Hi, guys, I'm Friend505 and I am a Wikipedia editor. I also patrol for vandalism, since I am part of the counter-vandalism unit. I usually send a message to the person who is a vandal suspect when I revert their potential vandalism edits.
 | This user sometimes edits using the VisualEditor. |
If anyone ever thinks that I made a mistake, please contact and report that to me at my talk page.
I am a speedy editor. I sometimes edit some things immediately after I have edited another thing.
 | This user is a lifelong resident citizen of Canada. |
Note that I have an alternate account at User:Friend505alt. I will use this account as an alternate and testing account. I created the account on 8 August 2020 for these purposes. To admins: If my alternate account starts making funny or strange contributions, feel free to block it, since that could mean that someone hacked the password of my alternate account and got in and started making random contributions. However, please notify me if such a thing occurs and the alternate account is blocked. If such a thing occurs, I will simply create a new alternate account, also disclosing the name of the alternate account here. I have a list of my alternate accounts here. Right now, it only contains the name of my current alternate account, Friend505alt.
You can also take the Wikipediholic test and display it on your user page with a simple userbox. In fact, doing the automated test, which is available from the link in my userbox, I think, is better and easier unless if you are willing to enter the numbers into a calculator.
I am, as you can notice from my service badges, a Registered Editor (Signator) Level 4 user.
Note: Although I am a member of the Counter-Vandalism Unit, I have not completely devoted my Wikipedia time to combating and fighting vandalism.
Note: I just put that "Ignore all rules" thing there since it looks good.
 | This user scored 347 on the Wikipediholic test (revision 971118185). |
10.8% completed
 | This user is a member of the Counter-Vandalism Unit. |
 | This user is a vegetarian. |
 | This user is a Buddhist. |
.jpg) | This user is a Buddhist. |
 | This user is a Buddhist vegetarian. |
A simple guide for combating vandalism: how to know which edits may be vandal edits edit
It may be hard to find vandal edits sometimes, but the simple way to find out is to see if there are any edits that remove or add lots of stuff. Usually, when you see bold edits in the "View history" section of an article, that will mean that it might be a vandal edit since bold edits add or remove a lot of stuff. It might be a good idea to contact the user first on their talk page before reverting it to see if they have some good-faith purpose for doing that. Also, check if the user is a WikiOgre or a WikiDragon. They sometimes make good-faith bold edits.
Usually, vandal edits also don't have edit summaries or have meaningless edit summaries. This is a method to find out vandal edits. For example, one time, on an article, I found that someone made an edit that had a meaningless edit summary. I found out that the user had already been blocked and the edit had been reverted by ClueBot NG. You can also use Wikipedia tools for countering vandalism, although I don't. Still, it is a good idea to contact the user first unless you find out that the purpose for doing that was to destroy Wikipedia. Well, just a few IP vandals may not seem like destroying Wikipedia, but if there were not anti-vandalists, like me, then Wikipedia might have already been overwhelmed by the vandals and destroyed.
Red bold edits edit
Red bold edits occur when someone deletes a whole lot of stuff. This could be potential vandalism, as the purpose of Wikipedia is to be an all-neutral, online encyclopedia with information added by specific users, and information should only be removed when it is deemed to be either inaccurate or inappropriate for Wikipedia. Again, first check with the user. If they give you a reply explaining the reason and making their edit a good-faith one, don't mess with the edit. If they give no reply or a meaningless reply within about two days, revert the edit.
Green bold edits edit
Green bold edits may also be potential vandal edits. For example, on one particular edit, a user added a whole lot of meaningless, junk stuff. This would be a vandal edit. That user was blocked later and ClueBot NG reverted the edit. That user also sometimes removed a lot of stuff, so that user did both red bold edits and green bold edits. Still, it is a good idea to first contact the user. You can also take a look at what the user exactly added or removed, although that might be time-consuming; however, if you are a devoted Wikipedian, please do that for Wikipedia. Just press the "prev" link in the "View History" section, although it may be a little hard to learn how to exactly use that link; I learned it through trial-and-error. Also, remember, the user may be a WikiOgre or a WikiDragon (see the guide on what defines a WikiOgre or a WikiDragon). These guys usually make good bold edits.
