Wikipedia:Recent changes patrol

"WP:RCP" redirects here. You may be looking for Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission, or the optional RfA candidates opinion poll. NP Patrol is now at Wikipedia:New pages patrol.

Recent changes patrol, or RC patrol, is a volunteer-led patrol whereby individual users check the recent changes of various articles for inappropriate edits.

The patrol is entirely voluntary and carries no obligation. At its heart, it is really just a way to try to ensure that every edited article gets checked in a timely manner and is given a boost on its way to becoming a "featured article", while simultaneously ensuring that Wikipedia is not harmed by unconstructive edits.

Recent Changes Patroller badge

Recent changes Patrol Userbox
Regular RC patrollers may wish to put the RC patrol userbox on their user page by adding {{User wikipedia/RC Patrol}} to their user pages. This user is a recent changes patroller.

Recent changes Patrol Topicon
Regular RC patrollers may wish to put the RC patrol topicon on their user page by adding {{RC patroller topicon}} to their user pages. (A little RCP badge will be displayed in the same way as it does here, in the top-right corner. See?)

What to do

RC patrolling primarily consists of a four-step process:

Identify "bad" or "needy" edits

RC patrollers efficiently identify problematic edits using the tools described below. A bad edit is an edit that, for one reason or another, may need to be entirely removed. A needy edit requires maintenance or improvement in some manner.

Remove or improve the edit

Needy edits should be tagged according to their need, or boldly changed immediately. A useful list of tags can be found at WP:TC. Bad edits should likewise be tagged or deleted. Because Wikipedians do not like their edits being removed, it is important to leave concise but clear justifications on the talk page or in the edit summary. When adding tags, please consider discussing the issue on the article's talk page before adding them in the article itself.

Warn the editor

In the cases of deliberate vandalism or an evident lack of knowledge on Wikipedia procedure, offending editors should be warned on their talk pages. While this is an optional step, the Wikipedia:Guide to administrator intervention against vandalism says that a final warning should always be given before reporting a vandal, and warnings should be a regular part of a patroller's duties, as it minimizes conflict, educates new editors and alerts administrators of repeat offenders. For efficiency and consistency, standard warning templates can be used. However, do feel free to simply write a warning if the available templates are not appropriate.

Check the user's other contributions

You will often find more edits with similar problems. As an RC patroller, you may want to fix those as well.

Being nice to others

See also: Wikipedia:IPs are human too

Throughout the entire process of RC patrol, it is important to remember not to bite the newcomers. A 2006 essay indicated that newcomers, far from being a monolithic horde of vandals, trolls and spammers, wrote most of Wikipedia's content. If you see a new user or IP address contributing, welcome them if you're so inclined, and include a pointer or two of feedback about how they can make their contributions even better. Most will welcome the support.

It is also important to assume good faith as much as possible, or minimally to assume incompetence or lack of experience instead of malice. For example, remember everyone may not be computer-literate; some people will accidentally blank or damage pages when attempting to cut and paste material from Wikipedia. Others may not understand that their edits actually cause an impact on their respective article.

Patrolling edits to existing pages

See also: Wikipedia:Template messages/User talk namespace

One thing to keep in mind is to not only focus on patrolling articles in the main namespace but also to check other pages — such as, for example, image pages, which are frequently victims of nonsensical edits and vandalism. Such unchecked edits may be particularly harmful because the result might be removal of copyright tags.

Newcomer tests

Look for newcomer tests (odd edits which are not vandalism), but do not bite the newcomers. Revert their experiments and leave one of the following messages on their user talk page. Be sure to sign and timestamp (~~~~) the warning. You can use tools such as Twinkle or RedWarn to revert the page and issue the warning faster.

