Wikipedia:Recent changes patrol

[[:|WP:RCP]]

"WP:RCP" redirects here. You may be looking for Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission. NP Patrol is now at Wikipedia:New pages patrol.

Recent changes patrol or RC patrol refers to the process whereby individual users (also called editors) check the recent changes to various articles for harmful 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 the rest of Wikipedia is not harmed.

Regular RC patrollers may wish to put the RC patrol userbox on their user page by adding {{User wikipedia/RC Patrol}} to their user pages.

This user is a recent changes patroller.

What to do

RC Patrolling primarily consists of a four step process:

Identify "bad" or "needy" edits: RC patrollers efficiently identify problematic edits. A bad edit is an edit that for one reason or another may need to be entirely removed. A needy edit requires maintenance or improvement in some manner.
Remove or improve the edit: Needy edits should be tagged according to their need (e.g. {{wikify}}), or boldly changed immediately. Bad edits should likewise be tagged or deleted. Because Wikipedians do not like their edits to be deleted, it is important to leave concise but clear justifications on the talk page or in the edit summary. When adding tags, please consider placing them on the article's talk page rather than in the article itself.
Warn the editor: In the cases of deliberate vandalism or an evident lack of knowledge on Wikipedia procedure, offending editors should be warned on their talk pages. While this is an optional step, it should be a regular part of a patroller's duties, as it minimizes conflict, educates new editors and alerts administrators of repeat offenders. For efficiency and consistency, standard warning templates can be found here. However do feel free to simply write a warning if the available templates are not appropriate.
Check the user's other contributions: You will often find more edits with similar problems. Fix those as well.

Being nice

Throughout the entire process of RC patrol, it is important to remember not to bite the newbies. Far from being a monolithic horde of vandals, trolls, and spammers, the available evidence seems to indicate that newcomers write 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 gladly welcome the support.

It is also important to assume good faith as much as possible, or, minimally to assume incompetence instead of malice. For example, remember not everyone is as computer literate as you; some people will accidentally blank or damage pages when attempting to cut and paste material from Wikipedia. Others may not understand that, yes, their changes really are visible to the entire world.

Recent Changes Patrollers must maintain a level of respect for fellow editors.

Patrolling edits to existing pages

In general, one thing to keep in mind is not to focus only on patrolling articles in the main namespace. Image pages, for example, are frequently victims of nonsensical edits and vandalism. Such uncaught edits may be harmful due to malicious modification or collateral removal of copyright tags.

Newbie tests

Look for newbie 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.

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

Hello, I'm [[User:{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}|{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}]]. 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 I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on [[User talk:{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}|my talk page]]. Thanks!

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

Hello, I'm Cave cattum. 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}} ~~~~ (a variant suitable for blanking)

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

Lack of sources

Addition of unsourced material without proper citations

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

Welcome to Wikipedia. We invite everyone to contribute constructively to our encyclopedia. However, adding content without citing a reliable source is not consistent with our policy of verifiability. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you.

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

Please do not add content without citing reliable sources. Before making potentially controversial edits, it is recommended that you discuss them first on the article's talk page. Thank you.

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

Please do not add unsourced or original content. Doing so violates Wikipedia's verifiability policy. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Thank you.

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

Spam

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

Copyright violations

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

Vandalism

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

Additionally, leave warning messages on the vandal's talk pages using the following system.

Warning templates

Note that these templates need not 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 himself, use a {{selftest}}. For extreme or extensive cases of vandalism committed by users who have received no prior warnings, {{uw-vandalism4im}} may be used. The ~~~~ in the templates below cause the time and your signature to be added to the warning.

{{subst:selftest}} ~~~~ (use if an edit appears to be a reversion of a newbie test): Welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for reverting your recent experiment. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to the encyclopedia. If you would like to experiment further, please use the sandbox instead, as someone could see your edit before you revert it. Thank you.
{{subst:uw-test1}} ~~~~ (use if an edit appears to have possibly not been an intentional act of vandalism): Hello, I'm [[User:{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}|{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}]]. 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 I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on [[User talk:{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}|my talk page]]. Thanks!
{{subst:uw-vandalism1}} ~~~~ (use if an edit is clearly vandalism): Hello, I'm Cave cattum. I wanted to let you know that one or more of your recent contributions have been undone because they did not appear constructive. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you have any questions, you can ask for assistance at the Teahouse or the Help desk. Thanks.
{{subst:uw-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}} ~~~~ (a variant suitable for vandalism that consists of blanking text): Please do not remove content or templates from pages on Wikipedia without giving a valid reason for the removal in the edit summary. Your content removal does not appear to be constructive and has been reverted. If you only meant to make a test edit, please use the sandbox for that. Thank you.
{{subst:uw-test3}} ~~~~: Please stop making test edits to Wikipedia. It is considered vandalism, which, under Wikipedia policy, can lead to being blocked from editing. If you would like to experiment again, please use the sandbox.
{{subst:uw-vandalism4}} ~~~~ (not suitable as a first warning): You may be blocked from editing without further warning the next time you vandalize Wikipedia.
{{subst:uw-vandalism4im}} ~~~~ (used as a first warning for extreme cases of vandalism): This is your only warning; if you vandalize Wikipedia again, you may be blocked from editing without further notice.

