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Perhaps I'm getting too involved in this and having done my 3 reverts in 24 hours, I'll use the time to cool off, but surely calling someone a racist, paedophile and sexist is vandalism. I'm willing to take NawlinWiki's point about how it can be viewed as a content dispute and I suppose there's a fine line between the two categories. Paulhinds 15:34, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
Okay, these pages go in circles. One page says that stuff like this goes in another page, and that page links to another, and then that page links back at the first one, so I'm going to report this person here. He only edits the Gobots article. He has changed it 12 times. He always does the same thing. He changes it from Gobots to K-Mart Bots or something. Obvious vandal. Please ban. Triikan 12:27, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
For some reason, recent vandal reports that have been made have not been able to use the Wikipedia code and have simply shown up as the characters that are typed when posting.-- Conrad Devonshire Talk 06:00, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
I created the following template for use with Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. It's {{subst:Non-admin fwarn}} and is seen below:
Please consider it's use on offending user talk pages to notify them of being reported on this page. If it's acceptable, let me know what I can do to add it to
Wikipedia:Template messages/User talk namespace. Thanks,
BrianZ
(talk)
17:31, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I've never been a big fan of linking vandals to AIV. Most probably don't know it exists, and telling them, "You've been reported here!" might be a form of WP:BEANS. I think getting in the practice of linking vandals here would increase the number of times vandals try to remove their own entry or blank the entire page or who knows what. Anybody else agree, or am I just being too cautious? (P.S.- On these same lines, though, I wouldn't be opposed to saying, You have been reported to an administrator, who will review your edits shortly. without the link.) EWS23 ( Leave me a message!) 19:42, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Please discuss improvements to the possible template in the space above. If we can't come to a concensus, then I'd just assume the template be deleted. Please vote here:
*Yes - As said... if you WANT to use it, you can use it... but if you dont want to use it. don't. --
Deenoe
20:52, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
I noticed that after the main page had been emptied, one entry was still left no matter what I did. Therefore, I added a server-side cache purger. I did not add it to the header because it would purge the header's cache, not this page's cache. Jesse Viviano 06:36, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
This is at least partly beyond the scope of this page; so may maybe this is not the right forum. If that’s the case, where should I go? I can’t figure out the warning process. Specific issues:
Is it possible we can have more sysops with experience dealing with vandals watching this page? Twice in the past 12 hours I've had to point out an AIV backlog to a sysop on IRC (#wikipedia), but we simply can't afford to have more than a couple of people listed here for more than, say, 10 minutes. It puts more strain on the few RC patrollers we have left (I used to do up to 150 reverts per day but had to stop due to other janitorial tasks needing attention) and doesn't take that long to empty. -- Draicone (talk) 22:16, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
Several times I've seen users get banned while I'm looking into the cases listed on this page, even though they have done nothing since the last/only warning. Just a reminder. (This is a lot easier to do if you set your time zone to +0, so the signature timestamps match those in the contributions log) - Goldom ‽‽‽ ⁂ 23:07, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
On point number 3 under the sub-section of Editors, it is stated; The vandal vandalized within the last few hours and after the final warning. Can I know what is the definition of last few hours. Could it be three or even up to 20 hours? The statement is a bit vague here. -- S iva1979 Talk to me 01:58, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
I was editing my page and [[Media:Example.ogg]] appeared magically. I recently downloaded CorHomo. The discussion page (found by popup) for [[Media:Example.ogg]] has this message:
This is a page used by kiddie vandals to insert nonsense into Wikipedia. Bart133 (t) 02:11, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Thanks-- Ling.Nut 13:17, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
Hi, browsing Wikipedia, I discovered something strange on that page : Spear of destiny (I "reverted" it, look in the history), I think it's form of vandalism but I only read wikipedia, I don't know the terms, there seem to be very much rules and terms, so I try to report it, hope it will help. thanks -- 83.214.221.37 22:33, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
User:209.43.33.201 was warned and blocked on 5 May 2006. He received another last warning on 15 May 2006 but was not blocked. Now, on 14 September, he has vandalized again. I have left a test4 warning. Is this appropriate. It has been 4 months since the last vandalism and since this might easily be a school account, it might not be the same person. Are we supposed to go back to a first-level warning using "test" or should we pick up where we left off with test4?
-- Richard 17:58, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
I was wondering if anyone could help me with the problems being caused by User talk:216.185.69.97. This is an annon account, but given the edit histories it actually appears to be a single student within the school. Almost every edit in recent times has consisted of two or three edits to the same article, generally to insert sophmoric scatalogical comments. Several admins have applied blocks, including myself, but a new graphitti run starts as soon as it wears off.
Is this an example of an account that could safely be blocked long-term (ie, until school ends in June) for annon users only? If a user logs into the account, will they be directed somewhere where they will clearly see what has happened, and what to do about it? I'd hate to end up blocking an innocent user who can't even figure out what's going on.
Maury 20:42, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
...removing large parts of an article - but part of a content dispute (whereas the warring parties don't communicate) considered vandalism - as per Blanking? -- HolyRomanEmperor 09:06, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
...but WP:AIV is NOT the place to report about bad usernames, is it? -- Deenoe 11:09, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
I've seen a lot of people leaving a single {{ bv}} on a talk page and treating it as the final warning. I can see that this would be a correct response in some situations, but giving only one warning for all instances seems a bit harsh. Personally, I'll start with {{ test1}} for most cases, or {{ test2}} for obvious vandalism, and continue to rewarn as necessary. In my opinion, a single {{ bv}} seems insufficient. Isopropyl 02:48, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
Okay so can someone please help me out here. I am being harrassed by TV Newser. After a long discussion tonight with a fellow wikipedian, I decided to remove a link section that i posted. This person has now accused me of being a vandal and keeps putting that stupid sockpuppet thing on my user page. The page in question is Trading card. He is calling me Scott and instead of going to the talk page to work it out he's just editing everything. I think there is a limit to the number of reverts and i'm sure we're both in violation. Can someone help me out.
Can we re-do the hidden text and such? It's really tough to figure out exactly where your report belongs and how you should format it. -- 172.194.17.163 03:49, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
It seems that sometime the after the final warning it is taken in a bureaucratic manner. I reported a vandal (with blatant-test3-test4). In a third vandalism wave (after 30 min), I reported here the vandal, but nearly in the same time a BOT noticed some other vandalism and noticed the user. How to compete to BOT for "final warning"? I think you should ignore bot warning. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Cate ( talk • contribs) 17:17, 10 October 2006 (UTC).