{{subst:uw-test1}} ~~~~

Hello, I'm Example. An edit that you recently made seemed to be a test and has been reverted. If you want to practice editing, please use the sandbox. If you think a mistake was made, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks! ~~~~

{{subst:uw-create1}} ~~~~

Welcome to Wikipedia. A page you recently created may not conform to some of Wikipedia's guidelines for new pages, so it will be removed shortly (if it hasn't been already). Please use the sandbox for any tests, and consider using the Article Wizard. For more information about creating articles, you may want to read Your first article. You may also want to read our introduction page to learn more about contributing. Thank you. ~~~~

{{subst:uw-delete1}} ~~~~ (a variant suitable for blanking)

Hello, I'm Example. I noticed that you recently removed content without adequately explaining why. In the future, it would be helpful to others if you described your changes to Wikipedia with an accurate edit summary. If this was a mistake, don't worry; the removed content has been restored. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks. ~~~~

{{subst:uw-test2}} ~~~~

Please refrain from making test edits in Wikipedia pages, even if you intend to fix them later. Your edits have been reverted. If you would like to experiment again, please use the sandbox. Thank you. ~~~~

{{subst:uw-delete2}} ~~~~

Please do not remove content or templates from pages on Wikipedia without giving a valid reason for the removal in the edit summary. Your content removal does not appear to be constructive and has been reverted. If you only meant to make a test edit, please use the sandbox for that. Thank you. ~~~~

Lack of sources

Addition of unsourced material without proper citations

{{subst:uw-unsor1}} ~~~~

Hello, I'm Example. I noticed that you added or changed content in an article, but you didn't provide a reliable source. It's been removed and archived in the page history for now, but if you'd like to include a citation and re-add it, please do so. You can have a look at referencing for beginners. If you think I made a mistake, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you.

{{subst:uw-unsor2}} ~~~~

Please do not add or change content without citing a reliable source. Please review the guidelines at Wikipedia:Citing sources and take this opportunity to add references to the article. Thank you.

{{subst:uw-unsor3}} ~~~~

Please stop your disruptive editing. If you continue to add unsourced or poorly sourced content, you may be blocked from editing.

Further non-constructive edits sometimes can be viewed as vandalism, and dealt with as below.

Emergencies

• Look for threats of harm. Sometimes, you encounter edits threatening harm to oneself or others while patrolling recent changes. If you do, please follow Wikipedia:Responding to threats of harm.

Spam

• Look for spam. If it comes in the form of articles, nominate them for deletion with {{db-spam}}, place a Proposed Deletion tag on them with {{subst:prod|Your Reasons Here}}, or nominate them at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion. If a user is posting multiple links to a particular website in several articles, revert the edits. In either case, again notify the user with {{subst:uw-spam1}}.

Copyright violations

• Look for copyright violations and revert them. As per the instructions at Wikipedia:Copyright problems, just revert pages to remove copyright violations. However, take care to indicate in the edit summary that this is what you are doing. If an entire article is a copyvio see the section on copyvios in the new pages section below.

Vandalism

Look out for vandalism, and revert it. It is often worthwhile to check the page history after reverting to make sure you have removed all the vandalism. Also, check the user contributions of the vandal - you will often find more malicious edits.

Additionally, leave warning messages on the vandal's talk pages using the following system. Be sure to check discussion pages for possible explanations of edits.

Warning templates

Note that these templates do not need to be used sequentially. If the edit is clearly vandalism, use the template {{uw-vandalism1}} instead. For continuing severe vandalism, {{uw-vandalism2}} may be skipped and {{uw-vandalism3}} given straight after the first warning. If, however, you are not sure that the edit is vandalism, always start with {{uw-test1}}. If a user made such an edit and reverted it themselves, use a {{Uw-selfrevert}}. For extreme or extensive cases of vandalism committed by users who have received no prior warnings, {{uw-vandalism4im}} may be used. The ~~~~ in the templates below cause the time and your signature to be added to the warning.

{{subst:Uw-selfrevert}} ~~~~ (use if an edit appears to be a reversion of a newcomer test)

Welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for reverting your recent experiment. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia. If you would like to experiment further, please use the sandbox instead, as someone could see your edit before you revert it. Thank you.

{{subst:uw-test1}} ~~~~ (use if an edit appears to have possibly not been an intentional act of vandalism)

Hello, I'm Example. An edit that you recently made seemed to be a test and has been reverted. If you want to practice editing, please use the sandbox. If you think a mistake was made, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks!

{{subst:uw-error1}} ~~~~ (use if an edit adds seemingly incorrect information to an article)

Hello, I'm Example. Your recent edit(s) appear to have added incorrect information, so they have been reverted for now. If you believe the information was correct, please cite a reliable source or discuss your change on the article's talk page. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you.

{{subst:uw-vandalism1}} ~~~~ (use if an edit is clearly vandalism)

Hello, I'm Example. I wanted to let you know that one or more of your recent contributions have been undone because they did not appear constructive. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you have any questions, you can ask for assistance at the Teahouse or the Help desk. Thanks.

{{subst:uw-unsor1}} ~~~~ (use if an edit is unreferenced)

Hello, I'm Example. I noticed that you added or changed content in an article, but you didn't provide a reliable source. It's been removed and archived in the page history for now, but if you'd like to include a citation and re-add it, please do so. You can have a look at referencing for beginners. If you think I made a mistake, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you.

{{subst:uw-test2}} ~~~~

Please refrain from making test edits in Wikipedia pages, even if you intend to fix them later. Your edits have been reverted. If you would like to experiment again, please use the sandbox. Thank you.

{{subst:uw-error2}} ~~~~ (use if an edit adds factually incorrect information to an article)

Please do not introduce incorrect information into articles. Your edits could be interpreted as vandalism and have been reverted. If you believe the information you added was correct, please cite references or sources or discuss the changes on the article's talk page before making them again. If you would like to experiment, use the sandbox. Thank you.

{{subst:uw-delete2}} ~~~~ (a variant suitable for vandalism that consists of blanking text)

Please do not remove content or templates from pages on Wikipedia without giving a valid reason for the removal in the edit summary. Your content removal does not appear to be constructive and has been reverted. If you only meant to make a test edit, please use the sandbox for that. Thank you.

{{subst:uw-test3}} ~~~~

Please stop making test edits to Wikipedia. It is considered vandalism, which, under Wikipedia policy, can lead to being blocked from editing. If you would like to experiment again, please use the sandbox.

{{subst:uw-error3}} ~~~~

Please stop your disruptive editing. If you continue to vandalize pages by deliberately introducing incorrect information, you may be blocked from editing.

{{subst:uw-vandalism4}} ~~~~ (not suitable as a first warning)

You may be blocked from editing without further warning the next time you vandalize Wikipedia.

{{subst:uw-vandalism4im}} ~~~~ (used as a first warning for extreme cases of vandalism)

This is your only warning; if you vandalize Wikipedia again, you may be blocked from editing without further notice.

Alternatively, you can use:

{{subst:selftest-n|PageName}} ~~~~

{{subst:uw-test#|PageName}} ~~~~

{{subst:uw-error#|PageName}} ~~~~

{{subst:uw-vandalism#|PageName}} ~~~~

{{subst:uw-delete#|PageName}} ~~~~

{{subst:uw-vandalism4im|PageName}} ~~~~

{{subst:uw-unsor#|PageName}} ~~~~

to explicitly state which articles were vandalized. Where appropriate, replace the "#" with the warning level number (1 to 4). Insert the title of the article being referenced. For example:

{{subst:uw-test1|France}}

Hello, I'm Example. An edit that you recently made to France seemed to be a test and has been reverted. If you want to practice editing, please use the sandbox. If you think a mistake was made, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks!

The "subst" causes the template text to be pasted into the talk page as if you had typed it out, instead of leaving {{subst:uw-test1}} visible when editing the page. This makes the messages more personal to the user, and thus, more friendly. Also, if someone vandalizes the template, then the vandalism will not affect every page that uses the text from the template.

If the vandal will not stop, list them at Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. Ensure that the user has been warned thoroughly before posting a notice on Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism and has had time (three or four minutes) to read the warnings and still ignore them. If a user has not been sufficiently warned, or has only vandalized a couple of times an administrator may simply remove the notice without action.

The blocking administrator will usually leave this or one of the other Block Templates on the vandal's talk page:

{{subst:uw-block1}} ~~~~

You have been blocked temporarily from editing for abuse of editing privileges. Once the block has expired, you are welcome to make useful contributions.

If you think there are good reasons for being unblocked, please read the guide to appealing blocks, then add the following text below the block notice on your talk page: {{unblock|reason=Your reason here ~~~~}}.

Remember to sign and timestamp your warnings by leaving four tildes (like this: ~~~~).

Trace IP address

Also, consider tracing the IP address. Find owners by using:

• ARIN (North America)
• RIPE (Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia)
• APNIC (Asia Pacific)
• LACNIC (Latin American and Caribbean)
• AfriNIC (Africa)

If an address is not in one, it will probably be in another. Then add {{Shared IP}} to the talk pages of users who vandalise – for persons editing from an organization the realisation that they can be traced is often sufficient to make them stop. (See the template page for variations as to schools, libraries, government institutions, etc.)

Tools

The following is a list of tools and resources available for those who want to clean up with a more systematic approach.

Monitoring

Screenshot of Wikipedia recent changes IRC feed

The old school way is to load recent changes and check the (diff) links. It can be filtered according to featured articles, good articles, living people, new accounts' contribs, IPs' contribs, mobile contribs (as these are more prone to vandalism, see Help:Recent changes), and even by likelihood of being damaging or bad-faith. Searching for pages by their namespace and specific tags (e.g. VisualEditor, possible BLP issue or vandalism, etc.) can also be done. If they contain harmful edits, you revert to the previous version. However, the high volume of edits that occur each second makes this difficult to accomplish most of the time, and several tools have been created to simplify the process:

• Huggle is a fast diff browser which parses edits from users and sorts them by predicted level of vandalism. Once identified, malicious edits can be reverted in the click of a button. Due to the fast-paced nature of the program, users on the English Wikipedia must have the rollback permission to use it; however, this is not a requirement on other wikis.
• IRC Bots report at the #cvn-wp-en ^connect channel on the Libera Chat network list suspected vandalism edits (for example: blankings, edits made by blacklisted users, etc.).
• Lupin's Anti-Vandal Tool monitors the RSS feed and flags edits with common vandalism terms. It also has a live spellcheck feature.
• RCMap geolocates anonymous edits from the IRC live feed and displays them on a world map, with links to diffs. Supports multiple languages in a unified interface.

  Please be aware that this program is not hosted on Wikimedia Foundation servers

• RC Patrol is a lightweight script that makes it easier to patrol recent changes. After installing, visit this page. The script uses ORES to automatically determine whether the edit needs review. You need rollback or admin permissions to use the script, just like with Huggle.
• RedWarn patrol can be activated by any user of RedWarn on the recent changes page, quick reviewing and one-click rollback of disruptive edits.
• SWViewer (direct link) is a user-friendly webapp with simple and intuitive UI that enables you to monitor recent changes in real-time. It also provides features to monitor multiple wikis at the same time. In order to use the application, rollback permission is required.
• AntiVandal is another web-based vandalism monitoring tool, similar to Huggle in User Interface. It can be used to quickly revert vandalism and warn the vandal using escalating or 4im only warning templates. Users can also directly report vandals to Administrator Intervention against Vandalism after sufficient warning has been given. Rollback or admin permission is required to use the script.
• WatchlistBot is an XMPP bot that sends messages in realtime when articles are modified. Users with a Jabber account can subscribe to the bot and watch both articles and users.

