User:Cassiopeia/CVUA/RTao

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/RTao.

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.

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: Vandalism is disruptive editing that is meant to harm Wikipedia (for example, blanking pages for no reason, adding obscenities, and abusing tags), while good faith edits are made by users who intend to help Wikipedia, but the edits do not comply with a policy such as no original research and neutrality.
 * Please explain below the difference between a good faith edit and a vandalism edit, and how you would tell them apart.


 * 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

Answer:

(1)
 * ✅. Cassiopeia  talk  04:47, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

(2)
 * ✅. Cassiopeia  talk  04:47, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

(3)
 * ✅. Cassiopeia  talk  04:47, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

Answer:
 * Vandalism
 * Vandalism

(1)
 * ✅. Cassiopeia  talk  04:47, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

(2)
 * ✅. Cassiopeia  talk  04:47, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

(3)
 * ✅. Cassiopeia  talk  04:47, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

-
 * 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 subpage Here.
 * 1. You need to provide reasons, hist diffs - see diffs for instructions, of the/your edit and communication/warnings messages of the involved editor talk page for your answers.
 * 2. (important) - do not revert more than 3 times within 24 hours on the same article unless the edits are absolutely considered blatant vandalisms for you will be blocked from editing. If you are not sure about the edits (whether it is a vandalism or not", pls do nothing and let other more experience/counter vandalism editors to take action.
 * 3. pls note that the motto of CUVA is "Civility – Maturity – Responsibility." Welcome to CUVA. Stay safe and best. Cassiopeia  talk  02:13, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
 * You have not work on the assignment so far, do you need any assistance? Cassiopeia  talk  04:57, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Sorry, forgot to mention that I am currently out on a trip and can't start for a few days. I haven't forgotten about it. RTao (talk) 23:42, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
 * OK. Thank for informing.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FF8000"> Cassiopeia</b>  talk  01:48, 7 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I've finished the assignment. I apologize for the delay again - it shouldn't take me this long in the future. By the way, the explanation for the difference between good faith/vandalism was already there when I got the page (I presume written by someone else). RTao (talk) 07:05, 21 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Reviewed.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FF8000"> Cassiopeia</b>  talk  04:47, 26 September 2022 (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: To notify users that their actions were harmful to Wikipedia and give them an opportunity to change their behavior.
 * ✅. 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:#FF8000"> Cassiopeia</b>  talk  01:40, 29 September 2022 (UTC)


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


 * Answer: Only when the behavior (e.g. blatant vandalism) is particularly egregious or repeated.
 * ✅. <b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FF8000"> Cassiopeia</b>  talk  01:40, 29 September 2022 (UTC)


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


 * Answer: Yes, by typing  before the template name.
 * ✅. We should be used always so that the message on the users talk page does not change even if the template you used were to be altered at a later date.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FF8000"> Cassiopeia</b>  talk  01:40, 29 September 2022 (UTC)


 * (4) What should you do if a user who has received a level 4 or 4im warning vandalises again?
 * Answer: Report them to the administrator intervention against vandalism page.
 * ✅. <b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FF8000"> Cassiopeia</b>  talk  01:40, 29 September 2022 (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: {{subst:uw-blank1}} User deletes all content of a page (possibly by accident or as a test).
 * . For blanking then we place uw-blank on the editor talk page. Test edit is another type of edit. Test edits are the edits that new editors make edits that they "want to know if they exactully make an edit" in Wikipedia pages. Examples edits made are "Hi / test / adding or removing a character or number / adding random character" on their first edit in Wikipedia.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FF8000"> Cassiopeia</b>  talk  01:40, 29 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Answer ii: {{subst:uw-delete2}} User removes some content from page, possibly due to personal disagreement.
 * ✅. If the removal of the content is unsouced that we leave the edit alone as unsouced content can be removed from Wikipedia.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FF8000"> Cassiopeia</b>  talk  01:40, 29 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Answer iii: {{subst:uw-mislead3}} User attempts to hide vandalism (or other behavior violating policy) using innocuous edit summary.
 * ✅. <b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FF8000"> Cassiopeia</b>  talk  01:40, 29 September 2022 (UTC)

-

See assignment 2 above. For question 5 - use (example)  subs three different templates (different warning and different level of warning}} see example below.

Hello, I'm Cassiopeia. I wanted to let you know that one or more of your recent contributions have been undone because they did not appear constructive. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you have any questions, you can ask for assistance at the Teahouse. Thanks.

Stay safe and best.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FF8000"> Cassiopeia</b>  talk  04:44, 26 September 2022 (UTC)


 * I am finished with this part. &mdash;  RTao  (talk • contribs) 07:37, 27 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Actually I just remembered that I have a question regarding this topic. I see a lot of RC patrollers using {Tlsubst:uw-vandalism1}} to respond to edits that are not vandalism but nevertheless unhelpful. I think it is because the wording of the template is generic and does not actually mention vandalism, so it can be applied to cases that don't belong in another category. Is this usage acceptable or is there some better alternative? &mdash;  RTao  (talk • contribs) 07:57, 27 September 2022 (UTC)


 * You need to always provide hist diff for your questions/answers so I may know the nature/actual edit of the situation at hand. However, few of the templates are generic but most of them are specific (on next assignment). Pls provide hist diff so I may answer your question. The above assignment has been reviewed and 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:#FF8000"> Cassiopeia</b>  talk  01:40, 29 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Never mind, I think I understand. I am ready for the next assignment. &mdash;  RTao  (talk • contribs) 07:49, 1 October 2022 (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

Assignment

 * 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. I use both Twinkle and Huggle (a better tool and a preference which is a user right tool). Pls provide hist diff (article page and editor talk page) and reasons.<b style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:105%;color:#FF8000"> Cassiopeia</b>   talk  06:36, 5 October 2022 (UTC)