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Help:Vandalism
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What is vandalism? 
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The term vandalism refers to the act of destroying something, on wikis, this can be seen as a number of things:
- Intentionally inserting false information or removing correct information for one person's benefit (Scamming)
- Moving pages to irrelevant names (Irrelevant moving)
- Advertising things not relating to the game Tibia, or things which go against the Tibia Rules (Spamming)
What to do if you spot vandalism Edit
Ideally, you'll want to revert the edits the vandal has made, see Help:Reverting for how to do that.
Sometimes however, you will be unable to undo the vandals edits as a normal user. You may require assistance from an admin if, for example, the vandal creates a page irrelevant to the wiki.
If the vandal created pages which should not be here, you may mark it for deletion. The same applies to images. It would also be appropriate to inform an admin of their inappropriate edits.
Here is an example of vandalism:
Examples of vandalism Edit
Here is a small list of things which are commonly seen as vandalism, it is not limited to these, but these are seen most frequently.
Keep in mind that the punishment isn't "pre-determined" i.e the punishment the vandal receives is entirely up to the admin.
| Reason | Example | What to do | Likely Result |
| Scamming | "This item is very rare because it is only dropped by The Horned Fox" on the page Axe. | Revert, inform an admin if they continue | Warning, temporary block if the vandal persists. |
| Irrelevant Moving | User moves Ghazbaran to Gazbaren | Move the page back to the appropriate page, and inform an admin. | If seen as intentional, a temporary block, if not, then a warning. |
| Spamming | Glorifying rule-violations, "if you spam it hard enough someone will buy" on any page. | Revert the edits and if necessary explain on the talk page, inform an admin if they add it again. | Depends how serious the offense is. Most likely a warning, and block if they persist. |
| Clearing Pages | Removing all content from any page | Revert it and inform an admin. | Most likely a warning, and block if they continue. |
| Nonsensical or Irrelevant Pages | Creating a page with the contents "adhahahl" | Mark the page for deletion. | Page would be considered for deletion and the vandal warned. |
Vandalism is the conspicuous defacement or destruction of a structure, a symbol or information against the will of the owner/governing body. In the context of an online community project, it is a usually deliberate attempt to damage the usefulness of content for other viewers.
Assuming good faithEdit
Useful community content is that which most concisely and accurately reflects the widest range of relevant information on a topic. In the context of a wiki project, intent to reduce relevant information to that of a single viewpoint could be considered vandalism. In keeping with assume good faith, however, it may be possible to look at a one-viewpoint edit as additional information that the user feels should be incorporated or is under-represented. In such a case, it benefits the project to explain more effective methods of bringing this information to light while retaining the existing knowledge in the article. While calling someone a vandal almost always makes the accusation true, extra patience instead can enable one to become a beneficial editor.
Avoiding critical massEdit
Vandalism usually starts as a form of heavy-handedness which is never effective at getting a point across in a wiki community. We can nip it in the bud by explaining more effective ways of making proposals and working with others. If we alienate the editor, however, vandalism can turn into a form of vengeance. The wiki engine is written to minimize the effect of pranksters, and can even handle a few full blown vengeful vandals, but it cannot handle a vandalism movement that has reached critical mass, a situation where we react to vandalism by assuming bad faith and thereby create more vengeful editors. As a project approaches crisis levels, it becomes harder and more time intensive to assume good faith, but every act of kindness and patience moves the project away from critical mass.
Dealing with vandalismEdit
See alsoEdit
- Wikipedia:Dealing with vandalism on Wikipedia.
