User blog:Moonwatcher x Qibli/Guide to article Moderation

Notice This Blog is not yet completed or spell-checked. It is expected to be completed in full before the 1st of December, 2023

Who this applies to/What tools are availible
Content-Moderators, and Administrators can do the following:


 * Editing and moving fully protected pages
 * Deleting and undeleting pages and files
 * Editing and moving protected files
 * Rollbacking
 * Protecting and unprotecting pages
 * Deleting and undeleting article and blog comments
 * Deleting, undeleting, editing, locking, and unlocking message wall threads

Below we'll go into what all of these things are, how to use them, and other things Content Moderators are expected to do.

Editing and moving fully protected pages/files
There's not much to this one other than the principle of it. Basically, once someone has been granted the User Rights content-moderator, or Administrator they are able to edit and move protected articles and Files. As well as re-upload protected files. They can do this in the same way a normal user might edit or move a not-protected page. You should, however, be careful when doing so. Generally, articles and Files are protected for a reason. A reason an article may be protected is that it provides rules and guidelines for the Wiki. A reason a File may be protected is that it is an image displayed everywhere on the Wiki, such as in the Top navigation. A list of all protected pages can be found at Special:ProtectedPages on any Wiki.

Types of protection/why to protect
First off; There are three types of protection. Another way articles can be protected is through Cascading protection. Cascading protection is a form of page protection that allows you to protect a page so that all templates and images on the page will also be protected without needing to protect them individually. This is useful on pages, such as a wiki main page, where most of the included images and templates are used only on that page.
 * 1) Allow all users. This setting makes it so that anyone can edit the article, even logged-out users (unless the Wiki has anonymous contributing disabled). This is the general setting for most articles.
 * 2) Allow only autoconfirmed users. This is a 'semi-protection' of sorts, it allows users who have a Fandom account to edit the article. This is generally used when an article has been experiencing a lot of vandalism from logged-out users. (If a Wiki has disabled anonymous editing, then all articles are under this protection by default.)
 * 3) Allow only administrators. This section is a bit misleading as Content-Moderators can also edit pages under this protection. Articles under this protection are only editable by Content-Moderators and Administrators. Articles are generally protected to this level because they a) Provide Rules and guidelines to the community, and b) Are constantly getting vandalized by logged-in users.

Desktop
To protect a page or file on desktop, all you need to do is: Then, on the page, it brings you to:
 * 1) Click the three dots in the top right corner of the article/file you want to protect.
 * 2) click "Protect" Protecting.png
 * 1) Change the dropdown under "Edit" to either "Allow all users," "Allow only autoconfirmed users," or "Allow only administrators" based on how you want to protect the page.
 * 2) Change the dropdown under "Move" to set what type of users should be able to change the title of the page/move it to a new namespace. Fandom automatically makes this the same as "Edit." If you want to make it different you'll need to check "Unlock further protect options" just above "Move," and then change the settings.
 * 3) Enter your reason for protecting, then click save.

Mobile
While it is slightly more difficult on mobile, here are a few ways this is possible (I, myself, prefer option 1):
 * 1) Scroll to the bottom of the page and at the very bottom click "VIEW FULL SITE" then proceed the same as described in "Desktop" above.
 * 2) Go to the page/File you want to protect. Scroll to the very top of the page and click the search bar (bottom of the page on Apple devices, but it appears as you scroll up), then edit the URL of the page and add   to the very end. Then proceed as described above in "Desktop."

Please note:

 * Administrators can, if they wish, allow other usergroups, such as Thread Moderators, to edit fully protected articles. They may do so by Contacting Fandom Staff and asking them to allow this.


 * Certain users with Global Rights, such as SOAP, Fandom Staff, Wiki Representatives, and Wiki Specialists can also edit and move fully protected articles and Files.


 * Normal articles may NOT be fully protected, for any reason other than the above stated. This means that articles may not be protected even if it's a page you worked hard on and you don't want someone else to edit it, etc, unless there are compelling reasons, such as vandalism.


 * Only change "Expires:" if you want the protection to expire at some point in the future

Why to delete/undelete
Generally, an article will be deleted for being against the Wiki rules. Often off-topic articles will be deleted, but it all depends on that Wikis policies. You probably won't be undeleting articles very often, as they are usually deleted for a reason, but this will cover how to do so.

Delete
To delete an article on Fandoms desktop skin:
 * 1) Click the three-dot menu in the top right of the article.
 * 2) Select "Delete" deleting.png
 * 3) Enter the reason for deleting the article, then click "DELETE PAGE"

Undelete
To undelete an article:
 * 1) Go to the article On the article there will be a large banner, which will give you information such as the date of deletion, the deleter, and the reason for deletion.
 * 2) At the end of the banner, after the reason for deletion, you will see , click it.
 * 3) Scroll down a little, and under "Undelete revisions" enter a reason.
 * 4) Push "UNDELETE"

Delete
While it is slightly more difficult on mobile, here are a few ways this is possible (I, myself, prefer option 1):
 * 1) Scroll to the bottom of the page and at the very bottom click "VIEW FULL SITE" then proceed the same as described in "Desktop" above.
 * 2) Go to the page/File you want to delete. Scroll to the very top of the page and click the search bar (bottom of the page on Apple devices, but it appears as you scroll up), then edit the URL of the page and add   to the very end. Then proceed as described above in "Desktop."

Undelete
While the formatting is slightly different, the same process applies as on Desktop.

Please note:

 * Generally if you see an article that was deleted, but you don't know why, or how it broke the Wikis policies; it's always best to contact the Moderator that deleted it, as opposed to just undeleting it.

What is "Rollbacking"
Anyone can revert vandalism and bad-faith edits, but it takes a couple of clicks in the page history to get it done. The "rollback" permission allows a user to undo bad edits with one click by using the rollback link on diff pages, a user's contributions page, or the list of recent changes. A rollback undoes even multiple sequential edits all done by the last user in a page history. (To Rollback a single users edits across multiple articles you can import custom scripts like WHAM. (instructions on the linked page))

How to
There are a few ways to rollback a users edits. Here are some of them:

Option one, diff pages:
 * 1) Go to the page that a user has vandalized several times
 * 2) Go to the page history
 * 3) On the most recent revision there will be a button "rollback," click this button to undo all of the users last edits to the article.

Option two, userpages
 * 1) Go to someone's Contributions page
 * 2) Click the "rollback" button on all of the users edits that you want to rollback.

Please note:

 * Rollbacking undoes all of the users last consecutive edits. If you just want to revert one edit use the "undo" button, on the pages history.

Why to delete/undelete Article and blog comments
Generally, you would delete an article/blog comment because it breaks the Wikis guidelines, is off-topic, etc.

Delete
That's it! Now it's deleted
 * 1) Scroll to the bottom of the article and wait for the comments to load, or click the comments icon near the edit button Placeholder
 * 2) Hover over the three dots Placeholder
 * 3) Click.

Undelete
Now it's undeleted!
 * 1) Scroll to the bottom of the article and wait for the comments to load, or click the comments icon near the edit button.
 * 2) Find the deleted comment.
 * 3) click the little green trash bin in the top right corner of the comment. Placeholder

Mobile
Unfortunately, article comments are not visible on Mobile. You'll need to use the desktop view (scroll to the bottom of the page and click "VIEW FULL SITE"), then you can follow the steps in Desktop above

Cites
Help:User rights Help:Page protection