On Saturday 25 May 2002 12:01 pm, Brion wrote:
As far as I know, the ability to protect pages from
edits by non-sysop
users was added to protect against frequent vandalism of the main page.
Is it appropriate to be using this ability in a content war, for example
[[Reciprocal System of Theory]]?
As a general rule, most definitely yes. But in this case the eidt war had
degenerated in outright replacement with one totally different version with
another, then back again, then another revert, etc. This amounts to a type
vandalism and is counterproductive for all involved (although since this
"vandalism" is only being wrought onto a single article, it makes FAR more
sense to protect the page than even begining to consider banning an IP).
The article can just as easily be unprotected as soon as things settle down
(the period of protection was never meant to last more than a few days --
just enough time for the partisans to talk about what to do next). If a sysop
ever has to do this, then a reason why it had to be done should always be
placed in the talk for that the page in question. As was done.
If that sysop makes a mistake in judgement, then another syop can just as
easily reverse the protection. BUT the other sysops need to be informed that
such action is being taken. Perhaps it will be better to first bring this to
the mailing list instead of just placing a note on talk page....
Just read the talk and especially the old talk for [[Reciprocal System of
Theory]]: One inherently POV version was being advocated by a single person
named Doug and another NPOV version had been worked and agreed upon by a half
dozen others. After a previous version war in January Doug returns and places
his POV version in the place of the agreed upon NPOV version of January. Then
the version war started up again with one version being replaced by another
in kind.
Some discussion should take place as to when this ability should be used. If
it is only appropriate to use the protection function of the software on the
main page and maybe special and possibly on some wikipedia-specific pages,
then this function should be disabled by default to all but those pages.
Please reverse the protection of [[Reciprocal System of Theory]] if this
action was not appropriate.
maveric149