Help:Protected Pages
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While browsing Zelda Wiki, you may come across protected pages. These pages have editing restrictions in place; they cannot be edited or moved by everyone. Templates and files may also be protected. Only adminsitrators can protect and unprotected pages.
Reasons for Protecting a Page
Typically, admins protect pages to halt edit wars. They may also semi-protect them (see Protection Levels below) to prevent vandalism, or to prevent new users from editing important pages best left in the hands of experienced editors or staff. Likewise, high usage templates are all at least semi-protected because they are very high-risk. Each template is used on at least 10,000 pages. A single edit to any of them may place significant strain on the server, and even bring it down temporarily. This is also true for high-usage images.
For more information on who protected the page and for what reason, please see the page's logs (accessed from the Toolbox in the sidebar to the left). In the event of an edit war, the situation will be addressed on the corresponding talk page.
Pages in the "MediaWiki" namespace (e.g. MediaWiki:Sitenotice, MediaWiki:Common.css) contain important wiki settings. They are all permanently protected. This occurs automatically; admins cannot unprotect them.
Protection Levels
There are two levels of page protection:
- Semi-protection: Only autoconfirmed users can edit the page. Semi-protected pages are marked by a Small Key under the page's main "edit" button (see Template:Semi).
- Full protection: Only adminsitrators or "sysops" can edit the page. Fully protected pages are marked with a Big Key instead (see Template:Protected).
An unprotected page can be edited by users who have registered an account with Zelda Wiki. To reduce spam and vandalism, Zelda Wiki does not allow anonymous page editing.
Protection Requests
- To request protection to a page, add {{Protect}} at the top of the talk page. This adds the talk page to Category:Protected edit requests.
- You may request an uncontroversial edit to a protected page by leaving a message on its corresponding talk page. Add {{Editprotected}} at the top of your post. Alternatively, you can contact an active administrator directly on their talk page.
Examples of Protected Pages
- Zelda Timeline, semi-protected because it is a disputed topic.
- Template:Zelda, semi-protected because of its high usage (20,000+ pages).
- File:Zwlogo2dsmall.png, fully protected. Only administrators may upload new versions of this image. Changes to Zelda Wiki logos must be approved by the staff. It is also high usage.
- Zelda Wiki:Latest Announcements, fully protected. Only administrators may speak on behalf of the wiki.
- Main Page, fully protected for the same reason. Some parts, however, are only semi-protected (e.g. Main Page/Nav).