User talk:CalOtter/CVUA

Hello CalOtter and welcome to my CVUA class room. As I said on IRC, I have posted below the first block of training. Please don't let it overwhelm you. Since you've been a Wikipedian for a while, instead of giving you one thing to do at a time, I figured you'd be able to process through all of this without being intimidated. Take your time with each section and don't just answer the questions. Try to understand and grasp the underlying fundamentals of each policy or description. As always, you can leave questions for me here, on my talk page, or on IRC via private message or in. Let's get started!

Tools
Please review and become familiar with the following anti-vandalism tools. I've put them in the order (top to bottom) I'd like you to review. I do not require you to use any particular tool. But I do wish that you familiarize yourself with them.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) CVN Channels
IRC is a chat program that, in modern times, you need no additional software to use. Wikipedia has a robust network of IRC channels which are wholly focused on anti-vandalism work. This is my personal preferred way of fighting vandals and networking with other Wikipedians. You'll need to create a Freenode account if you wish to be a long term IRC user, but I'll happily guide you through that process. You should review this page for instructions on how to use IRC. If you find you enjoy the live chatting and interaction with other editors, I strongly suggest using IRCCloud as your default IRC chatting program.

Twinkle
Twinkle is a very popular gadget which is helpful for a variety of tasks. To install it, go here and tick the box that says Twinkle. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "save". When you refresh the page, a "TW" tab will be available on every page, next to the "More" tab. Scrolling over the TW tab will show a list of modules you can use on the particular page. Twinkle has a large number of useful modules, including but not limited to, one which can be used to warn users, one which can be used to request page protection, one which can be used to suggest a page is deleted, and many many more helpful features. It also adds a non-admin "rollback" feature on all diff pages. I highly suggest you enable Twinkle, as it's incredibly useful and poses no risk of harming your account.

Recent Changes
Chances are, you began and are currently using Recent Changes to fight vandalism. While this is an excellent and increasingly powerful tool for monitoring recent changes, it can be slow. During your training, we'll be watching the RC feed on IRC and on Wikipedia for the differences they each provide.

STiki
STiki is a Java based standalone tool that does not require the rollback user right. For those who hope to become a Huggle user later, this is a excellent place to start when you aren't ready to request the rollback user right.

Huggle
Huggle is a very powerful stand alone program which allows users to review edits without having to click links or use Recent Changes. I personally do not like to use Huggle, but others exclusively use it. There is no right or wrong tool to use when fighting vandalism, it's all a matter of preference.

Student Task 1
After reviewing the above tools, which are you interested in? Which seems confusing?
 * Your answer: I am interested in Huggle and STiki. None of them really seem confusing.

Good Faith
While reviewing recent changes, you'll often come across edits that aren't helpful to the article but do not constitute vandalism either. These are known as Good Faith edits. While the edit may still be undone or reverted, it shouldn't be called vandalism. The edit may have been made by an editor who's very new to Wikipedia and isn't sure what they are doing. Another possibility is the editor is trying to make steps towards improving the article, but the single edit, when viewed alone, seems to be disruptive. Research is very important to determining the intent of the editor. Twinkle provides two different options to revert edits, one of which is the AGF rollback which provides you with an opportunity to explain your revert.

Student Task 2
How would you describe the difference between good faith edits and blatant vandalism?
 * Your answer: A good faith edit is where the editor wasn't meaning to cause a problem, but might not have the knowledge to know if the content isn't helpful, or might not be in the proper format. Vandalism is intentionally making disruptive edits.

Provide a diff of an outstanding example of a good faith edit and a vandalism edit that you've recently found while on patrol.
 * Good Faith edit: This where the editor asks how to undo their edit. This obviously wasn't meant to cause harm.
 * Vandalism edit: This is an example where a user changes a page about a school district, calling it bad and "The worst public school district".

Don't Feed Them
Sometimes, disruptive users will try to harass and annoy you. Those who engage in this behavior are known as trolls. When dealing with trolls, it is imperative to remain calm and ignore their attempts to get a response out of you. If the troll makes a personal attack or otherwise breaches Wikipedia policy, immediately report the activity to WP:ANI. If they vandalize your userpage or talk page, revert their edits and continue to ignore them. Remember, in all of your activities on Wikipedia, other editors and sysops are watching what's happening. You have friends in the room! Don't feed the trolls. Review WP:DENY and WP:RBI.

