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A very quick newb question from me related to moderating tools.

How do you protect a question if it is eligible to be protected? I don't see a button for it or anything? Is it only an option if answers have been flagged for it or something? I'm just completely in the dark on how the tool works.

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This answer on meta.SE is quite informative about how the protection system works in general.

On this site, only moderators and users with 3,500+ reputation can protect a question.

For the uninitiated: "protecting" a question means that only users with more than 10 reputation can answer it. Protection is designed to prevent new people (who don't understand the norms of stack exchange) from adding low-quality or spurious answers to high-visibility questions they have stumbled upon.

For now, if you see something you think you needs protecting (i.e. a question that is attracting spurious answers from low-rep users) then my suggestion would be that you flag it for moderator attention and we can protect it. The same goes for a protected question where the protection is no longer needed and which should therefore be unprotected.

The guidelines on protection say the following:

  • Do protect questions that are attracting a lot of non-answers or very poor answers (spam, etc.) from new users.

  • Don't protect questions just because they're linked to on a high-traffic news site like Reddit or Ars Technica. While there's certainly some correlation between sudden spikes in popularity and associated non-answers, not all popular questions suffer from this.

  • Do unprotect questions that aren't currently attracting a lot of attention and don't have a long history of unproductive answers.

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  • $\begingroup$ On the Econ.SE (here) it says that you only need 3500 points to protect questions (which I just got), so that's where my confusion is coming from. economics.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/protect-questions $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 21:38
  • $\begingroup$ @KitsuneCavalry I see. I guess we have a lower rep requirement while in beta. I am able to access the protect feature by clicking on the "mod" link, which is next to "share edit delete flag" under each post. But I am not sure if the mod link is only there for moderators. $\endgroup$
    – Ubiquitous Mod
    Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 21:49
  • $\begingroup$ I don't have a mod link, so I am unsure of where to find it. $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 22:02
  • $\begingroup$ @KitsuneCavalry perhaps you could ask on meta.stackexchange.com ? $\endgroup$
    – Ubiquitous Mod
    Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 23:01
  • $\begingroup$ I'll give it a shot. Thanks! $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 23:06
  • $\begingroup$ I missed something very obvious, and now I see the feature. Thanks again. $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 23:16
  • $\begingroup$ @KitsuneCavalry You can only protect questions that are at least 24 hours old, so that may have been the issue as well. $\endgroup$
    – Giskard
    Commented Dec 3, 2016 at 17:55
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    $\begingroup$ @denesp I saw that, and the part about needing at least one answer, but I think when checking for where to look I misclicked and was one a page not eligible for protection. So, silly me. $\endgroup$
    – Kitsune Cavalry Mod
    Commented Dec 3, 2016 at 19:59

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