Hello, and welcome to your very own counter-vandalism academy page! We'll be using this page for everything related to your training. That means I'll be posting questions, information, and tests here, but don't worry, I'll teach you everything :).
This page will be built-up over your time here at the academy, and I'll add new sections as we go along. If I post something here, please reply directly below my message. If something is in bold it means I want you to reply directly underneath it. Please do so.
In some exercises I will ask you to provide "diffs". See Help:Diffs for how to do this.
Tools
editBefore we start, I wanted to show you some useful tools for counter-vandalism work which can be used by any editor. You can use all of these, none of these, or some of these. I don't mind, these links are just for your convenience. You may have already installed some of these in the past.
Twinkle
editTwinkle is a very popular gadget which is helpful for a variety of tasks. To install it, go here and tick the box that says Twinkle. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "save". When you refresh the page, a "TW" tab will be available on every page, next to the "More" tab. Scrolling over the TW tab will show a list of modules you can use on the particular page. Twinkle has a large number of useful modules, including but not limited to, one which can be used to warn users, one which can be used to request page protection, one which can be used to suggest a page is deleted, and many many more helpful features. It also adds a non-admin "rollback" feature on all diff pages. I highly suggest you enable Twinkle, as it's incredibly useful and poses no risk of harming your account.
Lupin's Anti-vandal tool
editLupin's Anti-vandal tool is extremely helpful for monitoring recent changes in real time. To install it, simply add the following to your common.js.
importScript('User:Lupin/recent2.js');
Refresh the page and you'll find 5 new links on your toolbar (on the left side of the page, underneath "interaction"). These links can be used to better monitor recent changes for possible vandalism.
IRC channels
editIRC is an internet chat program. There are several channels on IRC that can be used to monitor vandalism. #cvn-wp-en connect is probably the most useful. Visit Wikipedia:IRC/Tutorial for information on how to connect to channels.
Navigation Popups
editNavigation popups allow you to hover over links and see a brief preview of the page being linked to. One feature of navigation popups is that when you're at recent changes and hover over "diff" links, you'll have the ability to revert the most recent edit, useful for undoing vandalism. To install navigation popups, go here and tick the box that says Navigation popups. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "save". Refresh the page and navigation popups will be enabled.
Now that you've read these, reply below with which scripts you installed/what you signed up for. I don't mind how many you installed, or if you installed none, it's just so I know and can set tasks using those scripts. Also note that there are many more advanced scripts out there, but they'll only be available to you when you have more experience.
Using all of the above. --Terra ❤ 07:15, 15 May 2016 (UTC)
- Okay, great, I've added your first task below. Omni Flames let's talk about it 07:55, 15 May 2016 (UTC)
Vandalism vs Good Faith
editPlease read WP:VAND, and note the different types of vandalism. Take a look at WP:VANDNOT to see what isn't vandalism. Then read WP:AGF and answer the following questions.
What is the different between vandalism and a good faith edit?
- Vandalism is done to harm and/or disrupt the project/page where as a good faith edit is made by someone who many not, for example, know about a rule/policy, consensus, or be a newcomer.
Why is it important to assume good faith?
- To quote WP:AGF, "Most people try to help the project, not hurt it. If this were untrue, a project like Wikipedia would be doomed from the beginning." Also there are a number of other possibilities than that the user is a vandal.
Please provide 3 diffs of a user vandalizing below. You may choose to revert it if you wish. Note that if it's already reverted, it doesn't matter, you can still provide it.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=England_national_football_team_results_%E2%80%93_2000s&diff=prev&oldid=400180930
- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3ATitodutta&diff=503575728&oldid=503575439
- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:TerraCodes&diff=697420329&oldid=697419783
Please provide 3 diffs of an edit which was made in good faith, but was unhelpful. The same rules apply as with the vandalism edits.
- @TerraCodes: Your answers and your examples all look good to me. Note that in the third example of vandalism you gave, you could've given the user a 4im warning as the vandalism was rather severe. But we'll learn about that in the next assignment... Omni Flames let's talk about it 08:23, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
User Warnings
editRead WP:WARN and WP:UWUL. In short, user warnings are templates used to notify users that their edits have been problematic. Once you've read and thoroughly reviewed those pages, please answer the following questions.
Why and when should warnings be used?
- Warnings should be used to tell someone about a mistake that they are making. It is also used to warn users who are vandalizing.
Should warnings be substituted? If so, how would you do this?
- Yes. By using {{subst:template}}.
When would a 4im warning be appropriate?
- When a user has a level 4 template already but continues.
If a user who has already received a 4/4im level template vandalizes again, what would you do?
- Use Twinkle to report them to WP:AIV.
Please give examples of three warnings that you might need to use while vandal patrolling and explain what they are used for. You can use {{Tlsubst|name of template}} to do this.
- {{subst:Uw-vandalism1}} - Used for the first warning of vandalism.
- {{subst:Uw-disruptive1}} - Used when the user is not vandalism, but not a AGF edit.
- {{subst:Uw-blog}} - Used when the user is writing promotional content. --Northiie 15:36, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
- @TerraCodes: Looks good, your next assignment is below. Omni Flames let's talk about it 11:17, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
Theory in practice
edit- Find and revert some vandalism. Warn each user appropriately, using the correct kind of warning and level. Please include at least two test edits and at least two appropriate reports to AIV. For each revert and warning please fill in a line on the table below
- @TerraCodes: From a quick check, looks good. I won't go through and mark them all now because I don't have the time, but I'll take a better look later. Sorry for being so late, I completely forgot about this. Next task is below. Omni Flames (talk) 12:45, 22 October 2016 (UTC)
Shared IP tagging
editThere are a number of IP user talk page templates which show helpful information to IP users and those wishing to warn or block them. There is a list of these templates
{{Shared IP}}- For general shared IP addresses.{{ISP}}- A modified version specifically for use with ISP organizations.{{Shared IP edu}}- A modified version specifically for use with educational institutions.{{Shared IP gov}}- A modified version specifically for use with government agencies.{{Shared IP corp}}- A modified version specifically for use with businesses.{{Shared IP address (public)}}- A modified version specifically for use with public terminals such as in libraries, etc.{{Mobile IP}}- A modified version specifically for use with a mobile device's IP.{{Dynamic IP}}- A modified version specifically for use with dynamic IPs.{{Static IP}}- A modified version specifically for use with static IPs which may be used by more than one person.
Each of these templates take two parameters, one is the organisation to which the IP address is registered (which can be found out using the links at the bottom of the IP's contribution page. The other is for the host name (which is optional) and can also be found out from the links at the bottom of the IP's contribution page.
Also, given that different people use the IP address, older messages are sometimes refused so as to not confuse the current user of the IP. Generally any messages for the last one-two months are removed, collapsed, or archived. The templates available for this include:
{{OW}}for when the messages are deleted from the talk page.{{Old IP warnings top}}and {{Old IP warnings bottom}} for collapsing the user warnings and leaving them on the talk page.{{Warning archive notice}}for when the messages are archived, and that archiving follows the usually naming sequence (that is, /Archive 1).
NOTE: All of the templates in this section are not substituted (so don't use "subst:").
Nothing to do in this assignment, except for reading it. Once you've seen it let me know below.
- Read~ --TerraCodes (talk to me) 21:50, 22 October 2016 (UTC)