Today while I was in Recent Changes Patrol, I encountered a lot of vandalism that I had to revert. I don’t know what it is. Do some people think vandalism is fun, or are they not intentionally making those edits?
system
2
In general, people have a desire to express themselves, and this is often not respected in that person’s nurturing. “Children should be seen, and not heard” and all that. wH is a powerful tool, where ones typed expression may be immediately disseminated to the world, and so is subject to these–now damaged–individuals edits. They are intentionally making them, all right; although many prolly do not quite believe that hitting ‘publish’ will actually work. I’d love to engineer a way to invite them more personally into valid editing; the impersonal tag that gets put on their ip talk page seems inadequate–I certainly wouldn’t post it multiple times, it just makes it appear computer generated or something–but I also don’t have a better idea. An additional consideration is that many of these vandals may not have the ability to edit successfully at any level, at least at the present, and the whole process might seem daunting to them.
all of them are anonymous users, FYI
system
4
Well, obviously, but a good point; how to make them un~anonymous
? How perfect would it be if wH could, after an ip vandalism, post on their ip talk page, “Hey, JASON, …”
People have to create accounts to be un-anonymous.
@Adelaide
What you’re bringing up isn’t new. Anons (and registered users) have made bad edits since the wiki was made. The point is not to dwell on the bad edit they made, but coach them to learn from that rebellious moment or simply a second of curiosity.
As wikiHow get’s more popular, we’re going to get more vandalism. A lot of times, the vandals are just a hit and run; meaning, they vandalize us, and they just move on. wikiHow will always have vandalism; because, it has anonymous users. But not all anonymous users are bad. A lot have even started featured articles. A lot spellcheck, and occasionally copyedit. It’s a balance between the good faith users (anons and registered) and vandals. But, even registered users vandalize too. That’s why we have the recent changes; so good faith editors (like you!) can fix it. (: Some people just like to test; and some people like to be mean - But, that’s why we have assume good faith - Because not everyone is a vandal. Lots of people can even be coached; it just depends on the person. June Days
I figured.
Yes, they are intentionally making those edits. They don’t think it’s fun, as much as they like to think they have more power than they do (since they can edit pretty much anything here). But, it gets taken away, so, it’s okay. And like I said, with wikiHow getting more popular, more people will come, and probably, vandalize. June Days
Oh. And I hope I am experienced
You might consider reading this article: http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Warning
Ttrimm
13
I am sorry Adelaide, but no one is experienced after only a month or two.
Except for…No one. Well, maybe Mal, Jack, Ttrimm and Krystle, but no one else. *Joke* Anyways, it’s okay; we all learn as we go. That’s the fun part. (: June Days
Not someone like FM84? (FM abbreviates Frostmaker)
system
17
I did wonder how many vandals are on public ip’s, and if blocking all public ip’s until a good edit is made from one, and then unblocking it, might save some patrol time. If one patroller could scroll down a page of public ip edits, and only find 2, say, good edits…
Blocking all IPs means there won’t be *any* good edits from them. And that one patroller would have to take a lot of time just to do that; we’re all volunteers here - So no one patroller could do that, and probably not get tired. Also, it’s better to just assume the best, revert the bad edits, and keep the good. (; June Days P.S. Blocking every IP would take forever.
system
19
IPs can be blocked by range blocking, for instance, a geographical area can be blocked and with the exception of those surfing by proxy, all internet users in that area can be kept off site. There have been instances where certain abusers had to be blocked that way, but the particulars don’t have to be discussed, just thanks to Chris Hadley for stopping a bad situation some years back. wikiHow is the website anyone can edit, and when that changes, it won’t be wikiHow anymore. If you can’t stand the vandalism, or think certain users should be preemptively blocked, find another way to contribute. Posting complaints about a situation doesn’t solve the problem, and I, for one, feel like my efforts are worth while when I patrol changes, and I won’t let vandals and spammers make my efforts less fun, since I visit and contribute because I enjoy doing it, and enjoy the people here.
system
20
Couldn’t be said any better than this. You do whatever makes you either happy, confident, comfortable, or motivated towards the site’s mission in order to make the site better as a whole. That is exactlywhy certain people choose to do specific jobs. If vandalism and other wrongdoing things that other people do make you feel in a negative aspect, then try find other jobs around wikiHow that do not involve reviewing other people’s edits — and the community dashboard is completely filled with it (with the exception of the quality guardian and a few other things).