The user Dragonball1986 archived warnings he received today. Is that allowed?-- Vercalos 19:15, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
Big thank you to the admins who regularly clean out this stuff. I'm sure you mostly get grief for doing this, so on behalf of the usually silent majority, Dweller says "ta". -- Dweller 19:29, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
Is this the place to get persistent spammers blocked after their last warning (warned with {{spam4}} ) or do I take it to WP:ANI? Thanks, -- A. B. 19:09, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
I thought I'd take a stab helping here, and I went through some of the current requests just now, but didn't block anyone because it seemed to me that the user either gave a level4 right out of the gate and/or the vandal hadn't edited again after last warning. Was I right not to block? And if that's the case, do I just remove the report so other admins don't waste their time? Thanks a bunch! -- plange 02:55, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
User talk:72.65.235.239 - I've recommended this user three times for a block. The latter two times reasons were given, "hasn't vandalized in two days" and most recently "hasn't vandalized in 30 minutes". How is not vandalizing in 30 minutes a valid reason not to block a user? All the user seems to be doing is taking a short break after being warned and then going right back to vandalism again. This account has virtually no useful contributions other that blatant anti-drug and alcohol vandalism. Is our stance now to keep slapping users with warnings and letting them continue to create more work for others, rather than blocking them outright? -- Liface 17:23, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
I don't understand the reasoning behind the IP I reported. If a person vandalizes repeatedly, and its clear from their edit history, we look the other way so long as they haven't done it in a while? If only the police worked that way. -- Bobak 00:04, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
I'm new in this topic, but I personally would recommend two standard approaches:
My two cent, JKW 19:59, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
If we give "last warnings" after stepping through the sequence, what happens when we report more vandalism at WP:AIV and it's not blocked -- what warning do we use then? "We were just kidding yesterday but we really are serious now?"
Multiple times, I've given the appropriate warnings in accordance with the "grid". Then after those don't work, I've carefully checked off the latest incident against the instructions at WP:AIV:
After doing this, I report the vandal. A little while later the entry is cleared without a block or any intelligible explanation from the WP:AIV list ("list not MT" or "List MT", while important for admins, don't tell the rest of us anything useful). Vandalism reports that don't end in blocks waste admins' time and and can discourage the reporting editors. Even when the right decision is to decline to block, 5 to 10 words of feedback may help reduce inappropriate reports in the future and cut time wasted by admins.
Those cases where an admin does not follow the published blocking criteria and declines to block raises the questions, "Just how many 'last warnings' can you rack up before someone actually blocks you?" and " Can you beat your classmate's record for this sort of thing?" Reduced Wikipedia credibility just encourages more of this stuff.
I know I can always make a "federal case" out of protesting individual WP:AIV decisions, but that wastes time and ruffles feathers. To me, the whole WP:AIV process is about:
So here are some small suggestions and observations from a rank-and-file Wikipedian:
For every admin, there are 10 to 20 other busy, repeat editors beavering away on Wikipedia so we very much appreciate any help you can give us on this. Thanks, -- A. B. 17:10, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
Obviously personalities and block lengths vary between admins. It's very difficult for us to leave a descriptive edit summary, particularly with vandalism in progress. A lot of times, we do leave borderline reports on for further investingation. I turn down very few AIV reports and will block educational IPs with the same long time frames as regular IPs, often until the next academic year. Alphachimp 01:59, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Richard, I really do understand your point, and I considered it quite a bit when I was first blocking schools. You have to realize, though, that many of these grade schools (we are talking mostly about children age 6-12) have little->no good contributions. They come back to vandalize every day, during the middle of the day (EST), when many sysops are at work. AIV is constantly backlogged, and the vandalism never shows any signs of stopping. Much of it slips through the cracks to be discovered later on during the day, or, worse, through a PR nightmare. Blocking these IPs for long time frames shields us from damage and makes an extremely clear point that their vandalism will not be tolerated. Editors who have already established themselves within the community (e.g. they have a username they made at home) are not affected, as these blocks only influence anonymous users. Further, I see these blocks as promoting education. Children can view Wikipedia, but they are freed from a potential distraction from their classwork. Alphachimp 21:28, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Haven't really read, but the title and the first few lines are hilarious, because they're true. Warnings are always : This is your last warning.. Ok boy, STOP IT! OK MAN! FINAL!!!... Okay maybe not, but this time I'm not screwing around!!! We have to do something about this, cause right now its a big bla bla bla. -- Deenoe 23:32, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
This has been discussed in many, many places across Wikipedia and strongly rejected every time.-- Konst.able Talk 04:50, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
I think Richard has misread the statement he quoted from the arbitration case. (Note that I've corrected the capitalization of the link he provided - I don't know if it's OK to edit others' comments that way.)
In 12.1.9 of the arbitration case, it is stated:
Users, including administrators, may choose whether to disclose their real-world identities on Wikipedia or to edit anonymously.
On Wikipedia, editing "anonymously" has two meanings. The first meaning is "editing without being logged into an account". The second meaning is "editing without disclosing personal information". The usage of the word "anonymously" in 12.1.9 refers to the second meaning, and it is reasonable to expect that the usage in 12.1.10 also refers to the second meaning. However, Richard thought that the usage in 12.1.10 referred to the first meaning.
-- J.L.W.S. The Special One 06:57, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
Thing is... I've checked two of the IPs, they belong to schools... -- Deenoe 11:23, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
Major Vandals need to be stopped right away. The rest of us shouldn't have to waste our time on them. Warn them with a 4, blatant, etc and block their them. They're not worth any more time. Wiki is too lenient with these "users". Rlevse 16:23, 27 October 2006 (UTC)
Nice start -- it's what I'd use if I could, but I was thinking more along the lines of something a little whiny that would reflect what actually happens. Keep at it, however, there's a shiny new barnstar out there for someone! Here's a place to submit your entries:
User:A. B./New warnings I'd like to see
$2? You'd be surprised what at small amt of cash is as incentive. I know an online ezine that recently started giving out small amounts of money for good writings (e.g., $20 for a good dozen pages of very good work) - the quality skyrocketed. - Patstuart (talk) (contribs) 20:40, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
(copied from section above)
I'll speak to this issue. Right now, it's fairly difficult to simultaneously maintain (keep synchronized) the actiual blocks, the messages on the users's talk pages, and the contents of WP:AIV. A computer database guy would say that there's no way to do a proper "two-phase commit" on these pages. So you find that often, multiple admins are working on the same stuff, leading to the admins finding someone they're about to block being already blocked, etc. We really need to improve the way we manage this stuff so that we can avoid exactly these sorts of errors attributable to "updating the databases".
Atlant 14:26, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
[2]this page is being repeatedly vandalized. i'm really not too good at wikipedia code, and i have bad wrists so i can't really afford to type it all out or spend the time necessary to learn it. if an administrator could lock that page out to new members and unregistered members, it would be much appreciated. i am a member of TFN, and i care about the page. ip address is: 70.131.137.110 ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) there may be other addresses involved as well. Quietmind 00:02, 28 October 2006 (UTC)Quietmind
The 2006 World Series page has been continually vandalized over the past few hours by User:66.79.167.173 among others. The vandalism has consisted usually of blanking out the entire page, and adding in some offensive message to the editor.
