Wikipedia talk:Counter-Vandalism Unit/Archive 8

Archive 5

Archive 6

Archive 7

Archive 8

New patrolling tool project

Hi,

I'm Jules* from Wikipedia in French. We plan to develop a new version of LiveRC, a patrolling tool commonly used on fr-wp to fight vandalism, but it is getting old, outdated, and needs several improvements. The project page is translated in English. The tool is needed for fr-wp, but we want to make it available (and configurable) for other wikis.

The fr-wp patrolling community has built a list of specifications for this new tool with our needs. We translated the “specifications” in English and it's available there.

Your feedback would be appreciated regarding the “specifications” we wrote, in order to take into account the needs of your community and build, as much as possible, a tool that suits other communities needs. You can post your feedbacks (preferably in English) on the fr-wp talkpage dedicated to it.

If you reply to this message here, please ping me so I don't miss it. Warm regards, — Jules* ^talk 11:54, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

How do I join

Hi, I'm interested in helping others(including this), but how do i join? Thehistorianisaac (talk) 17:02, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

I@Thehistorianisaac, If you wish to join then by all means join by putting the Userbox on your Userpage, however, if you wish to learn how to do counter-vandalism, then would suggest taking a look at the Academy. Toast (talk) 23:37, 22 October 2022 (UTC)

Does doxxing work to deter IP vandals?

Since IP vandals's IPs are visible, we are able to track them, and tell them their IP address, as well as their rough IRL location. Does this tactic deter IP vandals? ERBuermann (talk) 20:53, 8 November 2022 (UTC)

Can we have an AIV feed a bot posts on IRC?

I used to have one but then the toolserver changed and somehow an account isn't easy to come by, now... ~Lofty abyss 20:35, 1 December 2022 (UTC)

@Lofty abyss try asking over at meta:Talk:Countervandalism Network. — xaosflux ^Talk 17:31, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

Broken tables

All of the sections using tables in them are broken. You can see the code, and they do not show up as they should. Capsulecap ^{(talk • contribs)} 16:55, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

Still looking, but note the sections worked if they are substd in (see test at Special:PermaLink/1129899702). — xaosflux ^Talk 17:22, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

@Capsulecap should be working now, I reverted some recent edits on Template:Colored box that @Danidamiobi: had put in. Danidamiobi, can you give feedback on this? — xaosflux ^Talk 17:42, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

I am sorry this was disruptive in anyway. The revert is okay by me and I will make a dedicated version of it instead. Thanks. Danidamiobi (talk) 17:45, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

@Danidamiobi no worries, I'm sure it was unintended consequences! Feel free to try another improvement, or let us know what we need to change here to use that template. Thank you, — xaosflux ^Talk 17:53, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

Thank you so much for being kind. It's rare. Danidamiobi (talk) 01:35, 28 December 2022 (UTC)

Note that the 2nd Boer War article is vandalised.

I found the article in a vandalised state today: there is a joke graphic inserted right at the top, fictious chinese-sounding names are inserted here and there, etc. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War 158.88.16.4 (talk) 14:59, 2 January 2023 (UTC)

 Done[1] --DB1729^talk 15:42, 2 January 2023 (UTC)

Category renaming

@Pppery: you nominated Category:Wikipedians in the Vandalism Control Network for renaming to Category:Wikipedians in the Countervandalism Network C2D per m:Countervandalism Network,[2] but in enwiki the project page is still Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit. I have not updated Template:User CVU1-en which is populating the old category. – Fayenatic London 21:51, 18 January 2023 (UTC)

I beg your pardon. I had not realised that there is also Category:Wikipedians in the Counter-Vandalism Unit. I have added "see also" links between them. – Fayenatic London 08:36, 19 January 2023 (UTC)

To be fair, the confusion between them was not unique to you, the categories themselves were also somewhat confused (i.e the content I removed in Special:Diff/1133697431) * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 05:03, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

How do I join?

So, I would like to become a part of the Counter-Vandalism-Unit, how do I join? Prussian Kingdomss (talk) 17:42, 19 January 2023 (UTC)

Would someone please be a mentor for me? if yes, reply Prussian Kingdomss (talk) 19:27, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Mentor

Would someone be as kind to mentor me on the Counter-Vandalism Unit, I would like to join but, I don't know the necessities. Prussian Kingdomss (talk) 19:29, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

How do I join?

