Elite Dangerous Wiki:Protection policy

This page sets out the wiki's protection policy. It uses the familiar protection levels described in Wikipedia's protection policy, adapted for this independent community. Protection is a safeguard against disruption, not an endorsement of a particular version.

Principles

Administrators should use the least restrictive protection that will address the problem, give a clear reason in the protection log, and choose a duration proportionate to the disruption. Protection is not a substitute for blocking a disruptive editor. It should not be used to win an editing dispute or to give one side an advantage. An administrator involved in a content dispute should ask an uninvolved administrator to act. Discuss the underlying content on the relevant talk page.

Protection is generally reactive rather than pre-emptive. Exceptions include high-risk pages, widely used templates and modules, the site interface, important policy and licensing pages, and persistent abuse where the need for protection is established. Remove or reduce protection when it is no longer needed. An editor may request protection, a change in level or unprotection on the page's talk page or at Project:Requests for page protection. An administrator should review the evidence and record the decision.

Protection levels

• Semi-protection prevents edits by unregistered editors and registered accounts that are not autoconfirmed. On this wiki, autoconfirmation requires an account at least four days old and at least ten edits. Administrators and other groups with the semi-protected editing permission can also edit these pages. Semi-protection may address persistent disruption by newer users and protect important public-facing pages without reserving them to administrators.
• Extended-confirmed protection permits editing by editors with the extended-confirmed editing permission and administrators. Automatic eligibility on this wiki requires an account at least 30 days old and 500 edits. Use it when semi-protection has been ineffective or would be unsuitable. This is a separate permission from template protection.
• Template protection permits editing by template editors and administrators. It is intended for widely used or high-risk templates, Lua modules and their shared styles, where a mistake or malicious edit could affect many pages. Autoconfirmed or extended-confirmed status alone does not grant template-editing permission. Documentation is protected separately when necessary; a protected template does not automatically protect its documentation, sandbox or test cases.
• Full protection permits editing by administrators. It may be used for serious disruption, particularly high-risk pages, or to pause a content dispute where a lesser level will not suffice. Administrators must not edit a fully protected page to gain an advantage in a dispute; use the talk page to seek consensus.

These names describe the editing restrictions used here. They do not import Wikipedia's arbitration decisions, offices or administrative processes. Protection remains subject to the community standards and the review principles above.

Protection of other actions

• Move protection restricts renaming a page. It can be set independently of editing protection. A move-only restriction does not prevent otherwise permitted edits. The level and expiry are recorded in the protection log.
• Creation protection prevents unauthorised creation of a particular page title, for example after repeated recreation of an inappropriate page. It does not prevent editors from creating unrelated pages.
• Upload protection restricts replacement of an existing file. It is separate from editing the file's description page and does not make the file private.
• Cascading protection extends full protection to included pages. Use it sparingly because it can affect many pages. It is not enabled automatically when a template or module is protected. Where possible, protect the specific shared components that need protection instead.
• Interface protection also applies through MediaWiki's built-in permissions. Site-interface messages require the appropriate interface-editing permission, and site JavaScript and CSS require interface-administrator permissions. A page does not need an additional padlock setting for these built-in restrictions to apply.

Pending changes

Pending changes is a review mechanism rather than a replacement for page protection. It allows eligible editors to submit changes while holding changes that require review on selected pages. Use it for persistent disruption on relatively infrequently edited pages, not to settle a content dispute. See Project:Pending changes. Page protection and the site's registration and editing settings continue to apply independently.

Notices, logs and edit requests

The padlock on a protected page identifies the active restriction. The page information and protection log contain its level, reason and expiry. A protection template is an indicator, not an access control: adding the template does not protect a page, and removing it does not remove a protection setting.

Protection notices should match the actual restriction. A notice included only as a documentation example is not a request to protect that example page. A notice displayed through a template's documentation may refer to the parent template, while a notice explicitly applying to the documentation requires a separate setting. Review these cases before applying protection. Move-only notices should not be used as a reason to restrict editing.

Editors can propose changes on a protected page's talk page or at Project:Requests for page protection. A suitably authorised editor may make an uncontroversial change or one supported by consensus. Ordinary articles, help pages and community discussions should remain editable unless there is a specific reason to protect them. Protecting a page does not normally protect its talk page.

Scope and access

The community standards and pending changes policy apply alongside this page. Account creation and anonymous editing are controlled by separate site settings. Opening registration does not remove page protections, and protection does not grant an account permission to edit where another restriction applies.

This policy is adapted from Wikipedia:Protection policy; see its contributor history. Wikipedia-specific offices and processes do not automatically exist on this independent wiki.