Editing Wikipedia (section)

=== Restrictions ===
Due to Wikipedia's increasing popularity, some editions, including the English version, have introduced editing restrictions for certain cases. For instance, on the English Wikipedia and some other language editions, only registered users may create a new article.<ref group="W">[[Wikipedia:Why create an account]]</ref> On the English Wikipedia, among others, particularly controversial, sensitive, or vandalism-prone pages have been protected to varying degrees.<ref name="Wikipedia:Protection policy" group="W">[[Wikipedia:Protection policy]]</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Hafner |first1=Katie |date=June 17, 2006 |title=Growing Wikipedia Refines Its 'Anyone Can Edit' Policy |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/technology/17wiki.html|url-status=live|url-access=subscription|access-date=December 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212184025/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/technology/17wiki.html|archive-date=December 12, 2022}}</ref> A frequently vandalized article can be "semi-protected" or "extended confirmed protected", meaning that only "autoconfirmed" or "extended confirmed" editors can modify it.<ref name="Wikipedia:Protection policy" group="W" /> A particularly contentious article may be locked so that only [[Wikipedia administrators|administrators]] can make changes.<ref group="W">[[Wikipedia:Protection policy#Full protection]]</ref> A 2021 article in the ''[[Columbia Journalism Review]]'' identified Wikipedia's page-protection policies as "perhaps the most important" means at its disposal to "regulate its market of ideas".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Harrison |first1=Stephen |last2=Benjakob |first2=Omer |date=January 14, 2021 |title=Wikipedia is twenty. It's time to start covering it better. |url=https://www.cjr.org/opinion/wikipedia-is-twenty-its-time-to-start-covering-it-better.php|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117150508/https://www.cjr.org/opinion/wikipedia-is-twenty-its-time-to-start-covering-it-better.php|archive-date=January 17, 2023|access-date=January 15, 2021 |website=[[Columbia Journalism Review]]}}</ref>

In certain cases, all editors are allowed to submit modifications, but review is required for some editors, depending on certain conditions. For example, the [[German Wikipedia]] maintains "stable versions" of articles which have passed certain reviews.<ref name="WP some sites stable versions 1" group="W">{{cite mailing list |first=P. |last=Birken |url=https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikide-l/2008-December/021594.html |title=Bericht Gesichtete Versionen|mailing-list=Wikide-l |date=December 14, 2008 |language=de |publisher=Wikimedia Foundation|access-date=February 15, 2009|archive-date=June 22, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140622083323/http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikide-l/2008-December/021594.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Following protracted trials and community discussion, the English Wikipedia introduced the "pending changes" system in December 2012.<ref name="BInsider pending changes intro 1">{{cite news |last=Henderson |first=William |date=December 10, 2012 |title=Wikipedia Has Figured Out A New Way To Stop Vandals In Their Tracks |work=[[Insider Inc.|Business Insider]] |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/pending-changes-safeguard-on-wikipedia-2012-12|url-status=live|access-date=January 22, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221113161520/https://www.businessinsider.com/pending-changes-safeguard-on-wikipedia-2012-12|archive-date=November 13, 2022}}</ref> Under this system, new and unregistered users' edits to certain controversial or vandalism-prone articles are reviewed by established users before they are published.<ref>{{cite news |last=Frewin |first=Jonathan |date=June 15, 2010 |title=Wikipedia unlocks divisive pages for editing |journal=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/10312095|url-status=live|access-date=August 21, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221127041149/https://www.bbc.com/news/10312095|archive-date=November 27, 2022}}</ref> However, restrictions on editing may reduce the editor engagement as well as efforts to diversify the editing community.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ajmani |first1=Leah |last2=Vincent |first2=Nicholas |last3=Chancellor |first3=Stevie |date=September 28, 2023 |title=Peer Produced Friction: How Page Protection on Wikipedia Affects Editor Engagement and Concentration |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3610198 |journal=Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction |language=en |volume=7 |issue=CSCW2 |pages=1–33 |doi=10.1145/3610198 |issn=2573-0142 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |access-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915061444/https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3610198 |url-status=live }}</ref>