Sometimes I see an editor attempt to report a username violation on AN or ANI or elsewhere. I'm not referring to borderline username restrictions that would lead to "please change your name," but obviously unacceptable usernames (obscene, racist, "Wheels," etc.) that are due to be indef blocked on sight. The typical response on AN or ANI is that this sort of thing should be brought here to AIV, but there is nothing on the AIV instructions suggesting that this type of report would be welcome here. I'm not raising this because of some theoretical need for the instructions to be perfect, but because I think editors trying to report a problem may become discouraged if they are told to post a report here and then they find that doing so is inconsistent with the instructions atop the page (since there aren't going to be four warnings, etc.). Thoughts? Newyorkbrad 19:46, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
I was under the impression that the bots were programmed not to report a vandal to the page if the vandal was already listed by Anti-Vandal Bot seems to be doing it. What am I mistaken about? JoshuaZ 01:12, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
The user name User:Do you like my boobies!has been created, from a prior posting to this board it is my understanding that this should be reported here so it can be blocked. TheRanger 02:50, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
Another user name User:Kenny44likesmen was just created. I am posting here so that someone can take care of a block. TheRanger 03:27, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
I've been seeing a lot more of that lately; is there anything that should be done about it? Anchoress 16:42, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Both {{ subst:test-self}} and {{ subst:test-self-n|Article name}} are helpful in these situations; also, Alphachimp is correct: be sure it's a full self-reversion. :) RadioKirk ( u| t| c) 20:09, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
It may not happen very often, but on the Balboa Academy page, Step086 ( talk · contribs) and an anon user were tag-team vandalising on several occasions, and as a result (Admins reverting only to the most recent username edit), vandalism went unreverted a couple of times (all fixed eventually). Just a heads up. Anchoress 18:39, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
I realize the admins tending this are overwhelmed. But a few times I reported someone because the blocking admin did not leave a "vandal now blocked" message on the vandal's userpage. I now know to check the block log first, but sometimes I forget. I suppose the best method would be to have a process that combines blocking with a template being automatically placed on the user's talk page. But unless and until that can be done, I suggest we:
1. Add "check to see if user is already blocked - here's how you do that" to the "what to do before reporting here" instructions.
2. Remember to, if at all possible, leave the "blocked" notice on the talk page when the block is set.
Thanks! --
Kathryn NicDhàna
21:12, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
User Dillyman has posted nonsense on the page for Horeca, I have reverted the page but am unsure as to what the next step is. Clausewitz01
Over the last week or two, as I've come across vandals at the test4 level, I've gone back and looked at every one of their edits over a period of weeks or months. That's about 400 to 500 "Jack is a dork/Tony is gay/my school sux" edits I've read. I've made notes on their talk pages as to the percentage of those accounts' edits that were vandalistic. In almost every case it was >75% and usually 90 to 100%. The remaining "useful" edits were usually very minor -- changing "teh" to "the" for instance. The links below will take you to my comments on each one:
The majority of this unscientific sample had been blocked before with little impact shown on their behavior. Most accounts are registered to schools. Most blocks that have been administrered have been very short and the IP addresses have been back at it within hours or days. Some have had multiple "last warnings" not yet followed by any block.
I did not compile any numbers, but my impression is that the average vandal makes about 25 vandalistic edits between blocks -- that's a lot of cleaning up our volunteer editors are having to mess with as we go through the 0-1-2-3-4 sequence of warnings. While it's been said here that the sequence is not rigidly required, my experience is that it's very hard to get admins at WP:AIV to block someone who's not cycled through the sequence. In fact, even when a vandal meets all the requirements listed on the WP:AIV page, in my experience, admins normally only block about 2/3 of the vandals I submit.
Because the first few blocks are relatively short, I'm guessing it takes aabout 100 to 150 vandalistic edits on average before the user gets a long enough block to really cut down his flow of vandalism. Once again, that's a lot of cleaning up that's going on the meantime.
Wikipedia's mission is to provide a free, comprehensive, reliable encyclopedia to millions of readers. The primary resource constraint it faces is volunteer editor time available to keep up with all the edits, making sure they're reasonably reliable. Volunteers' time is to Wikipedia what cash is to a business. I think we squander too much of it in our efforts to get chronic vandals to see the light. The 16 above certainly are never going to stop of their own volition from what I can tell.
I believe we owe a higher duty to our readers and our volunteers than we do to the folks at these accounts, even the once-in-a-blue-moon good faith editor. That occasional good faith editor can always establish an account or go edit Wikipedia anonymously from a public computer at some library.
One other comment -- I came across only one heavy duty AOL vandal during this time; I did not bother to warn him. I believe AOL vandals' share of mischief has dropped since I first became active earlier this year. -- A. B. 07:55, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
Some of the above comments are missing the point about shared IPs. It may be the case that 90% of the edits from that IP are vandalism and many of the remaining edits are minor edits. However, you must consider the fact that we are not talking about one person here. There are some people who are trying to contribute if even in a small way and some people who are vandalizing. The question is... which is more important: blocking the vandalism or encouraging the contributors? Having spent some time fighting vandals myself, I understand how frustrating it is. Nonetheless, much good work is done by anon IPs. Short blocks encourage anon IP contributors to open an account. Long blocks will tend to discourage them altogether.
--
Richard
18:40, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
And still I, as most admins, am very reluctant to give long blocks (more than 24 hours) to shared IPs, such as schools, to avoid collateral damage. The whole process can be time consuming, one or more hours a day. And we all know how precious time is. Therefore I’m inclined to support a system where a repeat vandal, after previous final warnings in the past, even weeks ago, gets a block right away with ever increasing periods of time, without having to go through the whole process of warnings again (unless we’re dealing with a shared IP). Repeating final warnings over and over again makes a joke of the whole system. As the proverb says : “Surgeons cut, that they may cure”. JoJan 19:07, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
I appreciate the enthusiasm for vandalhunting and protecting the integrity of Wikipedia that people above are espousing... but we must remember this is a wiki.
The fundamental principle of a wiki is that anyone can edit it. Easily. With a single click.
We encourage people to register an account and get involved not to set them apart from anons but to lock them in. We live or die by people volunteering to edit. If people don't, kiss the place goodbye.
Now, I never made a single edit before I got an account. But I think people will find that most people here did edit anonymously for a while. And they made their newbie mistakes (strictly speaking 'tests', but often misconstrued as 'vandalism').
So how many future good users would be swept away by any pogrom against anons? Most, I'd think. The test edits are done because people simply cannot believe that someone would put up a website and let just about anyone edit anything on it and have the results immediately available. I mean - where else can you do this to the work of others without being a scriptkiddie?