Rollback tools

These tools extend the rollback feature by allowing you to specify a summary when using rollback. They may also offer additional features:

• Huggle
• RedWarn
• SWViewer
• Ultraviolet
• AntiVandal
• User:Gracenotes/rollback.js
• User:Ilmari Karonen/rollbacksummary.js
• User:Writ_Keeper/rollbackSummary.js
• User:Plantaest/TwinkleMobile (using Twinkle on mobile)

Rollback-like scripts

These tools can be used to achieve the same effect as rollback if you do not have it.

• RC patrol script gives non-administrators revert, filter, and popup tools while using the monobook skin.
• RC review script for today's featured article gives all editors access to see recent changes in the featured article appearing on the Main page

  Please be aware that this program is not hosted on Wikimedia Foundation servers

• Navigation popups are a set of utilities that appear when hovering over wikilinks. Particularly, hovering over links of old versions provides a "revert" link.
• Twinkle gives both non-administrators and administrators three types of rollback functions. Other functions include a full library of speedy deletion functions, user warnings, pseudo-automatic reporting of vandals, and more.
• RedWarn, like Twinkle, gives both non-administrators and administrators nearly twenty types of rollback functions, including a "rollback preview" and "quick rollback".
• Ultraviolet also provides several different types of rollback functions for both non-administrators and administrators, like RedWarn.
• mobileUndo (new version) a script which allows you to revert when using the mobile interface.

Special pages

• User:Adam1213/warn is a page that simplifies the process of warning vandals by allowing warnings to be submitted to specific users directly from the page.

Task Forces

• Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit A voluntary group who will provide assistance at times of high levels of vandalism and advice on counter vandalism methods.
• Wikipedia:Recent changes patrol Another voluntary group who will check recent changes for recently edited pages and intervene if necessary.

IRC channels

Note that these are not operated by or affiliated with Wikipedia.

• #cvn-wp-en ^connect Primary RC bot listing (Activity feed only, discussion takes place in #wikipedia-en ^connect)

  For a list of bot commands, see CVNBot Documentation. To use these commands, you must have a NickServ registration, and be voiced by a channel operator.

• #wikimedia-unifications ^connect Account creations
• #cvn-commons-uploads ^connect File uploads
• #cvn-wp-en-cluenet ^connect Channel that reroutes information from ClueNet. (Read-only, only staff and bots can speak)

Discord server

See also: Wikipedia:Discord

A Discord server has been started to help coordinate anti-vandalism response - please consider joining.

• Join now

Vandalism Detection Score Services

• WMF ORES is a web service and API that provides machine learning as a service for Wikimedia projects maintained by the Scoring Platform team. The system is designed to help automate critical wiki-work – for example, vandalism detection and removal. Currently, the two general types of scores that ORES generates are in the context of “edit quality” and “article quality.”

Other

• Template:Vandalism information, a tool used as an indication of the current overall level of vandalism that is taking place on Wikipedia. On the page, click the edit button below the vandalism meter to change its level from 5 to 1 and/or add a short comment; 5 indicates very low levels of vandalism, and 1 indicates extremely high. You can add the vandalism information template to your userpage to stay up to date. See Template talk:Vandalism information for different styles.
• Countervandalism Network, volunteer group that operates the "#cvn-" channels. This group is not owned by or affiliated with Wikimedia Foundation.
• Wikilink scripts enable you to double click on [[wikilinks]] within IRC clients. Useful if doing patrol on the IRC channels.
• There are other scripts that may be handy while doing cleanup (not necessarily vandalism cleanup). Check them at WikiProject User scripts/Scripts (WP:JS)
• Template:Toolbar experiments, a tool to help with finding test edits in articles.

See also

• Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism – for quick action in clear cases
• Wikipedia:Articles written by a single editor
• Wikipedia:Cleaning up vandalism
• Wikipedia:Edit war
• Wikipedia:IPs are human too – on assumption of vandalism/disruption
• Wikipedia:Page Curation
• Wikipedia:Patrols
• Wikipedia:Template messages/User talk namespace – a grid of templates that may be used on user talk pages
• Wikipedia:The Motivation of a Vandal
• WikiProject New page
• Antivandalism tool on the Android app