Help:Vandalism

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If a page receives large additions of commercial websites or blandishments, please see Help:Spam.

[edit] Vandalism

If a contributor seems to be fooling about, try Template:Test (ie the word "test" in double curly braces {{... ) on his or her talk page. If it's the second occasion or more, see Wikipedia:Template talk:Test and base a stronger response on one of the suggestions there.

[edit] Spam

[edit] Frequency

Wikia is now a popular, frequently-spidered site and therefore a target of spammers because of ease of access. If they can get their URLs on a Wikia page for a few hours, their "ratings" go up because search engines find them.

It would be nice if we lived in a world without problem children. But we don't, and spam is a fact of life---even here. Hopefully, you won't see much of it, as we try to keep the area well policed and as the Wikia software gets even cleverer, but someday you're going to come across something that shouldn't be here. When that happens, please let us know (Robin Patterson or Bill) and/or report it to http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Spam_Blacklist.

[edit] Dealing with Spam

Typically spammers do not register with the site. So, the first defense/defence against spam is checking for recent changes by unregistered users. Please login whenever practicable, because that makes less work for those of us who check the recent changes for spam.

Most of our responsible contributors look at the list of Recent Changes. Spam is removed when seen. And, as noted in a recent list message from User:Angela, it should then be reported at [[1]].

Administrators have a "Rollback" power that makes reversal very quick and efficient. Other contributors can reverse by simple deletion of added material or (if the spammer replaced good material) by going through the page history back to the last good version and resaving it.

Sometimes our vigilance is not perfect and a page has been hit twice, so it pays to check that the version you are restoring is an uninfected one.

This text is stored on Wikia Help. Suggest changes here.

Vandalism is the conspicuous defacement or destruction of a structure, a symbol or information against the will of the owner/governing body. In the context of an online community project, it is a deliberate attempt to damage the usefulness of content for others.

Assuming good faith

Useful community content is that which most concisely and accurately reflects the widest range of relevant information on a topic. In the context of a wiki project, intent to reduce relevant information to that of a single viewpoint could be considered vandalism. In keeping with assume good faith, however, it may be possible to look at a one-viewpoint edit as additional information that the user feels should be incorporated or is under-represented. In such a case, it benefits the project to explain more effective methods of bringing this information to light while retaining the existing knowledge in the article. While calling someone a vandal almost always makes the accusation true, extra patience instead can enable one to become a beneficial editor.

Avoiding critical mass

Vandalism usually starts as a form of heavy-handedness which is never effective at getting a point across in a wiki community. We can nip it in the bud by explaining more effective ways of making proposals and working with others. If we alienate the editor, however, vandalism can turn into a form of vengeance. The wiki engine is written to minimize the effect of pranksters, and can even handle a few full blown vengeful vandals, but it cannot handle a vandalism movement that has reached critical mass, a situation where we react to vandalism by assuming bad faith and thereby create more vengeful editors. As a project approaches crisis levels, it becomes harder and more time intensive to assume good faith, but every act of kindness and patience moves the project away from critical mass.