I'm perfectly happy to block a non-dynamic IP for a long period, treating it as a "naked" user account. But the slightest sign that the IP is shared or is dynamic, then no, I won't and most others won't. The collateral damage - the possibility of sending away the next Celestianpower or Sango123 or JzG - is just too high and too painful to contemplate.
Wikipedia editors tend to suffer from a "close the door behind me" mentality. Editors who started editing after they did are not as good editors as they are. Admins who were promoted after they were are not as good admins as they are. I have no judgment on whether this is true or not (well, yes I do, it's bollocks of the first order, but let's pretend I don't) and can understand the human reactions causing it.
We gain far more and better editors by welcoming anons and trapping them into becoming permanent account editors than we lose by frightening off people who see vandalism. The wish to close the door in some way upon any person because they happen to use the same computer as a vandal is understandable. It's also very flawed thinking. ➨ ЯEDVERS 20:25, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
Can you help me to determine if these last edits in White people are vandalism? They keep changing cited metarial with uncited metarial. And then, one person added stuff which he was explained that it doesnt mean what he thinks it means. See [3] and [4] Thulean 22:46, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Another one. I can not believe quoting Oxford English Dictionary is seen as POV pushing.
dif: [5]
Not to mention he put a whole bunch of uncited meterial back there again and called this all a minor edit. Thulean 22:49, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Nevermind, this user is simply reverting all my edits, without explanation, without regarding citations or discussions, I'm just going to warn him.
another dif: [6] Thulean 22:54, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
I just recently reported an incident of vandalism which had been the first edit from a given IP address since it received a final warning given out five days ago. The reason given for removing the address from the list was no warning in the past five days. Could someone please explain how the policy applies here. I thought that, considering that this was the first edit from that address since it received the final warning, that the final warning would still be in effect. Where was I wrong? Badbilltucker 23:45, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
I just indef blocked 208.108.91.156 ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) on exactly this basis. If someone thinks I went against policy, feel free to reduce the term of the block. - Jmabel | Talk 00:05, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
Recently on the anime article, these two users (who could be the same person) added a website used for illegal downloading to the external link section. User:Finite and I have explained why the site shouldn't be there, and yet they continue. What should I tell them? Is there a {{ subst}} that I can use in case this happns again? Or should I just type a warning by hand? // Sasuke -kun 27 16:32, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
While I do understand that this user only vandalizes once every few days, the vandalism is consistent. The IP address ( User:218.188.3.113) has been warned 10 times in the past year (including 5 times this past month). Moreover this individual has been blocked 11 times in the past year. The policy regarding IP addresses is quite vague, but I feel that a blocked needs to be instituted to stop this IP from vandalizing in the future. Andrew4010 04:57, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
Somebody wake up and block 142.227.139.32!!!!
This address -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:142.240.200.10 -- has half a page of warnings, including five (!) "last warnings." That user must really consider the admins chumps -- he has even vandalized this page in the past. 1 Yet he has received two more "last warnings" since then. How many does he get? Laszlo Panaflex 00:27, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
This editor, using two separate usernames, has been reverting my edits in a trolling fashion on both the Carrie Fisher and Harry Connick pages. The issue has been over what qualifies as "Jewish-American". This is not merely a content dispute: his "evidence" that they should be considered "Jewish American" includes a bogus reference link re. Harry Connick (see User_talk:J.R._Hercules). Also, check out the personal attacks this user has left on my talk page. I left a couple of warning templates on {both} his pages, but I'm not sure how to proceed beyond that, especially given that this is an unregistered editor I'm dealing with. J.R. Hercules 22:45, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
From Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-11-27/Technology report:
There is a new button labelled "(undo)" which appears on the right under the edit summary when you look at the diff in a vandal's contributions. This allows you to remove a change without disturbing subsequent changes to the same page. I just found out about it. Have not had an occassion to try it yet. JRSpriggs 10:18, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
I'm not an admin and there's a lot of techy and process stuff about Wikipedia I don't know. One thing I do know is that I spend a lot of time patching up vandalism and of late seem to have "specialised" in Anon IP vandals.
Much of the time, these turn out to be schools or colleges and admins are reluctant to give lengthy blocks. This is completely understandable, but when there's a persistent problem, what is to be lost from blocking anon activity only from that IP? It means the vandal has to go through the bother of registering, reregistering and reregistering again each time he gets blocked, while useful edits can still be made from "proper" accounts.
Given my opening comments, it's likely that I've missed a good reason not to, but can't admins seeing a school with masses of vandal history and blocks impose lengthy or indefinite anon only blocks, to save people like me from a lot of repeat work? -- Dweller 17:01, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
Block this IP immediately. He received a Final vandalism warning, yet he vandalized a user's talk page a few hours ago. I have reverted his edits, and I am reporting him/her here to be blocked ASAP. Thank you. -- Imdanumber1 ( Talk | contribs) 17:12, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
One of them is extremely nitpicky. In the directions, it says not to list them if "They have not vandalized very recently (past 24 hours), nor since the last warning ({{ test3}} or {{ test4}})." The use of 'nor' to me implies that you would list them unless they met both those criteria. If you shouldn't list them if either one is true, it seems like you should use 'or' instead. Or it would be clearer to make them separate bullet points, though of course that would make it longer and less likely that people would read it. Picky, I know.
In other news, I've been removing vandals from the list if I notice that someone has blocked them but they're still up there. As a non-admin, should I not be doing that? Thanks, delldot | talk 16:01, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the responses! I was bold and took your advice, Melchoir, I hope this works for everyone. If not, you're of course free to revert or edit it. Thanks, delldot | talk 03:18, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
About the 'nor' thing, I see that you're right, JRSpriggs, but hopefully the way it is now is OK too? Also, about removing people being seen as vandalism, how likely of a possibility do you see that as being? Seems unlikely to me, especially if I'm the one that listed them in the first place (the usual case) and if I follow the edit summary format suggested by Agathoclea. delldot | talk 15:23, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
The rules say vandals can only be reported here if:
-They have vandalized recently (past 24 hours), and since the last warning (test3 or test4).
-The vandal has received the full range of test warnings recently (i.e., within the previous week).
