MediaWiki Administrator's Handbook/Page Protection

Sometimes it is necessary to protect a page against vandalism or other unwanted edits.

First of all visit the page in question and click the protect tab. You will be presented with one of two boxes, depending on the version of MediaWiki your wiki is running. Both methods are presented below. For the record, Wikicities is currently running MediaWiki 1.4 while Wikimedia projects are running 1.5.

Page Protection in MediaWiki 1.4 and earlier

The protection screen in MediaWiki 1.4 and earlier (some very early 1.5 builds also have this style)

At this screen simply check "Confirm protection". If you only want to prevent people moving the page check that box (by default the page will be protected from both). In this version of MediaWiki you cannot choose to protect solely against page moves while leaving editing access open.

Page Protection in MediaWiki 1.5 and later

The protection screen in MediaWiki 1.5 and later

By default the left and right options both move to the same place when you change the left-hand one. If you check "Unlock move permissions" each may be adjusted independently. You can for example decide to allow only sysops to edit the page, but for non-sysops--the "(default)" 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. Some wikis also have a "new users" option (not shown).

If the page has been protected in the past, a "Protection log" will be displayed beneath the prompt.

Unprotecting in MediaWiki 1.4 and earlier

The unprotection screen in MediaWiki 1.4 and earlier (also some early 1.5 builds)

Simply give a reason and tick "Confirm unprotection", then click "Confirm". When using MediaWiki 1.4 this results in all protection restrictions being removed from the page.

Unprotecting in MediaWiki 1.5 and later

For this just see above and set the access type you're re-enabling to "(default)". You can also subjectively turn the two different permissions on and off at will.

If the page has been protected in the past, a "Protection log" will be displayed beneath the prompt.

Things to note

Note that the talk page of the page you are protecting will NOT be protected along with its sibling, and vice versa. If this is necessary you will need to do it separately.