Hello, LuxembourgLover, and welcome to your Counter Vandalism Unit Academy page! Please make sure you have this page added to your watchlist. If you have any general queries about anti-vandalism, this page, (or anything else), don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page!
Make sure you read through Wikipedia:Vandalism as that's the knowledge which most of the questions I ask you and tasks you do will revolve around.
- How to use this page
This page will be built up over your time in the Academy, with new sections being added as you complete old ones. Each section will end with a task, written in bold type - this might just ask a question, or it might require you to go and do something. You can answer a question by typing the answer below the task; if you have to do something, you will need to provide diffs to demonstrate that you have completed the task. Some sections will have more than one task, sometimes additional tasks may be added to a section as you complete them. Please always sign your responses to tasks as you would on a talk page.
- Once you graduate I will copy this page into your userspace so you have a record of your training and a reference for the future.
The start edit
Twinkle edit
Twinkle is a very useful tool when performing maintenance functions around Wikipedia. Please have a read through WP:TWINKLE.
- Enable Twinkle (if haven't already) and leave a note here to let me know that you have enabled it.
I have enabled Twinkle.
Good faith and vandalism edit
When patrolling for vandalism, you may often come across edits which are unhelpful, but not vandalism - these are good faith edits. It is important to recognise the difference between a vandalism edit and a good faith edit, especially because Twinkle gives you the option of labelling edits you revert as such. Please read WP:AGF and WP:NOT VANDALISM before completing the following tasks.
- Please explain below the difference between a good faith edit and a vandalism edit, and how you would tell them apart.
- Please find three examples of good faith but unhelpful edits, and three examples of vandalism. You don't need to revert the example you find, and I am happy for you to use previous undos in your edit history if you wish.
- A) Good faith Good faith is when someone edits not trying to be disruptive. For example using a bias source saying X politician is bad and editing the page to say so.
- B) Vandalism This is just flat out changing something for no reason. For example saying X politician is a horrible person and is the worst politician ever.
- LuxembourgLover, evaluating:
- 1. (Good faith) This actually seems like flat-out vandalism to me, it doesn't seem like good faith.
- 2 and 3 in the A section looks good.
- Now, for the B section:
- 1 and 2, can you provide an exact diff of the vandalism edit? I can't determine if the edit is vandalism or not if a diff is not given.
- Link 3 is a vandalizing edit, good eye!
- Now, can you provide me one good faith edit to replace the one noted above, and the diffs of the two vandalism edits below this reply? Thanks! Tails Wx 02:28, 26 October 2023 (UTC)
Warning and reporting edit
When you use Twinkle to warn a user, you have a number of options to choose from: you can select the kind of warning (for different offences), and the level of warning (from 1 to 4, for increasing severity). Knowing which warning to issue and what level is very important. Further information can be found at WP:WARN and WP:UWUL.
- Please answer the following questions
- Why do we warn users?
We warn users to try to stop them from farther vandalism and to remind them of the rules of wikipila.
- When would a 4im warning be appropriate?
This should be used when a user had vandalized a page and has been warned multiple times.
- Should you substitute a template when you place it on a user talk page, and how do you do it?
You should substitute if none of the templates work with the problem.
- What should you do if a user who has received a level 4 or 4im warning vandalises again?
You should post a notice on the talk page for the user and contact an administrator.
eh, not really. There's no point in posting a notice on the talk page, and if doing so, what is the notice? And in most cases contacting an administrator isn't the best choice–AIV is the place to go. Tails Wx 01:08, 27 October 2023 (UTC)
- Please give examples (using
{{Tlsubst|''name of template''}}) of three different warnings (not different levels of the same warning and excluding the test edit warning levels referred to below), that you might need to use while recent changes patrolling and explain what they are used for.
——————————————————————————————————-
Hello, I'm LuxembourgLover. 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.
Used for basic vandalism.
- Hello, I'm LuxembourgLover. I noticed that you recently removed all content from a page. Please do not do this. Blank pages are harmful to Wikipedia because they have a tendency to confuse readers. As a rule, if you discover a duplicate article, please redirect it to an appropriate existing page. If a page has been vandalised, please revert it to the last legitimate version. If you feel that the content of a page is inappropriate, please edit the page and replace it with appropriate content. If you believe there is no hope for the page, please see the deletion policy for how to proceed. If this was a mistake, don't worry; the removed content has been restored. If you wish 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.
leval one page blanking would most likely be an accident in good faith.
