User:Cassiopeia/CVUA/PinkElixir

Hello, welcome to your Counter Vandalism Unit Academy page! Every person I instruct will have their own page on which I will give them support and tasks for them to complete. Please make sure you have this page added to your watchlist. Your academy page has been specifically designed according to you and what you have requested instruction in - for that reason, please be as specific as possible when under my instruction, so that I know the best ways to help you (and do not be afraid to let me know if you think something isn't working). If you have any general queries about anti-vandalism (or anything else), you are more than welcome to raise them with me at User talk:Cassiopeia/CVUA/PinkElixir.

Make sure you read through Vandalism as that's the knowledge which most of the questions I ask you and tasks you do will revolve around.

This page will be built up over your time in the Academy, with new sections being added as you complete old ones. Each section will end with a task, written in bold type - this might just ask a question, or it might require you to go and do something. 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.
 * How to use this page
 * Once you graduate I will copy this page into your userspace so you have a record of your training and a reference for the future.

Twinkle Twinkle is a very useful tool when performing maintenance functions around Wikipedia. Please have a read through WP:TWINKLE.
 * Enable Twinkle (if haven't already) and leave a note here to let me know that you have enabled it.
 * I've enabled Twinkle! PinkElixir (talk) 19:43, 12 August 2020 (UTC)

Good faith and vandalism
When patrolling for vandalism, you may often come across edits which are unhelpful, but not vandalism - these are good faith edits. It is important to recognise the difference between a vandalism edit and a good faith edit, especially because Twinkle gives you the option of labelling edits you revert as such. Please read WP:AGF and WP:NOT VANDALISM before completing the following tasks.

Answer: The undergirding element of vandalism is malicious intent, the deliberate attempt to damage Wikipedia. Before tagging something as vandalism, I would remind myself that not all unproductive edits are necessarily classified as vandalism. For instance, things like bold edits (perhaps even ones that are inaccurate) or missing edit summaries, while not best practice, are not considered vandalism. In detecting vandalism, I would be sure to read the actual edit itself, as a summary like "fixed typo" is often used to hide vandalism. If there appears to be malicious intent based on recent changes history and edit history, then I would identify the edit as vandalism and respond appropriately. PinkElixir (talk) 19:43, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Please explain below the difference between a good faith edit and a vandalism edit, and how you would tell them apart.


 * ✅ Good. The key here is intention. As long as a user intends to help Wikipedia, but the edits are might be disruptive, they are still considered a "good faith" editor and should be dealt with differently from a vandal. Vandalism is a deliberate attempt to harm Wikipedia. Just because an edit adds incorrect or unsourced information does not necessarily mean a user is a vandal; they key is their intention.  Cassiopeia(talk) 11:45, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

Answer:
 * Please find three examples of good faith but unhelpful edits, and three examples of vandalism. You don't need to revert the example you find, and I am happy for you to use previous undos in your edit history if you wish.
 * Good faith

(1) It appears the user who created this article is POV-pushing (WP:POVPUSH) by creating and populating the page on a Russican COVID-19 vaccine that has not yet been accepted in the global scientific experts community. While unhelpful and can lead to users being blocked, advertising pages and blatant POV pushes are not vandalism. PinkElixir (talk) 19:43, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Well, the page is about the covid-19 vaccine and content is supported by sources. Whether the global scientific experts accepted the vaccine is one thing as long as the content didnt claim such. Here we are looking for edits such as bold certain phrases such not adhere to WP:MOS guidelines and etc and not a full page of content. Cassiopeia(talk) 11:45, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

(2) This user added a sentence saying he loves Shastriji Maharaj on Shastriji Maharaj's page. This is unencyclopedic and was appropriately removed, but there is no blatant indicator of malicious intent. I would assume good faith and not label this as vandalism. PinkElixir (talk) 19:43, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
 * . while this is not blatant vandalism act, but it would considered disruptive. We could check the history/conribution log and editor talk page to see the behavior and history of the editor, if the editor has pass history of vandalism act, then we will take it as a vandalsim, but since this is the first edit by the editor we would assume good faith. Cassiopeia(talk) 11:45, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

(3) This user may have purposely used a vague edit summary for her change, and it her change was not productive because it's not sourced. However, I still wouldn't classify it was vandalism because there is no clear sign of mal-intent. PinkElixir (talk) 19:43, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅. Adding unsourced content is not considered vandalism act. We wold place unsourced warning message on editor talk page. However, it the editor constantly adding unsourced content after many warning and personal messages, then it would considered a disruptive edits. Continuing edit in such fashion might lead to a block in long run. Cassiopeia(talk) 11:45, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

Answer:
 * Vandalism

(1)  This user was found to be engaging in spam external linking, as they were repeatedly adding external links to promote a certain website. PinkElixir (talk) 19:43, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 11:45, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

(2) This edit is an example of silly vandalism, with the user adding patent nonsense to this page. The user's interaction with an admin on the user's talk page also shows that this edit was done maliciously, and not in good faith. PinkElixir (talk) 19:43, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
 * {{tick}. Good.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 11:45, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

(3) This user (using multiple accounts that were later blocked indefinitely after an SPI) kept making disruptive edits to the vegetarianism page, adding the word "Jewish" inappropriately. PinkElixir (talk) 19:43, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 11:45, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

- Good day. Any question regrading the assignment, please let me know here. For other questions not relating to the assignments, ping me on the talk page of this Here. See above the first assignment. Pls provide "all" hist diffs (revert diff, report diff, deletion diff, talk page diff and etc.) on your assignment Welcome to CVUA. Ping me here when you are done and ready for review. Stay safe and best.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 10:27, 5 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Hi, hope you're well. I've completed the first assignment and am ready for you to review it. Looking forward to hearing your feedback! Kind regards, PinkElixir (talk) 19:43, 12 August 2020 (UTC)


 * Good day. See comments above. I like the way you provide you justification based on the guidelines for this would help me to understand your thoughts but also would help you to understand the reasons of my comments. Let me know if you have any questions or you are ready to move on to next assignment. Stay safe and best.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 11:45, 13 August 2020 (UTC)
 * , Hello, and sorry for my delay in responding to this. Thank you for your thorough feedback. I do not have further questions and am ready to move on to the next assignment. Best, PinkElixir (talk) 01:09, 5 September 2020 (UTC)

Warning and reporting
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. Further information can be found at WP:WARN and WP:UWUL.


 * Please answer the following questions:
 * (1) Why do we warn users?


 * Answer:
 * We warn users to advise them of common mistakes or to advise users against disruptive actions on Wikipedia. The objective of warnings is to guide good-faith editors and to discourage bad-faith actions (usually vandalism or disruptive editing). Before giving a warning, one should ensure that the warning recipient's edits have been disruptive that the user has not already been given a warning for that same action by another editor. PinkElixir (talk) 22:00, 20 September 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅. The purpose is to "educate" the editors on constructive editing, especially those who are new to Wikipedia and to "deter" them of such actions with stronger warnings leads up to a block.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 11:17, 21 September 2020 (UTC)


 * (2) When would a 4im warning be appropriate?


 * Answer:
 * A 4im warning is appropriate in cases of gross, extreme, or numerous accounts of vandalism. This is a very strong first and only warning used in cases of extreme or continuous disruption. PinkElixir (talk) 22:00, 20 September 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 11:17, 21 September 2020 (UTC)


 * (3) Should you substitute a template when you place it on a user talk page, and how do you do it?


 * Answer:
 * When placing warning templates on user talk pages, users should always substitute them. Substituting templates means that even if a template changes, the pages that use it will continue to show the old version. We substitute by adding "subst:" after the opening brackets, like . PinkElixir (talk) 22:00, 20 September 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 11:17, 21 September 2020 (UTC)


 * (4) What should you do if a user who has received a level 4 or 4im warning vandalises again?
 * Answer:
 * If a user who has received a level 4 or 4im warning vandalizes again, they should be reported to Administrator intervention against vandalism. Once the user has been flagged on this noticeboard, an admin will review their edits to to ascertain whether a block is required. PinkElixir (talk) 22:00, 20 September 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 11:17, 21 September 2020 (UTC)


 * (5) Please give examples and please do the substitution (using ) of three different warnings with three different levels (not different levels of the same warning and excluding the test edit warning levels referred to below), that you might need to use while recent changes patrolling and explain what they are used for.


