To leave a message for me, please use my talk page, for which click here [1].
- Useful help link to the Missing Manual for Wikipedia help: [2]
- To handle vandalism and spam the way experienced editors do, you should do three things in addition to reverting the problem edit: determine if that editor has other problem edits, and deal with those as well; post an appropriate warning to the editor; and, in extreme cases, ask an administrator to block the problem editor. Experienced editors also know how to ask that a page be protected if it's repeatedly vandalized by a number of different (typically, anonymous IP) editors.
- Requesting Assistance of Administrators
In cases of vandalism and spam, administrators (there are 1,660 of them at the English Wikipedia) can take two types of preventive measures unavailable to normal editors—protecting pages and blocking vandals.
- Protecting Pages
If a page is repeatedly vandalized by a changing cast of anonymous IP editors, then temporary semi-protection of the page is probably appropriate. Semi-protection means that registered editors can still edit the page (starting 4 days after they register), but anonymous IP addresses can't. (Anonymous users with suggestions for changes should post them to the article talk page.) It's quite unusual to fully protect a page because of vandalism; full protection is normally done only for cases of major content disputes (see Chapter 10, Resolving Content Disputes).
In the first sentence of the prior paragraph, two key words are "repeatedly" and "changing." You shouldn't request semi-protection of a page unless there have been at least a half-dozen vandalizing IP edits in the last 24 hours or so. If there are fewer, administrators may feel that it's better to simply manually revert the vandalism. And the IP addresses need to vary or otherwise be unblockable. Otherwise, administrators prefer blocking a few IP addresses.
To request semi-protection, post at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection (shortcut: WP:RFPP).
Note that semi-protection is normally only temporary: The goal is to get vandals to lose interest in the protected page. Anonymous contributions have built a significant percentage of Wikipedia, so the Wikipedia community is very reluctant to close off editing to all IP addresses for an indefinite period, even to only a single page.
Note: Don't ask to have a page be protected because you anticipate that it'll be a target for vandals in the near future. That's too subjective for administrators, no matter how well-reasoned a case you may have. You must show that vandalism is already occurring.
General Guidance on Blocking Vandals Blocking is a preventive action, not a punitive one. If, for example, you find vandalism that's more than a day or two old (different administrators have different thresholds), it's pretty unlikely that your request to block the account will be granted.
An administrator can block an account for any amount of time between a minute and indefinitely. Registered accounts whose only edits have been vandalism are typically blocked indefinitely, but other user accounts usually get an escalating approach. For example, block for a day; if vandalism recurs, block for a week; if it recurs again, block for a month; and only then, if it recurs again, block indefinitely.
- Report vandalism only when you think the problem has risen to the level where warnings are no longer appropriate. Generally, that means that either the user has already received a level 4 warning, and continued to vandalize, or that this is a vandal-only registered account, or that the account gives indication of a sophistication of edits well beyond a typical new editor. (Remember: If you decide to post a warning, do not also report the vandalism to administrators for their review.) In this example, IP address 127.0.0.1 has already been blocked, 2 days ago, for 24 hours, for vandalism.
1. Go to Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism (shortcut: WP:AIV).