Commons:Abuse filter

Shortcut: COM:FILTER AbuseFilter is a tool used to allow privileged users to set specific controls on user activity and create automated reactions for certain behaviours.

The extension allows automatic filters/heuristics to be applied to all edits. Specific rules can be developed, such as "users with fewer than 500 edits are blocked from moving pages to titles which match this regular expression: /poop/". Of course, the rules can get quite a bit more complicated – for example, a rule that blocks all pagemove vandalism with a 70% success rate (and with the option of blocking the IP address of the user making these page moves), with about 2-3 false positives per year (checked on the last year's worth of moves for English Wikipedia).

All users will be able to view some filters, and all log entries. For all filters, including those hidden from public view, a brief, general summary of what the rule targets will be available, and displayed in the log, the list of active filters, and in any error messages generated by the filter.

We're planning on treading carefully – most abuse filters will be tested for a few days (in "log only" mode) before being brought to full force.

See Commons:Abuse filter/Messages for an overview of the current warning messages.

Filter problems

I've tried to add a short description of an online game "Virtonomics" and filter has blocked my article as "inconstructive". What seems to be the problem? What should I do to pass the filters?

Sorry, I somehow missed this. The reason why the filter blocked your edit is due to the following: Wikimedia Commons (this page) is a free media repository. The users here usually sort their images in structures so that they can easily be found by re-users; this can happen via two ways: One can either categorize their files or they can be added into a gallery with the same topic. We use the mainspace for these galleries, because this fits the best: By default, this namespace is for articles (as it's on Wikipedia), but Wikimedia Commons isn't made for articles. It's a media database, not an encyclopedia, which makes this namespace free for our galleries. As a criteria, galleries need to contain images, of course, otherwise it's not a gallery. If they don't contain them, then an edit might be blocked because the galleries would be deleted anyways if created. Considering your contribution, I'd recommend trying to create the article on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This project is made for writing articles. If you want, I can send you a copy of your "gallery", so that you can create the article over at Wikipedia. --The Evil IP address (talk) 10:31, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

False positives

If you notice that a filter is causing false positives, please note it here. If the filter isn't doing what it should, it'll either be repaired, or disabled until it can be improved.

Nahuel Huapi

I tyed to create a category about Nahuel Huapi Lake but I was blocked because it was "potentially uncosntructive", who created thgis stupid bot???

Hello. The problem with the edit was that you didn't create a category, but a gallery. Categories and galleries are two different things. If you want to create a category, you must add "Category:" as a prefix of the pagename, for example Category:Nahuel Huapi Lake. --The Evil IP address (talk) 21:48, 13 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Gallery

The page "Dutch Pronunciation" ([[1]]) starts off with a sentence in “Afrikaans”. Well, the sentence is not Afrikaans. I just tried to fix it. Many Dutch and Afrikaans speakers think that both languages are ‘the same’. They're not and I beleive mistakes such as that re-inforce such a misconception. The page did exist without pictures (although it has sound clips), couldn't it continue without any, since pictures aren't relevant to pronunciation? Baie dankie.

Fixed --The Evil IP address (talk) 15:47, 12 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

User Page

The filter is preventing me from deleting data on my user page which is outdated, namely the websites which I'm not affiliated with anymore. Definitely a false positive. Thanks! TimLee90 (talk)

Please log in. Then filter will not prevent your edit. Kwj2772 (msg) 03:27, 1 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

~~It does prevent me from starting a user page although I am most certainly logged in. --eistreter → 09:14, 2 October 2009 (UTC)~~ was just a typo in the page name. --eistreter → 09:18, 2 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This filter is preventing me from adding to my user page.Lando09 (talk) 21:21, 26 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Should be possible now, let me know if not. (This is certainly not a perfect solution, I know, I'll work on something better). --The Evil IP address (talk) 21:42, 26 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks, it works fine now.Lando09 (talk) 23:25, 26 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Gallery

