User:WorldTraveller101/CVUA
Hi. I am WorldTraveller101. Currently, I am learning how to use various tools and will be learning how to use CVUA. I currently use Twinkle and while I know and understand it, I'd like to use a wider variety of tools to fight vandals and trolls. Thanks guys. WorldTraveller101Did I mess up? 19:01, 28 April 2013 (UTC)
Welcome!
Hello, welcome to your Counter Vandalism Unit Academy page! This programme is meant to be tailored to you, so do not hesitate to tell me if you want extra teaching on anything, or if something is not working for you. Make sure you have read through Wikipedia:Vandalism because this is an essential resource for this course.
How do I 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. 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.
Unit 1: Good faith or vandalism?
- Helpful links
Before you start this activity, you have to recognise the difference between "Good Faith" and "Vandalism" edits. Good faith edits are made by people genuinely trying to contribute, while vandalism is when someone is purposely making disruptive edits. Vandalism edits are sometimes called "Bad Faith edits". Remember to read through the resources provided above!
- In your own words, please explain how you would tell "Good Faith" and "Vandalism" edits apart.
- A: A "Good Faith" edit often comes from a newer user who as made an obvious attempt at making a constructive edit, but perhaps, added incorrect information or have missed a guideline or format. Vandalism is when a user or IP is intentionally creating serious damage to Wikipedia articles by adding silly information or blanking the page, etc.
Good, but test edits are also considered good faith. Blanking, and gibberish are considered test edits unless they do it repeatedly. nerdfighter 21:06, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
- Please find and revert 2 examples of good faith but unhelpful edits, and 2 examples of vandalism. Please give the diffs (differences) of your reverts below. To do so, just copy the full link of the difference from your url box and paste them inside the square brackets. If you need more help with using diffs, just ask me.
- [1] This was considered good faith, but unhelpful.
You are right but the warning you gave was too harsh. Level one warnings are appropriate for GF edits, not level 3 or 4. Don't worry, it's a mistake I used to make 
- [2] This was considered a good faith edit, as the user was new, but it was inaccurate and unhelpful.
Good revert, good warning!
- [3] These four edits [as you can see were reverted before I started using Twinkle], was an addition of incorrect information on purpose.
- [4] This was obvious vandalism from 77.70.28.120 that I reverted.
Unit 2: How do I warn and report a vandal?
- Helpful links
It is time for you to enable Twinkle. Go to your preferences, and select Twinkle (under gadgets). 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. Remember to read the resources provided!
- Why do we warn users?
- A: We warn users to remind them of the policies and guidelines so Wikipedia can be as clean, vandal-free and accurate as possible Right on
- When would a 4im warning be appropriate?
- A: A level 4im warning would be appropriate if it is a user or IP who appears to be new, but is doing major vandalism to articles or pages, such as blanking, messing with the formatting, or is purposefully ruining something like user pages.
Blanking pages can be seen as test editing and therefore they should be warned with a level 1 blanking warning. Userpage vandalism is usually considered level 3, unless it is especially crude (as in slurs)
- What should you do if a user who has received a level 4 or 4im warning vandalises again?
- A: I should report them to the AIV. Right!
If a user has vandalised twice but has not received any warnings for it, what might you do?
- A: If they are a new user, give them a Level 1 warning for vandalism. Newer users who have not been warned but are more likely to be more familiar with policies might get a Level 2 warning. Sounds reasonable.
Unit 3:Anti Vandal Tools
- Helpful links
WP:Recent changes patrol#Tools
What you have been doing so far is named the old school approach (Besides using Twinkle). As well as manually going throughSpecial:RecentChanges, it includes undos, "last clean version" restores, and manually warning users.
There are a large number of tool which assist users in the fight against vandalism. They range from tools which help filter and detect vandalism to tools which will revert, warn and report users.
Lupin's Anti-Vandal Tool
Lupin's Anti-Vandal Tool monitors the RSS feed and flags edits with common vandalism terms. It's a very simple tool, but which is useful for not having to go check each and every diff on Recent Changes.
Twinkle
The first tool I want to mention is Twinkle, it's a very useful and I strongly suggest you enable it (in the Gadgets section of your preferences). It provides three types of rollback functions (vandalism, normal and AGF) as well as an easy previous version restore function (for when there are a number of different editors vandalising in a row). Other functions include a full library of speedy deletion functions, and user warnings. It also has a function to propose and nominate pages for deletion, to request page protection to report users to WP:AIV & WP:UAA (which we'll get to later).
Rollback
See rollback, this user right introduces an easy rollback button (which with one click reverts an editor's contributions. I'll let you know when I think you're ready to apply for the rollback user right.
STiki
STiki consists of (1) a component that listens to the RecentChanges feed and scores edits on their possibility of being uncontructive; and (2) An application which scans through the most recent revisions on pages and scores the possibility of them being uncontructive. Requires Rollback
Huggle
Huggle is a Windows program which parses (orders them on the likelihood of being unconstructive edits and on the editor's recent history) from users not on its whitelist. It allows you to revert vandalism, warn and reports users in one click.
- Which of the tools do you plan to use? Why?
- A:
Unit 4: How do I deal with difficult users?
- Helpful links
- How can you tell between a good faith user asking why you reverted their edit, and a troll trying to harass you?
- A:
- If a user believes an edit of their which you reverted was not vandalism, and questioned you about it, what should you do?
- A: You should give specific examples of why they are per the vandalism policy.
- What would you do if an admin continually harasses you on your talk page?
- A:
- What would you do if an several IP users continually harass you?
- A:
Unit 5: Protection and speedy deletion
Protecting and deleting pages are two additional measures that can be used to prevent and deal with vandalism. Only anadministrator can protect or delete pages; however, anyone can nominate a page for deletion or request protection. If you have Twinkle installed, you can use the Twinkle menu to request page protection or speedy deletion (the RPP or CSD options).
Protection
- Helpful links
In what circumstances should a page be semi-protected?
- A:
In what circumstances should a page be pending changes protected?
- A:
In what circumstances should a page be fully protected?
- A:
What is a content dispute?
- A:
Speedy deletion
In what circumstances should a page be speedy deleted, very briefly no need to go through the criteria?
- A:
- Correctly tag two pages for speedy deletion and post the diff and the criteria you requested it be deleted under below.
- A: