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Of course it's not a blank check. Some users waste so much of other people's time that as a last resort we restrict their editing. Some pages attract so much rubbish, or are so critical to the project, that as a last resort we restrict editing of them. Some material is so damaging that we immediately
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Some experienced users are granted extra powers that enable them to revert even more easily. And some edits seem so obviously wrong that they are automatically reverted by software (which does make mistakes, but rarely, and these can themselves be easily reverted, it's all in the page history).
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licensing. We are obliged to keep records of every text contribution to every article (and to all other pages too but it's the articles that matter). If we fail to do this, we breach our copyright responsibilities. As a result the affected content may not be legally
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changes made to the page since the version that was just saved just disappear from the page, so do this with great caution, and only if you are sure you know what you are doing. (But your edit can then itself be
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by other writers, provided they adhere to their own copyright and copyleft obligations... which includes, attributing the copied material to
Knowledge (XXG), who in turn attribute the material to its authors.
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past version in the page history can be viewed and edited, or just saved without editing. And that's almost any past version of the page....Occasionally a version is deliberately removed from the history, see
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Some material is especially damaging or dangerous or both, and is removed immediately and permanently, and (to all but a few especially trusted editors) completely. This is called
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of pages, removing them from public view. Deleting a particular version of an article, for example, is important if that version contains a copyright violation.
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contributor, even an anonymous one, and they regularly and effectively do this. And we all thank you for this. Again, that's why
Knowledge (XXG) works.
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from editing, either temporarily or permanently. These measures are not punishment, they are purely to protect
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There are various levels of protection. In the case of an article, any level of protection is a last resort, but it's sometimes for the best.
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who views that page. And this applies to our articles, and our policies, and other people's user pages, and many others. Isn't it exciting?
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It contains the advice or opinions of one or more
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These edit histories are a vital part of
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Some articles seem to be a magnet for unconstructive edits, and some pages are especially critical to the project.
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Encyclopedia, and following that link, can change the content of the page.
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Everyone is empowered to change
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all of the bad stuff that leaks into
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with an account and password or are just anonymously browsing, sees and can use an
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Less serious issues (copyright violations, for example) can be dealt with by any
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And so if you do something silly, someone else can easily undo it. We call this
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Every wiki page at
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and is the responsibility of a very few, highly trusted contributors.
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It's generally best to discuss any revert, either on the page's own
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But all of these are rare, and again, that's why Knowledge (XXG)
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Most users never even need to know about blocks and bans.
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If a past version is saved (with or without editing it),
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