The relevant policy is at Wikipedia:Protection policy

Administrators protect pages and images to prevent vandalism and assist in resolving content disputes, for example. The key principle to remember here is that Wikipedia is the encyclopedia that "anyone can edit". Protecting pages defeats that goal and so page protection should be avoided when possible and kept as short as possible.

In general, the length of time used to protect a page is based on how long you think it will take for the contributor(s) to cool down and resume proper contributions. A 24 hour page protection is typical. If problems resume, the protection might be increased to 36 hours for example. The page protection history might help you figure out how long to protect the page by what has worked in the past for that page. Wikirage.com makes it very easy to find pages likely in need of protection and/or other type of admin intervention.

Page protection is relatively easy. Basically, bring up the page protection template, select who to block, enter a block time, list a block reason, and hit confirm. Protecting etiquette is simple, too. Generally, you do not need to consult with the original page protecting admin and there usually is no reason to notify them after you modify a page protection. A log of protections and unprotections is available at Special:Log/protect.

Below are more detailed instructions for protecting and unprotecting pages, please semi-protect, then unprotect Wikipedia:New admin school/Protecting/Protect.

Protecting a page

1. Go to the article you wish to protect, in this case, we will use Wikipedia:New admin school/Protecting/Protect.
2. At the top of the page, click the protect tab.
3. On the next page, you will see two boxes, one titled which allows protection for textual additions to the article, the other is titled move which allows the article to be protected from being moved.
4. We will semi protect the article from editing. In the edit box, select block new and unregistered users (to test fully protecting the article select block all non-admin users option in the edit box.)
5. Under the box titled expires, type the length of time the page is to be protected for. For example, 1 week, or 6 hours.
6. In the box titled reason, type the reason you are protecting the page.
7. Press the confirm button.
8. Add {{pp-semi}}/{{pp-protected}} to the top of the article to show that this has been semi-protected/full protected.
9. The "cascading protection" box will cause all pages transcluded from that page to be protected. Semi-protection cannot be cascaded because anyone who can edit a page can add to the set of transcluded pages.

Note: See the protection template series for all the available protection tags.

Unprotecting a page

1. Go to the article you wish to unprotect, in this case, we will use Wikipedia:New admin school/Protecting/Protect.
2. At the top of the page, click the unprotect tab.
3. On the next page, you will see two boxes, one titled which allows unprotection for textual additions to the article, the other is titled move which allows the article to be unprotected from being moved.
4. In the edit box, select Allow all users.
5. Next to expires there is a box to type in, leave this blank.
6. Next to reason, type the reason you are unprotecting the article.
7. Press the confirm button.
8. Remove any protection template from the top of the article.

Semi-protection

A lesser level of protection called "semi-protection" can also be applied to a page. In this mode, anonymous users and very recently-joined named users are prevented from editing the page but longer-term signed-in users may still edit the page as usual. This mode of protection is commonly applied to pages that continually attract drive-by vandalism by anonymous editors, for example, the article about George W. Bush.

Editing: Autoconfirmed users. Moving: Autoconfirmed users. Padlock: Silver/Grey Commonly used for: Heavy vandalism by anonymous or new users.

Note: See Wikipedia:Protection policy#Semi-protection for more details.

Full protection

Administrators may temporarily fully-protect pages which disables editing for everyone except administrators. This level of protection is commonly applied (sparingly) to pages that result in content disputes and repeated edit warring. The protection should be of a limited duration but long enough in order to resolve percieved conflicts.

Editing: Administrators. Moving: Administrators. Padlock: Gold/Brass Commonly used for: More serious disputes, highly visible pages, such as the main page, or very heavily used templates. Cascading protection option: If used, also protects all templates and pages transcluded onto a fully protected page.

Note: Any modification to a fully-protected page should be discussed on its talk page, and only when consensus has been established for a specific change. Administrators should not use their ability to edit these types of protected pages to make changes without prior discussion.

Special protection

When considering protection on pages such as policy pages and noticeboards, look through the pages' protection log first and the user(s) leading up to the previous page protections. You may find a pattern that leads you to consider blocking to be less harmful to the project than another page protection of one of these special pages.

Office actions

Occasionally, the legal officers of the Wikimedia Foundation will protect a page against editing; this is referred to as an "office action". When this is done, a template will be placed on the page so that administrators will be aware of this action. Do not reverse this protection or remove the template! Only the officers may reverse such protection. See Wikipedia:Office actions for more details.

Editing: Administrators can edit these pages technically, but should not do so. Moving: Administrators can move these pages technically, but should not do so. Padlock: Black Used for: Legal disputes. See Wikipedia:Office actions.

See also

• Protecting deleted pages