Alright I'd really like some help here recently I made a template that seems to be very popular among the people who have joined and I was wondering how do I protect my work and make it so that only people who have permisson can use my templates? I've been wondering for awhile and I honestly just want to protect the work I've put into the game.

You can't do anything. Anyone (with sufficient level or Membership/Expansion pack) can just create game with exactly the same settings as yours. That's how it works, just live with it :)

You could only invite people you trust to the games, and ask them not to distribute?

Why are you so possessive of your templates? Do you care to share a link so that we can see what you're talking about?

That's like trying to stop people from copying your drinking game. It's just a set of rules, nothing to stop people from doing the same thing. The best you can hope for if you want recognition is to give your template a name that includes your name. Most people are willing to give credit where it's due. But stop people from using it? Not gonna happen.

I'm not trying to keep people from playing the template or using it i just wanted to keep what little I do have safe because I've heard of players like Nation of Islam who claim other people's templates as their own then slander the actual creator which is why I want to protect the little that I've actually given to this community because normally in situations like those the people twist the game to be a terrible version that isn't what the game creator wanted it to be like giving one territory an overridden bonus value that makes the game unplayable almost because they will win every time regardless honestly I'm not trying to complain I'm just trying to look out for my friends and people who play this game with me

How about you post a comment on the "rate my map" page with the link to the template. Then, if anyone asks, you can point to that comment and say: Here, this is mine.