Help:Protection

Protection is a technical restriction on pages, usually to impose restrictions on editing to combat vandalism. It could also restrict moving pages, file uploading, or page creation.

Admins can protect pages; others can ask for it at UN:RFP.

The main kinds are full protection (requiring an administrator account to change) and semi protection (requiring at least an autoconfirmed account to change). At the moment, unlike Wikipedia, the absence of a padlock icon does not necessarily indicate an unprotected page.

Further reading

• wikipedia:Help:Protection
• Why?:IPs can't edit the main page (a humorous explanation)