User:Ottawa4ever/Challenges

This is a listing of awards that I hand out past and present on WP:Reward. I do want to be clear that the purpose of this is to provide a challenge to the user. If the user accepts the challenge which is a considerable amount of work to do and dedication I'll reward them with a barnstar.

Canadian Debt

 * Offeror: Ottawa4ever (talk) 14:06, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Date offered: 31 December 2009
 * Request: Was looking for information on this article, Canadian Public Debt and it is grossly under-developed and missing key information. So here's my request to fellow users; Make 20 constructive (and still verifiable by sources) edits to this page. Up to 3 barnstars will be rewarded based on activity (See below).
 * Reward: Graduating scheme of awards; first 20 edits the user will get a minor barnstar, 40 edits total the user will get a full original barnstar, 100 edits will get the user a barnstar of deligence. For a total possibility of 3 barnstars for 100 constructive edits. Questions/concerns bugs with the award scheme can be posted on User:Ottawa4ever/Challenges.
 * Limit on rewards: Maximum of 3 awards per person.
 * Expires: December 31st, 2010, or when 3 users complete the task.

Fufilled and Expired Challenges
Old School Vandalsim Hunting 4
 * Offeror: Ottawa4ever (talk)
 * Date offered: 17:02, 23 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Request: VANDALSIM lists over 20 types of vandalism edits. The task is to find 4 examples of 4 different types of vandalism listed in this table in wikipedia. Once found, those disruptive edits should be reverted and the disrupting user should be warned. An example of succesfully completing this challenge would be reverting 4 incidents of blanking, 4 incidents of spam, 4 incidents of userspace vandalism, and 4 incidents of silly vandalism. Any configuration is acceptable so long as the incidents are examples from the table on WP:Vandalism. Once you've completed the task, please notify me with the appropriate diffs (or post any questions here); O4E Challenges. In addition to spice the challenge and in the spirit of collaboration, you may collaborate with another user to revert vandalism (someone with little previous anti-vandalsim background) and present a combined application (same requirements 4 x 4 incidents for a total of 16 vandalism reversions in the combined application), an additional Defender of the Wiki star will be presented to both you and the new user for this feat, providing you meet the challenge together. As a side note, the collaboration should be mostly equal in terms of edit count for the challenge Queries/ problems bugs please message me - thanks.
 * Reward: Anti-vandalsim Barnstar for independent hunting, Defender of the wiki for collaborative effort
 * Limit on rewards: 1 per person
 * Expires: March 2011 (or until 4 people/groups have completed the competition)
 * Barnstar of Reversion2.png VernoWhitney
 * Barnstar of Reversion2.png  Traxs 7
 * Barnstar of Reversion2.png PrincessofLlyr  royal court
 * Barnstar of Reversion2.png The High Fin Sperm Whale

Old School Vandalism hunting 3
 * Offeror: Ottawa4ever (talk)
 * Date offered: 01:19, 18 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Request: Read Vandalism. Under the types of vandalism heading there is a list of catageories. The task is to find an example of ten types of vandalism and undo them (if possible*). Make sure after you undo the edit to warn the doer. If you can find an example of at least 10 different types and revert them (there are 21 different types) then I will award you with a barnstar. To claim the award provide the relevant Diff`s at User:Ottawa4ever/rewards or ask any questions or clarifications there. If you find an example of 21 types and revert those, I will offer an additional barnstar as a reward for your hard work. This is valid for edits after June 15th 2009, Using pop ups is allowed. *some types of vandalism may require the use of admin assistance, by bringing them to the attention of an admin this will count in the tally. Challenge is open to non-admins and admins.
 * Reward: Defender of the wiki barnstar
 * Limit on rewards: First 3 to do so (1 per person)
 * Expires: July 2010
 * Successful Challengers:
 * WikiDefender Barnstar.png Dank (push to talk)
 * WikiDefender Barnstar.png Heracles31
 * WikiDefender Barnstar.png VernoWhitney

