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This page describes one of Xenopedia's policies and guidelines. All users are expected to follow policy, except where it would damage the wiki. If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page. |
Vandalism will not be tolerated on this wiki. Vandalism is any edit made in a deliberate attempt to disrupt Xenopedia, deliberately damage its content, or harass its users.
Common types of vandalism include the addition of obscenities or crude humor, page blanking, and the insertion of nonsense into articles.
Types of Vandalism
- Content removal — Removing a non-trivial part of a page's content without good reason. The difference between vandalism and a bold edit is as little as an edit summary or a post to a talk page.
- Bad content — This includes changing the language of a page (Xenopedia is in English only) or inserting stupid crudities or random text into articles.
- Adding offensive material — including swearing (beyond that relevant to the article), offensive comments, racism, homophobia, pornography or anything else deemed to be offensive. This covers any form of content (text, links, images, video, audio etc.).
- Removing large quantities of content from pages with no clear explanation.
- False content — Adding deliberately misinformative information. Xenopedia tolerates speculation, but speculation should be clearly stated to be speculation when it occurs.
- Ignoring/overwriting directions — In a small number of articles you will encounter in-text directions. <!---They will look like this.--> Follow these directions. They are generally there to prevent good faith but incorrect edits. If you take issue with a direction, start a discussion on the article's talk page.
Vandalism does not cover edit wars over legitimate content or adding irrelevant content. For those offences, see the disruptive editing policy.
Vandalism is usually committed either by someone 'playing' with the edit functionality with no regard for the site's content, or by a user deliberately setting out to damage the wiki.
Dealing with Vandalism
Vandalism can be dealt with in numerous ways.
If a user encounters vandalism, they can deal with the issue themselves by simply reverting the changes and fixing the vandalised page. However, remember to assume good faith; if it is an isolated incident on a single article, it is possible the edit was simply a mistake by an inexperienced user. Do not immediately accuse them of vandalising the wiki. Genuine vandalism is usually blatant and easy to spot.
If a user discovers a persistent vandal who has vandalised numerous pages, they should report the issue to an Administrator as soon as possible. Administrators have the power to block vandals to stop them editing again. Reverting the vandalism would also be appreciated — evidence of the original incident will be stored in the page history, so you do not have to worry about deleting 'evidence'.
The decision of an Administrator determines what happens to vandalised pages and users who commit vandalism. In any dispute, the decision of an Administrator is final. Users deemed to be vandalising may be blocked from the site temporarily or permanently, depending on the situation.
Pages that are repeatedly vandalised may be protected temporarily to prevent further vandalism. Protection ensures that only registered Xenopedia users are allowed to edit the page. If you feel a page needs to be protected because of vandalism, please contact an Administrator.
Remember that the chief aim of vandals is to cause disruption. Therefore users should not rise to the bait and become unduly agitated. Every time we respond to those trying to damage Xenopedia, we are giving them what they want, and the more exasperated our response, the more satisfaction they will feel. Generally, if the disruption they cause is dealt with quickly and quietly, they will be discouraged from from continuing. The less attention they get, the more likely they are to move on.