Wikipedia:Recent changes patrol

Recent changes patrol, or RC patrol, is a volunteer-led patrol whereby individual users check the recent changes of various articles for inappropriate edits.

The patrol is entirely voluntary and carries no obligation. At its heart, it is really just a way to try to ensure that every edited article gets checked in a timely manner and is given a boost on its way to becoming a "featured article", while simultaneously ensuring that Wikipedia is not harmed by unconstructive edits.



What to do
RC patrolling primarily consists of a four-step process:
 * Identify "bad" or "needy" edits: RC patrollers efficiently identify problematic edits using the tools described below. A bad edit is an edit that, for one reason or another, may need to be entirely removed.  A needy edit requires maintenance or improvement in some manner.
 * Remove or improve the edit: Needy edits should be tagged according to their need, or boldly changed immediately. A useful list of tags can be found at WP:TC.  Bad edits should likewise be tagged or deleted.  Because Wikipedians do not like their edits being removed, it is important to leave concise but clear justifications on the talk page or in the edit summary.  When adding tags, please consider discussing the issue on the article's talk page before adding them in the article itself.
 * Warn the editor: In the cases of deliberate vandalism or an evident lack of knowledge on Wikipedia procedure, offending editors should be warned on their talk pages. While this is an optional step, the Guide to administrator intervention against vandalism says that a final warning should always be given before reporting a vandal, and warnings should be a regular part of a patroller's duties, as it minimizes conflict, educates new editors and alerts administrators of repeat offenders.  For efficiency and consistency, standard warning templates can be used. However, do feel free to simply write a warning if the available templates are not appropriate.
 * Check the user's other contributions: You will often find more edits with similar problems. As an RC patroller, you may want to fix those as well.

Being nice to others
Throughout the entire process of RC patrol, it is important to remember not to bite the newcomers. A 2006 essay indicated that newcomers, far from being a monolithic horde of vandals, trolls and spammers, wrote most of Wikipedia's content.

If you see a new user or IP address contributing, welcome them if you're so inclined, and include a pointer or two of feedback about how they can make their contributions even better. Most will welcome the support.

It is also important to assume good faith as much as possible, or minimally to assume incompetence or lack of experience instead of malice. For example, remember everyone may not be computer-literate; some people will accidentally blank or damage pages when attempting to cut and paste material from Wikipedia. Others may not understand that their edits actually cause an impact on their respective article.

Patrolling edits to existing pages
One thing to keep in mind is to not only focus on patrolling articles in the main namespace but also to check other pages — such as, for example, image pages, which are frequently victims of nonsensical edits and vandalism. Such unchecked edits may be particularly harmful because the result might be removal of copyright tags.

Newcomer tests
Look for newcomer tests (odd edits which are not vandalism), but do not bite the newcomers. Revert their experiments and leave one of the following messages on their user talk page. Be sure to sign and timestamp ( ~ ) the warning. You can use tools such as Twinkle or RedWarn to revert the page and issue the warning faster.


 * ~ : Information.svg Hello, I'm Example. An edit that you recently made seemed to be a test and has been reverted. If you want to practice editing, please use the sandbox. If you think a mistake was made, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks! ~
 * ~ : Information.svg Welcome to Wikipedia. A page you recently created may not conform to some of Wikipedia's guidelines for new pages, so it will be removed shortly (if it hasn't been already). Please use the sandbox for any tests, and consider using the Article Wizard. For more information about creating articles, you may want to read Your first article. You may also want to read our introduction page to learn more about contributing. Thank you. ~
 * ~ (a variant suitable for blanking) : Information.svg Hello, I'm Example. I noticed that you recently removed content without adequately explaining why. In the future, it would be helpful to others if you described your changes to Wikipedia with an accurate edit summary. If this was a mistake, don't worry; the removed content has been restored. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks. ~
 * ~ : Information orange.svg Please refrain from making test edits in Wikipedia pages, even if you intend to fix them later. Your edits have been reverted. If you would like to experiment again, please use the sandbox. Thank you. ~
 * ~ : Information orange.svg Please do not remove content or templates from pages on Wikipedia without giving a valid reason for the removal in the edit summary. Your content removal does not appear to be constructive and has been reverted. If you only meant to make a test edit, please use the sandbox for that. Thank you. ~

Lack of sources
Addition of unsourced material without proper citations
 * ~ : Information.svg Hello, I'm Example. I noticed that you added or changed content in an article, but you didn't provide a reliable source. It's been removed and archived in the page history for now, but if you'd like to include a citation and re-add it, please do so. You can have a look at  referencing for beginners. If you think I made a mistake, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you.
 * ~ : Information orange.svg Please do not add or change content without citing a reliable source. Please review the guidelines at Citing sources and take this opportunity to add references to the article. Thank you.
 * ~ : Nuvola apps important.svg Please stop your disruptive editing. If you continue to add unsourced or poorly sourced content, you may be blocked from editing.

Further non-constructive edits sometimes can be viewed as vandalism, and dealt with as below.

Emergencies

 * Look for threats of harm. Sometimes, you encounter edits threatening harm to oneself or others while patrolling recent changes. If you do, please follow Responding to threats of harm.

Spam

 * Look for spam. If it comes in the form of articles, nominate them for deletion with db-spam, place a Proposed Deletion tag on them with Your Reasons Here, or nominate them at Articles for deletion. If a user is posting multiple links to a particular website in several articles, revert the edits. In either case, again notify the user with.

Copyright violations

 * Look for copyright violations and revert them. As per the instructions at Copyright problems, just revert pages to remove copyright violations. However, take care to indicate in the edit summary that this is what you are doing. If an entire article is a copyvio see the section on copyvios in the new pages section below.

