuck - Some anonymous user has tried to remove the hard ban notice from this page and reinstate Canuck's page. This was reverted by another user. To stop the removal of this notice by an anonymous user (who may indeed by Canuck, given that this user has a long history of circumventing bans by reappearing under new names, and the additional note the anonymous user placed on the page bares similarities with similar actions by Canuck under the names DW and Black Widow) I have have protected this page to stop any further deletions of the hard ban notice. The talk page has not been protected. FearÉIREANN 23:31 22 Jun 2003 (UTC)
  • Unprotected because one edit is not persistent. Soft security suffices for now. Martin 20:01 27 Jun 2003 (UTC)

• User_talk:Theresa knott
• All the long list of pages protected to stop now banned user Joe Canuck from inserting potentially copyright images that had been listed for deletion have now being unprotected. FearÉIREANN 20:33 20 Jun 2003 (UTC)
• Monkeypox, this has been protected and unprotected by various administrators over the last few days. The page was recently featured on television and has been subject to a repeated deluge of newbie tests and other vandalism. Unprotected by Evercat 11:47 20 Jun 2003 (UTC)
• Spectral envelope, was protected to stop an unprecendented kind of repeated vandalism: two users, one in Singapore and one in India, appear to be using this page as a substitute for personal email. Unprotected by Evercat after 10 days.
• List of phobias (no reason given)
• Wikipedia:IP probation watchlist - a non-sysop might wish to edit this to criticise an unblocking
• Martha Stewart, lots of vandalism on this page due to its appearance on TV.

Commentary The protected page system may be changed in the future so that all users can modify them, but modifications won't go through until a certain amount of time has passed (and/or a admin accepts them). This would reduce the requirements for admin intervention for useful things to happen.

See meta:Protected pages considered harmful, MeatBall:DelayAction.