Vandalism

1. Vandalism

Vandalism on a wiki refers to intentional and destructive edits made to wiki pages, aiming to disrupt the collaborative editing process and degrade the quality of the information presented. It's a pervasive issue across all wikis, including MediaWiki, and understanding its forms, consequences, and methods of prevention is crucial for maintaining a healthy and reliable knowledge base. This article provides a comprehensive overview of vandalism, geared towards beginners contributing to wikis, particularly those using MediaWiki 1.40.

1. 1. What Constitutes Vandalism?

Vandalism isn't simply making edits you disagree with. It's characterized by a *deliberate* intent to harm the wiki. Here's a breakdown of common types of vandalism:

• **Content Removal:** Deleting large sections of text without justification. This can range from removing entire articles to systematically stripping content from multiple pages.
• **Adding Nonsense:** Inserting gibberish, random characters, or unrelated text into articles. Often, this is done to make the page unreadable or to mock the wiki.
• **Personal Attacks:** Using wiki pages to insult, threaten, or harass other users. This is a severe form of vandalism and often violates the wiki's Code of Conduct.
• **Spam:** Posting advertisements, promotional material, or links to irrelevant websites. Spamming degrades the quality of the wiki and disrupts its informational purpose. See also Spam prevention.
• **Image Vandalism:** Replacing legitimate images with offensive, inappropriate, or disruptive ones.
• **Template Vandalism:** Altering templates to display incorrect information or to add unwanted elements to numerous pages. This can have a widespread and damaging effect.
• **Page Creation Vandalism:** Creating pages dedicated to offensive topics or filled with disruptive content.
• **False Information:** Intentionally adding inaccurate or misleading information to articles. While unintentional errors are common and should be corrected, *deliberately* adding falsehoods constitutes vandalism. This overlaps with Disinformation and requires careful scrutiny.
• **Edit Wars:** Repeatedly reverting another user's edits, even if those edits aren't necessarily vandalism, can escalate into a disruptive "edit war." While not always malicious, it hinders collaboration and can be considered a form of vandalism if the reversions are done solely to frustrate or obstruct constructive editing.
• **Hoaxes:** Creating elaborate, fabricated stories or information presented as fact. These require significant effort to debunk and can cause lasting damage to the wiki's credibility.

It’s vital to distinguish vandalism from good-faith edits that are simply incorrect or poorly worded. Constructive criticism and collaborative editing are encouraged, but intentional destruction is not. Revision history allows us to easily see changes and revert vandalistic edits.

1. 1. Why Do People Vandalize Wikis?

Understanding the motivations behind vandalism can help in prevention and mitigation. Common reasons include:

• **Attention Seeking:** Some vandals simply want to get a reaction or gain notoriety.
• **Boredom:** A surprising number of vandals act out of boredom or as a prank.
• **Disruptiveness:** Some individuals derive satisfaction from disrupting the collaborative process.
• **Ideological Motivations:** Vandalism can be used to promote a particular viewpoint or to attack opposing ideologies. This often manifests as biased editing or the insertion of propaganda.
• **Griefing:** Targeting specific users or communities with malicious edits.
• **Testing Boundaries:** New users may unintentionally vandalize while learning the wiki's editing system. This is why clear guidelines and helpful welcome messages are important.
• **Political Activism:** While not always vandalism, edits made with a strong political agenda can be disruptive and may cross the line into vandalism if they are intentionally misleading or destructive. See also Bias in Wikipedia.

1. 1. Detecting Vandalism

Detecting vandalism quickly is crucial for minimizing its impact. Several methods are employed:

• **Recent Changes Patrol (RCP):** Monitoring the Recent Changes page is the most common method. This page displays a list of all recent edits, allowing patrollers to quickly identify and revert vandalism.
• **Watchlists:** Users can add pages to their watchlist to receive notifications when those pages are edited. This is particularly useful for monitoring articles that are frequently targeted by vandals.
• **Revision History:** Examining the revision history of a page can reveal patterns of vandalism. Comparing different versions of a page can quickly identify suspicious changes.
• **Automated Tools:** Many wikis utilize bots and automated tools to detect vandalism. These tools can identify edits that are likely to be vandalism based on factors such as the editor's history, the type of changes made, and the content added. Examples include:

   * **ClueBot NG:** [1] - A bot that automatically reverts vandalism.
   * **VandalProof:** [2] - An extension for MediaWiki that helps identify and revert vandalism.
   * **Ores:** [3] – A machine learning model to predict the quality and harmfulness of edits.

• **User Behavior Analysis:** Monitoring the editing patterns of individual users can reveal suspicious activity. Repeatedly reverting edits without justification, making numerous small changes without explanation, or creating pages with disruptive content are all red flags.
• **VisualDiff:** [4] - A MediaWiki extension that provides a visual comparison of different revisions, making it easier to spot subtle vandalism.
• **AbuseFilter:** [5] - A powerful MediaWiki extension that allows administrators to create rules to automatically block or warn users who attempt to perform harmful actions. It uses regular expressions to match patterns of vandalism.
• **3RR Protection:** [6] - While not a detection method, understanding the 3RR rule can help prevent escalating edit wars often associated with vandalism.