But what if a vandal only vandalizes a page every 2 weeks or more, so that each time they do it, they will not have received a warning "within the previous week"? Is there no way to request a block for such a user, even if the vandalism is very obvious and they keep doing it again and again? Hypnosifl 08:55, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
This is apperantly from Bishop Dwenger High School. I was reccomended by Meegs to put this on here. I'd say about 95 precent is very clear vandilism, by entering things like penises, and other rude entries. I was told they can't be permanitly blocked, but a long term could stop them. Thank you. -- ASDFGHJKL 20:50, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
:
168.102.135.9 (
talk •
contribs •
WHOIS •
RDNS •
block user •
block log)
![]() | This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Perhaps I'm getting too involved in this and having done my 3 reverts in 24 hours, I'll use the time to cool off, but surely calling someone a racist, paedophile and sexist is vandalism. I'm willing to take NawlinWiki's point about how it can be viewed as a content dispute and I suppose there's a fine line between the two categories. Paulhinds 15:34, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
Okay, these pages go in circles. One page says that stuff like this goes in another page, and that page links to another, and then that page links back at the first one, so I'm going to report this person here. He only edits the Gobots article. He has changed it 12 times. He always does the same thing. He changes it from Gobots to K-Mart Bots or something. Obvious vandal. Please ban. Triikan 12:27, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
For some reason, recent vandal reports that have been made have not been able to use the Wikipedia code and have simply shown up as the characters that are typed when posting.-- Conrad Devonshire Talk 06:00, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
I created the following template for use with Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. It's {{subst:Non-admin fwarn}} and is seen below:
Please consider it's use on offending user talk pages to notify them of being reported on this page. If it's acceptable, let me know what I can do to add it to
Wikipedia:Template messages/User talk namespace. Thanks,
BrianZ
(talk)
17:31, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I've never been a big fan of linking vandals to AIV. Most probably don't know it exists, and telling them, "You've been reported here!" might be a form of WP:BEANS. I think getting in the practice of linking vandals here would increase the number of times vandals try to remove their own entry or blank the entire page or who knows what. Anybody else agree, or am I just being too cautious? (P.S.- On these same lines, though, I wouldn't be opposed to saying, You have been reported to an administrator, who will review your edits shortly. without the link.) EWS23 ( Leave me a message!) 19:42, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Please discuss improvements to the possible template in the space above. If we can't come to a concensus, then I'd just assume the template be deleted. Please vote here:
*Yes - As said... if you WANT to use it, you can use it... but if you dont want to use it. don't. --
Deenoe
20:52, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
I noticed that after the main page had been emptied, one entry was still left no matter what I did. Therefore, I added a server-side cache purger. I did not add it to the header because it would purge the header's cache, not this page's cache. Jesse Viviano 06:36, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
This is at least partly beyond the scope of this page; so may maybe this is not the right forum. If that’s the case, where should I go? I can’t figure out the warning process. Specific issues:
Is it possible we can have more sysops with experience dealing with vandals watching this page? Twice in the past 12 hours I've had to point out an AIV backlog to a sysop on IRC (#wikipedia), but we simply can't afford to have more than a couple of people listed here for more than, say, 10 minutes. It puts more strain on the few RC patrollers we have left (I used to do up to 150 reverts per day but had to stop due to other janitorial tasks needing attention) and doesn't take that long to empty. -- Draicone (talk) 22:16, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
Several times I've seen users get banned while I'm looking into the cases listed on this page, even though they have done nothing since the last/only warning. Just a reminder. (This is a lot easier to do if you set your time zone to +0, so the signature timestamps match those in the contributions log) - Goldom ‽‽‽ ⁂ 23:07, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
On point number 3 under the sub-section of Editors, it is stated; The vandal vandalized within the last few hours and after the final warning. Can I know what is the definition of last few hours. Could it be three or even up to 20 hours? The statement is a bit vague here. -- S iva1979 Talk to me 01:58, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
I was editing my page and [[Media:Example.ogg]] appeared magically. I recently downloaded CorHomo. The discussion page (found by popup) for [[Media:Example.ogg]] has this message:
This is a page used by kiddie vandals to insert nonsense into Wikipedia. Bart133 (t) 02:11, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Thanks-- Ling.Nut 13:17, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
Hi, browsing Wikipedia, I discovered something strange on that page : Spear of destiny (I "reverted" it, look in the history), I think it's form of vandalism but I only read wikipedia, I don't know the terms, there seem to be very much rules and terms, so I try to report it, hope it will help. thanks -- 83.214.221.37 22:33, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
User:209.43.33.201 was warned and blocked on 5 May 2006. He received another last warning on 15 May 2006 but was not blocked. Now, on 14 September, he has vandalized again. I have left a test4 warning. Is this appropriate. It has been 4 months since the last vandalism and since this might easily be a school account, it might not be the same person. Are we supposed to go back to a first-level warning using "test" or should we pick up where we left off with test4?
-- Richard 17:58, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
I was wondering if anyone could help me with the problems being caused by User talk:216.185.69.97. This is an annon account, but given the edit histories it actually appears to be a single student within the school. Almost every edit in recent times has consisted of two or three edits to the same article, generally to insert sophmoric scatalogical comments. Several admins have applied blocks, including myself, but a new graphitti run starts as soon as it wears off.
Is this an example of an account that could safely be blocked long-term (ie, until school ends in June) for annon users only? If a user logs into the account, will they be directed somewhere where they will clearly see what has happened, and what to do about it? I'd hate to end up blocking an innocent user who can't even figure out what's going on.
Maury 20:42, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
...removing large parts of an article - but part of a content dispute (whereas the warring parties don't communicate) considered vandalism - as per Blanking? -- HolyRomanEmperor 09:06, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
...but WP:AIV is NOT the place to report about bad usernames, is it? -- Deenoe 11:09, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
I've seen a lot of people leaving a single {{ bv}} on a talk page and treating it as the final warning. I can see that this would be a correct response in some situations, but giving only one warning for all instances seems a bit harsh. Personally, I'll start with {{ test1}} for most cases, or {{ test2}} for obvious vandalism, and continue to rewarn as necessary. In my opinion, a single {{ bv}} seems insufficient. Isopropyl 02:48, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
Okay so can someone please help me out here. I am being harrassed by TV Newser. After a long discussion tonight with a fellow wikipedian, I decided to remove a link section that i posted. This person has now accused me of being a vandal and keeps putting that stupid sockpuppet thing on my user page. The page in question is Trading card. He is calling me Scott and instead of going to the talk page to work it out he's just editing everything. I think there is a limit to the number of reverts and i'm sure we're both in violation. Can someone help me out.
Can we re-do the hidden text and such? It's really tough to figure out exactly where your report belongs and how you should format it. -- 172.194.17.163 03:49, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
It seems that sometime the after the final warning it is taken in a bureaucratic manner. I reported a vandal (with blatant-test3-test4). In a third vandalism wave (after 30 min), I reported here the vandal, but nearly in the same time a BOT noticed some other vandalism and noticed the user. How to compete to BOT for "final warning"? I think you should ignore bot warning. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Cate ( talk • contribs) 17:17, 10 October 2006 (UTC).