Old school Vandalism Hunting 2
 * Offeror: Ottawa4ever (talk)
 * Date offered: 21:29, 15 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Request: Find sneaky vandalism that has been present in an article for over one year. Sneaky vandilism is described in more detail on Vandalism. I wil give a barnstar after you notify me with the proper 'diff' and describe why and prove the edit was sneaky vandalism. Be sure to fix or revert the information so that the article is accurate afterwards.
 * Reward: Anti-Vandalism barnstar.
 * Limit on rewards: First 5 to do so.
 * Expires: June 15, 2010


 * Barnstar of Reversion2.pngOhanaUnitedTalk page
 * Barnstar of Reversion2.pnglt (talk) (Met challenge twice)
 * Barnstar of Reversion2.pngb (talk)
 * Barnstar of Reversion2.png[[User:Grim23|Grim23]] ★
 * Barnstar of Reversion2.pngrath

Old School Vandalism hunting
 * Offeror: Ottawa4ever (talk)
 * Date offered: 18:52, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Request: In the period of May 15 to July 15th fight vandalism without using any automatic assisted programs or scripts (ie. such as twinkle or huggle) to help. If you manage to do this and revert 100 cases of vandalism using 'old school' methods, and warn the users properly (without scripts and programs). I will give you a barnstar after you notify me and you completed this challenge here; User:Ottawa4ever/rewards.
 * Reward: Anti-Vandalism barnstar.
 * Limit on rewards: first 3 to do so.
 * Expires: Expired and fufilled


 * Barnstar of Reversion2.png Griffinofwales (talk) 19:27, 23 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Barnstar of Reversion2.png  Sophus Bie  (talk)
 * Barnstar of Reversion2.png Amorymeltzer

Improve List of skittles products
 * Offeror: Ottawa4ever (talk)
 * Date offered: 22:33, 22 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Request: Improve this list article. Some improvements could be but not limited to: Providing more reliable sources to the article, completing the table for more information, expanding the list, adding pictures (properly licensed). A barnstar of diligence will be rewarded to writers who significantly (let's say equivalent to 20+ constructive normal edits) improve the article. *If the list can be brought up to FL-Class an additional barnstar will be awarded to the contributer(s) who have won this barnstar of diligence. If you have any questions, please use my talk page. Thanks
 * Reward: Barnstar of diligence, Barnstar*
 * Limit on rewards: unlimited (limit one per person)
 * Expires: July 22, 2009 (with possibility of extension to August 22)

Older Applications here;
and. The motives of the second IP, or even whether they were the same person, are obviously unclear.
 * Old School 2. Here we go.  The article is "Kennel".  It's an odd case, one of obvious vandalism being "corrected" into subtle vandalism, apparently by different IPs:

Good enough? I've taken out the word "dogs".--Wehwalt (talk) 18:45, 12 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Yep that looks good. will post back shortly Ottawa4ever (talk) 20:30, 12 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Old School 2. I found this. Don't know whether this actually qualifies as sneaky vandalism to you . It does to me because it accuses a major Indian political party of indulging in appeasement without proper source. One form of this statement has been present from the start in the article (which was created here.) Regards--Shahab (talk) 15:12, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I didnt see it either in the source, but id like to take another look. Nether the less, the edit doesnt technically comes from this article. The article was created with that edit (as a split from Foreign relations of Isreael) and the insertation of that text came 6 days earlier in the article Ottawa4ever (talk) 17:00, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
 * The information was first uploaded on wikipedia here. Regards--Shahab (talk) 17:19, 24 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Here is another application for Old School 2.

