RecentChangesPatrollingGuide
Contents
A Reference Guide for Patrolling Recent Changes
The goal of this guide is to make RC patrolling as efficient and constructive as possible. Please use and contribute as you see fit.
The Mantra
Above all, we operate under this cardinal rule: assume every edit is constructive. We believe that this creates a positive and open minded perspective in our RC patrol which in turn facilitates a receptive and warm community environment. As an RC patroller you are guardian of the AboutUs community.
The Operation
Collectively, we approve every single edit made to the site. This number is steadily increasing but is currently stable between 1,000 and 2,000 edits per day. We estimate that around 95% of these edits are constructive. A major focus of RC is to deal with the remainder.
Vandalism, Spam and Unconstructive Edits
Vandalism
Intentional and/or malicious defacement of a page.
- Ex. 'This page hacked by CharliHorseDog55'
Recommended action
- 1) Verify that vandalism is localized (if not, see History, then User Contributions to find the rest of it).
- 2) Remove all vandalism by rolling page(s) back to prevandalized state (summary: RevertVandalism).
- 3) Contact user to notify them of your action.
(Note: It has been our experience that reaching out a user always results in an optimal outcome. This, of course, should be determined on a case by case basis. In most cases of vandalism, the 'user' we are referring to is just an IP address, so it is debatable whether leaving a comment for them is ossible. traces back to an IP address rather than a registered user. It is always up to you whether you decide to initiate contact.)
Spam
Commercially oriented content that is either irrelevant to the page or detrimental to it.
- Ex. Unrelated links in the related domains or external links sections, or somewhere else on the page.
Recommended action
- 1) Verify spam is localized (if not, see History, then User Contributions to find the rest of it).
- 2) Remove all spammy content by rolling page(s) back to prevandalized state(summary: RemoveSpam).
- Note: Unless it is absolutely clear that the content removed was spam, we prefer to use the summary tag DeleteTest. This gives the user the benefit of the doubt by assuming good intent on their part.
- 3) Contact user to notify them of your action.
Unconstructive Edits
a) Incorrect information
- Ex. Description for an Mp3 site changed to indicate they are a car dealer.
- Obviously, misleading or incorrect information is universally damaging to the site.
- Recommended action
- 1) Verify edits are incorrect.
- Note: In many instances, you will not be able to verify whether content is correct or not (or doing so would take too much time). Do your best to make a determination here (i.e., check the site, check whois records, etc.).
- 2) Remove incorrect information by rolling back to prior state (summary: RemoveIncorrect).
- 3) Contact user to notify them of your action.
- 1) Verify edits are incorrect.
b) Information in the wrong place
- Ex. Domain specific information on a category page.
- Category pages should include generalized descriptions that apply widely within the subject range. Domain specific information should remain on a specific domain's profile page.
- Recommended action
- 1) Determine appropriate location for content (if none exists, then see 4).
- 2) Move the content (summary: MoveInfo).
- 3) Contact user to notify them of your action
- 4) If you can't find an appropriate place for the content, it is up to you whether to leave it in its place or to delete it. Make your judgments on a case by case basis.
c) Correct information, but unconstructive
- Ex: 'These guys are spamming a$$holes!'
- Clearly, the expletive is not constructive (and may even be considered malicious). However, the content itself (i.e., that a certain site may be involved in spamming) is useful.
- Recommended action
- 1) Check to see if the content is correctly located (see b above).
- 2) If needed, move content to appropriate place (summary: MoveInfo).
- 3) Once in the correct place, remove offensive content while retaining constructive elements (summary: Reword).
- 4) Contact user to notify them of your action.
Other Actions
Protect Email
This prevents bots from scraping email information from our site. The current protocol for protecting emails is to convert the email address text into a graphic. Examples:
- Unprotected: johnsmith@aboutus.org
- Protected:
Here's how you do it: ProtectEmail
Move
Moving a page relocates it under another name. The most common instance of this occurs when renaming is necessary. Since we use CamelCase (i.e., ChuckNorris as opposed to Chuck Norris, and ChuckNorris.com instead of chucknorris.com), it is often necessary to tweak the capitals in the url to accurately reflect the name of the site (i.e., BiLLgaTes.com would move to BillGates.com). If you notice this in RC, take action and move the page (summary: FixName).
OptOut
Opting out a page replaces its content with a bookmark of sorts indicating the desire of the site owner to exclude him or herself from the system. We opt out per user request and in other special instances (illegal content, etc.). See OptOut for details.
Scrub
Scrubbing a page deletes its history. This is particularly crucial to those users who desire to keep their identities private. Note that deleting information from a page will NOT remove it from that page's history. We only scrub user pages per request.
Community Development
Communication with users is key to community development. Whenever a constructive edit is made, a new page is created, or a new user account registered, reach out and say hello. It's wonderful to come to a site and be rewarded for participating! Decide how big a role you want to take here and reach out. Just know that every bit counts.
Suspicious Activity
If you see a single IP address (or a series of IP's) making a large amount of changes in a short time (or engaging in any other activity that you deem suspicious), don't sit on it. Alert other members of the team and begin tracking edits.
