User:SONSAVASCI/Sneaky vandalism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This user page is under construction.

Do not blame the user for any edits that look like vandalism. It isn't perfect. Yet.


This is an essay; it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. It is not a policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it.

Contents

[edit] What is this page?

In this page, I am going to explain a series of behaviour that is not approved in Wikipedia, which I prefer to call Sneaky Vandalism. For the official guideline, please visit Wikipedia:Vandalism.

This is a userpage and -of course- it is written in my point of view. However this page is based on the official guidelines and especially the NPOV policy in wikipedia.

[edit] What is NOT this page?

This page is not about a single topic or a single user. It is a definition of a behaviour that can happen in any article.

[edit] Why you have visited this page?

I used to ignore Sneaky Vandals, because it is waste of time. But sometimes, they are so sneaky that, after you reverted the sneaky vandalism they call you Vandal and ask Admins to punish you.

Image:Warning icon.png Administrators should not to be misleaded by the Sneaky Vandals.

Therefore, I am giving links to this page in my Edit Summaries. This is probably how you found this page.

[edit] Who is a Sneaky Vandal?

Sneaky Vandal should not be confused with a Silly Vandal that adds nonsense to pages. Actually, one must be familiar to wikipedia to do sneaky vandalism.

Every user in Wikipedia is a human being and have weakness to some articles. This weakness can effect editions of that users, in both good and bad ways.

Good Effects of Weakness to an Article Bad Effects of Weakness to an Article
  • User does not contribute other pages in wikipedia, but he/she spends very long time on specific article and improves it.
  • User visits specific pages regularly and reverts any vandalism done by silly vandals.
  • User is very well informed about that topic and makes contributions that no one would make.
  • User does not let anyone to edit that article. User reverts anything different from his/her edition.
  • User is very interested in a topic, and starts to believe that his knowledge is greater than anyone and the only truth is his truth.
  • User removes facts against his opinion.
  • User adds disinformation and propaganda.

Some users in Wikipedia, only edit the articles they have weakness to. Most of the time, the resultant is good. They supply new information, new sources, new pictures etc.

But also, there are users that only edit articles in bad way. These users usually starts with Silly Vandalism and punished with blocking. After this first phase, they either give up and stop attacking wikipedia or they become the Sneaky Vandals.

Besides, there are users that made great contributions to other pages in wikipedia, but have weakness to some articles. This second kind of users support Sneaky Vandalism on that specific pages in an active or passive way.

Supporting Sneaky Vandalism Active/Passive
Adding the Sneaky Vandalism content Active
Reverting to vandalized edition Active
Ignoring it Passive

Sneaky Vandals are usually exprienced users. They use Watchlist, Page History, Recent Changes, undo/revert scripts and other abilities that are allowed in Wikipedia software to reach their goal.

[edit] The ultimate goal of Sneaky Vandal

The ultimate goal of Sneaky Vandal, is keeping the article in his/her edition most of the time.

After an article is sneaky vandalized, they start to watch the page for editions. For important articles, more than one Sneaky Vandal can be involved in this watching process. They don't hesitate on involving in edit wars and are ready to be blocked. Even after they blocked, they usually register again or keep vandalizing the page with anon. IP's. This effort can take months.

This way, Sneaky Vandals try to make the opposite side to give up on that article.

Another way of forcing the vandalized content, is misleading the Admins about revisions in the article. Sneaky Vandals know Wikipedia rules very well (probably because they have blocked many times), and they use this information against the opposite side.

[edit] A typical Sneaky Vandal behavior

A typical Sneaky Vandal behavior, is calling Vandal to anyone, that deletes the vandalized content.

The Sneaky Vandals, which are experienced wikipedia users, use Admins Noticeboards to report the new editors contribution as a vandalism incident, in an exaggerated way.

Because the Sneaky Vandalism on articles may take months, usually noone but the Sneaky Vandal knows what goes on inside the page history.

When an Admin takes a look at the page history, lets sat last 50 editions, 49 of them are sneaky vandalized. Admin may not have enough information on this specific topic and may believe that vandalized content is the appropriate content.

A newly registered or an average wikipedia user may not understand what is going on with all this official "Vandalism accuastion" made by others to him. Sneaky Vandals may also post messages to this users talk page, to provoke him.

The new user will probably be irritated, and will respond with more and more reverts and get banned or entirely giving up to contribute to this not neutral encyclopedia. Which is what Sneaky Vandals want, of course.

[edit] Sneaky Vandalism Types

(Under Construction)