Wikipedia vandalism
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This is not an official policy page (yet). Rather, this is a community-editable page in an attempt to define what we consider to be vandalism. Feel free to edit the text so that it reflects your understanding of the community attitude toward vandalism.
This page is not an all-language policy page. It only reflects an English point of view.
See also: w:Wikipedia:Dealing with vandalism
Contents |
[edit] I know it when I see it
Does it really need to be defined?
It's arguable that most (identified) vandalism has consisted of really quite obvious cases. Hence, Wikipedia doesn't need to define an "official" policy on what constitutes vandalism at all. We can use the rule of thumb, "When a reasonable person might be in doubt as to whether something is vandalism, it would be polite not to call it vandalism."
Of course, that depends on the normative definitions of "obvious", "reasonable" and "polite", which are necessarily subjective.
Patent vandalism is vandalism where both the reader, and the contributor (of the suspected vandalism), agree that it is vandalism. This is sometimes easy to determine (e.g. vandal puts HAHAHAHAHA as their edit summary or otherwise states that it is vandalism), and sometimes slightly harder.
[edit] What may be considered Wikipedia vandalism
Since we wish to encourage people to feel as free as possible in modifying pages (see especially en:editing policy and be bold in updating pages), as a community we should, at least in most cases, be opposed to the labeling of any but the most obvious examples of vandalism as indeed "vandalism."
For instance, when someone adds a line to an article adding an insult or profanity, that may be considered vandalism and should not stand. There have been instances where entire pages have been deleted without explanation, or replaced with something that can best be described as infantile, and not anything that anyone would confuse with an encyclopedia article. That too can be considered vandalism.
By contrast with the foregoing, often merely bad jokes and other "nonsense" can be called vandalism, but sometimes they shouldn't be; usually they are simply cases of misunderstanding, confusion, or humor unnecessary to the entry. Such stuff should be removed, but there's little point in justifying its removal by labeling it "vandalism."
The most inviting target for such vandalism is the en:Main Page. Its contents have been replaced dozens of times by anonymous people with off-topic material, which is why editing of the page is currently restricted to Wikipedians with administrator access.
Other types of edits considered vandalism at some point :
- Using an offensive user name :
Jimbo Wales decided that TMC's chosen username was vandalism, a summary of that controversy should be included in this article. -- NetEsq
- Blanking own talk page (en:User:BuddhaInside)
- Blanking or putting insanities on other people's user page (en:User:RK)
[edit] Vandalism through anonymous websites
Vandalism may occur through websites from which the user can use an anonymous IP address. After their IP address has been blocked, vandals may attack Wikipedia through these websites. Examples are:
- http://64.203.129.86 - Web Warper
- http://66.36.249.149 - @Anonymize
[edit] Policy pages which refer to vandalism
Note for users: If you notice acts of vandalism, please edit Vandalism in progress adding the person's IP number, the date and the approximate time (server) of the alleged vandalism. Then put the person's IP or handle in the Summary box and hit save.
Hello,
My name is papotages and I've been working on fr.wikipedia.org. Being a member of the raëlian movement, I was constantly censored, not due to the lack of documentation, but because nobody could play the counterpart role. So, my arguments have been anoying to the community. I have been censored from the very begining. As you may know, in France, people are being disinformed, so the majority felt ok to censore me. The situation of cults in France is comparable to what it could be in totalitarian states.
Thank you for your help.
Liberty is threatened.
Pap'otages
- Since the subject here is vandalism, rather than censorship, the above could be interpreted as vandalism but a kinder interpretation would be that its placement here is an error. Repeated placements after correction or removal would rise to the level of wasting other people's time and thus vandalism. 12.45.50.136 04:24, 18 Sep 2003 (UTC)
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- Vandalism and censorship are in many cases, but should not be, the very same thing. This is specially common in local Wikipedia projects like French version highlighted here. If you can not agrument civilized or provide links or in any other way counter the information then it is very easy to just claim "vandalism", censor the information and block the user who added it. Censorship and vandalism claims seem to go hand in hand, but, in my humble opinion, should not. Pap'otages comment is very relevant.
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- Gentle interpretation is that Papotages was seeking help, by whatever means he could imagine. I did not know of this message. Papotages was ip blocked the day after (or the very same day) he was writing that, and discussion for name blocking him was well under way. Actually, he would have been name blocked if it had been possible at that point to sysops. Vandalism and censorship were badly confused in his case, as it is much simpler to pretend dealing with vandalism than to face one's own censorship tendencies.
- I came back from holidays 2 days after that message, and played the counterpart.
- See the fascinating collection of point of view on the topic La neutralité de point de vue and his list of live examples of censorship as applied on the french wikipedia
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- Papotages is an interesting case of vandalism, so it seems quite on-topic here. In case anyone's wondering, he operates by opening about 15 windows of Special:Randompage. He then clicks edit in each one, pastes a pre-prepared body text and edit summary, takes a deep breath, then saves them all within the space of 30 seconds. Then he hangs up his modem, redials, and starts again. This should be dealt with in the same way as a vandalbot, that is by hiding the edits from RC. -- Tim Starling
- Almost every time i edit a page it says vandalism. I don't consider it that but rather an expansion of wikiknowledge. Thanks.
[edit] See also
- Cross-wiki vandalism reports
- Wikistress, often caused by vandalism.
- Anti-vandalism ideas - proposal for more options than just open/protected
- Vandal - What is a wiki vandal?
- Vandalbot - what to do. Don't wait until it happens before you read it!
- How to spot vandalism