I would like to create the category Category:Soltau-Ahlften but a filter is prohibiting it. Soltau-Ahlften is a district of the city Soltau and would contain two pictures. Isn't that okay? Etmot (talk) 11:22, 7 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The problem is that you created the gallery page for Soltau-Ahlften. If you want to create a category, you need to add the prefix "Category:", in this case Soltau-Ahlften. --The Evil IP address (talk) 12:58, 7 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I was creating gallery of Sandro Botticelli, the story is : I was searching for picture of Botticelli's work to insert in my user page and I noticed, that a lot of pictures of Botticelli categorised not properly, impossible to understand something, difficult to find, different languages, so I was beggining to do the appropriate gallery of all works. Now ?--Italiamoderna (talk) 09:59, 11 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You've added <gallery></gallery>. Such strings mustn't be on a page, which is why the abusefilter triggered your edit. Just leave this bit out and you can create the gallery. --The Evil IP address (talk) 11:53, 11 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fantastic! It works. Thanks a lot!--Italiamoderna (talk) 12:37, 11 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Augustinum Hamburg

I created "Category:Augustinum Hamburg". The "File:Hh-kuehlhaus-neumuehlen2.jpg" I have categorised as "Category:Augustinum Hamburg" because it is now a retirement home in Hamburg and belongs to the many "Augustinums" in quite a lot of German cities. The creation of "Category:Augustinum Hamburg" has been refused like this: "There is no image in this category". Perfect nonsense. Of course there is at least one image: that is "File:Hh-kuehlhaus-neumuehlen2.jpg". And there are many more images of this building in Commons I also would like to add to this category. This is not possible. Why? Is this going to happen very often? Then the system should be corrected. So what can I do? Please compare this case with Category:Altenheim Sankt Ludgeri in Essen which actually exists. H.Albatros, 8 September 2009

Halo, das liegt daran, dass du nicht eine Kategorie, sondern eine Galerie erstellt hast. Jede Kategorie muss den Präfix „Category:“ vor dem eigentlichen Namen haben, ansonsten zählt es als Galerie, und diese müssen, abgesehen von Begriffsklärungsseiten, Bilder enthalten, da sie sonst außerhalb des Projektrahmens fallen. Wenn dieses Problem noch häufiger kommt, füge ich vielleicht mal was in die Nachricht ein. --The Evil IP address (talk) 18:53, 8 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Category:Barracuda class submarine

This is attached to SS-164, which isn't the '50s boat in which category it's included. Neither is SS-165, also included.... Trying to delete the cat to address this, I got locked out. Can somebody with more priveledges fix this?

Info namespace pages

This filter is stopping me editing Info: namespace pages because it thinks that they should contain images (ie it thinks I am editing a gallery page). Please fix ASAP. --Tony Wills (talk) 22:23, 20 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Though I think they should rather have their own namespace than being a gallery, it's fixed now. --The Evil IP address (talk) 13:27, 21 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Japanese pronunciation

I'm trying to convert a romanization seen from jyuu to jū at Japanese pronunciation - But the filter keeps blocking my edit. WhisperToMe (talk) 09:27, 23 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed. Thanks for reporting. --The Evil IP address (talk) 13:09, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Star Astronomy

This File:Admiral T & Wyclef Jean.jpg is not a star, in astronomic sense (is it in another sense?). The filter did not let me remove the category. 189.6.178.243 00:04, 3 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Category:Stars is the only cat of the image. maybe you should first add an appropiate one and then remove the false --AwOc 08:22, 3 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Category removal

Trying to remove inappropriate category from File:DesertFlow.jpg, but filter is preventing the change. Singularity42 (talk) 01:50, 7 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

same as above: there is only one content category. find an appropiate first, then remove the wrong --AwOc 06:33, 7 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Removal of pictures

The pictures in Hypergerus atriceps are of a different species, but when I wanted to remove them, the filter refused, because none remained. So if the pictures cannot be removed, then please delete the gallery. ChriKo (talk) 22:38, 3 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Please either move them to the correct place (by using the "move" tab at the top) or if the page already exists, nominate it for speedy deletion with {{speedy|These pictures are of a different species whose gallery already exists}}. --The Evil IP address (talk) 06:57, 4 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

INCORRECT PHOTO

There is a photo of a young woman in costume on the page for Ruth Draper, monologue artist, but it is most definitely not a photo of Draper. It may be someone else named Ruth Draper, but it is not the monologue artist. I can't figure out how to get rid of it.

