Draft:Dealing with vandalism

This is an official Bulbapedia policy. In a nutshell: Vandal edits should be cleaned up as quickly as possible. Contact a staff member if assistance is needed.

Bulbapedia is an open, collaborative wiki that occasionally faces vandalism. This guide helps both new and experienced users recognize, prevent, and address vandalism effectively, while also fostering a welcoming and constructive community.

Contents

Collapse all Hide

Close table of contents

• (Return to top)
• Understanding vandalism
• Prevention
  • Vigilant monitoring
  • Community education
  • Page protection
• Responding to vandalism
  • For regular users
  • For staff members
• Extreme cases
• Avoiding misidentification
• Useful resources
• Remember

Contents

Understanding vandalism

Vandalism refers to deliberate edits that harm or disrupt Bulbapedia's content. Not every mistake is vandalism, new contributors may unintentionally add information that may appear as such because of their unfamiliarity with the website.

Vandalism typically includes:

• Intentionally adding false information
• Deleting valid content without explanation
• Inserting spam or disruptive formatting
• Intentionally adding nonsensical or irrelevant content

If you're unsure, assume good faith first. Offer help to contributors who may simply need help learning the basics.

Prevention

Vigilant monitoring

• Check recent changes and flagged edits regularly for suspicious activity.
• Keep an eye on contributions from accounts with prior warnings.

Community education

• Use talk pages to provide helpful feedback to new contributors.
• Share Bulbapedia's editing guides to help users understand standards and best practices.

Page protection

• Staff is advised to temporarily protect pages that are frequent vandalism targets.
• Restrict edits to trusted contributors when necessary.

Responding to vandalism

For regular users

• Revert the vandalism: Use the "undo" button for simple cases. For larger issues, manually restore the last constructive revision of the article.
• Flag the problem: Clearly explain the reversion in the edit summary (e.g., "reverting vandalism"), and notify a staff member through talk page, the forums, or our public Discord, if the problem continues.
• Stay calm: Focus on correcting the issue without engaging with the vandal.

For staff members

• Rollback: Junior Administrators and above can use rollback tools to quickly revert vandal edits.
• Disciplinary action: Issue formal warnings to users who engage in vandalism. Apply blocks if they repeatedly disrupt the wiki.
• Large-scale vandalism: Work with other staff members to lock pages temporarily and investigate possible sockpuppet or malicious accounts.

Extreme cases

In extreme cases, the Leadership Board may need to intervene and:

• Temporarily lock the database during coordinated attacks.
• Permanently block accounts responsible for severe vandalism and delete their contributions.

Avoiding misidentification

Not all problematic edits are vandalism. Recognize that some edits may be:

• Well-intentioned but fail to meet content standards.
• Experimental attempts by new contributors.
• Due to disagreements over formatting or style.

Approach all contributors with kindness and clarity. Always assume good faith unless there is clear evidence of harmful intent.

Useful resources

• Rollback feature: Available to Junior Administrators and above to revert edits quickly.
• Protection requests: Request temporary protection for pages experiencing repeated vandalism.
• User warning templates: Standardized templates for informing users about inappropriate edits and outlining potential consequences.

Remember

Vandalism can be frustrating, but with swift action and collaboration, it's manageable. By working together, we protect Bulbapedia's integrity and create an environment where contributors feel valued and supported. A little kindness goes a long way, when we address vandalism patiently and respectfully, we can turn problems into opportunities for learning and growth.