The user Dragonball1986 archived warnings he received today. Is that allowed?-- Vercalos 19:15, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
Big thank you to the admins who regularly clean out this stuff. I'm sure you mostly get grief for doing this, so on behalf of the usually silent majority, Dweller says "ta". -- Dweller 19:29, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
Is this the place to get persistent spammers blocked after their last warning (warned with {{spam4}} ) or do I take it to WP:ANI? Thanks, -- A. B. 19:09, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
I thought I'd take a stab helping here, and I went through some of the current requests just now, but didn't block anyone because it seemed to me that the user either gave a level4 right out of the gate and/or the vandal hadn't edited again after last warning. Was I right not to block? And if that's the case, do I just remove the report so other admins don't waste their time? Thanks a bunch! -- plange 02:55, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
User talk:72.65.235.239 - I've recommended this user three times for a block. The latter two times reasons were given, "hasn't vandalized in two days" and most recently "hasn't vandalized in 30 minutes". How is not vandalizing in 30 minutes a valid reason not to block a user? All the user seems to be doing is taking a short break after being warned and then going right back to vandalism again. This account has virtually no useful contributions other that blatant anti-drug and alcohol vandalism. Is our stance now to keep slapping users with warnings and letting them continue to create more work for others, rather than blocking them outright? -- Liface 17:23, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
I don't understand the reasoning behind the IP I reported. If a person vandalizes repeatedly, and its clear from their edit history, we look the other way so long as they haven't done it in a while? If only the police worked that way. -- Bobak 00:04, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
I'm new in this topic, but I personally would recommend two standard approaches:
My two cent, JKW 19:59, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
If we give "last warnings" after stepping through the sequence, what happens when we report more vandalism at WP:AIV and it's not blocked -- what warning do we use then? "We were just kidding yesterday but we really are serious now?"
Multiple times, I've given the appropriate warnings in accordance with the "grid". Then after those don't work, I've carefully checked off the latest incident against the instructions at WP:AIV:
After doing this, I report the vandal. A little while later the entry is cleared without a block or any intelligible explanation from the WP:AIV list ("list not MT" or "List MT", while important for admins, don't tell the rest of us anything useful). Vandalism reports that don't end in blocks waste admins' time and and can discourage the reporting editors. Even when the right decision is to decline to block, 5 to 10 words of feedback may help reduce inappropriate reports in the future and cut time wasted by admins.
Those cases where an admin does not follow the published blocking criteria and declines to block raises the questions, "Just how many 'last warnings' can you rack up before someone actually blocks you?" and " Can you beat your classmate's record for this sort of thing?" Reduced Wikipedia credibility just encourages more of this stuff.
I know I can always make a "federal case" out of protesting individual WP:AIV decisions, but that wastes time and ruffles feathers. To me, the whole WP:AIV process is about:
So here are some small suggestions and observations from a rank-and-file Wikipedian:
For every admin, there are 10 to 20 other busy, repeat editors beavering away on Wikipedia so we very much appreciate any help you can give us on this. Thanks, -- A. B. 17:10, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
Obviously personalities and block lengths vary between admins. It's very difficult for us to leave a descriptive edit summary, particularly with vandalism in progress. A lot of times, we do leave borderline reports on for further investingation. I turn down very few AIV reports and will block educational IPs with the same long time frames as regular IPs, often until the next academic year. Alphachimp 01:59, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Richard, I really do understand your point, and I considered it quite a bit when I was first blocking schools. You have to realize, though, that many of these grade schools (we are talking mostly about children age 6-12) have little->no good contributions. They come back to vandalize every day, during the middle of the day (EST), when many sysops are at work. AIV is constantly backlogged, and the vandalism never shows any signs of stopping. Much of it slips through the cracks to be discovered later on during the day, or, worse, through a PR nightmare. Blocking these IPs for long time frames shields us from damage and makes an extremely clear point that their vandalism will not be tolerated. Editors who have already established themselves within the community (e.g. they have a username they made at home) are not affected, as these blocks only influence anonymous users. Further, I see these blocks as promoting education. Children can view Wikipedia, but they are freed from a potential distraction from their classwork. Alphachimp 21:28, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Haven't really read, but the title and the first few lines are hilarious, because they're true. Warnings are always : This is your last warning.. Ok boy, STOP IT! OK MAN! FINAL!!!... Okay maybe not, but this time I'm not screwing around!!! We have to do something about this, cause right now its a big bla bla bla. -- Deenoe 23:32, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
This has been discussed in many, many places across Wikipedia and strongly rejected every time.-- Konst.able Talk 04:50, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
I think Richard has misread the statement he quoted from the arbitration case. (Note that I've corrected the capitalization of the link he provided - I don't know if it's OK to edit others' comments that way.)
In 12.1.9 of the arbitration case, it is stated:
Users, including administrators, may choose whether to disclose their real-world identities on Wikipedia or to edit anonymously.
On Wikipedia, editing "anonymously" has two meanings. The first meaning is "editing without being logged into an account". The second meaning is "editing without disclosing personal information". The usage of the word "anonymously" in 12.1.9 refers to the second meaning, and it is reasonable to expect that the usage in 12.1.10 also refers to the second meaning. However, Richard thought that the usage in 12.1.10 referred to the first meaning.
-- J.L.W.S. The Special One 06:57, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
Thing is... I've checked two of the IPs, they belong to schools... -- Deenoe 11:23, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
Major Vandals need to be stopped right away. The rest of us shouldn't have to waste our time on them. Warn them with a 4, blatant, etc and block their them. They're not worth any more time. Wiki is too lenient with these "users". Rlevse 16:23, 27 October 2006 (UTC)
Nice start -- it's what I'd use if I could, but I was thinking more along the lines of something a little whiny that would reflect what actually happens. Keep at it, however, there's a shiny new barnstar out there for someone! Here's a place to submit your entries:
User:A. B./New warnings I'd like to see
$2? You'd be surprised what at small amt of cash is as incentive. I know an online ezine that recently started giving out small amounts of money for good writings (e.g., $20 for a good dozen pages of very good work) - the quality skyrocketed. - Patstuart (talk) (contribs) 20:40, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
(copied from section above)
I'll speak to this issue. Right now, it's fairly difficult to simultaneously maintain (keep synchronized) the actiual blocks, the messages on the users's talk pages, and the contents of WP:AIV. A computer database guy would say that there's no way to do a proper "two-phase commit" on these pages. So you find that often, multiple admins are working on the same stuff, leading to the admins finding someone they're about to block being already blocked, etc. We really need to improve the way we manage this stuff so that we can avoid exactly these sorts of errors attributable to "updating the databases".
Atlant 14:26, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
[2]this page is being repeatedly vandalized. i'm really not too good at wikipedia code, and i have bad wrists so i can't really afford to type it all out or spend the time necessary to learn it. if an administrator could lock that page out to new members and unregistered members, it would be much appreciated. i am a member of TFN, and i care about the page. ip address is: 70.131.137.110 ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) there may be other addresses involved as well. Quietmind 00:02, 28 October 2006 (UTC)Quietmind
The 2006 World Series page has been continually vandalized over the past few hours by User:66.79.167.173 among others. The vandalism has consisted usually of blanking out the entire page, and adding in some offensive message to the editor.
