Wikipedia talk:How to spot vandalism

Silly Vandalsim

The Silly Vandalism link doesn't seem to go anywhere....--ArthurGuy 23:32, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Another type. Please help edit. If no one does, I will post as is after a few days

Please don't change the original, but discuss what you would change beneath. I have been working on this for a while and now am posting it for suggestions. Also I noticed there is no wikipedia stalking article, but there should be.

Disguised Vandalism and Stalking

Disguised Vandalism is different than "sneaky vandalism."

There are two kinds of editors on wikipedia. The first are those that believe wikipedia should hold as much information as possible. The second are those that think anything beyond their personal interests is a drag on the server's bandwidth.

The second type may (but not necessarily) carry out disguised vandalism. If they blank out an entire section, they try to put in an argument that it was useless. They go around erasing necessary sources that articles need as proof so that they can later add inaccurate edits , all citing "wikipedia is not a link exchange" so most people don't revert their vandalism. If an article has only book references, the disguised vandal will make the page a speedy deletion as a hoax. If a disguised vandal has removed a link and it has stayed out for a long period of time, but the article is to long and popular to speedy delete, they may edit most of the article out, claiming the information was point of view (POV).

When two people of the first and second type disagree on editing in an article or else type one reverts type two's vandalism, the second type will engage in wikipedia stalking. Wikipedia stalking is seeing all the contributions by the victim and reverting their recent edits and then going back to their older edits and editing out what they had entered. This includes picture removal. It may also include erasing text and then falsely claiming it was copywrited. Those who are allowed to continue on as disguised vandals, one day become admins who make sure that all disguised vandals win their edit wars.

ChoobWriter 5 July 2005 16:09 (UTC)