![]() | If you're a student of mine, then please don't look at this page! Reading this page will spoil the surprise, I'll release the tasks to you as time goes on. |
![]() |
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.
Many of these tasks have been taken from Callanecc until I get time to make my own. Thanks Callanecc.
Before 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 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 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 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 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.
Please 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?
Why is it important to assume good faith?
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.
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.
Read 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?
Should warnings be substituted? If so, how would you do this?
When would a 4im warning be appropriate?
If a user who has already received a 4/4im level template vandalizes again, what would you do?
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.
# | Diff of your revert | Your comment (optional). If you report to AIV please include the diff | My comment |
---|---|---|---|
1 | diff | comment | |
2 | diff | comment | |
3 | diff | comment | |
4 | diff | comment | |
5 | diff | comment | |
6 | diff | comment | |
7 | diff | comment | |
8 | diff | comment | |
9 | diff | comment | |
10 | diff | comment | |
11 | diff | comment | |
12 | diff | comment | |
13 | diff | comment | |
14 | diff | comment | |
15 | diff | comment |
There 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.
Occasionally, some vandals will not appreciate your good work and try to harass or troll you. In these situations, you must remain calm and ignore them. If they engage in harassment or personal attacks, you should not engage with them and leave a note at WP:ANI. If they vandalise your user page or user talk page, simply remove the vandalism without interacting with them. Please read WP:DENY.
Protecting and deleting pages are two additional measures that can be used to prevent and deal with vandalism. Only an administrator can protect or delete pages; however, anyone can nominate a page for deletion or request protection. If you have Twinkle installed, you can use the Twinkle menu to request page protection or speedy deletion (the RPP or CSD options).
Please read the protection policy.
Please read WP:CSD.
Wikipedia has a policy which details the types of usernames which users are permitted to have. Some users (including me) patrol the user creation log to check for new users with inappropriate usernames. There are four kinds of usernames that are specifically disallowed:
Congratulations, now have mastered the "basics" so we can move on. Please complete the following progress test, and I'll tell you what's next.
The following 8 scenarios each have 2-5 questions that are based on WP: VANDAL, WP:3RR, WP: REVERT, WP: BLOCK, WP: GAIV, WP: WARN, WP:UAA, WP:CSD, WP:PP, and WP:UN. Good Luck!
You encounter an IP vandalising Justin Bieber by adding in statements that he is gay.
You see a new account called "Hi999" that has added random letters to one article.
You see a new account called "LaptopsInc" which has created a new page called "Laptops Inc" (which only contains the words "Laptops Inc" and a few lines of text copied from the company's website). The user also added "www.laptopsinc.com" on the Laptop article. You research Laptops Inc on Google and find that is a small company.
You come across an account named "JohnIsAFag". You find that it's created the page "John Simmonds", which reads "John Simmonds is a guy born in 1991. He is still alive today, unfortunately, because he is an idiot. ahsjjdshhsd".
A user creates his userpage with the content "wsjhbw,e3y4y3q7463t43". This is the user's first and only edit to date.
You come across a page on which three different IPs are performing some blatant vandalism. In total, there have been 14 vandalism edits in the past 2 days. 1 of the IPs is blocked, the other two are not. The most recent vandalism edit was 2 hours ago.
The page Great Britain is being vandalized by 2 IPs. Neither have been blocked, but the two have made a total of 7 vandalism edits in the 15 hours. Meanwhile, there's another IP making constructive edits to the page, and even reverting the other IPs.
A page was recently repeatedly vandalized by a single non-autoconfirmed editor. The user made over 60 vandalism edits in under 20 minutes, but was them promptly blocked. No other vandalism has taken place in the past month.
Your Score:
Congratulations now for the next step. The rollback user right allows trusted and experienced vandalism fighters to revert vandalism with the click of one button. Please read WP:Rollback.
There a number of tools which assist users with reverting vandalism. I primarily use two of them WP:HUGGLE & WP:STIKI. These tools can only be used by those with the "rollback" user right.
Huggle is a countervandalism tool which, as well as having options for reverting and warning, has features such as the ability to tag a page for speedy deletion and blocking users (the latter of which can only be used by admins). It also contains a way of checking page history and the user's talk page. Some of the useful features in Huggle include the ability to setup shortcuts, and use custom edit summaries.
STiki is another popular tool for fighting vandalism. It contains fewer options than Huggle but it has an easy-to-use layout which allows for quick reverting. It also has options for good faith reverts and sending 4im level warnings. It's hit rate is around 25%-30%.
