User:WormTT/Adopt/Gilderien

Consensus

Consensus applies to everything on Wikipedia, from simple article edits (see

There are a couple of exceptions to consensus. Anything decreed from the

Community

The community is anyone who writes and edits Wikipedia. This includes you, me and any user who clicks that little edit button. They need not be registered, which is why you see IP editors. Although some registered editors treat IPs like second-class citizens, there is no reason they should be. I've seen a few reports that show that the vast majority of Wikipedia was written by IP editors. It does mean that the vast majority of vandalism is also caused by IP editors, hence the disillusionment. I'll get onto vandalism in a separate lesson, so don't worry too much about that now.

Policy and guidelines

Everything we do in wikipedia is governed by policy and guidelines, but policies and guidelines were written down once and discussed at length. Oh yes, almost every policy and guideline is based on consensus, leading us right back to the start of this lesson. Policies don't change much; they describe how the community works, and in general that remains fairly constant at the policy level.

Ignore all rules

What? Is this really right? Well, what

Questions

Well, that's that. Do you have any questions on Consensus or policy?

Don't think so.--Gilderien Talk|Contribs 22:01, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Policy

1) What is the difference between a policy, a guideline and an essay?

A _{(This was quite a hard question and I had to do a lot of extra reading, and I'm still not sure I get it)} A policy is more greatly adhered to and has greater consensus, and some policies are absolutely compulsory, for legal reasons. As it says on the policy page, "Policies have wide acceptance among editors and describe standards that all users should normally follow", whereas "Guidelines are sets of best practices that are supported by consensus. Editors should attempt to follow guidelines, though they are best treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions may apply." So they are not as strictly adhered to and do not have as great consensus (?). An essay is a work of prose written by a single editor or group of editors and represents a point of view that may be a minority view, and that has not necessarily gained consensus among the Wikipedia community. Some essays may not be completely serious, such as

WP:WIKISPEAK

.

2) Can Policy change?

A Yes. Consensus is the key to these things, so in a hypothetical example, if it was decided by a !vote of say, 500 to 80 that fair use images are unacceptable and all our images should be public domain, then that policy could change. Normally, though, no.

3) In your opinion. Is Wikipedia a

A Although it has elements of a bureaucracy, such as admins, 'crats, stewards and of course our constitutional monarch/benevolent dictator, I believe that (aside from the vast majority of the community not being involved in anything "bureaucratic") no true bureaucracy would have anything as wonderfully libertarian as

WP:IAR as one of its core principles.--Gilderien Talk|Contribs

21:07, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Good Job. I'm happy with all those answers. I'd say a guideline has as much consensus as a policy (something either has consensus or it doesn't), but in general policy trumps guideline, in that you should follow policy in almost every instance, and guidelines the majority of the time. There's not a lot of difference really. Worm^TT · (talk) 12:40, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Oh yes, and you can't base consensus on votes (even if you say they are not votes!) - 500 "what he said" arguments against 80 strong arguments will likely lead to "no consensus" - something that recently happened on

WT:V. Worm^TT · (talk

) 12:42, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Templates

Templates allow you to post large sections of text or complicated sections of code while only typing a few characters. Templates work similar to regular links, but instead of [[double square brackets]], you use {{curly braces}}. To call a template, just type the title of the template between the double braces. You don't need to include the "Template:" prefix; the MediaWiki software automatically searches within the Template

namespace

for what you're looking for. Only if the page you're looking for is in a different namespace do you need to specify it. See below:

What I type	What appears	Comments
{{user en}}	en This user is a native speaker of the English language.	This calls Template:User en. All content there (that is marked to be included, see below) appears where I type the template code.
{{Worm DYK}}	{{WormTT DYK}}	I get a red link because no page exists at Template:Worm DYK.
{{User:Saoshyant/Userboxes/User oops}}	let them know .	When I specify the User: namespace, the userbox I have at that location appears. Thus, a template does not have to be in the Template: namespace to work.
{{User DYK}}	This user has written or expanded a number of articles featured in the Did You Know section on the Main Page.	I get a {{{1}}} where a number should appear. This is due to the fact that I did not specify a parameter in that template.

