My Time at Portia Wiki:Protect policy



Protecting, also known as locking, is preventing unregistered users and non-autoconfirmed users or all non-admin users from editing an article. Protecting helps protect the assets of the wiki from vandalism, spam, counter-productive edit warring, pages that are high traffic, or a project space.

As a moderator or administrator, protecting a page should be used only in important cases and must be temporary, unless used in project spaces, such as policies or the main page. All users with the ability to protect a page must follow the guidelines listed below.

Guidelines
All guidelines listed under policies apply.


 * Mainspace should never be protected.
 * We are an open-edit database. The mainspace are the articles of the wiki. If an article cannot be edited by a user, it can potentially discourage editing or prevent the addition of useful information. Mainspace may only be protected if it meets the reasons below.


 * Ignore your opinions and follow wiki policies
 * Do not use your opinions, beliefs, or ideals to protect a page. The wiki policies are the only reason to protect a page. Do not protect to settle a dispute.


 * All protection should be temporary
 * Avoid permanent protection. Permanent protection can be counter-productive to an article, as users would not be able to add in useful information. Permanent protection is permitted on project spaces.


 * Highly used templates should be protected
 * Templates that are used in numerous amounts of pages should be protected, as these templates affect multiple pages. Typically, these templates have a special coding that can be broken with a simple change.


 * Project spaces should be protected
 * Project spaces, such as the main page or policies, should be protected to prevent other users from making changes. As these are vital to the wiki, users should not be able to edit these pages. Policies should not be edited by any user without admin rights. The main page is the most important page of the wiki, as it is the landing page and typically the first page readers will see. Project spaces are not considered to be: mainspace, user pages, talk pages, categories, or files.


 * Violators should be blocked first
 * Violators of the wiki policies should be blocked first before protecting a page. Once these users are blocked, the page is least likely to be harmed, so there is no reason to protect a page. If the page is experiencing excessive vandalism or spamming from multiple users, the page should be temporarily protected.

Reasons

 * Excessive vandalism
 * If a page is being excessively vandalized by a user or users, the page should be protected. The offenders should also be blocked to prevent further damage. If, from time-to-time, a page experiences excessive vandalism, the page may be protected temporarily but from unregistered users only.


 * Excessive spamming
 * If a page is experiencing excessive spamming, the page should be protected. Generally, the moderator should notify the offender(s) before locking a page, unless the spam is in obvious intent to cause harm to the wiki. If, from time-to-time, a page experiences excessive spamming, the page may be protected temporarily but from unregistered users only.


 * Counter-productive edit warring
 * "Edit warring" is editing against another user or users edits. Edit warring is not productive to the wiki and can cause harm to the history page by spamming it with unnecessary edits. As moderators, you should protect the page to prevent further damage, and notify the offenders of the violation. Disputes should be handle in article comments or message walls. This should be used sparingly.


 * High traffic page
 * High traffic page is not a reason to protect a page. This reason can only be used on the main page. With exceptions, only the administrators may protect a high traffic page.


 * Project spaces
 * Project spaces are pages with the "My Time at Portia Wiki" namespace. Most of the time, these pages are protected from non-admin users. These pages can be protected but are not required. No other namespaces should be protected under this reason.

List of permanent protected pages

 * Main page
 * All policy pages