Congratulations! You have completed the first section of the anti-vandalism course, well done. Now that we've been through everything that you need to know as a vandal patroller, you will be given a 5 day monitoring period. During this time, you are free to revert vandalism (and edit Wikipedia) as you normally do; I will monitor your progress in anti-vandalism. If there are any issues, I will raise them with you and if you have any problems, you are free to ask me. After five days, if I am satisfied with your progress, you will take the final test; passing this will mean you graduate from the CVUA. Good luck!
If you have any problems or trouble along the way please leave a message on my talk page. If you make any difficult decisions feel free to post the diff below and I'll take a look.
When responding to numbered questions please start your response with "#:" (except where shown otherwise - with **). You don't need to worry about signing your answers.
GOOD LUCK!
What would you do in the following circumstance:
Part | Total available | Your score | Percentage weighting | Your percentage |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 5 | 25 | ||
2 | 11 | 15 | ||
3 | 8 | 10 | ||
4 | 8 | 10 | ||
5 | 7 | 10 | ||
6 | 18 | 30 | ||
TOTAL | 51 | 100 |
Congratulations from both myself and all of the instructors at the Counter Vandalism Unit Academy, on your successful completion of my CVUA instruction and graduation from the Counter Vandalism Unit Academy. You completed your final exam with x% and no issues came up during your 5 day monitoring period; well done.
As a graduate you are entitled to display the following userbox (make sure you replace your enrollee userbox) as well as the graduation message posted on your talk page (this can be treated the same as a
barnstar).
{{User CVUA|graduate}}
:
![]() | This user is a Counter-Vandalism Unit Academy graduate. |
{{subst:Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit/Academy/Graduate|1=Congratulations from both myself and all of the instructors at the Counter Vandalism Unit Academy, on your successful completion of my CVUA instruction and graduation from the Counter Vandalism Unit Academy. You completed your final exam with '''''x'''''% and '''''no''''' issues came up during your 5 day monitoring period; well done and congratulations again. Further information on your achievement can be found [[User:Callanecc/CVUA/<!--Student's Username-->|here]]. ~~~~}}
![]() |
CVU Academy Graduate |
Congratulations from both myself and all of the instructors at the Counter Vandalism Unit Academy, on your successful completion of my CVUA instruction and graduation from the Counter Vandalism Unit Academy. You completed your final exam with x% and no issues came up during your 5 day monitoring period; well done and congratulations again. Further information on your progress through the academy can be found at your Academy page. |
![]() | If you're a student of mine, then please don't look at this page! Reading this page will spoil the surprise, I'll release the tasks to you as time goes on. |
![]() |
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.
Many of these tasks have been taken from Callanecc until I get time to make my own. Thanks Callanecc.
Before 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 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 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 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 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.
Please 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?
Why is it important to assume good faith?
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.
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.
Read 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?
Should warnings be substituted? If so, how would you do this?
When would a 4im warning be appropriate?
If a user who has already received a 4/4im level template vandalizes again, what would you do?
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.
# | Diff of your revert | Your comment (optional). If you report to AIV please include the diff | My comment |
---|---|---|---|
1 | diff | comment | |
2 | diff | comment | |
3 | diff | comment | |
4 | diff | comment | |
5 | diff | comment | |
6 | diff | comment | |
7 | diff | comment | |
8 | diff | comment | |
9 | diff | comment | |
10 | diff | comment | |
11 | diff | comment | |
12 | diff | comment | |
13 | diff | comment | |
14 | diff | comment | |
15 | diff | comment |
There 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.
Occasionally, some vandals will not appreciate your good work and try to harass or troll you. In these situations, you must remain calm and ignore them. If they engage in harassment or personal attacks, you should not engage with them and leave a note at WP:ANI. If they vandalise your user page or user talk page, simply remove the vandalism without interacting with them. Please read WP:DENY.
Protecting and deleting pages are two additional measures that can be used to prevent and deal with vandalism. Only an administrator can protect or delete pages; however, anyone can nominate a page for deletion or request protection. If you have Twinkle installed, you can use the Twinkle menu to request page protection or speedy deletion (the RPP or CSD options).
Please read the protection policy.
Please read WP:CSD.
Wikipedia has a policy which details the types of usernames which users are permitted to have. Some users (including me) patrol the user creation log to check for new users with inappropriate usernames. There are four kinds of usernames that are specifically disallowed:
Congratulations, now have mastered the "basics" so we can move on. Please complete the following progress test, and I'll tell you what's next.
The following 8 scenarios each have 2-5 questions that are based on WP: VANDAL, WP:3RR, WP: REVERT, WP: BLOCK, WP: GAIV, WP: WARN, WP:UAA, WP:CSD, WP:PP, and WP:UN. Good Luck!
