Wikipedia:Vandalism-only account
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. |
A vandalism-only account is an account that is used only to vandalize Wikipedia.
A vandalism-only account's contributions might look like this.
Dealing with vandalism-only accounts
Vandalism-only accounts are usually blocked indefinitely, sometimes without warning. Occasionally, depending on the severity of the vandalism, the first block implemented may be temporary. If vandalism continues after a temporary block expires, it is extremely rare for the second block to be temporary. The user pages of the vandalism-only account are often deleted after one month. See Wikipedia:User pages of indefinitely blocked users.
A suspected vandalism-only account can be reported here.
IP addresses
Vandalism-only accounts do not include IP addresses, as IP addresses are often shared by many physical computers, and are nearly always reassigned to another computer after a period of time. However, if an IP address has been used only or mostly for vandalism over a long period of time, it is often included in Category:IP addresses used for vandalism. These IP addresses may be subject to very long blocks, up to a year and occasionally even longer, but are - almost - never blocked indefinitely.