<CPOV> Interesting observation about "protection" of Wikipedia articles against IP edits

[Dror Kamir]

Hello,

I used one of the statistical analysis tools offered in the article 
Geert forwarded some three weeks ago "The Unfolding of Wikipedia as a 
Dynamic Socio – Technical System: A Case Study of Controversy". I fed 
the article "Golan Heights" from en-wp into the mechanism, and found a 
simple yet interesting observation, and I'd like to verify it (please 
tell me if I've got something wrong in reading the data).

http://toolserver.org/~soxred93/articleinfo/index.php?article=Golan+Heights&lang=en&wiki=wikipedia&begin=&end=

The article is currently partially "protected" so that only veteran 
registered users can edit it. This is allegedly due to edit wars and 
other interruptions. And yet, statistically, the number of IP edits has 
always been rather low (naturally it dropped to zero after the 
"protection" was applied, but I mean when there was still an option for 
IP edits).

It seems as if by "protecting" the article, the veteran editors of this 
article "cleared the ground" to allow themselves to edit the article 
"freely" without "interruptions" by others, as if saying, "all animals 
can edit, but some animals edit more" (sorry for the sarcasm). I suppose 
the justification for such "protection" is improper edits (allegedly) by 
some anonymous people who switch IP addresses, but then again, when you 
look at the relatively small number of editors to this article (many 
edits with rather few nicknames repeating), it makes one feel unease. 
I'm sure this article is not the only example.

Dror K