<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div><div><div id="magicdomid182">Hi everybody.</div><div id="magicdomid127"><br></div><div id="magicdomid211">First of all, for those of you who haven't been here, or didn't get the complete picture, here is a short summary of some recent events:</div><div id="magicdomid213"> * Last March, I started the Counter Vandalism Unit on Commons <<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Counter_Vandalism_Unit">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Counter_Vandalism_Unit</a>></div><div id="magicdomid215"> * Later that month, the edit-patrol function was enabled on Commons <<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump/Archive/2010Mar#Marking_edits_as_patrolled">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump/Archive/2010Mar#Marking_edits_as_patrolled</a>></div><div id="magicdomid727"> * After a Sitenotice, a few users have signed up to be "patrollers"; and with a small team of 3 to 4 regular patrollers, we keep a checklist of anonymous edits. <<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/COM:ANO#Anonymous_edits">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/COM:ANO#Anonymous_edits</a>></div><div id="magicdomid133"><br></div><div id="magicdomid134"><br></div><div id="magicdomid828"><b>The Problem </b></div><div id="magicdomid829"><br></div><div id="magicdomid917">Vandalism on Commons is a big problem, which generates a large backlog. Commons is the primary media depository for most media used throughout Wikimedia. Vandalism on Commons therefore has a greater likelihood of affecting local projects.</div><div id="magicdomid928">And, this also brings along the source of vandalism: Vandals. </div><div id="magicdomid243">Local vandals are only a click away from Commons. Some don't even realise they are no longer on the local wiki.</div><div id="magicdomid940">Some, whether or not knowing they've been blocked on a local project, continue vandalising on Commons.</div><div id="magicdomid141"><br></div><div id="magicdomid976">So, having that said, we are looking for help !</div><div id="magicdomid974">The most important areas, for now, are live watches on IRC or recent changes, and the Checklists mentioned above.</div><div id="magicdomid144"><br></div><div id="magicdomid826"><b>Live watch</b></div><div id="magicdomid146"><br></div><div id="magicdomid980">For a long time Commons has it's own cvn-channel on Freenode: #cvn-commons <<a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#cvn-commons">irc://irc.freenode.net/#cvn-commons</a>>.</div><div id="magicdomid1031">Although there are about a dozen idling users and a bot at any one time, use of the channel for vandal-fighting is not as frequent as desired.</div><div id="magicdomid149"><br></div><div id="magicdomid150">Watching live is probably the easiest and most effective way to fight vandalism.</div><div id="magicdomid1053">Also, for those who don't have the time to patrol an entire daypart-checklist, this is a great way to contribute when they only have a spare few minutes. One can leave and join at any time, and click/patrol for all edits that are reported in the channel.</div><div id="magicdomid152"><br></div><div id="magicdomid1061">In comparison to the checklists, the CVN-channel has a couple of advantages. JelteBot (the recent-changes bot in #cvn-commons) emphasises edits based on blacklists and watchlists, making it easier to detect potential vandalism. (If you monitor other channels too, you could add /Warning!/ to your IRC-stalklist.)</div><div id="magicdomid154"><br></div><div id="magicdomid1159">So I recommend the "patroller" right for anybody who wishes to participate, which you can ask for here: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Requests_for_rights">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Requests_for_rights</a>. Please feel free to join #cvn-commons, or Commons' main channel #wikimedia-commons, for more information about other ways to get involved.</div><div id="magicdomid1214">Every user in the counter-vandalism channel, watching and reacting to the stream, reduces the backlog even more.</div><div id="magicdomid157"><br></div><div id="magicdomid1250">Watching live means the user can be reverted and warned directly; s/he will either get blocked if they continue disruption, or (not unlikely) the vandal will stop when s/he reads the warning.</div><div id="magicdomid159"><br></div><div id="magicdomid1259">Doing this live, instead of afterwards, prevents more vandalism, and thus generate less edits in the backlog.</div><div id="magicdomid161"><br></div><div id="magicdomid860"><b>Checklists</b></div><div id="magicdomid163"><br></div><div id="magicdomid164">Since it's unlikely (though the impossible goal of Live watch) to click and patrol each and every link in the IRC channel, lots of links are missed.</div><div id="magicdomid1269">Either because no-one was on watch, or it got lost in the fast stream of links.</div><div id="magicdomid166"><br></div><div id="magicdomid1286">For that, we have the checklists. These contain all unpatrolled anonymous edits from a certain time frame.</div><div id="magicdomid1274">These are, until we have a much bigger team, the primary and most time-consuming ways of fighting vandalism.</div><div id="magicdomid361"><br></div><div id="magicdomid1275">Also, when you can't access IRC, or don't like it for some reason, the RecentChanges-page is a good alternative:</div><div id="magicdomid1277">- <<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&hidepatrolled=1&days=1&limit=50&hideliu=1&hidemyself=1">http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&hidepatrolled=1&days=1&limit=50&hideliu=1&hidemyself=1</a>></div><div id="magicdomid169"><br></div><div id="magicdomid1278">If you don't know how this works, check the following links to get you up to speed:</div><div id="magicdomid171">- <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Patrol">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Patrol</a></div><div id="magicdomid172">- <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Counter_Vandalism_Unit">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Counter_Vandalism_Unit</a> (last few headings on File and Tools)</div><div id="magicdomid173">- <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJXvZ65ttQ4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJXvZ65ttQ4</a> (short video tutorial on the CVU)</div><div id="magicdomid174"><br></div><div id="magicdomid175">Then visit the CVU and check out a portion/day-part:</div><div id="magicdomid176"><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/COM:ANO#Anonymous_edits">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/COM:ANO#Anonymous_edits</a></div><div id="magicdomid177"><br></div><div id="magicdomid178"><br></div><div id="magicdomid1292">Thank you for reading,</div><div id="magicdomid1292"><br></div><div id="magicdomid652">Yours,</div><div id="magicdomid180">Krinkle</div></div></div></div><br><br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>--</div><div>Greetings,</div><div>Krinkle</div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>A Wikipedia Volunteer<br><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span><a href="mailto:krinkle@wikipedia.be">krinkle@wikipedia.be</a></div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</div></div></span></div></span> </div><br></body></html>