Wikipedia Vandalism - Fighting Vandalism

Fighting Vandalism

Padlocks of different colors are placed on top right of pages to indicate their level of protection. From top to bottom, the 3 illustrated above signify semi-protection, move protection, and full protection, respectively. Please note that this image is for display purposes only, not to mark the protection of this page.

There are various measures taken by to prevent or reduce the amount of vandalism. These include:

• Using Wikipedia's history functionality, which retains all prior versions of an article, to restore the article to the last version before the vandalism occurred; this is called reverting vandalism. The majority of vandalism on Wikipedia is reverted quickly. There are various ways in which the vandalism gets detected so it can be reverted:
  • Incidental discovery: A reader who comes across the vandalism by chance can revert it. This is often the case.
  • Recent change patrol: Wikipedia has a special page that lists all the most recent changes. Some editors will monitor these changes for possible vandalism.
  • Watchlists: Any user can watch a page that they have created or edited or that they otherwise have an interest in. This enables other users to monitor a page for vandalism.
  • Bots: In some cases, the vandalism is automatically reverted by a bot that can automatically detect the act and will revert it and warn the vandal with no human intervention.
• Locking articles so only established users, or in some cases only administrators, can edit them. Semi-protected articles are those that can only be edited by those with an account that is considered to be auto-confirmed - an account that is at least 4 days old with at least 10 edits, for most accounts. Fully protected articles are those that can only be edited by administrators. Protection is generally instituted after one or more editors makes a request on a special page for that purpose, and an administrator familiar with the protection guidelines chooses whether or not to fulfill this request based on the guidelines.
• Blocking and banning those who have repeatedly committed acts of vandalism from editing for a period of time or in some cases, indefinitely. Blocking is not considered to be a punitive action. The purpose of the block is simply to prevent further damage. Editors are generally warned prior to being blocked. Wikipedia employs a 4-stage warning process up to a block. This includes:

1. The first warning assumes good faith and takes a relaxed approach on the user.
2. The second warning does not assume any faith and is an actual warning.
3. The third warning assumes bad faith and is the first to warn the user that continued vandalism may result in a block.
4. The fourth warning is a final warning, stating that any future acts of vandalism will result in a block.
5. After this, other users may place additional warnings, though only administrators can actually carry out the block.

In 2005, Wikipedia started to require those who create new articles to have a registered account in an effort to fight some vandalism. This occurred after inaccurate information was added to Wikipedia in which a journalist was accused of taking part in Kennedy's assassination.

Wikipedia has experimented with systems in which edits to some articles, especially those of living people, are delayed until it can be reviewed and determined that they are not vandalism, and in some cases, that a source to verify accuracy is provided. This is in an effort to prevent inaccurate and potentially damaging information about living people from appearing on the site.