Why Cant I Edit Anything On Wikipedia?

Question

I have an account on Wikipedia and I want to edit some stuff but where the Edit This Page button used to be is now a View Source button and I can't edit the topic. And there is no [Edit] button beside each heading.

Why can't I edit anything?

Answer 1

Some pages in Wikipedia are protected and cannot be edited by normal users.

See for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:T...

Answer 2

Two possibilities:

1) You account is new and you tried to edit a protected page. When your account is 4 days old with at least 10 edits, you will be able to edit semi protected pages.

2) If you are not able to edit ANY page, then you have been blocked. Go to your talk page, you will still be able to edit it. At the bottom of the page write:

{{unblock| Your reason here}}

Add a persuasive reason to get unblocked.

Answer 3

Pages look like that if you are not allowed to edit for some reason, the page is protected, or you are blocked. To see if you have been blocked take a look at your user contributions page. At the top of the page you will see a "block log". Take a look at that. If there is no good reason you should ask to be unblocked, see "Wikipedia:Appealing a block".

Only a few pages are protected and should have a notice at the top of the page. There are two levels of protection. Semi-protection and full protection. Only administrators can edit fully protected pages (and are discouraged even then); only established accounts can edit semi-protected pages.