You encounter an IP vandalising Justin Bieber by adding in statements that he is gay.
You see a new account called "Hi999" that has added random letters to one article.
You see a new account called "LaptopsInc" which has created a new page called "Laptops Inc" (which only contains the words "Laptops Inc" and a few lines of text copied from the company's website). The user also added "www.laptopsinc.com" on the Laptop article. You research Laptops Inc on Google and find that is a small company.
You come across an account named "JohnIsAFag". You find that it's created the page "John Simmonds", which reads "John Simmonds is a guy born in 1991. He is still alive today, unfortunately, because he is an idiot. ahsjjdshhsd".
A user creates his userpage with the content "wsjhbw,e3y4y3q7463t43". This is the user's first and only edit to date.
You come across a page on which three different IPs are performing some blatant vandalism. In total, there have been 14 vandalism edits in the past 2 days. 1 of the IPs is blocked, the other two are not. The most recent vandalism edit was 2 hours ago.
The page Great Britain is being vandalized by 2 IPs. Neither have been blocked, but the two have made a total of 7 vandalism edits in the 15 hours. Meanwhile, there's another IP making constructive edits to the page, and even reverting the other IPs.
A page was recently repeatedly vandalized by a single non-autoconfirmed editor. The user made over 60 vandalism edits in under 20 minutes, but was them promptly blocked. No other vandalism has taken place in the past month.
Your Score:
Congratulations now for the next step. The rollback user right allows trusted and experienced vandalism fighters to revert vandalism with the click of one button. Please read WP:Rollback.
There a number of tools which assist users with reverting vandalism. I primarily use two of them WP:HUGGLE & WP:STIKI. These tools can only be used by those with the "rollback" user right.
Huggle is a countervandalism tool which, as well as having options for reverting and warning, has features such as the ability to tag a page for speedy deletion and blocking users (the latter of which can only be used by admins). It also contains a way of checking page history and the user's talk page. Some of the useful features in Huggle include the ability to setup shortcuts, and use custom edit summaries.
STiki is another popular tool for fighting vandalism. It contains fewer options than Huggle but it has an easy-to-use layout which allows for quick reverting. It also has options for good faith reverts and sending 4im level warnings. It's hit rate is around 25%-30%.
Congratulations! You have completed the first section of the anti-vandalism course, well done. Now that we've been through everything that you need to know as a vandal patroller, you will be given a 5 day monitoring period. During this time, you are free to revert vandalism (and edit Wikipedia) as you normally do; I will monitor your progress in anti-vandalism. If there are any issues, I will raise them with you and if you have any problems, you are free to ask me. After five days, if I am satisfied with your progress, you will take the final test; passing this will mean you graduate from the CVUA. Good luck!
If you have any problems or trouble along the way please leave a message on my talk page. If you make any difficult decisions feel free to post the diff below and I'll take a look.
When responding to numbered questions please start your response with "#:" (except where shown otherwise - with **). You don't need to worry about signing your answers.
GOOD LUCK!
What would you do in the following circumstance:
Part | Total available | Your score | Percentage weighting | Your percentage |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 5 | 25 | ||
2 | 11 | 15 | ||
3 | 8 | 10 | ||
4 | 8 | 10 | ||
5 | 7 | 10 | ||
6 | 18 | 30 | ||
TOTAL | 51 | 100 |
Congratulations from both myself and all of the instructors at the Counter Vandalism Unit Academy, on your successful completion of my CVUA instruction and graduation from the Counter Vandalism Unit Academy. You completed your final exam with x% and no issues came up during your 5 day monitoring period; well done.
As a graduate you are entitled to display the following userbox (make sure you replace your enrollee userbox) as well as the graduation message posted on your talk page (this can be treated the same as a
barnstar).
{{User CVUA|graduate}}
:
![]() | This user is a Counter-Vandalism Unit Academy graduate. |
{{subst:Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit/Academy/Graduate|1=Congratulations from both myself and all of the instructors at the Counter Vandalism Unit Academy, on your successful completion of my CVUA instruction and graduation from the Counter Vandalism Unit Academy. You completed your final exam with '''''x'''''% and '''''no''''' issues came up during your 5 day monitoring period; well done and congratulations again. Further information on your achievement can be found [[User:Callanecc/CVUA/<!--Student's Username-->|here]]. ~~~~}}
![]() |
CVU Academy Graduate |
Congratulations from both myself and all of the instructors at the Counter Vandalism Unit Academy, on your successful completion of my CVUA instruction and graduation from the Counter Vandalism Unit Academy. You completed your final exam with x% and no issues came up during your 5 day monitoring period; well done and congratulations again. Further information on your progress through the academy can be found at your Academy page. |