If you are unfamiliar or new to the world of combating vandalism, you can simply stay out of it. After all, there are users who patrol for vandalism and there are also bots that do that, such as ClueBot NG, ClueBot III, and ClueBot II. For example, I patrol for vandalism; this is how I know which edits may be potential vandal edits.
I usually patrol for vandalism manually, without specialized programs or tools.
My wikicareer (Wikipedia career) edit
I registered my account as "Beckyaloot" on 24 July 2020. On 25 July 2020 (estimated, since I cannot remember exactly), I requested a username change, and 1997kB attended to my global username change request. My username was changed to "Friend505" on 26 July 2020, and I began my formal Wikipedia career.
On 28 July 2020 (estimated, maybe between 28 and 30 July 2020), I became an auto-confirmed user, and I had the right to move unprotected or partially protected pages, depending on how the protection was set. On 29 July 2020, I moved the page The talk (racism in the United States) to The talk (African-American rite of passage). The latter link is a redirect. MelanieN, who is an admin, reverted my move and move-protected the page for a month, allowing users to discuss the proposed move of the page. My current state is an auto-confirmed user.
A significant anti-vandalism edit edit
On 27 July 2020, 3 days after I registered my account, I made a significant anti-vandalism edit on the article Emperor Gaozu of Tang. I reverted a large block of unexplained content removal by two IP users. The diff is here: [1]. Note that the edit has "Tag:Visual edit" since I used the visual editor to preview my changes. (I reverted the edit and re-reverted it so that I could add a better and more specific edit summary; note: I promise I will not do that again.)
Contacting me edit
As the statement on my talk page says, I am busy in real life and may not be able to immediately reply to your messages. I am usually active and available on Wikipedia during the morning and evening, 7 days a week, so this may be a slight inconvenience to people who are waiting for my replies. I am sorry for that. It may be convenient to not wait for my messages and see my replies the next day, depending on what your time zone is, which depends on your location.
Note: Usually, I am active between 11:00 AM and 14:00 UTC and 0:00 and 1:30 UTC. Note: The time that I specified was UTC, Universal Coordinated Time. This is the default time zone that Wikipedia says, for example, when you sign a comment on a talk page and it will specify a UTC time. I have put UTC times since they are universal in Wikipedia. For Eastern Standard Time (EST), since I live in regions where Eastern Standard Time is used, it is 7:00---10:00 AM and 8:00---9:30 PM.
Please leave messages on my talk page; I will respond to you on my talk page and remember to add my talk page to your watchlist. If you would like me to send messages for you at your talk page, please specify that in your initial message.
If I send you a message, I will do it at your talk page. Please reply to me at my talk page. Thank you. If you would like to reply to me at your talk page if we have an ongoing discussion, please specify that in your first reply to me at my talk page.
I am usually active on Wikipedia intermittently. I try to follow the aforementioned schedule, but I am sometimes on an erratic schedule, especially on weekends. If my new erratic schedule becomes commonplace during the weekends, I may have to change the schedule. (If you don't know, "aforementioned" means "mentioned before").
A new word edit
I've just invented a new word: "wikivandal". This word is supposed to mean "Wikipedia vandal." Also, there are the corresponding words "wikivandalize" (basically just the current "vandalize") and "wikivandalblock". Well, note that there was no "vandalblock" word before; I'm just inventing a new big word which means "Wikipedia vandal block" or "a block to a Wikipedia vandal." I would be happy to hear your feedback on my talk page if you would like to do so. Thank you.
My favorite users edit
I have a few favorite users:
- MelanieN (talk), since MelanieN kept giving me advice, although I didn't exactly listen and got blocked here. The link provided is my block log.
- CAPTAIN MEDUSA (talk)
- NinjaRobotPirate (talk), since when I reported to NinjaRobotPirate that there was a bad sockpuppet, NinjaRobotPirate reviewed the evidence given by me and blocked the user.
- Path slopu (talk)
- Mandruss (talk)
- Cabayi (talk)
- AlanM1 (talk)
