Valve Developer Community:Protected page

Administrators have the ability to "protect" pages or images so that they cannot be modified except by other admins (the link "MediaWiki:Editthispage" is replaced by a link "View source" when viewed by non-admins). This ability is only to be used in limited circumstances.

Admins must not protect pages they are actively engaged in editing, except in the case of simple vandalism.

Policy

1. Do not edit a temporarily protected page except to add a protected page notice.
2. Do not protect a page on which you are involved in an edit dispute (Category:Conflicts).

See Wikipedia:Protection policy for more detailed advice and the purpose of protected pages.

Procedure

1. Protect the page, supplying a reason.
2. Add {{protected}} (or {{vprotected}} for vandalism) to the top of the temporarily protected page and make mention of the protection in the edit summary.
3. List pages you protect on Wikipedia:Protected page; if it is protected due to a conflict, you may want to list all user names/IPs involved in the conflict.

   Please use {{article|ARTICLE NAME}} when listing a page at Wikipedia:Protected page, where ARTICLE NAME is the article or page you wish to protect.

4. Consider encouraging a resolution between the disputing parties.
5. Remove the protection (while supplying a reason) once the conflict has been resolved.
6. Remove {{protected}} from the top of an unprotected page and make mention of the removal in the edit summary.

See also

• Requests for page protection - place to request protection; use when your involvement in editing a page precludes protecting it yourself. Also used by non-administrators who wish for a page to be protected. Also for unprotection requests.
• Protection log - automated log of protections and unprotections
• This page is protected
• Wikipedia maintenance section on maintaining this page
• Wikipedia:Most vandalized pages - please add pages subjected to repeated vandalism to this list

Rationale

See meta:Protected pages considered harmful, meta:edit wars