One template you can use to welcome new users, Template:W-basic, has several parameters which can customize its appearance. Most of those parameters are named, in that you have to specify to the template what the name of the parameter is when you use it. {{w-basic|anon=true}} sets the parameter "anon" to "true", which generates a message directed towards anonymous users. The advantage to named parameters is that they can be placed in any order, but they must be spelled exactly right or they will not work. The template also uses an unnamed parameter, one which does not have to be specified when it is put into use. Templates automatically assign a numerical name to unnamed parameters when they are used, starting with "1". {{w-basic|message}} sets the unnamed parameter "1" to "message", which is what that parameter is used for in that template. The userbox above can specify the number of states visited with that same unnamed parameter. Unnamed parameters must be in sequential order to work properly, unless you force them to be out of order by using syntax such as {{template|2=foo|1=bar}}. Using "1=, 2=" is also required if the parameter has a = anywhere within (occasionally the case with some external links).

When writing templates, there are some extra tags and codes that have special effects when a template is called.

Conditional templates allow for use of more intricate templates, with optional parameters or different effects depending on what a certain parameter is set to. They use

I forgot to mention - there are two ways to call a template. Transclusion is simply calling the template as I showed you above: {{template}}. This displays the template where you put the call for it, but leaves the curly braced call in place so that it's easy to remove. This also causes the template to update every time the page is loaded, if it has been edited or has a time-sensitive variable. Substitution, or "subst'ing" a template, causes the opposite effect. To substitute a template, add the code "subst:" at the beginning of the call: {{subst:template}}. When this is done, you are seeing the curly-braced call for the last time, because when you save the page, the MediaWiki software will replace that call with the template's code. This causes the template to lock in place - however it was when you called it, is how it's going to be from then on. This makes things a little difficult to remove, though, as instead of the simple template call, you've probably got lines of code that are now clogging up your article. Depending on how the template it written, it may require subst'ing to work properly, or it may require that it is not subst'ed. The page at

This lesson should show you how templates can be really useful for a lot of things. However, we can make templates even more functional and more powerful by having them do different things depending on what the parameters we set are. For more information on that, see the optional lesson on Advanced Templates.

Can I experiment here, or should I use my sandbox?--Gilderien Talk|Contribs 10:15, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

Whereever you like, once you get back. I'll be creating you a little template as part of the test. Worm^TT · (talk) 15:43, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

Ok, I understand the first part, but not the second. Bear with me for a few days.--Gilderien Talk|Contribs 21:55, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

So the triple curly braces are written inside the double braced template?--Gilderien Talk|Contribs 21:59, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, they are. The bit to get your head around is that the double brace can be used to call any page across, but is most commonly used for items in the Template namespace. Any parameters that you want to pass in go through and appear in the triple brace spots. Worm^TT · (talk) 12:14, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Could I take the test? Thanks--Gilderien Talk|Contribs 19:07, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Testing

This user has written or expanded 123123 articles featured in the Did You Know section on the Main Page.

Welcome...

Hello, Worm That Turned/Adopt, and

• Introduction
• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page
• Help
• How to write a great article
• Simplified Manual of Style

I recommend that you get a username by clicking sign up. You don't have to

• Introduction
• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page
• Help
• How to write a great article
• Manual of Style

I recommend that you get a username by clicking sign up. You don't have to

• Introduction
• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page
• Help
• How to write a great article
• Simplified Manual of Style

Please

• Introduction
• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page
• Help
• How to write a great article
• Manual of Style

Please

Well, for this test, I've created you a nice new page at User:Worm That Turned/Adopt/Gilderien/Template. It's a template! Have a look at it now. Depending on how you call it, different things will happen. So I'd like you to call the template so that you get the correct result. No using subst, just use the parameters of your nice new template.

1) I intend to pass this module! (Template module)

A: User:Worm That Turned/Adopt/Gilderien/Template

2) My name is Gilderien and I intend to pass this module! (Template module)

A:User:Worm That Turned/Adopt/Gilderien/Template

3) My name is Gilderien and I intend to eat a butterfly. (Template module)

A:User:Worm That Turned/Adopt/Gilderien/Template

4) My name is Gilderien and I intend to pass this module! I am really good with templates. (Template module)

A:User:Worm That Turned/Adopt/Gilderien/Template

NB, to get (4) to work properly... you will have to edit the template. Bwhahahah :D

Yes. that's cheating. But I'll accept it... you're the first person to notice it (I realised it was possible when I created the template, was curious if all my adoptees would go down that route). Worm^TT · (talk) 14:08, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Okay, I'm going to edit the template to obtain the same effect, bear with me :) --Gilderien Talk|Contribs 14:14, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

A:User:Worm That Turned/Adopt/Gilderien/Template

Perfect :D

Vandalism

What we're going to do now is get you started with some basic vandalism patrols. This is by no means something you will be obligated to do as an editor, however it is something you should know how to do due to the high risk of vandalism on Wikipedia. Should you ever become an administrator, you will likely be expected to deal with vandalism in some respect.

