Editing Incubator escapee wiki:Protection policy (section)

==== Guidance for administrators ====
Semi-protection should {{em|not}} be used as a preemptive measure against vandalism that has not yet occurred or to privilege registered users over unregistered users in (valid) content disputes.

Administrators may apply {{em|temporary}} semi-protection on pages that are:
* Subject to significant but temporary vandalism or disruption (for example, due to [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia in the media|media attention]]) if [[Wikipedia:Blocking policy|blocking]] individual users is not a feasible option.
* Subject to [[Wikipedia:Edit warring|edit warring]] if {{em|all}} parties involved are unregistered or new editors. This does {{em|not}} apply when autoconfirmed users are involved.
* Subject to [[Wikipedia:Vandalism|vandalism]] or [[Wikipedia:Edit warring|edit warring]] where unregistered editors are engaging in [[IP address#Dynamic IP|IP hopping]] by using different computers, obtaining new addresses by using [[dynamic IP]] allocation, or other address-changing schemes.
* Article discussion pages, if they have been subject to persistent disruption. Such protection should be used sparingly because it prevents unregistered and newly registered users from participating in discussions.
* Protection should be used sparingly on the talk pages of blocked users, including IP addresses. Instead the user should be re-blocked with talk page editing disallowed. When required, or when re-blocking without talk page editing allowed is unsuccessful, protection should be implemented for only a brief period not exceeding the duration of the block.

In addition, administrators may apply {{em|indefinite}} semi-protection to pages that are subject to heavy and persistent [[Wikipedia:Vandalism|vandalism]] or violations of [[:Category:Wikipedia content policies|content policy]] (such as [[Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons|biographies of living persons]], [[Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|neutral point of view]]).

A page and its talk page should not normally be protected at the same time. In exceptional cases, if a page and its talk page are both protected, the talk page should direct affected editors to [[WP:RFED|Wikipedia:Request for edit]] through the use of a non-iconified page protection template, to ensure that no editor is entirely prevented from contributing.

[[Wikipedia:Today's featured article|Today's featured article]] is, since 2023, always semi-protected. [[Wikipedia:Main Page featured article protection|This was historically not the case]], however.