Last modified: 2010-05-15 15:32:59 UTC
$wgWhitelistEdit = false / true; $wgWhitelistRead = false / array( 'Page', 'Story' ); The current control is with two variables. Edit enables or disables editing of all pages, while Read also can be a whitelist of pages for when reading is blocked. I would like to see these two options combined for both read and edit. $wgBlockAnonRead = false; # true = users must login to read. $wgBlockAnonReadEx = array( 'User Clubhouse'); # Pages exempted from the read policy. $wgBlockAnonEdit = true; # true = users must login to edit. $wgBlockAnonEditEx = array( 'Talk:*', 'User talk:*'); # Pages exempted from the edit policy. The Read/Edit variables determine the general rule of whether anonymous users can read/edit pages or not, while the ReadEx/EditEx variables are exceptions to that rule. The example given has Read = false, so anon can read all pages except those in ReadEx. Edit = true, so anon can edit no pages except those in EditEx. 'Talk:*' is the temporary syntax I chose for "all pages in this namespace". I have implemented this on my own wiki, and it works fine. If the idea isn't shot down right away, I'll make a patch draft with details.
I'm inclined to WONTFIX this; MediaWiki is intended for open access, and is not designed or intended to hide limited numbers of pages.
I have seen that mentioned in other discussions about access control. However, there already is support for blocking edits and reads. I don't suggest this because I want to lock people out, but rather so I won't have to. With this, I can let anonymous users edit discussion pages while main pages remain registered only. Before, turning anonymous edits off was the only option. In the interest of openness, I don't see how letting admins block less than everything is worse than a full block.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 1924 ***
