Welcome aboard! I recommend you use RedWarn or Twinkle for this course.
- Redwarn is more intuitive and easy to use, but a little buggy in my experience
- I don't recommend Ultraviolet because it is in beta and getting around bugs requires experience
- Twinkle is slow and hard to use, but very clean once you learn
- User:BrandonXLF/Restorer could be helpful, but not necessary
You can use both Twinkle and RedWarn if you like.
I will add assignments as you complete them. The course should last 1-3 weeks with 10-15 assignments, but depending on how quickly you work on it it could be done in more or less. Final grade will be posted after completion.
Experience is the best teacher! Special:RecentChanges on the filter "Likely have problems" will help you catch vandalism.
Good faith edits edit
Recognizing the intentions of an edit is mostly instinctive. Always keep WP:AGF in mind, but following it to the death is counter-productive to antivandalism efforts, especially when dealing with trolls.
What is the difference between a good-faith edit and a bad-faith one?
Answer: A good-faith edit is one that is not intentional but may be harmful as to the changes that were made. A bad-faith edit is one that is intentional in its purpose to harm this wonderful website.
Warnings edit
Warnings are posted on a user talk page after reverting. After 4, the user can be reported. Some people choose not to leave warnings because of Wikipedia:Deny recognition, however I find it can often spark a dialogue, as well as being justification to report to AIV.
Describe the difference between:
- The blanking warning
Answer:
- The vandalism warning
Answer:
- The spam warning
Answer:
Reverts of Vandalism edit
NOT blanking, spam, etc. Beware of sneaky vandalism, e.g. 1
Diffs:
Reverts of Blanking edit
Example:
Diffs:
Reverts of spam edit
A link to an unrelated social media profile is an example of spam. Check links that IPs insert, most tend to be spam.
Diffs:
AIV edit
AIV is for vandals who have received 4 warnings. An admin patrolling the page will block users reported there. If someone has >4 reverted edits that have been seperately reverted (not rolled back together), you can report without the 4 warnings.
Diff of report/(s) below:
UAA edit
Read WP:USERNAME#Inappropriate usernames
While the criteria can seem complex, a username like poop42069 is reportable, as is ihatewikipediaadmins. A tip is to imagine someone with that username as a contributing editor.
Promotional usernames are also blockable, as are usernames that imply shared use. "zxyshoppingwebsite.com" is unacceptable, especially if this user is adding content to the ZxyShoppingWebsite article. Note that promotional usernames often have a conflict of interest.
Bad usernames can be rare, so you can put examples of blockable usernames here:
Extra credit (5%) if you successfully report a username: