The following is a list of tools and resources available for those who want to clean up with a more systematic approach.
Contents
Monitoring
The old school way is to load recent changes and check the (diff) links. It can be filtered according to featured articles, good articles, living people, new editors' contribs, IPs' contribs and mobile contribs (as these are more prone to vandalism, see Help:Recent changes). Searching for articles by their namespace and specific tags (e.g. VisualEditor, possible BLP issue or vandalism, etc) can also be done. If they contain harmful edits, you revert to the previous version. However, the high volume of edits that occur each second makes this difficult to accomplish most of the time, and several tools have been created to simplify the process:
- Vandal Fighter, the original anti-vandalism program, is a Java program that displays the Recent Changes feed from Wikipedia's IRC bots and allows filters to focus on certain types of changes (e.g. unregistered users). It also maintains a personal list of trusted users, watched articles, etc.
- Lupin's Anti-Vandal Tool monitors the RSS feed and flags edits with common vandalism terms. It also has a live spellcheck feature. This tool works in monobook skin only.
- WikiMonitor is a Windows program that enables users to monitor recent changes, their watchlist, users' contributions, and other feeds in real time as well as providing multiple tools to aid in semi-automated editing and reversion. It is compatible with all Wikimedia wikis.
- VandalSniper, a VandalProof-like application, is currently in beta. At the moment it has only been confirmed to run on Linux.
- WikiGuard is a Mac OS X program that monitors the IRC feed and attempts to approximate each edit's risk.
- RC birds is a Java program that emits different bird sounds for the RC feed depending on the user.
- The IRC Bot, pgkbot, by Pgk, runs on the IRC channels below.
- IRC Bots reporting at the #cvn-wp-en channel on the freenode network list suspected vandalism edits (for example: blankings, edits made by blacklisted users, etc.) (Use this link to open the IRC channel on a web browser.)
- WikiAlerter, a Windows program for patrolling new pages, and deleting/tagging them. Designed primarily for CSD, but supports AfD and ProD. Currently in beta, but there is a release.
- Wikipedia Vandalism Watch is a Windows program that monitors specified users' contributions pages for top edits.
- Huggle is a fast diff browser which parses edits from users and sort them by predicted level of vandalism. Once identified, malicious edits can be reverted in the click of a button. Due to the fast-paced nature of the program, users on the English Wikipedia must have the rollback permission to use it; however, this is not a requirement on other wikis.
- WatchlistBot is an XMPP bot that sends messages in realtime when articles are modified. Users with a Jabber account can subscribe to the bot and watch both articles and users.
- WikipediaVision is a web-based world map visualization of unregistered edits to the English (and the German, French, Spanish, Swedish) Wikipedia, almost the same time as they happen.
- STiki is a Java program that consists of (1) a server-side component that listens to the RC feed and scores edits in a machine-learning fashion (using 12+ features, many of which are not language-based) -- and (2) A client-side Java GUI application that presents likely vandalism found on the server-side to human users for inspection/reversion. Using STiki without rollback requires either approval from the developer or 1000 article-space edits. It can revert WP:AGF edits while leaving a friendly message on the talkpage of the editing user.
- Igloo is an RC patrol tool that is currently in alpha. It works with either Firefox or Google Chrome.
- RCMap - Geolocates anonymous edits from the IRC live feed and displays them on a world map, with links to diffs. Supports multiple languages in a unified interface.
- WikiPatroller is an Android app for monitoring the recent changes feed.
- Snuggle is a browser-based newcomer observation and support system, introduced in 2013. It gives a compact visual display of edits and talk page entries for accounts whose first edit was made within the past 30 days. It can be used equally to welcome well-intentioned new editors or to monitor problematic ones.
- ClueBot NG IRC Bots reporting at the #cluebotng-spam channel on the ClueNet IRC network. #cluebotng-spam is a recent changes feed that adds ClueBot NG's scoring data to each edit. Recent changes patrollers can then use the scoring data to find suspicious edits and revert if they are vandalism.
Rollback tools
These tools extend the rollback feature by allowing you to specify a summary when using rollback. They may also offer additional features:
- Huggle
- User:Gracenotes/rollback.js
- User:Mr.Z-man/rollbackSummary.js
- User:Ilmari Karonen/rollbacksummary.js
- User:Porchcorpter/Rollback Summary
- STiki
Rollback-like scripts
These tools can be used to achieve the same effect as rollback if you do not have it.
- RC patrol script gives non-administrators revert, filter, and popup tools while using the monobook skin.
- Godmode-light is a JavaScript program to give non-administrators a rollback button.
- Navigation popups are a set of utilities that appear when hovering over wikilinks. Particularly, hovering over links of old versions provides a "revert" link.
- Twinkle gives both non-administrators and administrators three types of rollback functions. Other functions include a full library of speedy deletion functions, user warnings, pseudo-automatic reporting of vandals, and more.
Special pages
- See the list of Wikipedia's most vandalized pages. The related changes link will display recent changes to all pages listed on Wikipedia:Most vandalized pages, for those who wish to follow vandalism on Wikipedia but who are unable or do not desire to use IRC bot tools.
- User:Adam1213/warn is a page that simplifies the process of warning vandals by allowing warnings to be submitted to specific users directly from the page.
Task Force
- Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit/Task Force A voluntary Group who will provide assistance at times of high levels of vandalism and advice on counter vandalism methods. (inactive)
IRC channels
Note that these are not operated by or affiliated with Wikipedia.
- #cvn-wp-en connect Primary RC bot listing (NickServ registration required; voice invitations available on request from local operators or in #countervandalism connect)
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- A list of bot commands can be found on here. To use these commands, you must be voiced.
- #cvn-wp-en-newusers connect Account creations
- #cvn-wp-en-uploads connect File uploads
- #cvn-wp-en-cluenet connect Channel that reroutes information from ClueNet. (Read-only, only staff and bots can speak)
Other
- Template:Vandalism information, a tool used as an indication of the current overall level of vandalism that is taking place on Wikipedia. On the page, click the edit button below the vandalism meter to change its level from 5 to 1 and/or add a short comment; 5 indicates very low levels of vandalism, and 1 indicates extremely high. You can add the vandalism information template to your userpage to stay up to date. See Template talk:Vandalism information for different styles.
- Am I Needed To Counter Vandalism? Displays a full screen bearing the single word "Yes" or "No" to show if extra patrollers are needed. Updated every minute. Developed by User:A930913.
- Counter-Vandalism Wiki (Operates the #cvn-channels. Not owned by, operated by, or affiliated with Wikimedia.)
- Wikilink scripts enable you to double click on [[wikilinks]] within IRC clients. Useful if doing patrol on the IRC channels.
- There are other scripts that may be handy while doing cleanup (not necessarily vandalism cleanup). Check them at WikiProject User scripts/Scripts (WP:JS)
- Template:Toolbar experiments, a tool to help with finding test edits in articles.
- Vada, an online cloud based framework.
- AddBad, some thoughts on a new generation of recent changes patrol applications.
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