It's because you simply removed the {{Information}} table with all the information in it. This table should usually be left there, as it's important for images. Also, please don't add comments to the description page, this is not the place for them. You should write them on the talk page, which you can access by clicking the "discussion" tab on a file page. In this case, it's probably good to rename the image and to change the description. For the renaming, add {{rename|new image name|reason for the rename}}; for changing the description there, look out for |Description= in the source. This is where you'll find the description. Hope that helps, otherwise feel free to ask me once again. --The Evil IP address (talk) 08:55, 6 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Change in Licensing Information

I have been prevented from editing the licensing information on the following page: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NPS_arrowhead_1952.jpg The licensing section says that the NPS arrowhead is public domain. This is incorrect. The Arrowhead Symbol is the official symbol of the U.S. National Park Service, and all use must be in accordance with 36 C.F.R. Part 11. Any unauthorized use is a violation of 18 U.S.C. §701, punishable by a fine or imprisonment or both. This edit is being attempted by the National Park Service, Office of Policy. The abuse filter needs to be removed to allow the licensing to be changed to a registered trademark.

Changing the license section is not a problem, the only problematic is to remove the category at the bottom. You must leave the string “[[Category:...]]” within the page, because otherwise the page will be left uncategorized and we already have enough of those, we don't need more ;-) --The Evil IP address (talk) 21:54, 13 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wide images false positive

I tried to create a page with 2 wide images, using the wide image template, but the abuse filter was preventing me, saying that the page contained no image. I had to add a thumb image to get rid of the filter. --S23678 (talk) 09:06, 14 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed, thanks for reporting. --The Evil IP address (talk) 12:01, 14 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Source code in asymptote

Hello, I tried to add the "asymptote" source code for a figure I wrote but the filter did not seem to want ... This is the code : I wanted to add on [[::File:IntegerAddition.png]]. I did that for another file [[::File:Relatives_Numbers_Representation.png]] but it was not a problem ...

The edit is here : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discussion_utilisateur:TomT0m/FalsePositive

Hello. the mistake is that you added the part [], which is recognized as test editing. I've made you a "confirmed" user, this might disable the abuse filter. If this doesn't work, you can either ask me to add it or wait 4 days to add it yourself. --The Evil IP address (talk) 18:49, 26 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Atlas index

Atlas index cannot be edited. Qorilla (talk) 12:34, 14 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Question Can you tell me why this page is in the gallery namespace and not in another one, like the Commons namespace? --The Evil IP address (talk) 13:06, 14 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No idea, I just tried to add another region to the index. I guess the Commons namespace would fit it better than the gallery. Qorilla (talk) 13:14, 14 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: I exempted it for the moment, will now ask if it should really be in there. --The Evil IP address (talk) 11:52, 15 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Image info

I'm trying to update the meager information given for File:William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - The Young Shepherdess (1885).jpg, but it's being blocked. I don't know specifically what the filter thinks is wrong with it. The text I'm trying to add is:

hidden

{{Painting
 | Artist         = {{Creator:William-Adolphe Bouguereau}}
 | Title          =
{{en|''The Young Shepherdess''}}
{{fr|''La jeune bergère''}}
 | Year           = 1885
 | Technique      = {{en|Oil on canvas, mounted on board}}
 | Dimensions     = {{size|in|62|28.5}}
 | Gallery        = {{en|[[w:en:San Diego Museum of Art|San Diego Museum of Art]]}}
 | Location       = {{en|[[w:en:San Diego|San Diego]], California, United States}}
 | Notes          = {{en|Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin S. Larsen}}
 | Source         = 
 | ID             = 1968:82
 | Permission     = {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}
 | Other versions = 
}}

