Wikipedia:Protection policy: Difference between revisions

{{redirect2|WP:PP|WP:PROTECT|other uses|WikipediaWP:PerennialPP proposals(disambiguation)|and|WikipediaWP:WikiProjectPROTECT Parliamentary Procedure|and|Wikipedia:Party and person|and|Wikipedia:Child protection|and|Wikipedia:WikiProject Protected areas(disambiguation)}}

In some circumstances, pages may need to be '''protected''' from editingmodification by certain groups of editors. Pages are protected when there is disruption that cannot be prevented through other means such as [[WP:Blocking policy|blocks]]. Wikipedia is built on the principle that [[WP:5P3|anyone can edit]] and therefore aims to have as many pages as possible open for public editing so that anyone can add material and correct errors. This policy states in detail the protection types and procedures for page protection and unprotection and when each protection should and should not be applied.

Applying page protection solely as a preemptive measure is contrary to the open nature of Wikipedia and is generally not allowed. Instead, protection is used when vandalism, disruption, or abuse is occurring by multiple users andis occurring at a level of frequency that requires its use in order to stopwarrants itprotection. The duration of protection should be as short as possible and at the lowest protection level sufficient to stop the disruption, allowing edits from as many productive users as possible.

*'''[[#Creation protection (salting)|Creation protection]]''' prevents a page (normallyfrom a previouslybeing [[Wikipedia:DeletionHow policy|deleted]]to one)create from beinga page|created]] (also known as "salting").

{{shortcut|WP:UNPROTPOL}}{{anchor|RemovingProtection}}Except in the case of [[Wikipedia:Office actions|office actions]] (see [[#Office actions|below]]), [[Wikipedia:AC|Arbitration Committee]] remedies, or pages in the MediaWiki namespace (see [[#Permanent protection|below]]), administrators may unprotect a page if the reason for its protection no longer applies, a reasonable period has elapsed, and there is no consensus that continued protection is necessary. EditorsUsers desiringcan therequest unprotection ofor a page should,reduction in theprotection firstlevel instance,by askasking the administrator who applied the protection unlesson the administrator's user talk page. If the administrator is inactive[[Wikipedia:List orof administrators/Inactive|inactive]], no longer an administrator;, or does not thereafterrespond, requeststhen a request can be made at [[WP:RFUP|Requests for unprotection]]. Note that such requests will normally be declined if the protecting administrator is active and was not consulted first.

A log of protections and unprotections is available at [[Special:Log/protect]].

Pending changes protection allows [[WP:IP|unregistered]] and [[Wikipedia:User access levels#New users|new users]] to edit pages, while keeping their edits hidden from most readers (specifically, unregistered editors{{snd}}the vast majority of visitors to Wikipedia articles) until those changes are accepted by a [[WPWikipedia:RPCUser access levels#Pending changes reviewer|pending changes reviewer]] or [[Wikipedia:Administrators|administrator]]. An alternative to [[#Semi-protection|semi-protection]], it is used to suppress [[Wikipedia:Vandalism|vandalism]] and certain other persistent problems while allowing all users to continue to submit edits. Pending changes is technically implemented as a separate option, with its own duration, and it yields to other edit protection levels in cases of overlap.

When a page under pending changes protection is edited by an [[WP:IP|unregistered]] (IP addresses) editor or a [[Wikipedia:User access levels#New users|new user]], the edit is not directly visible to the majority of Wikipedia readers, until it is reviewed and accepted by an editor with the [[Wikipedia:User access levels#Pending changes reviewer|pending changes reviewer right]]. When a page under pending changes protection is edited by an [[Wikipedia:User access levels#Autoconfirmed users|autoconfirmed user]], the edit will be immediately visible to Wikipedia readers, unless there are pending edits waiting to be reviewed.

Pending changes protection should not be used as a preemptive measure against violations that have not yet occurred. Like semi-protection, PC protection should '''never''' be used in genuine content disputes, where there is a risk of placing a particular group of editors (unregistered users) at a disadvantage. Pending changes Semi-protection shouldis notgenerally bea usedbetter onoption for articles with a very high edit rate, evenas ifwell theyas meetarticles theaffected by issues difficult for [[Wikipedia:Reviewing pending changes|pending changes aforementionedreviewers]] criteria.to Insteaddetect, semisuch as non-protectionobvious shouldvandalism, plausible-sounding misinformation, and hard-to-detect becopyright consideredviolations.

Extended confirmed protection, sometimespreviously referred toknown as 30/500 protection, allows edits only by editors with the [[Wikipedia:User access levels#Extendedconfirmed|extended confirmed]] user access level, toadministrators, editand the page[[WP:BOT|bots]]. ThisExtended access levelconfirmed is automatically granted to registered users whoseon accountsthe edit following the account meeting the criteria of arebeing at least 30 days old whenand theyhaving make500 theiredits.<ref>For accounts meeting the 30-day requirement, the permission is added on the edit following the 500th (i.e., the 501st edit). For accounts meeting the edit count requirement before the 30-day requirement, the permission is granted on the edit following the account reaching 30 days in age.</ref>

AdministratorsCreate shouldprotection chooseof any duration may be applied to pages being repeatedly recreated in violation of policy using the appropriatelowest protection level ofsufficient to stop the createdisruption protection—autoconfirmed(autoconfirmed, extended-confirmed,<ref name="ECPRFC2"/> or full). Due to the implementation of [[WP:ACPERM|ACPERM]], non-confirmed editors cannot create pages in [[WP:MAINSPACE|mainspace]]; thus, semi-creation protection should be used only for protection of pages outside of mainspace.