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Wikipedia Unregistered Users

How are they defined, and what are their permissions?

Wikipedia Unregistered Users

Unregistered users are people who make edits on Wikipedia without creating an account. They are the lowest level of user and have only a few permissions. The main use of this type of account is for reading and basic editing. Unregistered Wikipedia users are identified by their IP Address, and are the only user group who are identified in this way.

Unregistered users can view all pages on Wikipedia (excluding restricted special pages). In terms of editing rights, they are only allowed to edit none protected pages. If a page is protected or semi-protected, they are restricted from editing that page, unless they use a username to login. By logging into an account or creating one, that user's permissions will change.

An unregistered user has the permission to create a talk page in any talk namespace (namespaces are explained here). Image uploading is not permitted for this type of Wikipedia user. In order to do so the user must register with Wikipedia and reach the level of an autoconfirmed user. Creating new articles is not allowed for any unregistered user.

Other Information

There is no verification process when an unregistered user makes an edit on Wikipedia. In short, an unregistered user can make amendments to a page quite easily. If they add an external link to any page however, they must fill out a validation key known as a CAPTCHA.

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