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![Screenshot of the error messages received seen when logged out. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Permission error (Main Page). You do not have permission to delete this page, for the following reasons: 1) The action you have requested is limited to users in the group: Administrators. 2) You cannot delete or move the main page. [highlighted in red] 3) You cannot delete this page because it has been protected.](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aEnwiki_Main_Page_delete_error_(Vector_2022_skin).png)
TheMain Page has beendeleted 16 times since it was created. Some deletions resulted from a mistake or misunderstanding, while others were caused by the involved administrators' accounts being compromised. Following these incidents, the page now enjoys asui generis immunity to deletion in the software.[1][2] If someone, including admins,tries to delete it, they will receive the message: "You cannot delete or move the main page." This is not an excuse to try to delete the Main Page; the deletion might work!
One administrator was discussing the deletion of themain page inIRC and asked if the technical ability to delete pages with over 5,000 revisions, like the Main Page, had ever been re-enabled.Another administator jokingly commented that he had tested it and found that the main page still couldn't be deleted. The first admin thought he would test it for himself. The main page got deleted.[3] You might think you are having a laugh, but sometimes, the joke is missed. If you find yourself having to say "jokes do not come across well here", you are best off having avoided the joke in the first place. In other words, do not joke about causing disruption – someone may miss that it was meant in humor or sarcasm and act on it.
Ashonored in the village stocks, a different adminlocked the servers for half an hour by deleting theSandbox, necessitating therestriction of deletions for pages with over 5,000 edits. Hoping to bring it up to the 5000-edit level where it would not be deletable, an editor then used a bot toadd 1,200 useless edits to the Main Page.
An example of an administrator's account being compromised is the deletion as of 05:08, December 8, 2007, whichresulted in a desysopping. The account was apparently used by a relative after the admin failed to log off. Instead, the incident as of May 7, 2007 was the result of a password hack.
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