To start off, let's get some background. Wikipedia is, as you know, a wiki, meaning anyone can edit virtually any page. This is both a blessing and a curse, however, as while it does allow a wide range of information to be added and shared, it also allows people with less than benevolent intentions to come in and mess around with stuff. It requires a fair amount of work during every hour of every day to ensure that this vandalism does not run rampant and destroy the project. Fortunately, with a near-endless supply of volunteers across the world, this doesn't really cause a problem. The addition of various tools help aid our cause and make the "reversion", or removal, of vandalism happen within minutes (sometimes seconds).

What we define vandalism as is "an edit which is delibrately attempting to harm the encyclopedia" to an article or other page. Most commonly, these are pretty blatant - replacing a whole page or section with curse words, simply removing entire sections, and so forth. Occasionally, it's less obvious, like changing key words in a section to completely alter the meaning. Basically, anything that can't be helpful at all to the article should be considered vandalism, however you should always remember to

The most commonly used, and arguably the most critical tool in this respect, is Special:RecentChanges. Recent Changes is a special page that lists every edit made across the project within the last few minutes. You can find a link to it in the toolbar to the left. The page is formatted similarly to a page's history, with a few differences. Here's how a standard entry generally looks:

• (diff) (hist) . . Shigeru Miyamoto‎; 14:32 . . (+28) . . 201.152.102.192 (Talk) (→Competition with Sony and Microsoft)

So that you can know all the terminology (which in some cases will be used across the site), I'm going to explain what all of this means. Feel free to skip this if you've already clicked the links.

1. A "diff" is the difference between two revisions. Wikipedia has a special feature that allows you to compare revisions to see exactly what was changed. This is particularly useful when on vandal patrol, as this is the best thing available to tell you if the edit was or was not vandalism. Clicking on the link above will only take you to the help page on diffs, unfortunately, however an actual diff link will bring you to a screen that looks like this one, an actual diff of another article. Content removed appears in red text in a yellow box on the left; content added appears in red text in a green box on the right.
2. The "hist" link will bring you to the page's history. You can click on the "hist" link above to get to the help page for this feature. A page's history lists all edits ever made to a page, something which is required under the terms of the
   GFDL
   , Wikipedia's licensing.
3. The next link is the article that the edit was made to.
4. The time stamp will indicate when the edit was made. The time will appear in your time zone, as you have it defined in your
   GMT
   time.
5. The green or red number after the timestamp will tell you how much was added or removed to the article in the edit. A green "+" number shows the number of bytes added to the article - a red "-" number indicates the number removed. In general, the number of bytes is equal to the number of characters, however this is not always the case: Certain special characters can contain more than one byte, and templates can completely mess this number up. Templates will be covered in another lesson later on, however you will be using some in your patrols later. This number will be in bold if a very large number of characters were removed, which is usually a good indicator of vandalism.
6. The next part is the name of the user who made the edit, which will link to their user page. In this case, an IP address made the edit, so the link will instead go to their contributions. Since most vandalism comes from these anonymous editors, this serves as another convenience to those on patrol. The user name is followed by a link to their talk page.
7. The last part of a RC report is the edit summary. When editing a section of an article, the title of that section will automatically be included in the edit summary, as you see above. Other special edit summaries include "Replaced page with..." and "Blanked the page". In general, these last two are dead giveaways for vandalism edits, however you will occasionally see an editor blank his own user or user talk page, so be careful about that.

Now that you know how to use Recent Changes, I want you to and find some vandalism edits. I don't want you to remove the edit yourself just yet - we'll get to this shortly and chances are, another editor or bot will beat you to it. So before you go on, go to Special:RecentChanges and find three vandalism edits. So that I can check your work and we can discuss things, I want you to copy the links to the diffs of these three edits into the brackets you see below. (This is most easily done by copying the URL from your address bar while you're viewing the diff.)

