User:FT2/Revision Delete tutorial

This is the tutorial for RevisionDelete (policy · Administrators' introduction). It explains what the tool actually does, its interface, and how to use it.

For details on good or appropriate usage, see the policy or Administrators' introduction.

What the tool does
RevisionDelete in its administrator version allows three basic kinds of operation:


 * Allows an administrator to remove from public view text within one or several page revisions and contributions. The administrator can redact the username/IP, the edit summary, or the revision's text. Redacted material cannot be seen by the wider public or non-admins.


 * Allows an administrator to remove from public view text within one or several log entries (of any kind). The administrator can redact specific fields from public view. These include custom fields such as the from/to page name (for page moves), usernames (for user rename), file names (for uploads), and reason/comment fields.


 * Allows hiding of inappropriate usernames.

Redacted material will not be shown to non-administrators. They will not be able to see diffs based on redacted content, or the page names or reasons given where this material has been redacted in log entries. Revisions can be deleted or undeleted (as normal) but the RevisionDelete settings will be remembered regardless. Fields that are not explicitly redacted are still publicly visible as normal.

For technical reasons the most recent visible revision on a page cannot have its text (ie contents) non-displayed.

Admin vs. suppression mode
The same RevisionDelete tool is used by Oversighters with additional options for their privacy-based work. It's the same tool but Oversighters get an extra option which allows them to "lock" the settings, preventing administrators from viewing the redacted material or removing the setting.

Suppressed material appears to admins much like ordinary redacted material appears to non-admins - the entries will still be shown but any suppressed fields will not be displayed or accessible.

Terminology
Because RevDelete has two modes, the "ordinary" usage is sometimes called admin RevDelete or admin-level RevDelete when clarity is needed which mode is being discussed. For example: the oversighter redacted it using admin RevDelete. The other mode is sometimes called suppression mode.


 * Fields (...you can redact those fields...) - in data terms a "field" is a type of content. So the edit summary, the username/IP, the revision text, the log reason, the from/to page names in a move log, are all "fields". RevDelete allows administrators to bar the wider public from seeing the contents of selected fields.


 * [Change] Visibility - a term used in the delete log. "Visibility" is a synonym for redaction, referring to the tool's use in making data visible or hidden from public view.


 * Show/hide - the "official" term for the del/undel links, which may be described this way by developers or on bugzilla.

Special case: 2005 or earlier deleted revisions
There is one case so minor that it wasn't worth fixing at this point. It only affects revisions that were deleted before (I think) 25 June 2005 and that have stayed undeleted ever since. Such revisions don't actually have a revision id. But as they are deleted they shouldn't need redaction either.

If they do need redaction, then the fix is to undelete them first, then apply redaction, not the other way round. (Upon undeletion a revision id gets assigned if they didn't have one, at which point everything works properly again.)