User:Bluefalcon07/Dealing with Vandalism

Detection, reversion, and warning
The following several are tools and methods useful for detecting and reverting vandalism as well as applying appropriate warning templates:
 * RC Patrol is the manual analysis of recent changes for suspicious edits.
 * There are several bots that automatically process the Special:Recentchanges feed and determine what may be vandalism, such as Tawkerbot2. Note that the bots are not 100% accurate in detecting vandalism.
 * VandalProof is a downloadable application under development by AmiDaniel which allows to revert a page, warn the vandal appropriately and put them on a "black" list with just one click. Also allows the revert of all of a user's contributions at once. Requires the author's permission to use.
 * CryptoDerk's Vandal Fighter (CDVF) is an open-source program that displays a live feed of recent changes (RC) but contains extra functionality to assist in vandal fighting. The bot works on all language Wikipedias, though some features currently only work on the English Wikipedia (see changelog). This tool is available to both administrators and users.
 * The IRC Bot, pgkbot, by Pgk runs on the IRC channels above.
 * Lupin's Anti-Vandal Tool catches what CDVF and IRC bots miss. It monitors the RSS feed for recent changes, checks those edit diffs for common vandalism terms, and lists them for reversion if they contain flagged terms. It also now contains a live spellcheck feature. This tool is available for both admins and users. Note that the latest version is considerably more resource-efficient than the original version.
 * RC birds is an IRC-aware program which auralizes recent changes using the metadata "about changes", and regular expressions. It both shows color-coded output from the IRC bot, and maps each RC diff onto a bird-call or other nature sound. Both admins and non-admins can use this to view RC.
 * RC patrol script gives non-admins revert, filter, and popup tools while using the (default) monobook skin.
 * Godmode adds reversion options to the browser for non-admins.
 * User:Adam1213/warn is a page which simplifies the process of warning vandals by allowing warnings to be submitted to specific users directly from the page.
 * See the list of Wikipedia's most vandalized pages.
 * The related changes link will display recent changes to all pages listed on 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.
 * Check a vandal's other contributions when reverting vandalism. There may be other recent vandalism by the same user which has not yet been reverted.
 * List of suspected vandalised articles created by Vilerage – still being worked on.
 * Young Orphans – a new 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.
 * How to use it:
 * Look for images which mention "copyrighted", "fair use" or "public domain" in the edit summary column; these are the most frequently abused.
 * Look for edit summaries in any language other than English; these images are typically webspam/vanity.
 * Look for edit summaries which mention an image hosting services like Imageshack, Flickr, etc.; typically these images are uploaded with the intent of using Wikipedia as an alternative image hosting service.
 * Use common sense; if an image is uploaded without an edit summary by a red-linked (no user page) user, check it out.
 * VandalSniper is a feature-wise port of VandalProof to Mono/Gtk#, bringing its featureset to Linux users. A beta is available.

Stopping vandals

 * Reporting vandals directly to administrators, especially on the IRC channels mentioned earlier. This will likely earn you the fastest results, as there are generally admins available to block vandals. However, you might consider viewing the block log for the account/IP before reporting, as people on the IRC channels monitor Wikipedia closely and the account may be blocked already. Additionally you can report more complicated, less blatant acts of vandalism to Requests for investigation to request a prompt admin inspection.
 * See the Wikipedia [ list of administrators] if you want to make direct contact with administrators via their talk pages.


 * Do not insult the vandals -- because that won't make them stop being vandals. True vandals and trolls often want regular users to become angry and start shouting. By deriding or insulting vandals you may simply be giving them the attention they were seeking to begin with.


 * Trolling is not necessarily the same as vandalism (although vandalism may be used to troll). A vandal may just enjoy defacing a webpage, insulting random users, or spreading some personal views in an inappropriate way. A troll deliberately exploits weaknesses of human nature or of an online community to upset people.

Defcon
Example:

For more information see the Defcon page (user subpage).