IMPORTANT WARNING: Due to the very nature of vandalism on Wikipedia, it is possible you will encounter something that will offend you. I take this time to point out Wikipedia's Content Disclaimer, which basically says that you can find just about anything on here and it's not WP's fault. While you may find something offensive in your searches and subsequent vandal patrols, it is best to simply brush it off and not take it to heart. Later on, when you are actually reverting vandalism, it is possible that your own user pages will be vandalized. Here the same thing applies - ignore and simply remove it. I do not tell these things to scare you, or to imply that it will happen. I am simply pointing out that it is possible, although exceedingly rare. In many cases, these attempts to attack you are in fact somewhat amusing. If it occurs, just remember how intellectually superior you clearly are to the vandal and be glad that you actually have a life. Please add your signature here (~~~~) to confirm that you have read and understand this warning: Gilderien Talk|Contribs 19:04, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Now that that's over with, go do your task. Have fun! (By the way, please ignore new pages, indicated by a bold "N" on the log entry.)

• Diff 1: [2] Why you think this is vandalism: removing an entire section randomly.
  • Removing massive sections is borderline vandalism, it often depends on what else the other person does, and their edit summary.
• Diff 2: [3] Why you think this is vandalism: adding the word rawa in the middle of a sentence.
  • Yep. (Though it could be an editing test)
• Diff 3: [4] Why you think this is vandalism: possible BLP issues, referring to a banker as a "dictator".
  • Oh, exactly, yes.
• This didn't take long, annoyingly.--Gilderien Talk|Contribs 19:15, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

You probably have it already, but if not, may I recommend that you activate "Navigation Popups" in your preference gadgets, to view these diffs just by hovering over the link.--Gilderien Talk|Contribs 19:26, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

I do, makes my life easier!

Pre-empting the test, which I presume contains RC patrol;

• Diff 4: [5] Why you think this is vandalism: removing referenced section .
  • As before, borderline.
• Diff 5: [6] Why you think this is vandalism: unsourced, probably meant to be offensive.
  • Agreed
• Diff 6: [7] Why you think this is vandalism: I think this speaks for itself.
  • It does, unfortunately.
• Diff 7: [8] Why you think this is vandalism: Possibly libellous.
  • Don't know about libellous, but certainly vandalism.
• Diff 8: [9] Why you think this is vandalism: Mass removal of content.
  • More interestingly what it was replaced by. Vandalism.
• Diff 9: [10] Why you think this is vandalism: Racist attck.
  • Yep
• Diff 10: [11] Why you think this is vandalism: Personal opinion.
  • Yep
• Diff 11: [12] Why you think this is vandalism: Section blanking.
  • Would be borderine, but there's a pattern. Agreed.
• Diff 12: [13] Why you think this is vandalism: Unexplained removal of content, from previous IP (above).
  • Would be borderine, but there's a pattern. Agreed.
• Diff 13: [14] Why you think this is vandalism: BLP.
  • Vandalism.
• Diff 14: [15] Why you think this is vandalism: Personal attack.
  • Yep.

Could you tell me if there are any that I have reverted in error, I am trying to err on the side of

Just wanted to say that I saw this based on a comment you left on Worm's talk page and I wanted to comment on diff 9. It was certainly vandalism, and should have been reverted as such; however, it wasn't a racist remark.

Nigahiga (pronounced nee-gah-hee-gah if you don't know the ipa) is a youtube personality. I just thought I'd leave the note, so if you happen to see it in the future, you know what to warn them for and you don't revert it if it has been used correctly. Ryan Vesey Review me!

22:09, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

Oh, okay, thanks.--Gilderien Chat|List of good deeds 09:55, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

How to Revert

Well, If you're using anything but Internet Explorer, I suggest using Twinkle. You can turn it on by going to My Preferences --> Gadgets --> Twinkle. saving your preferences and then holding shift while pressing the refresh button. Suddenly you have new things to play with! Each diff gives you 3 options to roll back - more can be found at

Vandalism and warnings

You occasionally get the repeat vandal. The vandal who is here, not because he is bored and has nothing better to do, but because he has a singular purpose of wreaking as much havoc as he can before he gets blocked. These vandals go in and remove entire sections of text, or replace entire pages with gibberish repeatedly. Even after you've given them a warning, they ignore it and continue. It is for these vandals we have multiple levels of warnings. In general, you will escalate up those levels from 1 to 4 as the vandalism continues. If it's nothing clearly malicious (see below), you should always assume that it was a careless mistake (in short,

Then you get the belligerent vandal. This is very similar to the last kind, although they actually take the time to read the warnings (or

When this happens, you just have to take it in stride, and remember that you are far more intelligent than them because you actually stop to read information instead of blanking it away, and thus the human race still has some hope for salvation. Just revert it, and slap them a {{

Q2) We currently have 4 levels of warnings, have a look at them if you like 1, 2,3,4 - along with an only warning. Do you think we need 4 levels?