Thank you for your contributions, but we are trying to write an encyclopedia here, so please keep your edits factual and neutral. Our readers are looking for serious articles and will not find joke edits amusing. Remember that Wikipedia is a widely used reference tool, so we have to take what we do here seriously. If you'd like to experiment with editing, use the sandbox instead. Thank you.
A joke that is on purpose but a smaller joke that should not be level 3 or 4.
Make sure you keep in mind that some edits that seem like vandalism can be test edits. This happens when a new user is experimenting and makes accidental unconstructive edits. Generally, these should be treated with good faith, especially if it is their first time, and warned gently. The following templates are used for test edits: {{subst:uw-test1}}, {{subst:uw-test2}} and {{subst:uw-test3}}.
I just wanted to make sure you know about Special:RecentChanges, if you use the diff link in a different window or tab you can check a number of revisions much more easily. If you enable Hovercards in the Hover section of your preferences, you can view the diff by just hovering over it. Alternately, you can press control-F or command-F and search for "tag:". some edits get tagged for possible vandalism or section blanking.
- Find and revert some vandalism. Warn each user appropriately, using the correct kind of warning and level. Please include at least two test edits and at least two appropriate reports to AIV. For each revert and warning please fill in a line on the table below
| # | Diff of your revert | Your comment (optional). If you report to AIV please include the diff | Tails Wx's comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Link user | Vandalism was done for no apparent reason. I sent my sandbox on the game’s discord server so maybe someone was trying to be “funny” however I do not know as it was an edit from an IP Andes’s. I gave him a {subst:uw-vandalism4im} in his talk page. |  Yep, vandalism. Please keep in mind to link the correct diff, as that link you've provided leads me to the history of the page. Tails Wx 13:44, 27 October 2023 (UTC)
|
| 2 | Link user | Vandalism was done from by another random IP address, possibly the same on or someone else. | |
| 3 | Linkuser | Common incident on the page.People say “decisive Oklahoma victory” “Texas lost dignity” and other “joke” comments. I used {subst:uw-joke1} on his talk page. | |
| 4 | Linkuser | Another vandalism on the Red River Bridge war was the same act as above. | |
| 5 | Linkuser | Second example of removing content from page, gave him warning two. He has three sepret examples of vandlsim on the page, only warned him once | |
| 6 | Link | Firesst example of vandalism used {subst:uw-vandalism1}, he got another warning after two more examples of vandalism, I was not the one to give him the second warning. | |
| 7 | Linkuser | More example of Red River Bridge War. Used {subst:uw-vandalism1} and reminded him to uses sources. | |
| 8 | Linkuser | First warning I have no idea what they are doing. |  not vandalism, but rather unsourced additions to BLP articles. It appears that the IP was adding a film which the actor may have had a role in, but there is no reliable source as to if the actor had a role in the film. I would've gone ahead with {{Template:Uw-biog1}}. Tails Wx 00:49, 17 November 2023 (UTC)
|
| 9 | Linkuser | Continued to do random edits just to revert them. | |
| 10 | Linkuser | More random editing, used a warning for test edits. | I wouldn't consider this test edits nor random editing, but rather unsourced additions to BLP articles. Tails Wx 23:32, 9 November 2023 (UTC) |
| 11 | Linkuser | Remove content despite it being sourced, gave him a low warning, rollback edits, and fixed to make it sound better with sources. This user does this a lot he has multiple warnings. He also has proposed merging multiple of my pages and has not been that nice about it. | Not done, see Talk:Lake Conroe and User talk:Tails Wx#CVU Academy. Tails Wx 13:44, 27 October 2023 (UTC)
|
| 12 | Linkuser | Simple non-sourced info | |
| 13 | Linkuser | Non-soursed info | |
| 14 | Link | Vandalism, bad discription and reason for edit | yep, poorly explained reason for removal. Tails Wx 23:32, 9 November 2023 (UTC)
|
| 15 | Link | Probably good faith or accident just gave {subst:uw-subtle1} | That's vandalism, I doubt it was a good faith edit/mistake. Tails Wx 23:32, 9 November 2023 (UTC) |