Undid revision 1046485326 by EthanGaming7640 (talk) Giving this example in the first paragraph is not appropriate. For instance, recent changes patrollers also reverse unsourced content and disruptive edits.
'''Recent changes patrol''', or '''RC patrol''', is a [[Wikipedia:Patrols|Wikipedia communal patrol]] whereby individual [[Wikipedia:Editor|users]] check the [[Special:Recentchanges|recent changes]] of various articles for inappropriate edits such as [[wp:vandalism|vandalism]].
'''Recent changes patrol''', or '''RC patrol''', is a [[Wikipedia:Patrols|Wikipedia communal patrol]] whereby individual [[Wikipedia:Editor|users]] check the [[Special:Recentchanges|recent changes]] of various articles for inappropriate edits.
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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 "[[Wikipedia:Featured articles|featured article]]", while simultaneously ensuring that Wikipedia is not harmed by unconstructive 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 "[[Wikipedia:Featured articles|featured article]]", while simultaneously ensuring that Wikipedia is not harmed by unconstructive 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.
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 to be deleted, 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.
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.[1]
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 not everyone is as computer literate as you; some people will accidentally blank or damage pages when attempting to cut and paste material from Wikipedia. Others may not understand that, yes, their changes really are visible to the entire world immediately.
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 Twinkle to revert the page and issue the warning faster.
{{subst:uw-test1}} ~~~~
Welcome and thank you for your contributions. This is a notice that your test has been reverted or removed. If you would like to experiment further, please use the sandbox instead. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you. ~~~~
{{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 shortly be removed (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 the introduction page to learn more about contributing. Thank you. ~~~~
{{subst:uw-delete1}} ~~~~ (a variant suitable for blanking)
Welcome to Wikipedia. It might not have been your intention, but your recent edit removed content from Wikipedia. When removing content, please specify a reason in the edit summary and discuss edits that are likely to be controversial on the article's talk page. If this was a mistake, don't worry; the content has been restored, as you can see from the page history. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia, and if you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Thank you. ~~~~
{{subst:uw-test2}} ~~~~
Please refrain from making test edits in Wikipedia pages, even if you intend to fix them later. Such edits look similar to vandalism and have been reverted. If you would like to experiment again, please use the sandbox. Thank you. ~~~~
{{subst:uw-delete2}} ~~~~ (a variant suitable for blanking)
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 constructive, and has been reverted. Please make use of the sandbox if you'd like to experiment with test edits. Thank you. ~~~~
Lack of sources
Addition of unsourced material without proper citations
{{subst:uw-unsor1}} ~~~~
Welcome to Wikipedia. We invite everyone to contribute constructively to our encyclopedia. However, adding content without citing a reliable source is not consistent with our policy of verifiability. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you.
{{subst:uw-unsor2}} ~~~~
Please do not add content without citingreliable sources. Before making potentially controversial edits, it is recommended that you discuss them first on the article's talk page. Thank you.
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 {{selftest}}. 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:selftest}} ~~~~ (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. Thank you.
{{subst:uw-test1}} ~~~~ (use if an edit appears to have possibly not been an intentional act of vandalism)
Welcome and thank you for your contributions. This is a notice that your test has been reverted or removed. If you would like to experiment further, please use the sandbox instead. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you.
{{subst:uw-error1}} ~~~~ (use if an edit adds seemingly incorrect information to an article)
Your recent edit appears to have added incorrect information and has been reverted or removed. All information in this encyclopedia must be verifiable in a reliable, published source. If you believe the information that you added was correct, please cite the references or sources or before making the changes, discuss them on the article's talk page. Please use the sandbox for any tests that you wish to make. Do take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you.
{{subst:uw-vandalism1}} ~~~~ (use if an edit is clearly vandalism)
Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to contribute to Wikipedia, at least one of your recent edits did not appear to be constructive and has been reverted or removed. Please use the sandbox for any test edits you would like to make, and read the welcome page to learn more about contributing constructively to this encyclopedia. Thank you.
{{subst:uw-unsor1}} ~~~~ (use if an edit is unreferenced)
Welcome to Wikipedia. Everyone is welcome to contribute to the encyclopedia, but when you add or change content please cite a reliable source for the content of your edit. This helps maintain our policy of verifiability. Take a look at Wikipedia:Citing sources for information about how to cite sources and the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you.
Please refrain from making test edits in Wikipedia pages, even if you intend to fix them later. Such edits appear to be vandalism and 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 appear to be 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 constructive, and has been reverted. Please make use of the sandbox if you'd like to experiment with test edits. Thank you.
Please stop making test edits to Wikipedia. It is considered vandalism, which, under Wikipedia policy, can lead to a loss of editing privileges. If you would like to experiment again, please use the sandbox.
{{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}}
Welcome and thank you for experimenting with Wikipedia. Your test on the page France worked, and it has been reverted or removed. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. If you would like to experiment further, please use the sandbox instead. Thank you.
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:
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.
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-enconnect 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:
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.
Note that these are not operated by or affiliated with Wikipedia.
#cvn-wp-enconnect Primary RC bot listing (Activity feed only, discussion takes place in #wikipedia-enconnect)
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.
WMF ORES is a web service and API that provides machine learningas 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.”[2]
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)
For a listing of current collaborations, tasks, and news, see the Community portal. For a listing of ongoing discussions and current requests, see the Dashboard.
Welcome and thank you for your contributions. This is a notice that your test has been reverted or removed. If you would like to experiment further, please use the sandbox instead. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you. ~~~~
Please do not add unsourced or original content. Doing so violates Wikipedia's verifiability policy. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Thank you.
You may be blocked from editing without further warning the next time you vandalize Wikipedia.