Sometimes I see an editor attempt to report a username violation on AN or ANI or elsewhere. I'm not referring to borderline username restrictions that would lead to "please change your name," but obviously unacceptable usernames (obscene, racist, "Wheels," etc.) that are due to be indef blocked on sight. The typical response on AN or ANI is that this sort of thing should be brought here to AIV, but there is nothing on the AIV instructions suggesting that this type of report would be welcome here. I'm not raising this because of some theoretical need for the instructions to be perfect, but because I think editors trying to report a problem may become discouraged if they are told to post a report here and then they find that doing so is inconsistent with the instructions atop the page (since there aren't going to be four warnings, etc.). Thoughts? Newyorkbrad 19:46, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
I was under the impression that the bots were programmed not to report a vandal to the page if the vandal was already listed by Anti-Vandal Bot seems to be doing it. What am I mistaken about? JoshuaZ 01:12, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
The user name User:Do you like my boobies!has been created, from a prior posting to this board it is my understanding that this should be reported here so it can be blocked. TheRanger 02:50, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
Another user name User:Kenny44likesmen was just created. I am posting here so that someone can take care of a block. TheRanger 03:27, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
I've been seeing a lot more of that lately; is there anything that should be done about it? Anchoress 16:42, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Both {{ subst:test-self}} and {{ subst:test-self-n|Article name}} are helpful in these situations; also, Alphachimp is correct: be sure it's a full self-reversion. :) RadioKirk ( u| t| c) 20:09, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
It may not happen very often, but on the Balboa Academy page, Step086 ( talk · contribs) and an anon user were tag-team vandalising on several occasions, and as a result (Admins reverting only to the most recent username edit), vandalism went unreverted a couple of times (all fixed eventually). Just a heads up. Anchoress 18:39, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
I realize the admins tending this are overwhelmed. But a few times I reported someone because the blocking admin did not leave a "vandal now blocked" message on the vandal's userpage. I now know to check the block log first, but sometimes I forget. I suppose the best method would be to have a process that combines blocking with a template being automatically placed on the user's talk page. But unless and until that can be done, I suggest we:
1. Add "check to see if user is already blocked - here's how you do that" to the "what to do before reporting here" instructions.
2. Remember to, if at all possible, leave the "blocked" notice on the talk page when the block is set.
Thanks! --
Kathryn NicDhàna
21:12, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
User Dillyman has posted nonsense on the page for Horeca, I have reverted the page but am unsure as to what the next step is. Clausewitz01
Over the last week or two, as I've come across vandals at the test4 level, I've gone back and looked at every one of their edits over a period of weeks or months. That's about 400 to 500 "Jack is a dork/Tony is gay/my school sux" edits I've read. I've made notes on their talk pages as to the percentage of those accounts' edits that were vandalistic. In almost every case it was >75% and usually 90 to 100%. The remaining "useful" edits were usually very minor -- changing "teh" to "the" for instance. The links below will take you to my comments on each one:
The majority of this unscientific sample had been blocked before with little impact shown on their behavior. Most accounts are registered to schools. Most blocks that have been administrered have been very short and the IP addresses have been back at it within hours or days. Some have had multiple "last warnings" not yet followed by any block.
I did not compile any numbers, but my impression is that the average vandal makes about 25 vandalistic edits between blocks -- that's a lot of cleaning up our volunteer editors are having to mess with as we go through the 0-1-2-3-4 sequence of warnings. While it's been said here that the sequence is not rigidly required, my experience is that it's very hard to get admins at WP:AIV to block someone who's not cycled through the sequence. In fact, even when a vandal meets all the requirements listed on the WP:AIV page, in my experience, admins normally only block about 2/3 of the vandals I submit.
Because the first few blocks are relatively short, I'm guessing it takes aabout 100 to 150 vandalistic edits on average before the user gets a long enough block to really cut down his flow of vandalism. Once again, that's a lot of cleaning up that's going on the meantime.
Wikipedia's mission is to provide a free, comprehensive, reliable encyclopedia to millions of readers. The primary resource constraint it faces is volunteer editor time available to keep up with all the edits, making sure they're reasonably reliable. Volunteers' time is to Wikipedia what cash is to a business. I think we squander too much of it in our efforts to get chronic vandals to see the light. The 16 above certainly are never going to stop of their own volition from what I can tell.
I believe we owe a higher duty to our readers and our volunteers than we do to the folks at these accounts, even the once-in-a-blue-moon good faith editor. That occasional good faith editor can always establish an account or go edit Wikipedia anonymously from a public computer at some library.
One other comment -- I came across only one heavy duty AOL vandal during this time; I did not bother to warn him. I believe AOL vandals' share of mischief has dropped since I first became active earlier this year. -- A. B. 07:55, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
Some of the above comments are missing the point about shared IPs. It may be the case that 90% of the edits from that IP are vandalism and many of the remaining edits are minor edits. However, you must consider the fact that we are not talking about one person here. There are some people who are trying to contribute if even in a small way and some people who are vandalizing. The question is... which is more important: blocking the vandalism or encouraging the contributors? Having spent some time fighting vandals myself, I understand how frustrating it is. Nonetheless, much good work is done by anon IPs. Short blocks encourage anon IP contributors to open an account. Long blocks will tend to discourage them altogether.
--
Richard
18:40, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
And still I, as most admins, am very reluctant to give long blocks (more than 24 hours) to shared IPs, such as schools, to avoid collateral damage. The whole process can be time consuming, one or more hours a day. And we all know how precious time is. Therefore I’m inclined to support a system where a repeat vandal, after previous final warnings in the past, even weeks ago, gets a block right away with ever increasing periods of time, without having to go through the whole process of warnings again (unless we’re dealing with a shared IP). Repeating final warnings over and over again makes a joke of the whole system. As the proverb says : “Surgeons cut, that they may cure”. JoJan 19:07, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
I appreciate the enthusiasm for vandalhunting and protecting the integrity of Wikipedia that people above are espousing... but we must remember this is a wiki.
The fundamental principle of a wiki is that anyone can edit it. Easily. With a single click.
We encourage people to register an account and get involved not to set them apart from anons but to lock them in. We live or die by people volunteering to edit. If people don't, kiss the place goodbye.
Now, I never made a single edit before I got an account. But I think people will find that most people here did edit anonymously for a while. And they made their newbie mistakes (strictly speaking 'tests', but often misconstrued as 'vandalism').
So how many future good users would be swept away by any pogrom against anons? Most, I'd think. The test edits are done because people simply cannot believe that someone would put up a website and let just about anyone edit anything on it and have the results immediately available. I mean - where else can you do this to the work of others without being a scriptkiddie?