 * Answer i: (This is a template for level 1 warnings for edit summaries that appear not to be civil, appropriate, or constructive.) PinkElixir (talk) 22:00, 20 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Information.svg Hello. This is a message to let you know that you have made an edit summary that did not appear to be appropriate, civil or otherwise constructive, and it may have been removed. If you think a mistake was made, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you.
 * ✅.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 05:08, 18 December 2020 (UTC)


 * Answer ii: (This is a template for level 2 warnings for personal attacks directed at other editors.) PinkElixir (talk) 22:00, 20 September 2020 (UTC)

Please do not attack other editors. Comment on content, not on contributors. Personal attacks damage the community and deter users. Please stay cool and keep this in mind while editing.
 * ✅.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 05:08, 18 December 2020 (UTC)


 * Answer iii: (This is a template for a level 4 warning for removing BLPPROD tags, which indicate a special proposed deletion process for unsourced BLPs.) PinkElixir (talk) 22:00, 20 September 2020 (UTC)
 * You may be blocked from editing without further warning the next time you remove Biographies of Living Persons PRODs without addressing the issue.
 * ✅.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 05:08, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

-

See assignment 2 above. Stay safe and best.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 04:56, 5 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Hi I hope you are well. I have answered all of the questions for Assignment 2. However, I am not sure if I have done what you asked for Question 5. Please let me know if I misunderstood the instructions, and I will go back and redo it. Kind regards, PinkElixir (talk) 22:03, 20 September 2020 (UTC)
 * See comments above. for Q5, You need to manually sub it and I have done 5 (i) for you as an example. when you have done let me know. Stay safe and best.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 11:17, 21 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Hi I hope you are safe and well. Apologies for the great delay in completing this task. Please let me know if I can move on to the next assignment! Kind regards, PinkElixir (talk) 18:17, 13 December 2020 (UTC)
 * , Welcome back. Reviewed. Let me know if you have any questions or you are ready to move on to next assignment.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 05:08, 18 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Hi Happy New Year! I'm ready to move on to the next assignment. Kind regards, PinkElixir (talk) 19:25, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

-

Tools
Recent changes patrol includes a list of tools and resources for those who want to fight vandalism with a more systematic and efficient approach.

What you have been doing so far is named the old school approach. As well as manually going through Special: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.

Twinkle
Twinkle, as you know, is very useful. 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, WP:SPI, and other administrative noticeboards.

User creation log
In my early days of fighting vandalism on Wikipedia, one of the strategies I would use to find vandalism was to patrol the account creation log. This is located at Special:Log/newusers, and it logs every time a new user account is created on Wikipedia. You'll notice that new accounts with no contributions so far will have a red "contribs" links, whereas new accounts with some contributions will have blue "contribs" links. One great way not only to find vandalism, but welcome new users to Wikipedia is to check the blue contribs links that come in.

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.

Huggle
Huggle is also an application you download to your computer which presents you diffs (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. The rollback permission is required to use Huggle.

Make sure you keep in mind that some edits that seem like vandalism can be test edits. This happens when a new user is experimenting and makes accidental unconstructive edits. Generally, these should be treated with good faith, especially if it is their first time, and warned gently. The following templates are used for test edits:, and.

I just wanted to make sure you know about Special:RecentChanges, if you use the diff link in a different window or tab you can check a number of revisions much more easily. If you enable Hovercards in the Hover section of your preferences, you can view the diff by just hovering over it. Alternately, you can press control-F or command-F and search for "tag:". some edits get tagged for possible vandalism or section blanking.


 * Find and revert some vandalism. Warn each user appropriately, using the correct kind of warning and level. Please include at least two test edits and at least two appropriate reports to AIV. For each revert and warning please fill in a line on the table below

--


 * Good day. See Assignment 3 above. If Twinkle does not show the template in the drop down list, then manually subst it. Pls provide article name, hist diffs, editor talk page where you place the warning message, reports hist diffs and any links that is applicable. Aslo, pls provide the reasons/justification/explanate of your answers. Stay safe and best.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 08:06, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Hello . Do you have tips on how/where to find potential vandalism aside from checking the new user creation log for blue links? Would appreciate any insight here. Kind regards, PinkElixir (talk) 22:59, 30 January 2021 (UTC)
 * We check new edits made by user in Special:RecentChanges, Special:Log/newusers, or look through pages that we place on "watchlist". Pages that are popular that attract controversies subject to more vandalism edits. We usually find pages of celebrity, sportspersons, sport matches/fight events that the loser team was defeated in a spectacular fashion, breaking news and etc and especially edits make on night time (US time) during weekend would have more vandalism traffic on those pages. This assignment is the hardest assignment besides the Final exam of the program. What you have to do is to check a lot of recent changes pages to find the what you needed. Stay safe and best.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FA0"> Cassiopeia</b>(<b style="#0000FF">talk</b>) 23:38, 30 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Hello . Thanks for the advice. I'll keep browsing through all those pages, particularly at the times you mentioned. Kind regards, PinkElixir (talk) 23:33, 2 February 2021 (UTC)