Student Task 3
What is the purpose of WP:DENY? What makes it a good policy?
 * Your answer: The purpose is to deny the trolls of recongnization, so they are less encouraged to vandalize. This is good as it helps discourage vandals.

What are four examples of a Personal Attack?
 * Your answer: Threatening a person with personal harm, Posting personal information of a person, Personal Attacks, Making legal threats

Twinkle Tools
Go to your talk page. From the TW menu, review the different tools available while in userspace including warnings, warning levels, and the various AIV and reporting tools. Select a random IP address from Recent Changes and navigate to their talk page. Review what is different when compared to options for a registered account. Use the this link to navigate to a random page. Review the TW menu options for articles.

Student Task 4
What option on the TW menu would take you to the registered account's last edit?
 * Your answer: The last option.

What TW menu option would allow you to tag an IP address as belonging to a school?
 * Your answer: Shared IP

What TW menu option assists in the process of nominating an article for deletion?
 * Your answer: The CSD option

Username Policy
While not what most editors would consider vandalism, it is very important to be familiar with and be on the look out for usernames that violate the username policy. Read over the policy and become familiar with what you might want to report as a bad username.

Student Task 5
Provide fictitious examples of bad usernames for each type:
 * Misleading username: TheRealDonaldTrump
 * Disruptive or offensive username: WikipediaVandal
 * Promotional username: BuyFromAmazon
 * Username which implies shared use: John and Jane

How could you tell if an account with a celebrity name is actually verified to be that celebrity?
 * Your answer:

Revision Deletion / Oversight
Review the policy for Revision Deletion and Oversight. As a vandal fighter, it is crucial to know when you need to report edits that should be deleted or suppressed and to whom to report the issue to. Consider adding Enterprisey's revdel tool to your user scripts.

Student Task 6
Describe an edit that would be deleted.
 * Your answer: Someone adding copyrighted content to an article.

Describe an edit that would be suppressed.
 * Your answer: Someone editing their private phone number into an article.

Emergencies
On occasion, you'll come across a message asking for help or an editor making a threat towards themselves or someone else. These are emergencies and you as an up-standing Wikipedian have a responsibility to notify the right people. Review the policy and study the information contained on the page. These are not items you'll never need to know. I have had to make emergency reports several times. If you are in doubt, remember, time is of the essence. It is better to notify and not need to notify, than not notify and allow someone to be in danger. If you need a second opinion, you're always welcome to join and say. Do not discuss threats in open chat or on WP:ANI.

Student Task 7
What email address is used to report emergencies?
 * Your answer: emergency@wikimedia.org

Speedy Deletion & Proposed Deletion
Review CSD and PROD guidelines. While Twinkle remembers the codes for CSD, you'll need to be familiar with which mean what.

Student Task 8
Select five CSD "G" reasons and explain what they are
 * 1) Answer Here G1 is for pages that are gibberish and has no history.
 * 2) Answer Here G2 is for test pages and applies to subpages of the sandbox, but not the sandbox itself.
 * 3) Answer Here G3 is for vandalism and hoaxes.
 * 4) Answer Here G7 is for when an author of a page requests deletion of the page.
 * 5) Answer Here G11 is for pages that are obviously promotional.

Select three CSD "A" reasons and explain what they are
 * 1) Answer Here A7 is for articles that give no reason as to why their subject is important.
 * 2) Answer Here A3 is for articles with no content.
 * 3) Answer Here A1 is for articles where the subject can't be identified.

Select three other CSD reasons. Provide the letter, number, and explain what it would apply to.
 * 1) Answer Here U1 is for when a user requests to delete a user page or subpage but not talk pages.
 * 2) Answer Here U5 is for when a user has user pages that aren't closely related to wikipedia's goals.
 * 3) Answer Here F2 is for corrupted files hosted on wikipedia.

When would you use PROD instead of CSD?
 * Your answer: When the article does meet any of the criteria for a CSD.

Rollback
Congratulations! You're ready for the next step which is asking for the rollback user right. You'll need to carefully review WP:ROLLBACK before requesting the user right. Once you are very familiar with the user right, how and when to use it, you may go to this page, click "Add request" and complete the application. Please post a diff below once you've applied.


