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Counter-Vandalism Unit

“ Civility, Maturity, Responsibility ” Shortcut: WP:CVU The Counter-Vandalism Unit (CVU) aims to help in cleaning up vandalism on Wikipedia by producing tools to assist in removing vandalism, providing advice on dealing with vandals, and sharing information with other Wikipedians dealing with the same issues. Removing vandalism is a task open to all members of the Wikipedia community, and the CVU intends to make that task easier. In other words, anyone who wants to help with reverting vandalism is welcome to join. Identifying with the CVU's role by one of the methods above does not grant you any special rights or privileges on Wikipedia. The CVU is not, and has not requested to be, sanctioned as an official project of the Wikimedia Foundation. It is merely a collection of individuals dedicated to removing vandalism and does not seek to represent itself as anything more. "Unit" is simply a little snappier than "WikiProject". Volunteers: expand for notices None at this time You can subscribe to a web feed of this page in either RSS or Atom format.

Contents 1 Current events 2 Guidelines and policy 3 How to respond to simple vandalism for beginners 4 Tools 4.1 Monitoring 4.2 Rollback scripts 4.3 Special pages 4.4 Task Force 4.5 IRC channels 4.6 Other 5 Think tank 5.1 Reports 5.2 See also 6 Recognition 6.1 The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar 6.2 The CVU Anti-Vandalism Award 7 Userboxes 8 See also

Current events

Vandalism
Dealing with vandalism
Obvious vandalism Long-term abuse Reporting IP address abuse WikiProject on open proxies
Resources & assistance
Cleaning up vandalism Counter-vandalism tools
Further information
Blocking IP addresses Do not insult the vandals ISP contact information WikiProject Vandalism studies  v • d • e

• New warning templates have been fully implemented.
• WikiScanner, a tool to identify edits from specific organizations, has been released
• Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit/Task Force is now up and running. Please feel free to join.
• The CVU Think Tank has been re-established.
• Abuse reports has been revamped as Wikipedia:Abuse response

Guidelines and policy

If an edit meets the criteria of vandalism, revert it. Please be graceful in doing so and do not bite newcomers. Vandalism should be dealt with using warning templates; if it continues nevertheless, it should be reported directly to the administrators using the links at the top of the page. Tools such as blocking and sock puppet reports should not be used as punishment, but rather as prevention against future vandalism. The CVU's purpose is to repair and prevent vandalism, not to punish users, for which being a member of the CVU grants no special authority.

How to respond to simple vandalism for beginners

For relatively inexperienced Wikipedians, use these simple steps to quickly respond to what you consider vandalism. This is essentially an abridged version of Wikipedia:Vandalism. For a detailed guide, see Arnon Chaffin's Anti-Vandalism Center.

1. Assess whether the edit was made in good faith or bad faith. If it is in good faith, it is not technically vandalism, so question the accuracy of information on the talk page and/or add a "{{fact}}" tag to the disputed edit. If it is in bad faith, then it is vandalism and you may take the appropriate steps to remove it.

2. Revert the vandalism by viewing the page's history and selecting the most recent version of the page prior to the vandalism. Use an edit summary such as 'rvv' or 'reverted vandalism' and click on 'Save page'.

3. Warn the vandal. Access the vandal's talk page and warn them by posting an appropriate warning template. For first-time vandals, start at level one.

Level one: {{subst:uw-vandalism1}}

Level two: {{subst:uw-vandalism2}}

Level three: {{subst:uw-vandalism3}}

Level four: {{subst:uw-vandalism4}}

4. Watch for future vandalism from the vandal by checking the user's contributions. If bad faith edits continue, revert them and use higher level warning tags on their talk page. An example of warning a repeat offender can be found at User talk:201.21.233.202.

5. Report vandals that continue their behavior after being warned four times to 'Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism'.

Tools

The following is a list of tools and resources available for those who want to clean up with a more systematic approach.

Monitoring

Shortcut: WP:OLDSCHOOL

The old school way is to load recent changes and check the (diff) links. If they contain harmful edits, you revert to the previous version. However, the high volume of edits that occur each second makes this difficult to accomplish most of the time, and several tools have been created to simplify the process:

• Vandal Fighter, the original anti-vandalism program, is a Java program that displays the Recent Changes feed from Wikipedia's IRC bots and allows filters to focus on certain types of changes (e.g. anonymous IPs). It also maintains a personal list of trusted users, watched articles, etc.
• Lupin's Anti-Vandal Tool monitors the RSS feed and flags edits with common vandalism terms. It also has a live spellcheck feature.
• WikiMonitor is a Windows program that enables users to monitor recent changes, their watchlist, users' contributions, and other feeds in real time as well as providing multiple tools to aid in semi-automated editing and reversion. It is compatible with all Wikimedia wikis.
• VandalSniper, a VandalProof-like application, is currently in beta. At the moment it has only been confirmed to run on Linux.
• WikiGuard is a Mac OS X program that monitors the IRC feed and attempts to approximate each edit's risk.
• RC birds is a Java program that emits different bird sounds for the RC feed depending on the user.
• The IRC Bot, pgkbot, by Pgk, runs on the IRC channels below.
• IRC Bots reporting at the #cvn-wp-en channel on the freenode network list suspected vandalism edits (for example: blankings, edits made by blacklisted users, etc.)
• Young Orphans is a tool made by Interiot to find newly uploaded orphaned images. This is useful for finding various copyright violations and people who are using Wikipedia merely as an image hosting service.
• ShadowTool is a lightweight RC patrol application for Linux.
• Mike's Wiki Tool - An RC patrol tool for Windows users.
• Wikipedia Vandalism Watch is a Windows program that monitors specified users' contributions pages for top edits.
• Huggle is a Windows program which parses edits from users not on its whitelist. You must be running Windows 2000 / XP / Vista and have .NET 2.0 installed for this program to function. You will also need to be in possession of the rollback right.
• WatchlistBot is an XMPP bot that sends messages in realtime when articles are modified. Users with a Jabber account can subscribe to the bot and watch both articles and users.
• WikipediaVision is a web-based world map visualization of anonymous edits to the English (and the German, French, Spanish, Swedish) Wikipedia, almost the same time as they happen.

