This is an
information page. It is not one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of
consensus and
vetting. |
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.
Things to review |
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Recent changes Patrol Userbox | |||
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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.
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Recent changes Patrol Topicon | ||
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Regular RC patrollers may wish to put the RC patrol topicon on their user page by adding {{ RC patroller topicon}} to their user pages.
|
RC patrolling primarily consists of a four-step process:
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 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.
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.
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. ~~~~
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.
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.
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.
Alternatively, you can use:
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:
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:
{{unblock|reason=Your reason here ~~~~}}
. Remember to sign and timestamp your warnings by leaving four tildes (like this: ~~~~).
Also, consider tracing the IP address. Find owners by using:
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.)
The following is a list of tools and resources available for those who want to clean up with a more systematic approach.
Things to review |
---|
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:
These tools extend the rollback feature by allowing you to specify a summary when using rollback. They may also offer additional features:
These tools can be used to achieve the same effect as rollback if you do not have it.
Note that these are not operated by or affiliated with Wikipedia.
A Discord server has been started to help coordinate anti-vandalism response - please consider joining.
Yellow Alert. Wikipedia Security to go to stations. [ view • purge 4.08 RPM according to EnterpriseyBot 18:10, 25 April 2024 (UTC) change |
3 |
This is an
information page. It is not one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of
consensus and
vetting. |
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.
Things to review |
---|
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.
|
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.
|
RC patrolling primarily consists of a four-step process:
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 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.
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.
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. ~~~~
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.
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.
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.
Alternatively, you can use:
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:
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:
{{unblock|reason=Your reason here ~~~~}}
. Remember to sign and timestamp your warnings by leaving four tildes (like this: ~~~~).
Also, consider tracing the IP address. Find owners by using:
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.)
The following is a list of tools and resources available for those who want to clean up with a more systematic approach.
Things to review |
---|
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:
These tools extend the rollback feature by allowing you to specify a summary when using rollback. They may also offer additional features:
These tools can be used to achieve the same effect as rollback if you do not have it.
Note that these are not operated by or affiliated with Wikipedia.
A Discord server has been started to help coordinate anti-vandalism response - please consider joining.
Yellow Alert. Wikipedia Security to go to stations. [ view • purge 4.08 RPM according to EnterpriseyBot 18:10, 25 April 2024 (UTC) change |
3 |