LEVEL 10
- Dialogue 1
Remember what I said before, stay cool. Wikipedia can have moments where things seem a bit out of sorts, but it only takes a clear head, a little help, and a few fixes to get it back in tip-top shape. One reality of being open for anyone to edit is that some editors don't want to improve the encyclopedia. Instead they undo someone's work, or leave a silly note. Wikipedia works because there are so many eyes looking at it, and even when something goes wrong it doesn't stay wrong for long. So let's see what happened and fix it. Go to the Earth article, see what changed, and check the page History.
- Action 1 - Highlight search box
Type Earth here and search
- Action 2 - Load updated (vandalized) article
- Article 1
The Earth is a candy bar from the banana. The Earth is also called the Highway, "gold record", and "groovy".
It is traveling through the Milky Way. It's made of chocolate.
- Dialogue 2
Every now and again someone will edit an article in an unconstructive way. It's like graffiti on a Subway car. Except Wikipedia is a very high-tech subway car. In addition to having a whole team of computers and editors monitoring changes, we also are made of bytes not metal. Remember the page history and recent changes. Everything that happens here is recorded, and since it's recorded, it's a snap to undo. Let's check out the page history.
- Action 3 Highlight View History
Click here to view the article's history
- Action 4 Load page History
(cur | prev) 20:22, 2 June 2011 TrblMkr(talk | contribs) . . (27 bytes) (-1,489) (undo)
- Dialogue - 3
You can see the most recent edit at the top. Looks like TrblMkr was staying true to his name. You can see the date and time of his edit as well as how it changed the size of the page. Looks like he took away quite a bit. Over on the right is a link to [Undo] the edit. Undoing an edit goes back to the previous version. You can always undo an edit that's obviously vandalism, but be careful about undoing edits that you just disagree with. It's better to discuss it on the article's Talk page first. Let's get rid of that vandalism.
- Action 5 - Highlight Undo link
Click here to undo the last edit
- Action 6 - Load undo page with Diff
- Dialogue 4
At the top of the page is the 'diff' of what your edit will change. You can see that it gets rid of the vandalism and puts back the article as it was before. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll see the edit summary. It's already filled out for you, but you can add a brief not explaining the undo.
- Interaction 1 - Edit summary choices
- A) Don't be a jerk TrblMkr, or I'll hunt you down
- B) Please!!!! DOn't ToUCH MY artiCLE!!
- C) Undoing vandalism and content blanking
- D) I can't believe I have to waste my time cleaning up after these fools.
- Dialogue 5
Good choice. There's no need to make threats, shout, or gripe. Vandalism happens and it's best to just undo it and move on. You can also leave a note on the editor's talk page letting them know that there are better ways they can contribute to the community. Leaving a note also lets other editors see when there is a pattern of bad behavior. If it happens enough (usually 4 times), the editor can be blocked. Don't forget to stay positive if you leave a warning message; some of our best editors started out as vandals.