I'm not trying to modify any of the categories. --Ossopyvn (talk) 09:53, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

English

Done, also possible now. --The Evil IP address (talk) 13:56, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Moving image to Commons

I am trying to move b:File:Anatomy and physiology of animals Blue hills.jpg with CommonsHelper and getting MediaWiki:Abusefilter-disallowed. I've tried uploading to a different name with the same results. It's not clear at all what the problem is. -- Adrignola (talk) 18:55, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The problem is that that's a Microsoft Windows sample image. Even though it ships with every copy of Windows (XP, at least; don't know about later versions), it's not a free image. Since people keep trying to upload those sample images to Commons quite often, I set up an abuse filter rule that blocks such uploads based on the SHA1 hash. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 09:54, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Been a while since I've used XP. It's not used on the project so I'll delete it. Thanks for letting me know. -- Adrignola (talk) 23:03, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Moving signature page to merged account subpage

The page is this: User:Blast/signature. Oc t ane 08.01.10 0254 (UTC)

Reduced to warn only, as there were too many false positives. So you now simply need to click "move" just twice. --The Evil IP address (talk) 19:27, 8 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Filter requests

If you have an idea for a filter and you need help developing it, add a request here.

Sun scald

I am to create a Sun scald category to cover this phenomenon that is found on tree bark. It is being autoblocked. Problem? RSLlGriffith (talk) 17:20, 20 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That's because you didn't tried to create a category, but a gallery. As this has now happened quite a few times, I've updated the warning. --The Evil IP address (talk) 13:35, 21 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

French mystic

I'm trying to creat a gallery on a French mystic which you have just blocked. Firstly, I inserted the text and, then, I was going to insert somos photos, but the text was blocked. Why? Tchibum.

Hello, this is because galleries must contain images. Unlike Wikipedia, Commons isn't made for encyclopedical articles, but for media files and galleries of those. Text contributions are not within our project goals. If you want to create a gallery, you must insert images in there for example by using the <gallery>-tags. If you don't yet have them, you can start a draft at User:Tchibum/Serge Raynaud de la Ferriere and move it to Serge Raynaud de la Ferriere when it's finished. However, I would recommend you to extremely shorten the text. The introduction text should be one, two short sentences about the subject. If the reader wants to read more about the subject, Wikipedia is the place for this. The page Commons:Galleries might be helpful for your intention of creating a new gallery. --The Evil IP address (talk) 17:08, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

File:Nl-Appelstroop-article.ogg

Abuse filter was activated after using the Dutch spoken article template, which has the information template transcluded inside it. Message received: An automated filter has identified this edit as potentially unconstructive, and it has been disallowed. If this edit is constructive, please report this error. - the edit IS constructive, we've got 650 of these to do, and it's gonna be a pain in the bum if each has to be reported here :) BarkingFish (talk) 05:06, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

English

Done, the template should now be addable. --The Evil IP address (talk) 13:54, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Removal of photos

I've just tried to remove an incorrectly identified photo from this page (contrary to what the file-name suggests, the photo does not show Molothrus oryzivora), but this is proving impossible, because the filter identifies the edit as "potentially uncontructive". • Rabo³ • 20:12, 15 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The reason why the edit was triggered is because after your removal an empty gallery. A gallery page is pointless if there are no images in it. In this case, you should either move the page to the name of the species that's shown on the image or if such a page already exists, propose it for speedy deletion by using {{speedy|gallery doesn't contain images on this species; the species gallery of the depicted picture is at <insert gallery name here>}}. Furthermore, it might be useful to let the image be renamed by an admininstrator as it has the same title as the gallery: You can do this by adding {{rename|new filename.ext|reason}} to the file description page. I hope that helps. --The Evil IP address (talk) 21:54, 15 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Commons:Abuse filter

Contents

Filter problems