Howdy. I am interested in joining. I have some experience already in reverting vandalism (feel free to check my contributions and see for yourself). I have both RedWarn and Twinkle installed. I know how to use RedWarn for reverting and warning. I used Twinkle today to report an IP address that had continued non-constructive edits after their final warning. Thanks, Prairie Astronomer ^{Contributions} 20:40, 25 January 2023 (UTC)

I also use WikiLoop DoubleCheck for my anti-vandal work Prairie Astronomer ^{Contributions} 01:59, 27 January 2023 (UTC)

Ok, I figured out how to join myself, thanks. Prairie Astronomer ^{Contributions} 16:55, 30 January 2023 (UTC)

Report pages with repeated vandalism

It seems like 100 Greatest African Americans attracts infrequent but steady vandalism. Is there a place to report pages like that so that logged-in users can add them to their watch page for quicker reverts?--176.199.18.181 (talk) 15:19, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

The only one that comes to mind is Wikipedia:Most vandalized pages, but it is probably outdated. This is definitely something that would be helpful, though! Gnomingstuff (talk) 00:00, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

Disabling editing at the network level

I have a (autistic) family member who keeps making useless edits that other editors have to undo, so my question is apart from null routing en.wikipedia.org (totally blocking) is there any way I can disable Wikipedia edits originating from my IP at the network level but still keep Wikipedia accessible? I have a dynamic IP from my residential ISP so obviously can't request total block on my ISP. Intopa44 (talk) 20:10, 5 March 2023 (UTC)

How to join?

Hello, I am new to Wikipedia.

I'm interested in reverting vandalism in Wikipedia articles so I thought it might be a good idea for me to join the CVU.

How can I join the Counter-Vandalism Unit? Also, are there any requirements to joining?

Shadow of the Starlit Sky (talk) 03:58, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

It appears that there is no requirement to join. You just need to revert obvious vandalism. There is the CVU Academy if you wish to learn about how to do it and how to spot vandalism. Prairie Astronomer ^{Contributions} 15:31, 26 March 2023 (UTC)

Well, I've been reverting vandalism for a while now. Does that mean I can join? Or, do I have to complete the CVU academy course prior to joining? -- Shadow of the Starlit Sky 15:34, 26 March 2023 (UTC)

I didn't do the CVU academy when I finally figured out how to join, and I was in the same situation, having already been doing it for a while. Just put a CVU userbox or category on your userpage and you're good to go. Prairie Astronomer ^{Contributions} 15:03, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Ok, no problem. Actually, I just put the CVU userbox on my user page yesterday. -- Shadow of the Starlit Sky 15:14, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Hoax-related deletion request

I have a pending hoax-related deletion request over at Wikipedia talk:List of hoaxes on Wikipedia if anybody is interested in hearing me out. 100.7.44.80 (talk) 15:38, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

PMID possible bot

IP number editor User:2800:cd0:fc14:cd00:5c49:7a0b:c948:421 multiple additions of the same impertinent <ref>. Probable malfunctioning bot based on |pmid=. Invasive Spices (talk) 18:09, 2 April 2023 (UTC)

References

Undetected vandalism essay

Hi -- in lieu of complaining across the whole project about the amount of vandalism that no one notices for years, I wrote an essay on it in hopes that others will help out. Let me know if you have any suggestions or additions. I'm not really up on the latest tools, and it would be good to have other people's diffs in the list. Gnomingstuff (talk) 19:01, 7 April 2023 (UTC)

Subtle vandalism epidemic -- where to report?

Hey -- I'm seeing a spate of vandalism from multiple IPs that make relatively subtle changes that for some reason aren't getting recognized by bots. Here's an example of an IP that's been doing this. I'm about to revert and warn in this case, but this feels like a bigger issue than a single user here or there. It looks bot-driven to me. Seems worth reporting somewhere, but I'm not sure where the right place is. Any suggestions? -- Avocado (talk) 20:48, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

Update: I don't have time to manually undo all the tiny changes to Compiler. This is really insidious. -- Avocado (talk) 20:50, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

I don't necessarily know that this is bot-driven. It seems pretty similar to other vandalism to me, and a bot would probably be faster with higher volume. "Compiler" is probably a popular target because it's a fairly high-profile article on a subject most people who vandalize Wikipedia will know. Gnomingstuff (talk) 21:12, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

Guess I tripped over 3 or 4 similar changes by different IPs in a short period yesterday. What they had in common was removing or changing the last word of the first template on the page, and in the process removing one of the closing brackets, thus messing up the syntax and causing it to turn up in a search I was using to find pages needing short descriptions.

