Help:Page protection

Protection levels
Pages can be protected from being edited and/or moved. Protection levels for both are:


 * Allow all users
 * Block new and unregistered users
 * Administrators only

By default, all pages have "Allow all users" set for both editing and moving. The next level is "Block new and unregistered users". This level prevents anonymous users (including those with an account who have not logged in) and newly-registered users from from editing/moving the page. It is currently not known at what point a user stops being "new" (number of edits or time elapsed after registration).

The highest level is "Administrators only", which means only those with admin rights will be able to edit/move the page.

The Edit setting and Move setting are tied together. When one level is chosen in Edit, the same level is also selected in Move, and vice versa. To set a different protection level for Move than for Edit, put a check mark in the box in the Move section, then make your selection.

The duration to protect the page is set with the "Expires" option. To select a time not listed in the drop-down menu, choose "other time" and enter the ending time in the "Other time" line. The time format is as follows:


 * 2011-06-13T21:06:49Z

In this example, the end time is June 13, 2011 at 21:06 and 49 seconds, Zulu (UTC) time.

Cascading protection
Cascading protection allows you to protect additional pages that are referenced on the current page. The Help Wiki's Page protection page says that this allows for "protection of a page from editing by a non-admin, as well as any other pages on the wiki linked to on the page". However, this may not be correct. It is a good practice to have each page link to at least one other, which, using this definition, would mean that protecting one page could theoretically protect the entire wiki.

The correct definition of cascading protection is likely the one found on Community Central, which reads as follows: "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 one at a time."

Though cascading protection allows for quickly protecting several pages at one time, it should not be used casually and may have have the effect of protecting more pages, templates or images than is necessary. In most cases, it is better to protect single pages without using cascading protection.

Setting the page protection
A reason should always be given for protecting a page. Use the "Reason" drop-down menu to select the main description of the protection. The current list of reasons are:


 * Other reason &mdash; a general-purpose description
 * Excessive vandalism
 * Excessive spamming
 * Counter-productive edit warring
 * Fan fiction/fake episode repeatedly being added
 * High traffic page &mdash; usually occurs when new episodes have just premiered and editors are flocking to the page to update it.

The "Other/additional reason" line should be used to give a more detailed explanation. Examples:


 * Confirmed as fake episode by series creator.
 * Same user vandalizing page from multiple IPs.
 * Setting cooling-off period for the edit war.

"Follow this page" may be checked if the administrator needs a reminder to come back to the page at a later time to review the edits or change the protection level.