Thread:TotallyTinkerbell/@comment-25680254-20141113233543/@comment-25112275-20141114145346

Hello Anon,

I’d like to address this issue.

The rules currently on the wiki are outdated. They were the rules implemented when the wiki was first made. Those rules were made to apply to a general public. They were meant for chat, and wiki behavior. Such as what should be talked about, what should appear and what should not. When they were made, the past admins didn’t have troubles with malicious edits. They did not include editing or other matters that are now being addressed.

The current policies on rules, editing, etc. have not yet been implemented on the rules page. This is my area to edit as an admin. However, I have been unable to update the page as a family member of mine has passed away. I have taken this week and weekend off to go see my family and grieve with them.

When I come back, the page will be full updated, to the new and easier to understand rules. However, the rule you are asking about will be explained below.

95% of malicious edits are made up from Anonymous users / IP users / A Wikia contributor.

Recently, we’ve had a lot of malicious edits being made to character and episode pages. One such occasion was a few days ago, where Clarke’s page was heavily vandalized by an anon user. It was very inappropriate content.

I brought this to the attention of the other admins and the council. Together we decided it would be best to mark new episode pages, to be only edited by users. This allows the admins to watch for malicious edits made by registered users and not have to worry about them from anonymous users. This percent is very low. If it does happen, we can ban the person responsible.

Unfortunately, implementing this change also applies to new users. As of right now, there is not a setting that allows us to be specific in this area, so new users are not allowed to edit a page for a time. This time is 4 days and you need to make at least 10 edits on a non-protected page.

There are non-protected pages on this wiki that also need editing. Many of the characters whom need editing are not protected. Our wish is to only protect high traffic pages (Such as episodes). The Clarke page and the Bellamy page were once considered for protection as well. However, the other admins disagreed with protecting those two pages as well. So for now, the only protected pages are the episode pages.

The point of having a wiki is to contribute about something we all love and enjoy. But sadly some Anonymous users ruin this for others. They like to twist facts, add their own opinion, add speculation, vandalize a page, add incorrect information, or even add nonsense to a page. The wiki as a whole needed some way of protecting itself against malicious or undesired edits.

Because of the times, the admins can be on, not every malicious edit is caught right away. Because of this, they are viewable for a while. We do not have enough users whom are interested in becoming an enforcer to help combat these malicious edits. Those, whom are enforcers, are never online anymore. So now it falls to the admins to try and catch everyone on. Quite simply there is too much to keep up with for the few admins we have right now.

We do not find this type of behavior acceptable. As such this was the admins way of “fighting back”.

When a page is protected, Anonymous users don’t get the chance to make the malicious edits because they don’t want to take the time to sign up. This deters malicious edits on the protected pages quite well. Many wikia’s do this (See TVD’s Elena page). Some even ban Anonymous users from editing any page (See OUAT wiki).

To our wiki, this was a better option than going to the wiki staff team and asking for Anonymous users to be permanently banned from our wiki.

If you have any more questions regarding the rules, you can always ask. The admins did not add this rule lightly. It took us weeks to decide if we wanted this or not. The admins do not add rules without letting the users know. When something is updated, such as the rules page, a mass ping goes out. From there it will take you to the forums to the update and you’ll see every new change.

We do not hide these changes from the users. I just haven’t been able to update the page due to a family death. For this I apologize but sometimes life throws curve balls.

Best regards,

CreateElements