Hello, and welcome! Here is where I will help you become a vandal fighter. When I post an assignment, please respond under the assignment (or in a table, if there is one). In some exercises I will ask you to provide "diffs". See Help:Diffs for how to do this. When you are done with a task, please ping me using {{u|NorthwestPassage}}. Also make sure you sign your posts with four tildes (~~~~). Thanks! –NorthwestPassage talk 00:13, 5 March 2020 (UTC)
Tools
editBefore we start, I wanted to show you some useful tools for counter-vandalism work which can be used by any editor. You can use all of these, none of these, or some of these. I don't mind, these links are just for your convenience. You may have already installed some of these in the past.
Twinkle
editTwinkle is a very popular gadget which is helpful for a variety of tasks. To install it, go here and tick the box that says Twinkle. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "save". When you refresh the page, a "TW" tab will be available on every page, next to the "More" tab. Scrolling over the TW tab will show a list of modules you can use on the particular page. Twinkle has a large number of useful modules, including but not limited to, one which can be used to warn users, one which can be used to request page protection, one which can be used to suggest a page is deleted, and many many more helpful features. It also adds a non-admin "rollback" feature on all diff pages. I highly suggest you enable Twinkle, as it's incredibly useful and poses no risk of harming your account.
Lupin's Anti-vandal tool
editLupin's Anti-vandal tool is extremely helpful for monitoring recent changes in real time. To install it, simply add the following to your common.js.
importScript('User:Lupin/recent2.js');
Refresh the page and you'll find 5 new links on your toolbar (on the left side of the page, underneath "interaction"). These links can be used to better monitor recent changes for possible vandalism.
IRC channels
editIRC is an internet chat program. There are several channels on IRC that can be used to monitor vandalism. #cvn-wp-en connect is probably the most useful. Visit Wikipedia:IRC/Tutorial for information on how to connect to channels.
Navigation Popups
editNavigation popups allow you to hover over links and see a brief preview of the page being linked to. One feature of navigation popups is that when you're at recent changes and hover over "diff" links, you'll have the ability to revert the most recent edit, useful for undoing vandalism. To install navigation popups, go here and tick the box that says Navigation popups. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "save". Refresh the page and navigation popups will be enabled.
Now that you've read these, reply below with which scripts you installed/what you signed up for. I don't mind how many you installed, or if you installed none, it's just so I know and can set tasks using those scripts. Also note that there are many more advanced scripts out there, but they'll only be available to you when you have more experience.
- NorthwestPassage, I added Lupin's, Twinkle and Popups.BestOnLifeform (talk) 15:28, 5 March 2020 (UTC)
- BestOnLifeform, great! Your next task is listed below. –NorthwestPassage talk 15:50, 5 March 2020 (UTC)
Good faith and vandalism
editWhen patrolling for vandalism, you may often come across edits which are unhelpful, but not vandalism - these are good faith edits. It is important to recognise the difference between a vandalism edit and a good faith edit, especially because Twinkle gives you the option of labelling edits you revert as such. Please read WP:AGF and WP:NOT VANDALISM before completing the following tasks.
- Please explain below the difference between a good faith edit and a vandalism edit, and how you would tell them apart.
- Please find three examples of good faith but unhelpful edits, and three examples of vandalism. You don't need to revert the example you find, and I am happy for you to use previous undos in your edit history if you wish.
- Good faith
- Vandalism
- In my own words NorthwestPassage, a good faith edit is an attempt by a user (most often a new user) to improve or otherwise positively edit an article. However, due most commonly to either not fully understanding the topic, or how to properly edit on Wikipedia, the edit ends up doing more damage than good. This often gets mistaken for vandalism.
Three examples of reverted "good-faith" edits are:
1.
2.
3.
_______
Vandilism examples:
1.
2.
3.
BestOnLifeform (talk) 21:07, 5 March 2020 (UTC)
p.s. I will add examples soon
- BestOnLifeform, I'm still waiting on those diffs of the examples of AGF and vandal edits. Please submit them as soon as you can! Thanks –NorthwestPassage talk 17:00, 9 March 2020 (UTC)
- BestOnLifeform, we can't move on until you submit the example diffs of AGF and vandal edits. Please submit them ASAP! Thanks –NorthwestPassage talk 07:00, 19 March 2020 (UTC)
- Hey, I'm so sorry I've been bogged down by personal crap, I'll have that last part done soon. I'm so sorry again. BestOnLifeform (talk) 08:13, 19 March 2020 (UTC)