wsuwiki:Vandalism in WSU Wiki
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Wiki vandalism is a real problem, which is why WSU Wiki is restricted to editing by members of the WSU Community.
Example of Wiki Vandalism
An example of wiki vandalism can be seen in Wikipedia. On August 19, 2005, the page on Blaise Pascal was the featured page in Wikipedia. Examining the history page will show you the list of edits for the page.
There are two to note, for purposes of this example:
- 22:11, 19 August 2005 200.91.91.105 (Destruction of text)
- 20:42, 19 August 2005 24.116.224.79 (Offensive photo replaces image of Pascal)
Each of these changes was later reverted to its previous state.
Evaluating edits for vandalism
To evaluate a page for vandalism, examine the following elements on the history of the page:
- the difference (diff) between the currnet page and the previous page
- the comment left by the person making the diff
Answer these questions for yourself.
- did the edit improve or reduce the quality of the page?
- was there a rationale for the change?
- is there a citation or other reference supporting the change?
- even lacking citation or reference, might you expect other authors to have made a similar change
What to do about vandalism
Whether or not you conclude you found vandalism, if you think that a previous version of the page is superior revert the page to its previous state. In the comment line, leave a short note why you reverted ("reverted because ...").
If you feel that the page was actually vandalized, as described above, please copy the URL of the history page (after you revert) and report the incident by emailing the URL and any additional notes or information.