A:Yes, because there are situations where all 4 are needed. However, this is not to say that I think that all 4 need to be used each time, I don't.

Good answer. I wonder do you think we could have more?

Q3) Does an admin need all 4 levels to block? How many do you think they need? How many should you have gone through before going to

A:Personally, if I were an admin I would require at least 2, probably 1, 2, and 4, with 4 (or im) being a necessity. All 4 allows too much damage in the case of obvious vandalism.

Good answer again. As long as they've been warned and have reasonable time to stop - they should be blocked.

Q4) When do you think you might use the "only" warning?

A: If there is clear and obvious vandalism (such as replacing whole pages with racist abuse) that it would breach the Wednesbury clause of unreasonableness to AGF.

Yep. Happy with that.

Q5) Do you think that vandals should be allowed to remove the warnings?

A: Yes, it could be taken as an acknowledgement that they have read and understood the warnings. However, if, for example, they received a level 2 warning and then do more vandalism, the warnings (3&4) should continue from the most recent warning in the history, not on the page.

That's a good way to look at things. If you force people to keep warnings on their page, you don't know how long they should keep it on for.

Q6) Is a copyright violation vandalism?

A: I am sure that there are circumstances where it is deliberately designed to harm the 'pedia, but in the majority of cases it is not, and therefore should not (in my opinion) be classed as vandalism. (Interestingly, after I wrote this, I just checked Huggle, and copyvio is not a listed reason for reverts)

Well, if the person is aware of the copyright violation, and the harm that it can cause (previously warned perhaps?), then surely it's a deliberate attempt to harm the encyclopedia. If it's a first offence, no, but it can be.

Q7) The vast majority of vandalism comes from IP editors... but the majority of good edits are also made by IP editors. Should wikipedia require registration?

A: NO! It would go against the principles of Wikipedia, the free encyclopædia that anyone can edit. However, I can see the point of semi-protection to prevent vandalism on BLPs for example.

On all BLPs? Seems rather against collaboration. I agree, real harm can be done to real living people, but that should just mean they're more watched. Forcing all IPs off is a step too far.

I didn't mean all BLPs, but it can be implemented well as a preventative measure where there is a history of vandalism.--Gilderien Chat|List of good deeds 19:09, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Done.--Gilderien Chat|List of good deeds 20:04, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

Very good answers! Right I think we're about ready for a final test... Worm^TT(talk) 19:01, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Okay.....fortunately, its half term this week, so I'll have more time before exams again next week. :) --Gilderien Chat|List of good deeds 19:09, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

You sure you wouldn't rather be revising ;) I can hold off! Worm^TT(talk) 19:15, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

I probably should be :/ Well, my final exams on the 27th, but then I have prom and DofE, so maybe...hmm, I don't think I've actually got a continuous free week at home for literally two years (don't ask), I'll be around 2nd July to 7th, thats probably the best (and longest) time.--Gilderien Chat|List of good deeds 19:20, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

It's not a problem - this is just a formality now, but it's the only one which is timed. Give me a prod when you're ready and I'll post the final test for you :) Worm^TT(talk) 19:25, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. Enjoying the jubilee?--Gilderien Chat|List of good deeds 19:34, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Positively jubilant ;) Worm^TT(talk) 19:56, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Good...I'll send you a ping when I think I'm ready, also, (though I don't mind if you don't reply today, as you're not normally on this late), I was thinking of getting Church of Saint Oswald, King and Martyr, Oswaldkirk, on DYK today, up to GA standard, hopefully, any advice?--Gilderien Chat|List of good deeds 20:14, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Ok, I'll do that...by the way, do you know why this happened. The history shows, I think, me adding 12 bytes.--Gilderien Chat|List of good deeds 20:26, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

No idea why. I think there's something weird going on with the watchlists since they put in the change for "recently viewed". I've seen other 0byte changes coming up too (which that was). Worm^TT(talk) 20:29, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Oh, okay. Thanks :) I thought I had disabled all those with some css, must not be working...I'll list it at the village pump.--Gilderien Chat|List of good deeds 20:35, 3 June 2012 (UTC)