Wikipedia:No version protection

In cases where a page is protected due to a content dispute, the problem of m:The Wrong Version commonly arises. In order to avoid this, it would be useful to replace the content of the page with {{nvprotected|permlink ID|other permlink ID}} instead of the current {{protected}} template; this is a sort of combination between {{protected}} and {{twoversions}}.

Incentive to resolve

One of the issues with page protection leaving the page stuck on a particular version is that those who like the protected version have little incentive to hurry discussion along: they have prevailed for the moment, and the longer they delay the longer they are certain their preferred version stays.

With this method, the fact that nobody's version is up gives interested parties more incentive to come to a resolution in a timely fashion. Like the twoversions template, the protection template gives a link to both versions of the page and the diff, so that readers can quickly access some version -- any version! -- of the article and see what the issue is about.

Restricted scope

Obviously, this is only for pages protected because of edit-warring over content disputes, not for pages protected because of a sudden flood of vandalism; the idea is to limit it to pages where the dispute is between "two otherwise reasonable parties" who cannot reach agreement (as described by someone I bounced this idea off of previously), so that one lone POV-pusher against consensus cannot get a page blanked.

Origin

This idea was originally proposed on Wikipedia talk:Protection policy[1], but this did not receive enough attention.

Demo

A demonstration of this system is now available.