Help:Administrator's Handbook/Protect

Sometimes, sysops can protect a page against vandalism or other unwanted edits.

Protecting a page
The page protection form appears as follows:



By default, the top and bottom options both move to the same place when you change the top one. If you check "Unlock further protect options" each may be adjusted independently. Page move permissions are "locked" by default to match the edit permissions, but can be unlocked to allow editing without allowing page moves, or in theory vice-versa (though there's rarely any reason to set it that way). This is often done to project namespace pages which should be editable by anyone but should not be moved around. You can for example decide to allow only sysops to edit the page but for non-sysops the "(allow all users)" category  to move the page if they choose to do so. In most cases, you will want to protect against both, which is why this is the default. There is also an "allow only autoconfirmed users" option that only allows autoconfirmed users and others in higher ranks to edit a certain page.


 * Allow all users Default: anyone can edit.
 * Allow only autoconfirmed users Autoconfirmed: No IP editing, no editing by the newest accounts.
 * Allow only administrators Sysop: only editable by administrators.

Unprotecting a page
There should be a "More" tab above the page, and a set of options will appear, including the "Change protection" option, click that. When you select the "Change protection" option, you will be taken to the same protection page as shown above. You may now change the current protection level to allow all users or to slightly lower its protection.

Remember

 * Protecting a page does not automatically protect its respective talk page. If this is necessary, you will need to do it separately.

Pages that should generally be protected:
 * Project and help namespace pages should generally be protected against page moves.
 * Policy pages may be protected.
 * Widely used templates.
 * User namespace pages, on request of the user.