WikiIndex:Protected page
Protected pages is a facility here on WikiIndex, and all MediaWiki-powered wiki sites, which can enable restricting privileges of two distinct functions of pages on the wiki; namely edit protection, and move (or page rename) protection. Each function area has one default 'base' level, along with two escalating levels of restriction or protection; namely: (a) allow all users, (b) allow only autoconfirmed users, and (c) allow only administrators.
Protection methods
for editing function
- a./ allow all users — this is considered by many wiki people to be the fundamental and basic operation of a wiki site; typically known as an 'open edit' wiki (unless globally disabled at MediaWiki server configuration). This allows not only registered members of the wiki to edit pages, it also allows those who have not registered to edit, and these latter group are known as IP editors.
- b./ allow only autoconfirm users — effectively means blocking unregistered users (IP editors), and also affects registered users who have 'logged-out'; and therefore means that only logged-in registered users can edit that particular page.
- c./ allow only administrators — this means that only users with system operator (aka 'sysop') access levels can edit. Click here for a list of all administrators here on WikiIndex.
for move function
These will be listed under the identical options as for the above editing function. There are, however, some subtle but crucial differences.
- a./ allow all users — similar to the above editing function, this setting will allow unregistered IP editors to rename pages; in reality, many MediaWiki wiki sites will disable this aspect as a global wiki-wide default, meaning only logged-in registered users can move pages.
- b./ allow only autoconfirm users — again, same as the corresponding edit function level protection, this restricts page renaming to logged-in registered users, and prevents IP editors from carrying out this function.
- c./ allow only administrators — as above, this means that only administrators (sysops) can move or rename the page.
linked privileges
It will be noted that when a specific edit level restriction is set, the move protection will automatically be set at the same level (unless manually changed to a higher level), and can not be set to a lower level. That means that if edit protection for a page is set to only sysops (c. above), then move protection will also be only sysop, and move protection can not be set lower. It is also possible to set pages with higher levels of move protection whilst still allowing unrestricted free editing of the page.
Reasons for, and consequences of page protection
Some pages are protected because they are constantly recreated, despite being previously deleted.
Pages should ideally only be protected as a last resort to stop an edit war or chronic vandalism, or to prevent vandalism of high-visibility (such as the main page) and / or high-importance pages (such as policy pages), or those which seem to be repeated targets of spam. If semi-protection (ie, level b) will suffice to stop the edit war or vandalism, then it should be used. Protection duration should only be indefinite for high-visibility or high-importance pages.
It also generally recommended to protect certain very specific pages which may not necessarily be subjected to spamming or vandalism. Typically, infobox templates (along with any cascading templates they rely on) which are used on substancial numbers of pages on the wiki should be protected; as any changes to them (irrespective of those edits being necessary, good faith 'good' edits, or bad edits such as spam or vandalism) can place a huge loading on the server holding the wiki database.
Even more caution, by means of the most strongest protection, should be applied to all templates which use semantic data on wikis which also use the Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) plugin extensions; as unlike general wiki sites not using semantic data, whereby any undesirable edits can be reverted without leaving any lasting damage to the wiki (save for the fresh increased server load), on semantic data wiki, any change to semantic data properties will be permanent, and in some instances can severely damage semantic data output.
Finally, all users of the wiki, including IP editors, can check the protection status of any wiki page, simply by clicking on the 'edit' tab (or 'view source' tab) at the top of each page (or any of the section heading [edit] areas); the protection status, if any, will be shown in a banner with a thin blue border at the top of the page.