I've noticed the same thing. I assume that it's a "clueless newbie" just seeing if the "Edit this page" button really works, and then running back to undo it, so that (s)he doesn't get "yelled at" by a "mod". I think the uninitiated think Wikipedia is a lot like a forum, where we kick out just anybody we don't like.
--Ryan
From: actionforum@comcast.net Subject: [WikiEN-l] ANON watchlist?
One thing that has puzzled me, is the behavior of some ANONs who will insert a bit of vandalism or trash, or just a , or something into a page and then immediately back it out with a revert. Could they be using this as a sort of "watchlist"? They put a marker into the history, so that when they return to the page, that can tell what changed since the last time they visited. As for the list itself, they could just store pages they are interested in, as we browser favorites. I've wondered about the behavior, because it occurrs too often in the same way just to be sandbox behavior. -- Silverback
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Ryan W. (Merovingian) wrote:
I've noticed the same thing. I assume that it's a "clueless newbie" just
seeing if the "Edit this page" button really works, and then running back to undo it, so that (s)he doesn't get "yelled at" by a "mod". I think the uninitiated think Wikipedia is a lot like a forum, where we kick out just anybody we don't like.
--Ryan
I think this is right. I usually make a point to leave {{anon}} on the talk pages of users I see doing this. It means that they don't actually want to do any harm, and are interested in the idea, so I think they ought to join the community.
Ryan