User blog comment:Xermano/Countering Vandalism with Xermano/What is vandalism?/@comment-2170536-20140811220615

Agreed, very nice blog. There's a very important distinction between outright vandalism and a good faith edit that just happens to be undesirable or out of line with the community's ideas for that page.

We run into both of these types of edits on the Clash of Clans Wiki. Thankfully vandalism has curbed dramatically since Wikia closed our wiki to anonymous editing (at least potential vandals have to register before they can vandalize), but we still do get it from time to time. However, we get a lot more good faith edits that other users (even admins) incorrectly decide is vandalism and immediately revert/scold/block.

A "Good Faith Edit" (GFE) is any edit that is done with the intention of adding knowledge/clarity/value to the wiki. Most edits to the wiki are GFEs, whether it be a blog post, a comment on an article page, or adding to/modifying/deleting from one of the mainspace pages. Not all GFEs are valuable, however, as it may be that someone is posting something off-topic, or adding what they believe to be correct information but is not, or is in the wrong place, or is in the wrong format ("wrong" being the definition established by the community, not necessarily "wrong" in the absolute sense). Community consensus is what decides whether or not these edits are kept, and it very well be that after discussion takes place, the community decides they like the new format/organization better, and that becomes the new "correct." Regardless, making GFEs should generally be encouraged, although as the blog points out, even GFEs can be misguided or disruptive.

Vandalism, on the other hand, is purely destructive behavior intended to obscure, confuse, or otherwise frustrate/annoy the community. The intent behind these edits is malicious in nature, and they have no intrinsic value whatsoever. These edits might be the blanking of a page, inserting gibberish or offensive content (or what the vandal might consider "funny"), or perhaps covertly inserting incorrect information so that those attempting to use it are misled in some fashion.

Interestingly, in some cases the exact same edit could be considered either a GFE or vandalism, depending on the intent behind it: For example, we have had people edit our information tables with incorrect data, but when asked about it they actually thought the table was wrong and were either working from (flawed) memory or out-of-date information. Others making very similar changes have ultimately been found to be doing so out of maliciousness, though usually that was evident only by them admitting it, or in context of their other edits (which were much easier-to-see vandalism). Because intent can't always be inferred from a single edit, it is a good idea to assume good faith until it is obvious that it isn't.