Technical instructions and special cases
General information and instructions
  • By default, page protection is applied for an indefinite period of time unless you specify a time for it to expire.
  • To specify an expiration, you may either enter a length of time (e.g. "31 hours", "5 days" or "1 week"), or enter a specific date (e.g. "1 January 2025") using the GNU standard format.
  • To remove protection currently applied to a page, modify the specific protection type (edit, move, creation) and set the protection level to "allow all users". Leave the settings unchanged on the protection types that you do not wish to modify.
  • Edit protection and move protection can be applied separately or together, and set to different protection levels and to expire after different lengths of times.
    • If applying page protection to a completely unprotected page, the page protection form will automatically update the move protection settings to match the edit protection settings you enter, unless you specify different move protection settings.
      • To specify move protection settings that are different than the edit protection settings you entered, tick the "unlock further protect options" checkbox and enter the move protection settings accordingly.
      • To apply no move protection alongside edit protection, set the move protection level to "allow all users".
  • If you are not using an automated tool to modify or apply page protection, please update the protection templates on the page after applying your changes.
Important technical information
  • Avoid using non-integer values when entering an expiration (such as "2.37 weeks" or "1.84 days"). The MediaWiki software has interpreted non-integer expirations very badly in the past before.
  • Pending changes protection is unavailable for use on talk pages or anywhere within the user space.
  • Cascading protection is only available when applying full edit protection to a page.
  • The confirmed or autoconfirmed user right is required in order for users to move any pages at all; the page's protection status is completely irrelevant.
Useful links