Came up with another one in Neville Chamberlain, a firm he worked for, correctly Hoskins, but in 2008 someone amended it to "Hotskins", here is the diffs (This shows it was correcly Hoskins. Amazingly, it stayed in the article for 18 months; I've now reverted it.--Wehwalt (talk) 01:39, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Considering the diff also added various other typos to the article I think its safe to say it was unconstructive and sneaky. Good effort on the article too! Ill add a barnstar shortly today for your efforts (but you have also already recieved one for this challenge so ill be creative Ottawa4ever (talk) 09:20, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Responded with a lil reconginition on your talkOttawa4ever (talk)


 * I found and removed this[] piece of subtle vandalism, whilst trying to undo the damage done by user:Marcus didley and his/her sockpuppets. It was added in April '08[]. the russian text means "vegetable salad". Does this qualify? Thx G<b style="color:#660000">ri</b><b style="color:#990000">m</b><b style="color:#CC0000">2</b><b style="color:#FF0000">3</b> ★ 17:35, 8 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Providing the statement is entirely made up. Id say its an example. id like though to be able to confirm it is made up from the movie. but may likely be. Ottawa4ever (talk) 09:31, 10 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I recently came across a page (Languages of Canada) that had been subject to multiple instances of stealth vandalism. It had a list of the home languages, counts and percentages in Canada, based on the 2006 Canadian census.  The list had been hacked multiple times, changing the number of speakers, adding languages, etc.  The oldest of these was almost 2 years old.  Examples are [ here], [ here], [ here] and [ here].  There were quite a few more, but it would take a long time to find them all again.  I reverted the list back to its original state.
 * -- JPMcGrath (talk) 05:22, 24 January 2010 (UTC)
 * alrighties had a look, good action returning the table to its original state. I find that when statsitical data is collected often people tend to stick lil sneaky edits in and often they can go unchecked for a long time. welll done keep up the good work. Ottawa4ever (talk)


 * Apply for the anti-vandalism challenge

Hello O4E,

Here is a part of the vandalism recovery I did recently. I just learned about your challenge and I searched in my contribs for examples of different cases.

Blanking

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=COMSATS_Institute_of_Information_Technology&diff=prev&oldid=342147659

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Theresienstadt_concentration_camp&action=historysubmit&diff=340397183&oldid=340363917

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Louis_Golding&diff=prev&oldid=342342896

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Photodissociation&diff=prev&oldid=342145036

Page lengthening (no useful add)

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gang&diff=prev&oldid=342340571

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paolo_dal_Pozzo_Toscanelli&diff=prev&oldid=342175805

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aspiration&diff=prev&oldid=342172106

Silly vandalism (graffiti ; the most obvious cases! I have at least a thousand cases of these!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People&diff=prev&oldid=342146679

Sneaky vandalism (harder to spot)

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Thinker&action=historysubmit&diff=340947775&oldid=340936165

Some vandalism missed by both The Thing and Jusdafax.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charlemagne&action=historysubmit&diff=340337049&oldid=340326687

Vandalism missed by The Thing.

Userspace vandalism

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:MKoltnow&diff=prev&oldid=341777271

Template vandalism

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Lollipop&diff=prev&oldid=340025569

Link vandalism

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Louis_XVI_of_France&diff=prev&oldid=342143696

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Incandescent_light_bulb&diff=prev&oldid=342030255

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=K-pop&diff=prev&oldid=342020391

Avoidant (removing tags)

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Germanshepherds100&diff=prev&oldid=342143995

Discussion page vandalism

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Iran&diff=prev&oldid=342128548

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:McDonald%27s&diff=prev&oldid=341398971

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Midnight_Sun_%28novel%29&diff=prev&oldid=340846773

Spam

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=3D_display&diff=prev&oldid=342304764

(added 2 links to a blog)

Gaming the system (removing vandalism warnings)

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Germanshepherds100&diff=prev&oldid=342142232

For sure, I will never catch all 21 types of vandalism because I do not search for all of them. (We all have our favorite part :-)

Should you wish to see more cases of these categories, I should have more.