 * Rollback application: Here

Part 1
For each of these examples, please state whether you would call the edit(s) described as vandalism or good faith edit, a reason for that, and how you would deal with the situation (ensuring you answer the questions where applicable).
 * 1) A user inserts 'ektgbi0hjndf98' into an article. What would you do if it was their first warning? What about after that.
 * 2) A user adds their signature to an article after one being given a Uw-articlesig warning. What would you the next time they did it? What about if they kept doing it after that?
 * 3) A user adds 'John Smith is the best!' into an article. What would you do the first time? What about if they kept doing it after that?
 * 4) A user adds 'I can edit this' into an article. The first time, and times after that?
 * 5) A user removes sources information from an article, with the summary 'this is wrong'. First time, and after that? What would be different if the user has a history of positive contributions compared with a history of disruptive contributions?

Part 2
Which templates warning would give an editor in the following scenarios. If you don't believe a template warning is appropriate outline the steps (for example what you would say) you would take instead.
 * 1) A user blanks Cheesecake.
 * 2) A user trips edit filter for trying to put curse words on Derek Jeter.
 * 3) A user trips edit summary filter for repeating characters on Denis Menchov.
 * 4) A user puts "CHRIS IS GAY!" on Atlanta Airport.
 * 5) A user section blanks without a reason on David Newhan.
 * 6) A user adds random characters to Megan Fox.
 * 7) A user adds 'Tim is really great' to Great Britain.
 * 8) A user adds 'and he has been arrested' to Tim Henman.
 * 9) A user blanks Personal computer, for the fifth time, they have had no warnings or messages from other users.
 * 10) A user blanks Personal computer, for the fifth time, they have had four warnings including a level 4 warning.
 * 11) A user blanks your userpage and replaced it with 'I hate this user' (you have had a number of problems with this user in the past).
 * 12) A user adds File:Example.jpg to Taoism.

Part 3
What CSD tag you would put on the following articles (The content below is the article's content).
 * 1) Check out my Twitter page (link to Twitter page)! G11
 * 2) Josh Marcus is the coolest kid in London. A7
 * 3) Joe goes to [[England]] and comes home ! A1?
 * 4) A Smadoodle is an animal that changes colors with its temper. G3 Blatant Hoax
 * 5) Fuck Wiki! G3 Pure Vandalism

What would you do in the following circumstance:
 * A user blanks a page they very recently created. If in userspace, U1, anywhere else G7.


 * After you have speedy delete tagged this article the author removes the tag but leaves the page blank. Contact the author on their userpage.

Part 4
Are the following new (logged in) usernames violations of the username policy? Describe why or why not and what you would do about it (if they are a breach).
 * 1) NikeShoes Yes. Promotional username. Report it to WP:UAA.
 * 2) IWANTTOTROLLWIKI Yes. Disruptive. Report to WP:UAA.
 * 3) Brian's Bot If the bot is approved by the BRFA, then it is fine, otherwise contact the user and ask them to change their name.
 * 4) sdadfsgadgadjhm,hj,jh,jhlhjlkfjkghkfuhlkhj No. However, I would monitor this user.
 * 5) Bobsysop Yes. The username is misleading. Contact the user and ask them to change their name.
 * 6) SteveTheAdminSUCKS Yes. The username is a personal attack. Report it to WP:UAA
 * 7) Justin Stevens No. It doesn't appear that anyone notable has this name, so they are probably not an impersonator.
 * 8) OfficialJustinBieber Yes. The username is a potential impersonator. Report to WP:UAA

Part 5
Answer the following questions based on your theory knowledge gained during your instruction.
 * 1) Can you get in an edit war while reverting vandalism (which may or may not be obvious)? No.
 * 2) Where and how should vandalism-only accounts be reported? WP:AIV. I do it using twinkle.
 * 3) Where and how should complex abuse be reported? WP:ANI. Go to the page, and click the start a new discussion button.
 * 4) Where and how should blatant username violations be reported? WP:UAA. I also use twinkle for this.
 * 5) Where and how should personal attacks against other editors be reported? I think WP:ANI would be fine, but for threats of violence email emergency@wikipedia.org.
 * 6) Where and how should an edit war be reported? Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Edit warring.
 * 7) Who should you contact for material needing revision deletion? Email an admin in Category:Wikipedia administrators willing to handle RevisionDelete requests or place Template:Copyvio-revdel on the page.