Vandalism
Look out for vandalism, and revert it. It is often worthwhile to check the page history after reverting to make sure you have removed all the vandalism. Also, check the user contributions of the vandal - you will often find more malicious edits.

Additionally, leave warning messages on the vandal's talk pages using the following system. Be sure to check discussion pages for possible explanations of edits.

Warning templates
Note that these templates do not need to be used sequentially. If the edit is clearly vandalism, use the template uw-vandalism1 instead. For continuing severe vandalism, uw-vandalism2 may be skipped and uw-vandalism3 given straight after the first warning. If, however, you are not sure that the edit is vandalism, always start with uw-test1. If a user made such an edit and reverted it themselves, use a Uw-selfrevert. For extreme or extensive cases of vandalism committed by users who have received no prior warnings, uw-vandalism4im may be used. The ~ in the templates below cause the time and your signature to be added to the warning.


 * ~ (use if an edit appears to be a reversion of a newcomer test) : Information.svg Welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for reverting your recent experiment. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia. If you would like to experiment further, please use the sandbox instead, as someone could see your edit before you revert it. Thank you.
 * ~ (use if an edit appears to have possibly not been an intentional act of vandalism) : Information.svg Hello, I'm Example. An edit that you recently made seemed to be a test and has been reverted. If you want to practice editing, please use the sandbox. If you think a mistake was made, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks!
 * ~ (use if an edit adds seemingly incorrect information to an article) : Information.svg Hello, I'm Example. Your recent edit(s) appear to have added incorrect information, so they have been reverted for now. If you believe the information was correct, please cite a reliable source or discuss your change on the article's talk page. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you.
 * ~ (use if an edit is clearly vandalism): Information.svg Hello, I'm Example. 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 or the Help desk. Thanks.
 * ~ (use if an edit is unreferenced): Information.svg Hello, I'm Example. I noticed that you added or changed content in an article, but you didn't provide a reliable source. It's been removed and archived in the page history for now, but if you'd like to include a citation and re-add it, please do so. You can have a look at  referencing for beginners. If you think I made a mistake, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you.
 * ~ : Information orange.svg Please refrain from making test edits in Wikipedia pages, even if you intend to fix them later. Your edits have been reverted. If you would like to experiment again, please use the sandbox. Thank you.
 * ~ (use if an edit adds factually incorrect information to an article) : Information orange.svg Please do not introduce incorrect information into articles. Your edits could be interpreted as vandalism and have been reverted.  If you believe the information you added was correct, please cite references or sources or discuss the changes on the article's talk page before making them again.  If you would like to experiment, use the sandbox. Thank you.
 * ~ (a variant suitable for vandalism that consists of blanking text) : Information orange.svg Please do not remove content or templates from pages on Wikipedia without giving a valid reason for the removal in the edit summary. Your content removal does not appear to be constructive and has been reverted. If you only meant to make a test edit, please use the sandbox for that. Thank you.
 * ~ : Ambox warning pn.svg Please stop making test edits to Wikipedia. It is considered vandalism, which, under Wikipedia policy, can lead to being blocked from editing. If you would like to experiment again, please use the sandbox.
 * ~ : Nuvola apps important.svg Please stop your disruptive editing. If you continue to vandalize pages by deliberately introducing incorrect information, you may be blocked from editing.
 * ~ (not suitable as a first warning) : Stop hand nuvola.svg You may be blocked from editing without further warning the next time you vandalize Wikipedia.
 * ~ (used as a first warning for extreme cases of vandalism) : Stop hand nuvola.svg This is your only warning; if you vandalize Wikipedia again, you may be blocked from editing without further notice.

Alternatively, you can use:


 * PageName ~
 * PageName ~
 * PageName ~
 * PageName ~
 * PageName ~
 * PageName ~
 * PageName ~

to explicitly state which articles were vandalized. Where appropriate, replace the "#" with the warning level number (1 to 4). Insert the title of the article being referenced. For example:

The "subst" causes the template text to be pasted into the talk page as if you had typed it out, instead of leaving visible when editing the page. This makes the messages more personal to the user, and thus, more friendly. Also, if someone vandalizes the template, then the vandalism will not affect every page that uses the text from the template.
 * France : Information.svg Hello, I'm Example. An edit that you recently made to France seemed to be a test and has been reverted. If you want to practice editing, please use the sandbox. If you think a mistake was made, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks!

If the vandal will not stop, list them at Administrator intervention against vandalism. Ensure that the user has been warned thoroughly before posting a notice on Administrator intervention against vandalism and has had time (three or four minutes) to read the warnings and still ignore them. If a user has not been sufficiently warned, or has only vandalized a couple of times an administrator may simply remove the notice without action.

The blocking administrator will usually leave this or one of the other Block Templates on the vandal's talk page:


 * ~ : Stop x nuvola with clock.svg You have been blocked temporarily from editing for abuse of editing privileges. Once the block has expired, you are welcome to make useful contributions. If you think there are good reasons for being unblocked, please read the guide to appealing blocks, then add the following text below the block notice on your talk page:.

Remember to sign and timestamp your warnings by leaving four tildes (like this: ~ ).

Trace IP address
Also, consider tracing the IP address. Find owners by using:


 * ARIN (North America)
 * RIPE (Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia)
 * APNIC (Asia Pacific)
 * LACNIC (Latin American and Caribbean)
 * AfriNIC (Africa)

If an address is not in one, it will probably be in another. Then add Shared IP to the talk pages of users who vandalise – for persons editing from an organization the realisation that they can be traced is often sufficient to make them stop. (See the template page for variations as to schools, libraries, government institutions, etc.)