[WikiEN-l] Proposal: limited extension of semi-protection policy

[Anthony DiPierro]

On 5/21/06, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
> maru dubshinki wrote:
> > I have to disagree with you here. Wikipedia is famous as the
> > Encyclopedia "anyone can edit". If a random anon sees a page and tries
> > to edit it, and cannot (while the main page still proclaims how
> > everyone can edit), they are going to be dreadfully confused- lord
> > knows enough are confused by the basic idea without adding on a second
> > level of possible confusion. Perhaps two templates: the scary one for
> > temporary semiprotection, and another, more discreet one for the more
> > permanent ones?
>
> I would support something like that, or better yet, perhaps having the
> default for semi-protection be that the 'edit this page' tab is still
> there and active, but when you click it and you can't edit, you get a
> nice explanation there that yes, anyone can edit, but that for this
> particular page, you can't edit it at this moment.  In this way, we only
> bother telling people who are interested in editing, without having a
> strange message for people who only want to read.
>
The only thing I'd be concerned about is making sure that this is
implemented in a way which still allows for easy access to the wiki
source (without going through Special:Export).  Just an implementation
issue, but IMO an important one.

Anthony