Wikipedia:Protection policy

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This page documents the protection policy on Wikipedia.
If you are trying to... Then...
make a request to protect or unprotect a page see Wikipedia:Requests for page protection
make a request to edit a page see Wikipedia:Edit requests
obtain user rights to edit protected pages request user rights
report a user for persistent vandalism or spam file a vandalism report
report a user for edit warring or violating revert restrictions open an edit warring report
Protection icons
Icon Mode
White padlock White Pending changes protected
Silver padlock Silver Semi-protected
Dark blue padlock Blue Extended confirmed protected
Pink padlock Pink Template-protected
Gold padlock Gold Fully protected
Brown padlock Red Interface protected
Green padlock Green Move protected
Blue padlock Skyblue Create protected
Purple padlock Purple Upload protected
Turquoise padlock Turquoise Cascade protected
Black padlock Black Protected by Office

In some circumstances, pages may need to be protected from modification by certain groups of editors. Pages are protected when a specific damaging event has been identified that cannot be prevented through other means such as a block. Otherwise, Wikipedia is built on the principle that anyone can edit it, and it therefore aims to have as many of its pages as possible open for public editing so that anyone can add material and correct errors. This policy states in detail the protection types and procedures for page protection and unprotection and when each protection should and should not be applied.

Protection is a technical restriction applied only by administrators, although any user may request protection. Protection can be indefinite or expire after a specified time. The various levels of protection are detailed below, and they can be applied to the page edit, page move, page create, and file upload actions. Even when a page is protected from editing, the source code (wikitext) of the page can still be viewed and copied by anyone.

A protected page is marked at its top right by a padlock icon, usually added by the {{pp-protected}} template.


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