1. 1. Responding to Vandalism

Once vandalism is detected, a swift and appropriate response is necessary:

1. **Revert the Vandalism:** Immediately revert the vandalistic edit to restore the page to its previous state. Use the "Undo" function or manually compare revisions and restore the correct content. 2. **Warn the User:** If the vandalism appears to be unintentional or from a new user, issue a friendly warning explaining the wiki's policies and the importance of constructive editing. Use the built-in warning templates provided by the wiki. See Warning templates. 3. **Report the Vandalism:** If the vandalism is severe or persistent, report it to administrators or moderators. Most wikis have a dedicated reporting system. 4. **Block the User:** Administrators may block users who repeatedly vandalize the wiki. Blocking prevents the user from making further edits. The duration of the block can vary depending on the severity of the vandalism. Consider using IP blocking. 5. **Protect the Page:** Administrators can protect pages from editing by restricting access to certain user groups. This is useful for protecting frequently vandalized pages. See Page protection. 6. **Document the Vandalism:** Keep a record of the vandalism, including the date, time, user involved, and the nature of the changes. This documentation can be helpful for future investigations or appeals. 7. **Consider a Range Block:** If vandalism originates from a shared IP address (e.g., a school or public library), administrators may consider a range block to prevent further vandalism from that network. 8. **Utilize Huggle:** [7] - A dedicated tool for reverting vandalism, particularly useful for high-traffic wikis.

1. 1. Prevention Strategies

Preventing vandalism is more effective than simply reacting to it. Here are some preventative measures:

• **CAPTCHAs:** Implementing CAPTCHAs for new users or anonymous editors can help prevent automated vandalism.
• **Edit Restrictions:** Restricting editing to registered users or requiring users to reach a certain level of experience before editing sensitive pages.
• **Account Creation Restrictions:** Requiring email verification or other forms of authentication for account creation.
• **Positive Reinforcement:** Encouraging constructive editing and recognizing contributions from positive users.
• **Community Building:** Creating a welcoming and collaborative community atmosphere can deter vandalism.
• **Clear Guidelines and Policies:** Having clear and well-defined guidelines and policies regarding vandalism and acceptable editing behavior. Wiki etiquette is crucial.
• **Educational Outreach:** Educating new users about the wiki's policies and the importance of constructive editing.
• **ToolForge Monitoring:** [8] - A platform that hosts various tools for wiki maintenance, including tools for detecting and preventing vandalism.
• **WikiProject Anti-Vandalism:** [9] - A collaborative effort to combat vandalism on Wikipedia.
• **Extended Confirmed Protection (ECP):** [10] - A protection level that restricts editing to accounts that are at least four days old and have made at least ten edits.
• **Flow:** [11] - A discussion system that can help reduce vandalism in talk pages.

1. 1. Emerging Trends in Vandalism

Vandalism tactics are constantly evolving. Here are some emerging trends:

• **Sophisticated Bots:** Vandals are increasingly using sophisticated bots to automate their attacks.
• **Social Media Coordination:** Organized vandalism campaigns coordinated through social media platforms.
• **Exploiting Wiki Software Vulnerabilities:** Attempting to exploit vulnerabilities in the wiki software to gain unauthorized access or to disrupt the system. Regular software updates are essential.
• **Targeted Attacks on Specific Articles:** Focusing on vandalizing articles related to controversial topics or current events.
• **Use of Proxy Servers and VPNs:** Hiding their identities by using proxy servers and VPNs.
• **Character Encoding Exploits:** Using unusual character encodings to bypass vandalism filters.
• **"Slow Vandalism":** Making subtle, incremental changes over time to gradually degrade the quality of an article. This is difficult to detect with automated tools.
• **AI-Generated Vandalism:** The potential for AI to create convincing but false information for malicious purposes. Fact-checking becomes even more important.
• **Disinformation Campaigns:** Intentional spreading of false or misleading information disguised as legitimate edits.
• **Microvandalism:** Small, seemingly insignificant changes that, when accumulated, can significantly degrade the quality of an article. This requires diligent monitoring.

1. 1. Resources and Further Reading

• MediaWiki Manual
• Help:Reverting pages
• Help:Blocking users
• Help:Protecting pages
• Combating vandalism (Meta-Wiki)
• Wikipedia:Vandalism (Wikipedia)
• [12] - MediaWiki Security Extensions
• [13] - MediaWiki Extension Directory
• [14] - List of Wiki Farms (some may be prone to vandalism)
• [15] - W3C Wiki Security on Vandalism

Maintaining a healthy wiki requires vigilance, collaboration, and a commitment to protecting the integrity of the information presented. By understanding the nature of vandalism, learning how to detect it, and implementing effective prevention strategies, we can all contribute to a more reliable and trustworthy knowledge base.

MediaWiki Revision history Code of Conduct Recent Changes Watchlist Spam prevention Disinformation Bias in Wikipedia Warning templates IP blocking Page protection Wiki etiquette Fact-checking

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