Each diff included roughly one or two words per paragraph across the entire article. These changes also inevitably included changing dates, and just generally making a hash of things, but not so obviously that someone skimming the article casually without knowing the subject would notice the problems. This is different from most of the vandalism patterns I've encountered in the past, which has tended to be either in big chunks or just a couple words total -- thus easily revertible, even with subsequent changes on top.

The difficulty of reverting these once someone else had edited the article was what really got to me. Part of why I posted here is that I don't like leaving vandalism like that up, but I'm currently only able to edit in occasional ~1min bursts while waiting for my computer to do other things, and reverting a diff like that once there are conflicts is something that would take far longer than that. So I'm not sure what to do in those cases. -- Avocado (talk) 22:28, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

Question

What causes occasional "spikes" of mass vandalism that last over a period of 10-30 minutes? is it always due to spam bots, or is it from several different unique users? DM5Pedia 04:57, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

@DM5Pedia: Getting an answer to that would require first getting example cases, then doing analysis. I am not sure what exists. Check Scholia linked here for a survey of the available research. Bluerasberry (talk) 14:09, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

thanks DM5Pedia 21:43, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

New user deleting blocks of text

New user on the scene as of today, deleting blocks of text in various topic articles. [3] I'm handling the one article on my watchlist which he butchered, but I have no time to deal with the others. Wondering how to notify anyone... so here I am trying to notify here. Doesn't seem like a new editor. Grorp (talk) 05:02, 27 June 2023 (UTC)

Watch this pls

Hi! Here is a article about a german impostor, right wing (very far right), conspirisy man and so on. Maaany bad stuff. In his home wikipedia (german) they blocked his article at all. He is a YouTuber and kind of a german Alex Jones. Some of his fans always try to white wash his article here. It would be good to watch this article or lock it so they cant do this on and on. I try to fix it now but I am sure they will try this on and on. Just want let you know. Here is the article Gunnar Kaiser. Regards 2A02:1210:16F3:8E00:AC9D:F63E:432E:A6ED (talk) 03:51, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

"Counter-Vandalism Unit" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Counter-Vandalism Unit has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2023 August 26 § Counter-Vandalism Unit until a consensus is reached. #prodraxis ^connect 19:50, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

RFC regarding fighting vandalism

Hi, I thought I should mention here that there is a RFC for enabling RC patrolling (=edit patrolling Recentchanges) happening in Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Enable RC patrolling (aka patrolling for edits). Please take a look. Best Ladsgroup^overleg 14:44, 20 October 2023 (UTC)

Request for help

Hi there, I noticed a user has made a large number of disruptive edits but they don't appear to be intentional vandalism. Who would I go to to report this to be mass undo'd?

This is the user, who has changed the word 'season' to 'series' on many pages. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions/113.210.60.97&target=113.210.60.97&dir=prev&offset=20231027041137 Poketama (talk) 09:38, 28 October 2023 (UTC)

I'd take that to WP:AN if you think it needs a mass revert. But it looks like they're just complying with WP:ENGVAR to me. Your comment on their user page doesn't really accord with how we use those words in the UK. WaggersTALK 11:47, 30 October 2023 (UTC)

Multiple unregistered users vandalizing numerical data

Hello! I just caught word from a user post on the Brazil Wikiproject that several unregistered IP users are making minor vandalization edits to Brazilian population data and I'm not sure how to handle this. Some of these users include 168.0.48.88, 168.0.48.91, 45.173.185.4, and 168.0.50.64 (The rest can be seen in the edits reverted by Qmwnebrvtcyxuz). Why don't these kinds of edits get caught by the anti-vandalism systems we have in place? Also, how can i go I about warning these users and/or preventing them from continuing to vandalize if they continue? BaduFerreira (talk) 23:39, 11 November 2023 (UTC)

Vandal category

I recently created Category:Wikipedia vandals as an encyclopedic category, and it has been listed at CFD. Marcocapelle said that a category with that name could be useful for maintenance purposes, and I discovered that a category with that name was previously used as a maintenance category, but was deleted after a discussion in 2006. As Marcocapelle suggested, I am seeking input from editors who are specialized in chasing vandals about if this category could be repurposed for maintenance purposes. Thank you for reading this. CJ-Moki (talk) 08:24, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

It would need to be a hidden category if it's going to stick around, otherwise it flies in the face of WP:DENY. WaggersTALK 11:34, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

@Waggers: Thank you for the response and suggestion. CJ-Moki (talk) 17:04, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

Including the Vandalism information template on this page

Should we include the {{vandalism information}} template on the page? - Master of Hedgehogs ^{(converse) (hate that hedgehog!)} 16:06, 7 March 2024 (UTC)