FAMEPedia:Recent changes patrol

Recent changes patrol, or RC patrol, is a FAMEPedia communal 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 FAMEPedia 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 FP:TC.  Bad edits should likewise be tagged or deleted.  Because FAMEPedians do not like their edits to be deleted, 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 FAMEPedia procedure, offending editors should be warned on their talk pages. While this is an optional step, the FAMEPedia: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 FAMEPedia'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 not everyone is as computer literate as you; some people will accidentally blank or damage pages when attempting to cut and paste material from FAMEPedia. Others may not understand that, yes, their changes really are visible to the entire world immediately.

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 Twinkle to revert the page and issue the warning faster.


 * ~ :Information.svg Welcome and thank you for your contributions. This is a notice that your test has been reverted or removed. If you would like to experiment further, please use the sandbox instead. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you. ~
 * ~ :[[Image:Information.svg|25px]] Welcome to FAMEPedia. A page you recently created may not conform to some of FAMEPedia's guidelines for new pages, so it will shortly be removed (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 the introduction page to learn more about contributing. Thank you. ~
 * ~ (a variant suitable for blanking):[[Image:Information.svg|25px]] Welcome to FAMEPedia. It might not have been your intention, but your recent edit removed content from FAMEPedia. When removing content, please specify a reason in the edit summary and discuss edits that are likely to be controversial on the article's talk page. If this was a mistake, don't worry; the content has been restored, as you can see from the page history. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia, and if you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Thank you. ~
 * ~ :[[Image:Information.svg|25px]] Please refrain from making test edits in FAMEPedia pages, even if you intend to fix them later.  Such edits look similar to vandalism and have been reverted.  If you would like to experiment again, please use the sandbox. Thank you. ~
 * ~ (a variant suitable for blanking):[[Image:Information.svg|25px]] Please do not remove content or templates from pages on FAMEPedia without giving a valid reason for the removal in the edit summary. Your content removal does not appear constructive, and has been reverted. Please make use of the sandbox if you'd like to experiment with test edits. Thank you. ~

Lack of sources
Addition of unsourced material without proper citations
 * ~ :[[Image:Information.svg|25px]] Welcome to FAMEPedia. We invite everyone to contribute constructively to our encyclopedia. However, adding content without citing a reliable source is not consistent with our policy of verifiability. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia.
 * ~ :Please do not add content without citing reliable sources. Before making potentially controversial edits, it is recommended that you discuss them first on the article's talk page.
 * ~ :Please do not add unsourced or original content. Doing so violates FAMEPedia's verifiability policy. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Thank you.

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 FAMEPedia: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 FAMEPedia: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 FAMEPedia: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 selftest. 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):[[Image:Information.svg|25px]] Welcome to FAMEPedia. 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. Thank you.
 * ~ (use if an edit appears to have possibly not been an intentional act of vandalism):Information.svg Welcome and thank you for your contributions. This is a notice that your test has been reverted or removed. If you would like to experiment further, please use the sandbox instead. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you.
 * ~ (use if an edit adds seemingly incorrect information to an article):[[Image:Information.svg|25px]] Your recent edit appears to have added incorrect information and has been reverted or removed. All information in this encyclopedia must be verifiable in a reliable, published source. If you believe the information that you added was correct, please cite the references or sources or before making the changes, discuss them on the article's talk page. Please use the sandbox for any tests that you wish to make. Do take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you.
 * ~ (use if an edit is clearly vandalism):Information.svg Welcome to FAMEPedia. Although everyone is welcome to contribute to FAMEPedia, at least one of your recent edits did not appear to be constructive and has been reverted or removed. Please use the sandbox for any test edits you would like to make, and read the welcome page to learn more about contributing constructively to this encyclopedia. Thank you.
 * ~ (use if an edit is unreferenced):[[Image:Information.svg|25px]] Welcome to FAMEPedia. Everyone is welcome to contribute to the encyclopedia, but when you add or change content please cite a reliable source for the content of your edit. This helps maintain our policy of verifiability. Take a look at FAMEPedia:Citing sources for information about how to cite sources and the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you.
 * ~ :[[Image:Information.svg|25px]] Please refrain from making test edits in FAMEPedia pages, even if you intend to fix them later.  Such edits appear to be vandalism and 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):[[Image:Information.svg|25px]] Please do not introduce incorrect information into articles. Your edits appear to be 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):[[Image:Information.svg|25px]] Please do not remove content or templates from pages on FAMEPedia without giving a valid reason for the removal in the edit summary. Your content removal does not appear constructive, and has been reverted. Please make use of the sandbox if you'd like to experiment with test edits. Thank you.
 * ~ :[[Image:Nuvola apps important.svg|25px]] Please stop making test edits to FAMEPedia. It is considered vandalism, which, under FAMEPedia policy, can lead to a loss of editing privileges. If you would like to experiment again, please use the sandbox.
 * ~ :[[Image:Nuvola apps important.svg|25px]] Please stop. If you continue to vandalize pages by deliberately introducing incorrect information, you may be blocked from editing FAMEPedia.
 * ~ (not suitable as a first warning):Stop hand nuvola.svg You may be blocked from editing without further warning the next time you vandalize FAMEPedia.
 * ~ (used as a first warning for extreme cases of vandalism):Stop hand nuvola.svg This is your only warning; if you vandalize FAMEPedia 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 Welcome and thank you for experimenting with FAMEPedia. Your test on the page France worked, and it has been reverted or removed. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. If you would like to experiment further, please use the sandbox instead. Thank you.

If the vandal will not stop, list them at FAMEPedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. Ensure that the user has been warned thoroughly before posting a notice on FAMEPedia: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:


 * ~ : [[Image:Stop x nuvola with clock.svg|40px|left]] 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 would like to be unblocked, you may appeal this block by adding the text   below this notice, but you should read the guide to appealing blocks first.

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.)