[WikiEN-l] Sysop limits

Wed Apr 30 08:14:20 UTC 2003

On Wed, 2003-04-30 at 00:04, John R. Owens wrote:
> I just wanted to check, if somewhat belatedly, that this wouldn't be 
> considered an abuse of sysop abilities, if I protect one of my own 
> subpages. Taken strictly, it would break the rules, but I don't think it 
> would break the spirit of them at all.

The obvious question is: why would you want to do that? What benefit
will it bring you to prevent your neighbors from editing that page? Is
there some reason that other people possibly editing this mysterious
unnamed page would be harmful?

Protecting a page without a pressing technical or 'wikipedia national
security' need is Seriously Un-Wiki Bad Mojo; expect it to get
un-protected and to receive dirty looks from passers-by if anyone
notices you've done it. ;)

It very very much violates the spirit of the rules; locking of pages is
a technical remedy meant for very rare emergency cases; it isn't
something you do because they're "your" pages and you don't want other
people to touch them. Subpages of your user page (like your user page
itself) are "socially" in your space, but it's a friendly, neighborly,
open space into which you invite your neighbors to play in if they're
interested. There's no picket fence with a locked gateway, and certainly
no razor wire and guard dogs or "no tresspassing" sign.

Of course, if a persistent vandal has been tromping all over one of
"your" subpages, then it probably makes sense to protect it. (But better
if you don't keep editing it during that period.)

> Also, while I'm at it, I wasn't sure about an edit I did earlier on 
> [[Johnny Rebel]] while it was protected. It was just a simple typo  
> correction, "Moustrap" -> "Mousetrap". Is that kind of controversy-free 
> thing OK while it's protected, or should it be completely avoided to 
> prevent even the appearance of possible abuse?

I've got no real objection to fixing typos I guess, unless typos are the
subject of controversy. ;)

-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
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