Wikipedia talk:Protection policy

"Extended Confirmed Protected" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Extended Confirmed Protected has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2026 May 13 § Extended confirmed protected until a consensus is reached. Mathguy2718 (talk) 02:54, 13 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Can protected pages in a given user's user-space be edited by that user?

I know that this isn't an important query, since it has no effect on editing, but for over a year, I have wondered if protected pages in the user space of any user who doesn't have the user rights to edit through the level of protection, can be edited by that user. For example, the user pages of ClueBot NG or GoatLordServant.

I've always thought that those pages would be editable by that user, but this policy page doesn't give an answer (unless I somehow missed it), so I figured I would ask here. - BlueEleephant (talk · contribs) 03:06, 17 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know but I would think the answer is no, an editor without the necessary right would not be able to edit a protected user subpage. I could protect your sandbox if you want, then see if you can edit it. Or, ask at WP:VPT if no definitive response here. Johnuniq (talk) 03:22, 17 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]
Since this is probably a rather unimportant question (although I can imagine other new users curious about it), maybe
full-protect User:BlueEleephant/sandbox2 for a few (or 24) hours? Maybe asking at VPT would be the better thing to do, but I am not sure if a future editor would go looking in this talk page's archives, or VPT's archives first, for an answer. - BlueEleephant (talk · contribs) 03:43, 17 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]
I WP:ECP protected for 12 hours. Being unable to edit with ECP would be more convincing that failing to edit through full protection. Please report what happens. Johnuniq (talk) 05:09, 17 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]
It turns out: I can't edit that page anymore, so my myth of protected user-space pages being editable has been busted.
Being unable to edit with ECP would be more convincing that failing to edit through full protection. Completely true that full protection would be overkill; I honestly didn't think much about what type the protection was, so long as it was above semi-protection. - BlueEleephant (talk · contribs) 05:21, 17 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]
Page protection applies to all who would wish to edit the page. You still need the appropriate user right, even if your name is at the top of the page. For some kinds of page, the MediaWiki software imposes additional restrictions, even when no protection has been set explicitly. For example, a page like User:BlueEleephant/common.js (which has no protection) may only be edited by BlueEleephant also by people with the WP:INTADMIN right, but not by anybody else. But protections can still apply here: if that common.js page were subsequently to be fully-protected, BlueEleephant would then be unable to edit it, because they are not an administrator. There are no corresponding methods to selectively relax a protection (i.e. protect for all except certain special cases) in any namespace. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 08:21, 17 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]
Ohhhh, okay. I think what made me think that protected user-space pages could always be editable by the user, is a combination of A) this policy page mentioning the pseudo-protection-type Interface protection without explicitly mentioning that it can't be assigned like other types of protection,[a] and B) user .js/.css pages being editable only by interface administrators and the user themselves. - BlueEleephant (talk · contribs) 14:50, 17 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]
There have been a few cases I've seen over the years where former admins had to request various subpages of theirs be unprotected because they were created/protected when the user was still an admin and the protection wouldn't have mattered at the time. Primefac (talk) 22:15, 18 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Notes

  1. ^ Although, I have known this for a while, but it never made me re-think what I thought I knew about user-space protection.

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