Heracles31 (talk) 22:24, 6 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks Looks good, Ya the 21 types is difficult to accumulate but it does repreasent a very difficult challenge. At any rate congrats Ill post back shortly on your user page, Well Done!Ottawa4ever (talk) 12:12, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

VernoWhitney (talk) 22:34, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Blanking	http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yury_Shutov&diff=prev&oldid=345087775
 * Page creation	http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Skip_costas&action=edit&redlink=1 (I tagged it at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Skip_costas&action=historysubmit&diff=345117220&oldid=345103589 ... which doesn't exist anymore ... but I figured it counts)
 * Page lengthening	http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Environment&action=historysubmit&diff=345878539&oldid=345877455
 * Spam	http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farbrausch&diff=prev&oldid=341747538
 * Silly vandalism	http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kathleen_(given_name)&diff=prev&oldid=344655773
 * Sneaky vandalism	http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=University_of_California%2C_Berkeley&action=historysubmit&diff=345092653&oldid=345092134 and http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=University_of_California,_Berkeley&diff=next&oldid=345092653
 * Userspace vandalism	http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User%3APeteinterpol&action=historysubmit&diff=345878949&oldid=345875165
 * Template vandalism	http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Socialism_sidebar&diff=prev&oldid=340141052
 * Link vandalism	http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=World_Saxophone_Congress&diff=prev&oldid=345868061
 * Hidden vandalism	http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thanksgiving_%28United_States%29&action=historysubmit&diff=345958892&oldid=345333427 (was vandalised at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thanksgiving_(United_States)&diff=next&oldid=344247195
 * Thanks for the note ill go through these shortly but its looking good. will reply soon. Ottawa4ever (talk) 09:36, 24 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Looks good :) Ottawa4ever (talk) 09:59, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Old School Vandalsim Hunting 4
I guess I'm a sucker for your vandalism challenges. They definitely get me thinking about things that I don't normally look for that might be slipping through.


 * 1) Silly vandalism 1234
 * 2) Template vandalism 1234 (#2 came with an elaborate addition in mainspace)
 * 3) Userspace vandalism 1234
 * 4) Blanking 1234

Cheers! VernoWhitney (talk) 01:38, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
 * will go through these shortly, looks good though (dont worry about re-participating in a different challenge, this is for a different type of barnstar anyway) Will get back to you shortlyOttawa4ever (talk) 10:30, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Old School Vandalism Hunting 4
Here are my 16 diffs of 4 different types of vandalism.<BR><BR>

Blanking: #1 #2 #3 #4

Silly vandalism: #1 #2 #3 #4

User Page / User Talk Vandalism: #1 #2 #3 #4

Spam: #1 #2 #3 #4 <BR><BR>

Silly vandalism is A LOT easier to find than the other 3..

Thanks  Traxs 7   (Talk) 22:25, 30 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Will take a closer look at these shortly, but so far looks good ! Ottawa4ever (talk) 09:05, 1 May 2010 (UTC)

Old School Vandalism Hunting 4
Silly:     

Discussion Page:    

Blanking:       

Userspace/User talk:    


 * Like the others said, silly is definitely the easiest! PrincessofLlyr  royal court 20:54, 10 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Appears so, i still like finding the sneaky ones the best. Looks good. Will repond on talk shortly. Well Done :D Ottawa4ever (talk) 18:21, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Old School Vandalism Hunting 4
I found the diffs for vandalism types. Here: Silly vandalism Blanking Sneaky vandalism Talk page vandalism
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * ,, (this one was a string of edits)
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

I hope this is what you're looking for. Keep in mind, though, that some of these diffs are more than one type at once (for instance, blanking a section and replacing it with nonsense). Let me know if this is insufficient. --The High Fin Sperm Whale 05:04, 17 May 2010 (UTC)
 * First glances look good, Ill post back shortly (have a wee cold). But otherwise things are looking good :) Ottawa4ever (talk) 20:19, 17 May 2010 (UTC)
 * The one example of sneaky vandlaism may just be a new editor trying to update statistics unaware of referencing principles. Nether the less considering the page history though it appears like the page was under heavy vandalism that day, its suspicious no doubt, but the way it was handled by you is just fine. Revert and warn. Well done with meeting the challenge I guess its time to post a new one...Ottawa4ever (talk) 09:07, 18 May 2010 (UTC)