Alternatively, you can use:

{{selftest-n|}} ~~~~
{{subst:uw-test#|}} ~~~~
{{subst:uw-vandalism#|}} ~~~~
{{subst:uw-delete#|}} ~~~~
{{subst:uw-vandalism4im|}} ~~~~

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

{{subst:uw-test1|France}}: Hello, I'm [[User:{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}|{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}]]. An edit that you recently made to France seemed to be a test and has been reverted. If you want to practice editing, please use the sandbox. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on [[User talk:{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}|my talk page]]. Thanks!

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

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

The blocking administrator will usually leave this on the vandal's talk page:

{{subst:uw-block1}} ~~~~: You are using this template in the wrong namespace. Use this template on a user talk page instead.. Once the block has expired, you are welcome to make constructive contributions. If you believe this block is unjustified you may contest this block by replying here on your talk page by adding the text {{unblock|your reason here}} .

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

Trace IP

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

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

If an address is not in one, it will probably be in another. Then add {{vandalip|Name of owner}} to the talk pages of users who vandalise - the realisation that they can be traced is often sufficient to make them stop.

Tools

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

Monitoring

Shortcut

WP:OLDSCHOOL

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

Huggle is a fast diff browser which parses edits from users and sorts them by predicted level of vandalism. Once identified, malicious edits can be reverted in the click of a button. Due to the fast-paced nature of the program, users on the English Wikipedia must have the rollback permission to use it; however, this is not a requirement on other wikis.
IRC Bots report at the #cvn-wp-en ^connect channel on the Libera Chat network list suspected vandalism edits (for example: blankings, edits made by blacklisted users, etc.).
Lupin's Anti-Vandal Tool monitors the RSS feed and flags edits with common vandalism terms. It also has a live spellcheck feature.
RCMap geolocates anonymous edits from the IRC live feed and displays them on a world map, with links to diffs. Supports multiple languages in a unified interface.
Please be aware that this program is not hosted on Wikimedia Foundation servers
RC Patrol is a lightweight script that makes it easier to patrol recent changes. After installing, visit this page. The script uses ORES to automatically determine whether the edit needs review. You need rollback or admin permissions to use the script, just like with Huggle.
RedWarn patrol can be activated by any user of RedWarn on the recent changes page, quick reviewing and one-click rollback of disruptive edits.
SWViewer (direct link) is a user-friendly webapp with simple and intuitive UI that enables you to monitor recent changes in real-time. It also provides features to monitor multiple wikis at the same time. In order to use the application, rollback permission is required.
AntiVandal is another web-based vandalism monitoring tool, similar to Huggle in User Interface. It can be used to quickly revert vandalism and warn the vandal using escalating or 4im only warning templates. Users can also directly report vandals to Administrator Intervention against Vandalism after sufficient warning has been given. Rollback or admin permission is required to use the script.
WatchlistBot is an XMPP bot that sends messages in realtime when articles are modified. Users with a Jabber account can subscribe to the bot and watch both articles and users.

Rollback tools

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

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

Rollback-like scripts

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

RC patrol script gives non-administrators revert, filter, and popup tools while using the monobook skin.
RC review script for today's featured article gives all editors access to see recent changes in the featured article appearing on the Main page
Please be aware that this program is not hosted on Wikimedia Foundation servers
Navigation popups are a set of utilities that appear when hovering over wikilinks. Particularly, hovering over links of old versions provides a "revert" link.
Twinkle gives both non-administrators and administrators three types of rollback functions. Other functions include a full library of speedy deletion functions, user warnings, pseudo-automatic reporting of vandals, and more.
RedWarn, like Twinkle, gives both non-administrators and administrators nearly twenty types of rollback functions, including a "rollback preview" and "quick rollback".
Ultraviolet also provides several different types of rollback functions for both non-administrators and administrators, like RedWarn.
mobileUndo (new version) a script which allows you to revert when using the mobile interface.

Special pages

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

Task Forces

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

IRC channels

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

#cvn-wp-en ^connect Primary RC bot listing (Activity feed only, discussion takes place in #wikipedia-en ^connect)
For a list of bot commands, see CVNBot Documentation. To use these commands, you must have a NickServ registration, and be voiced by a channel operator.
#wikimedia-unifications ^connect Account creations
#cvn-commons-uploads ^connect File uploads
#cvn-wp-en-cluenet ^connect Channel that reroutes information from ClueNet. (Read-only, only staff and bots can speak)

Discord server

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

Join now

Vandalism Detection Score Services

WMF ORES is a web service and API that provides machine learning as a service for Wikimedia projects maintained by the Scoring Platform team. The system is designed to help automate critical wiki-work – for example, vandalism detection and removal. Currently, the two general types of scores that ORES generates are in the context of “edit quality” and “article quality.”^[1]

Other

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

References

^ "ORES - MediaWiki". www.mediawiki.org. Retrieved 2019-07-24.