Wikipedia:Main Page featured article protection/re-write
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Deletions from the current policy are shown by strikethrough; additions are underlined.)
Wikipedia's Main Page featured article is one of the most visible and heavily edited on the site. For this reason, it receives a lot of vandal edits from unregistered users.
It has been suggested many times in the past that the featured article should thus be protected or semi-protected. Full protection of the page is generally prohibited. Administrators are advised to use extreme discretion when deciding whether encouraged to semi-protect the page.They should notify the community when they choose to do so. Circumstances under which semi-protection are appropriate are given below. unless there is minimal ongoing vandalism.
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[edit] Rationale
There are several reasons for this policy.
- Almost without exception, featured articles are improved by their time on the main page (some of them greatly improved).
Check out these before-and-after diffs from September, 2005: [1] [2] [3].Fully protecting the featured articles means that these articlesmaywill not be improved while they are on the Main Page.
- More than 95% of anonymous edits to the Main Page are vandalism, reverting of vandalism by other anonymous users, or editing and reverting one's own posting (i.e., using the Main Page as the Sandbox). Less than five percent of anonymous edits are constructive changes to Main Page articles, with such edits almost never being explained by an edit summary or supported by an included citation.
- A featured article is supposed to "exemplify our very best work, representing Wikipedia's unique qualities on the Internet". This includes being editable by
anyoneany registered user. Visitors often tend to look at our most visible articles, and having those articleseditablein an unvandalized state helps attract new users to the project. In contrast, a vandalized article, particularly where the vandalism is extreme (graffitti in place of the entire article, explicit images, etc.), sends a message that Wikipedia is unable to present its best work to the public.
- Much vandalism (especially to highly visible articles like the main page featured article) is cleaned up very quickly, often in only a matter of seconds, helped by automated bots such as AntiVandalBot. On average, fixing a vandalizing edit takes slightly over a minute. When an article has hundreds of vandalizing edits during a 24-hour period, the percentage of the time that it is in a vandalized state is still significant, often exceeding 10 percent of the viewing time during the day. Increased viewing of the page, as has been the trend for years, increases the number of people who are tempted to vandalize the page for their 15 seconds of fame.
AlthoughThe more visible featured article of the day potentially attracts more vandals than other articles, and it also attracts more curious and good faith registered userseditors. Minimizing vandalizing by anonymous users by semi-protecting the page frees up registered editors to do constructive edits rather than fight vandalism, and also reduces edit conflicts because the number of edits drops sharply.
* This is codified in the page protection policy: When a page is particularly high profile, either because it is linked off the main page, or because it has recently received a prominent link from offsite, it will often become a target for vandalism. It is best not to protect pages in this case. Instead, consider adding them to your watchlist, and reverting vandalism yourself. - Wikipedia:Protection policy ---
[edit] Full Protection
Full protection prevents anyone without administrative powers from editing an article. This should almost never occur on the day's featured article, and should only be used in rare situations where semi-protection is ineffective.
[edit] Semi-protection
Semi-protection prevents all unregistered or recently registered users from editing a page. The main page featured article should also almost never may be semi-protected . It is recognised that there are some circumstances in which Semi-protection can be introduced for a limited to extended amount of time. This could occur when, for example, a range of dynamic IP addresses are being used to vandalise the featured article page in quick succession; where personal information or potentially distressing content is being repeatedly placed onto the article; or where a few minutes of protection are needed to remove harmful vandalism from a page. In general, the higher the number of readers, the greater the likelihood of anonymous user vandalism, and the more the need for semi-protection. As a rule of thumb, semi-protection of an article is appropriate when anonymous vandalizing edits are occuring at a rate of more than one every five minutes. Admins should also semi-protect an article whenever vandalism is not being promptly handled by other editors.
Semi-protection can thus be introduced for a limited amount of time, though It is preferable to try also appropriate to to use other methods of dealing with vandalism first, such as blocking problematic accounts and IPs.
[edit] Templates
Templates included in the main page FA are sometimes vandalized, and it is more difficult to find the source of this kind of vandalism quickly. It is also less likely that casual readers would need to modify the templates. It is recommended that admins may always semi- or fully-protect the templates as needed before the article is moved to the Main Page.
[edit] Notification and the article's talk page
Should an administrator deem that protection or semi-protection of the Main Page featured article is necessary, a notice should be placed at the Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard and the page's talk page as to the reason and rationale behind the decision to protect or semi-protect, and whether there are any recommended steps for the unprotection of the page. When a main page article is semi-protected, a small template should placed at the top of the article to the effect that "Only registered users can edit this page, but anyone can suggest changes", with a link to the article's talk page included. Registered users are strongly encouraged to review the talk page of the Main Page article to identify constructive suggestions posted there by anonymous users, and to then incorporate these into the article.
[edit] Move protection
To qualify for featured article status, the day's featured article will be at a stable and agreed-upon title. Therefore, in the event of page move vandalism, It is acceptable to recommended that admins protect the article from being moved, even before it is posted on the main page. For housekeeping and process reasons, this protection should be lifted at the end of an article's stay on the front page.
[edit] Other front page articles
These are covered under the semi-protection policy. Although they can be semi-protected, admins should generally be more cautious in applying protection to these pages. To qualify for semi-protection, articles linked via the front page should be experiencing a higher frequency of vandalism than other articles.
Note that none of this applies to the main page itself, which is always protected.
[edit] See also
Category:Wikipedia featured content Category:Main Page Category:Wikipedia official policy Category:Vandalism
