Help:Recent changes patrol/Advice

By taking part in the Recent changes patrol, you will be helping to ensure that inapproriate and unwanted information is not being added to the wiki. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:


 * Vandalism (deleting sections of a page or replacing them with gibberish or misinformation).
 * Profanity, insults, harassement, racial slurs.
 * Pornography and other inappropriate pictures.
 * Statements of a sexual nature, especially concerning any character that is not an adult.
 * Spam and off-topic material (rants against a third party, political statements, advertisements).
 * Fan cruft and personal comments that are not in a forum, blog or Talk page.
 * Fan fiction.
 * Social networking information (creating User pages and blogs here that belong on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.).

For the purposes of the patrol, "unwanted" does not mean something you personally disagree with. It is a statement or opinion that needs to be removed because it is not supported by the evidence presented in the show.

You have been granted Rollback rights to assist you with the patrol. Rollback usage is discussed below.

Any edits you make are automatically marked as patrolled, as you have been shown to be a reliable contributor. The list of auto-patrolled users and groups includes:


 * Administrators
 * Users with Rollback rights
 * User:Wikia (generates system and greeting messages)

What needs to be checked
Every edit, every blog comment and every file that is uploaded needs to be checked. This is because some people will appear just long enough to cause a problem and then are gone. Others will try to hide that they are causing problems by putting in a bad edit, then taking it right back out. For example, this edit was removed by the same person less than 60 seconds after it was added.

Although many bad edits and problems come from anonymous IP users, this is not always the case. There have been instances where an anonymous user registers for an account so that they can continue what they have been doing after being stopped. For this reason, every edit, blog comment and file needs to be checked.

Each file that is uploaded must also be checked. Mainly, this is to catch pornography, but also to reduce the amount of off-topic pictures that are uploaded. See "Inappropriate pictures" below for more information and how to deal with them.

Ideally, there should be no more than three days of unpatrolled edits at any given time. This excludes blog comments, which are discussed below.

Rollback versus Undo
Whenever possible, use the Undo function to fix a bad edit. As part of the Recent changes patrol, you are expected to provide a reason in the Summary line why you are changing an edit. Rollback does not provide the ability to change the Summary line.

Rollback should only be used when it is necessary to remove several changes in a row made by the same person. However, you can achieve the same result and still be able to update the Summary if you edit an earlier version of the page and re-save it. You would then be able to put in the reason, such as "Restore earlier version of the page to remove profanity by 123.45.6.78."

Note: when updating the Summary line, double-check what is filled in automatically. Sometimes, part of what is being removed is listed. If you're removing profanity, insults, harrasing statements or racial slurs, please make sure these are not included in the Summary. The Summary is permanently stored with each edit and we do not need to keep seeing those kinds of statements. Simply say "removed profanity" or whatever is appropriate.

Handling bad edits
As mentioned above, use Undo to remove the bad edit so that your reason for doing so will be recorded.

In the case of new pages that are created, you can either redirect it or mark it for deletion.

Redirection
If a new page covers the same subject as another page, you can redirect it by editing it and replacing the entire page with the redirect command: #redirect name of page.

Please delete any categories before saving the page. The Summary should say "redirecting to existing page".

Marking for deletion
Before marking a page to be deleted, take a moment to see if the page belongs in a different area. Some will be appropriate for a Forum, while others may be a new page that a person is working on. In both cases, use the Move function to rename the page as a Forum or into the user's private area. Example: User:username/SandboxName

If a page needs to be deleted, that will have to be done by an administrator. You can signal this by adding the   template to the top of the page. If you are not able to explain why the page needs to be deleted within the limited space provided by the Summary line, leave a message on its Talk/Discussion page. This is especially helpful in dealing with spam and off-topic material.

Renaming a page or file
If the name of the page is inappropriate or does not fit our naming policy, use the Move function to rename it. Please explain why it is being renamed in the "Reason" box.

Automatic immediate revisions
Occasionally, Wikia Entertainment staff may use a script or a Bot to Undo edits and delete files added by problem users that have appeared on multiple wikis. When this occurs, it is usually within a few minutes of the initial edit or file upload. Examine what was Undone, and if necessary, send a message to an administrator if further action is needed. See "Alerting an administrator" below.

Notifying an administrator
In the case of items 2 through 5 listed at the top of this page, it is important that they be removed as soon as possible. Each of these almost always warrants a block being placed on the offender's account. See "Alerting an administrator" below to help this occur in a timely manner.

Blog comments
As mentioned on the Recent changes patrol help page, comments in a blog cannot be marked as patrolled at this time. However, they must still be checked to make sure the person's comment does not contain anything inappropriate or unwanted.

If you are presented with the option, you can edit a blog comment. However, you will not be able to provide a reason for your change. The Recent changes page will only show that the comment was changed and by how much.

Because of this, you must be very aware that you are altering their comments. This should not be done to settle personal disputes. Only to fix problems. As with all other pages, blog comments have a revision history that can be checked to see what was changed.

For comments that should be deleted, the comment should be edited and the   template added to the top of the comment.

If you do not have the ability to edit comments, you will need to send a message to an administrator, informing them of the comment that needs to be edited or deleted. See "Alerting an administrator" below.

Off-topic pictures
Most pictures that are uploaded should be related to the show. Some off-topic pictures are allowed if they are shown on a person's User page. We need to limit how many are uploaded and reserve that space for on-topic pictures.

Look at the bottom of the page in the "File links" section. This will list any pages that link to the picture. If no pages link to the picture and it has been several hours since it was uploaded, it is probably safe to delete it or mark it with the   template.

If the picture is being used on a person's User page, do not delete the file.

Pornography, etc.
Offensive, inappropriate and pornographic pictures are not allowed on this wiki. In addition, most of the characters in this show are not adults. Pornographic pictures featuring under-age subjects are illegal in most states and nations around the world. We will not debate whether pictures of cartoon characters qualify for this. They are not allowed.

It is very important that such pictures be removed as soon as possible. Notify an admin if you do not have sufficient rights to delete the picture yourself.

Alerting an administrator
When a blog comment, picture, or page needs to be deleted quickly, leave a message on an administrator's Talk page. Please leave the reason for why it needs to be deleted and a link to the page. It is recommended that you create the link by copying it out of your web browser's address bar since this will show the revision differences or the exact blog comment you were looking at.

Create the link as an external link:  PageDescription

The following users have administrative rights:


 * Topher
 * Flash
 * RRabbit42
 * Ardi

If you have any recommendations for further advice that should be added here, enter it on the Advice talk page and sign your name.