Editing Wiki (section)

=== Controlling changes ===

{{Self-reference|"Recent changes" redirects here. For the Wikipedia help page, see [[Help:Recent changes]]. For the recent changes page itself, see [[Special:RecentChanges]].}}
[[File:History Comparison Example (Vector).png|thumb|History comparison reports highlight the changes between two revisions of a page.]]
Wikis are generally designed with a ''[[soft security]]'' philosophy in which it is easy to correct mistakes or harmful changes, rather than attempting to prevent them from happening in the first place. This allows them to be very open while providing a means to verify the validity of recent additions to the body of pages. Most wikis offer a ''recent changes'' page which shows recent edits, or a list of edits made within a given time frame.<ref>{{harvnb|Ebersbach|2008|p=20}}</ref> Some wikis can filter the list to remove edits flagged by users as "minor" and [[Internet bot|automated]] edits.<ref>{{harvnb|Ebersbach|2008|p=54}}</ref> The version history feature allows harmful changes to be reverted quickly and easily.<ref name="auto"/>

Some wiki engines provide additional content control, allowing [[remote monitoring and management]] of a page or set of pages to maintain quality. A person willing to maintain pages will be alerted of modifications to them, allowing them to verify the validity of new editions quickly.<ref>{{harvnb|Ebersbach|2008|p=109}}</ref> Such a feature is often called a ''watchlist''.

Some wikis also implement ''patrolled revisions'', in which editors with the requisite credentials can mark edits as being legitimate. A ''flagged revisions'' system can prevent edits from going live until they have been reviewed.<ref>{{citation|title=Wikipedia's Labor Squeeze and its Consequences|journal=Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law|last = Goldman | first = Eric|volume=8}}</ref>

Wikis may allow any person on the web to edit their content without having to register an account on the site first (''anonymous editing''), or require registration as a condition of participation.<ref>{{harvnb|Ebersbach|2008|p=108}}</ref> On implementations where an administrator is able to restrict editing of a page or group of pages to a specific group of users, they may have the option to prevent anonymous editing while allowing it for registered users.<ref name=Noveck/>