I'm perfectly happy to block a non-dynamic IP for a long period, treating it as a "naked" user account. But the slightest sign that the IP is shared or is dynamic, then no, I won't and most others won't. The collateral damage - the possibility of sending away the next Celestianpower or Sango123 or JzG - is just too high and too painful to contemplate.
Wikipedia editors tend to suffer from a "close the door behind me" mentality. Editors who started editing after they did are not as good editors as they are. Admins who were promoted after they were are not as good admins as they are. I have no judgment on whether this is true or not (well, yes I do, it's bollocks of the first order, but let's pretend I don't) and can understand the human reactions causing it.
We gain far more and better editors by welcoming anons and trapping them into becoming permanent account editors than we lose by frightening off people who see vandalism. The wish to close the door in some way upon any person because they happen to use the same computer as a vandal is understandable. It's also very flawed thinking. ➨ ЯEDVERS 20:25, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
Can you help me to determine if these last edits in White people are vandalism? They keep changing cited metarial with uncited metarial. And then, one person added stuff which he was explained that it doesnt mean what he thinks it means. See [3] and [4] Thulean 22:46, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Another one. I can not believe quoting Oxford English Dictionary is seen as POV pushing.
dif: [5]
Not to mention he put a whole bunch of uncited meterial back there again and called this all a minor edit. Thulean 22:49, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Nevermind, this user is simply reverting all my edits, without explanation, without regarding citations or discussions, I'm just going to warn him.
another dif: [6] Thulean 22:54, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
I just recently reported an incident of vandalism which had been the first edit from a given IP address since it received a final warning given out five days ago. The reason given for removing the address from the list was no warning in the past five days. Could someone please explain how the policy applies here. I thought that, considering that this was the first edit from that address since it received the final warning, that the final warning would still be in effect. Where was I wrong? Badbilltucker 23:45, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
I just indef blocked 208.108.91.156 ( talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) on exactly this basis. If someone thinks I went against policy, feel free to reduce the term of the block. - Jmabel | Talk 00:05, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
Recently on the anime article, these two users (who could be the same person) added a website used for illegal downloading to the external link section. User:Finite and I have explained why the site shouldn't be there, and yet they continue. What should I tell them? Is there a {{ subst}} that I can use in case this happns again? Or should I just type a warning by hand? // Sasuke -kun 27 16:32, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
While I do understand that this user only vandalizes once every few days, the vandalism is consistent. The IP address ( User:218.188.3.113) has been warned 10 times in the past year (including 5 times this past month). Moreover this individual has been blocked 11 times in the past year. The policy regarding IP addresses is quite vague, but I feel that a blocked needs to be instituted to stop this IP from vandalizing in the future. Andrew4010 04:57, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
Somebody wake up and block 142.227.139.32!!!!
This address -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:142.240.200.10 -- has half a page of warnings, including five (!) "last warnings." That user must really consider the admins chumps -- he has even vandalized this page in the past. 1 Yet he has received two more "last warnings" since then. How many does he get? Laszlo Panaflex 00:27, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
This editor, using two separate usernames, has been reverting my edits in a trolling fashion on both the Carrie Fisher and Harry Connick pages. The issue has been over what qualifies as "Jewish-American". This is not merely a content dispute: his "evidence" that they should be considered "Jewish American" includes a bogus reference link re. Harry Connick (see User_talk:J.R._Hercules). Also, check out the personal attacks this user has left on my talk page. I left a couple of warning templates on {both} his pages, but I'm not sure how to proceed beyond that, especially given that this is an unregistered editor I'm dealing with. J.R. Hercules 22:45, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
From Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-11-27/Technology report:
There is a new button labelled "(undo)" which appears on the right under the edit summary when you look at the diff in a vandal's contributions. This allows you to remove a change without disturbing subsequent changes to the same page. I just found out about it. Have not had an occassion to try it yet. JRSpriggs 10:18, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
I'm not an admin and there's a lot of techy and process stuff about Wikipedia I don't know. One thing I do know is that I spend a lot of time patching up vandalism and of late seem to have "specialised" in Anon IP vandals.
Much of the time, these turn out to be schools or colleges and admins are reluctant to give lengthy blocks. This is completely understandable, but when there's a persistent problem, what is to be lost from blocking anon activity only from that IP? It means the vandal has to go through the bother of registering, reregistering and reregistering again each time he gets blocked, while useful edits can still be made from "proper" accounts.
Given my opening comments, it's likely that I've missed a good reason not to, but can't admins seeing a school with masses of vandal history and blocks impose lengthy or indefinite anon only blocks, to save people like me from a lot of repeat work? -- Dweller 17:01, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
Block this IP immediately. He received a Final vandalism warning, yet he vandalized a user's talk page a few hours ago. I have reverted his edits, and I am reporting him/her here to be blocked ASAP. Thank you. -- Imdanumber1 ( Talk | contribs) 17:12, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
One of them is extremely nitpicky. In the directions, it says not to list them if "They have not vandalized very recently (past 24 hours), nor since the last warning ({{ test3}} or {{ test4}})." The use of 'nor' to me implies that you would list them unless they met both those criteria. If you shouldn't list them if either one is true, it seems like you should use 'or' instead. Or it would be clearer to make them separate bullet points, though of course that would make it longer and less likely that people would read it. Picky, I know.
In other news, I've been removing vandals from the list if I notice that someone has blocked them but they're still up there. As a non-admin, should I not be doing that? Thanks, delldot | talk 16:01, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the responses! I was bold and took your advice, Melchoir, I hope this works for everyone. If not, you're of course free to revert or edit it. Thanks, delldot | talk 03:18, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
About the 'nor' thing, I see that you're right, JRSpriggs, but hopefully the way it is now is OK too? Also, about removing people being seen as vandalism, how likely of a possibility do you see that as being? Seems unlikely to me, especially if I'm the one that listed them in the first place (the usual case) and if I follow the edit summary format suggested by Agathoclea. delldot | talk 15:23, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
The rules say vandals can only be reported here if:
-They have vandalized recently (past 24 hours), and since the last warning (test3 or test4).
-The vandal has received the full range of test warnings recently (i.e., within the previous week).
But what if a vandal only vandalizes a page every 2 weeks or more, so that each time they do it, they will not have received a warning "within the previous week"? Is there no way to request a block for such a user, even if the vandalism is very obvious and they keep doing it again and again? Hypnosifl 08:55, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
This is apperantly from Bishop Dwenger High School. I was reccomended by Meegs to put this on here. I'd say about 95 precent is very clear vandilism, by entering things like penises, and other rude entries. I was told they can't be permanitly blocked, but a long term could stop them. Thank you. -- ASDFGHJKL 20:50, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
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