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This is a policy proposal and requires a vote to be ratified or rejected by the policy process.
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Wowpedia has always been a place where anyone could come and read about the World of Warcraft. The wiki also makes it easy for registered users to edit articles.
However, certain pages may be a target for vandalism and restrictions must be put in place to prevent that. This is referred to as protection.
Applications of protection on Wowpedia
Within the MediaWiki software, there are several options available for administrators to choose from when deciding to protect a page.
Pages within any namespace may be fully protected from being created, edited, or moved. Edit-protected pages are implicitly move-protected as well. Additionally, files may be fully protected from being replaced by a new version of the file.
When protecting a page, the admin should add the {{Protected}} template to the page to indicate the page is protected.
Some areas of Wowpedia are permanently protected by the MediaWiki software. The MediaWiki namespace, which defines parts of the site interface, is fully protected; it is impossible for administrators to remove this protection. User CSS and JavaScript pages, such as User:<insert name here>/hydradark.css and User:<insert name here>/hydradark.js, are automatically fully protected. Only accounts that are associated with these pages or administrators are able to edit them. This protection applies to any user subpage created with a ".css" or ".js" extension, whether an equivalent MediaWiki skin exists or not. Administrators may modify these pages, for example, to remove a user script that has been used in an inappropriate way.
Unlike other wikis, such as Wikipedia, Wowpedia requires an account to be able to make edits. Once an account has been made it is automatically considered confirmed. This effectively limits the use of the semi-protection Wikipedia uses to prevent new users from editing. However, Wowpedia policies such as the external links policy and voting policy require a user to establish themselves before performing certain actions; those policies will be enforced as detailed on their respective pages.
A time limit for the protection to last must be set; however, this may be indefinite, lasting until protection is manually removed.
Suitability of protection and indicated duration
Administrators often must use their own discretion about the appropriateness of whether or not to protect a page and how long the protection should remain in effect. This policy will serve as a guideline of best practices for an administrator to implement. If a page is protected outside these guidelines, it should be reviewed whether or not it should remain protected.
Some particular cases where protection is advised:
- Widely-used pages, templates and files: Pages, templates and files which are used on a large number of pages throughout Wowpedia. Editing these will have a large impact on the wiki. These should be indefinitely protected to avoid vandalism, with suggestions for edits posted and discussed in the talk page before being made by an admin.
- High profile new releases: Main articles about new game releases, especially where the story details aren't well known or are restricted by NDA, or a neutral position is hard to reach, may need to be temporarily protected until furor dies down. The specific time period may vary depending upon the release schedule of the game, but should generally be on the scale of weeks or months rather than years, and certainly not indefinitely. While the page is protected, edits may be suggested in the talk page and implemented by admins.
- Continued creation of pages about NDA content may indicate the need to protect the page against creation, at least until the NDA expires for that content.
- On-going vandalism and edit wars: Short-duration page protection may be indicated if a specific page is a target of vandalism or edit wars from multiple users. Either instance may also be addressed by taking action against the users as described in the relevant policies; however, if the edits are coming from several users it may be more effective to protect the page and request the users reach a consensus before edits can resume. In this case the administrator should try to return the page to a neutral state while it is protected; whether or not this favors a specific position in the edit war or is simply the edit before the dissension occurred depends upon the instance. The duration of the page protection should be limited, lasting only as long as needed to reach a consensus.
- For issues relating to the appropriate name of an article, move protection may be used early on to prevent the requirement of excessive cleanup from an extensive move war. This also should be limited, however, until consensus about the page name is reached.