Rollback scripts

Administrators and users who have requested it get a rollback button when looking at diffs in order to revert articles to their previous versions. However, non-administrators and users without the permission can emulate such a button using several tools.

• RC patrol script gives non-administrators revert, filter, and popup tools while using the (default) monobook skin.
• Godmode-light is a Javascript program to give non-administrators a rollback button.
• Navigation popups are a set of utils that appear when hovering over wikilinks. Particularly, hovering over links of old versions provides a "revert" link.
• Twinkle gives both non-administrators and administrators three types of rollback functions. Other functions include a full library of speedy deletion functions, user warnings, pseudoautomagical reporting of vandals, and more.

Special pages

• See the list of Wikipedia's most vandalized pages. The related changes link will display recent changes to all pages listed on Wikipedia:Most vandalized pages, for those who wish to follow vandalism on Wikipedia but who are unable or do not desire to use IRC bot tools.
• User:Adam1213/warn is a page that simplifies the process of warning vandals by allowing warnings to be submitted to specific users directly from the page.

Task Force

• Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit/Task Force A voluntary Group who will provide assistance at times of high levels of vandalism and advice on counter vandalism methods.
• Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit/Task Force/Members lists the status of task force members.
• Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit/Task Force/Communication is a semi-automatic "pager" to alert members registered on the list to high levels of vandalism.

IRC channels

Note that these are not operated by or affiliated with Wikipedia.

• #cvn-wp-en Primary RC bot listing (NickServ registration required; voice invitations available on request from local operators or in #countervandalism)

Other

• Template:Vandalism information, a tool used as an indication of the current overall level of vandalism that is taking place on Wikipedia. On the page, click the edit button below the vandalism meter to change its level from 5 to 1 and/or add a short comment; 5 indicates very low levels of vandalism, and 1 indicates extremely high. You can add the vandalism information template to your userpage to stay up to date. See Template talk:Vandalism information for different styles.
• Counter-Vandalism Wiki (Not owned by, operated by, or affiliated with Wikipedia.)
• Wikilink scripts enable you to double click on [[wikilinks]] within IRC clients. Useful if doing patrol on the IRC channels.
• There are other scripts that may be handy while doing cleanup (not necessarily vandalism cleanup). Check them at WikiProject User scripts/Scripts (WP:JS)
• Arnon Chaffin has built a wonderful page made just for vandal fighting and warning.

Think tank

Part of the Counter-Vandalism Unit's purpose is to think, discuss, study, and develop solutions for combating vandalism. This is an overview of topics being currently debated at the think tank:

• Reaction Wikipedia:The motivation of a vandal
• Idea to have only logged-in editors edit Wikipedia (WP:Editors should be logged in users)
• New report: How long does vandalism survive on Wikipedia?

Reports

1. Study of vandalism survival times by John Lorne, User:Aetheling (14 June 2009)

See also

• http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Anti-vandalism_ideas

Recognition

The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar

The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar (formerly the Anti-Vandalism Barnstar) may be awarded to those who show great contributions to protecting and reverting attacks of vandalism on Wikipedia. It was introduced on February 27, 2005 by brian0918, and was designed by Deathphoenix. It was renamed on July 24, 2005 in appreciation of the efforts of former Wikipedian RickK in fighting vandalism.

What to type:

{{subst:The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar|message ~~~~}}

The CVU Anti-Vandalism Award

The CVU Anti-Vandalism Award (or CVU Award) may be awarded to Wikipedians who show great contributions to protecting and reverting attacks of vandalism on Wikipedia.
Introduced and designed by Mmxx on September 1, 2008.

What to type:

1:   {{subst:CVU Anti-Vandalism Award|message. ~~~~}}

2:    {{subst:CVU Anti-Vandalism Award 2|message. ~~~~}}

Userboxes

Code:	Results in:
{{User wikipedia/CVU-Vandal Fighter}}	This user is a Vandal Fighter.
{{user CUV}}	CUV This user is dedicated to cleaning up vandalism.
{{User CVU0-en}}	This user is a member of the Counter-Vandalism Unit.
{{user CVU1-en}}	This user is a member of the Counter-Vandalism Unit.
{{user CVU2-en}}	This user is a member of the Counter-Vandalism Unit.
{{user CVU3-en}}	This user is a member of the Counter-Vandalism Unit.
{{user CVU4-en}}	This user fights in open resistance against the forces of the Vandals.
{{user CVU5-en}}	This user fights in the ground forces of Operation Enduring Encyclopedia.
{{user CVU/flier}}	This user flies his stealth fighter in Operation Enduring Encyclopedia.

If you prefer not to use userboxes, you can add yourself to Category:Wikipedians in the Counter-Vandalism Unit.

See also

• RC patrol
• Wikipedia:Cleaning up vandalism
• Wikimedia:Wikipedia vandalism