Changes: Help:Recent changes

Revision as of 08:43, 7 July 2020

Wikis based on the new Unified Community Platform (UCP) may look or behave differently to what is described below.
See this page for more information on the new platform.

Recent Changes (or as it's sometimes referred to, RC) is similar to Wiki Activity: they both track contributions on a wiki. However, Recent Changes records all of the activity - it's more of a technical feed of everything that's taking place on a wiki.

Recent Changes is a way of monitoring a wiki. It can also be really helpful as a way to look back and find something you edited, uploaded or removed. It's a quick short-cut to seeing what's happening on each wiki you visit. Whenever a change occurs, it is listed along with the user who made the change, the time, and a link to the edit. Recent Changes can be found at Special:RecentChanges.

How to interpret the log

An example change:

N 21:02 Page Name (diff | hist) . . (+33) . . User Name (wall | contribs) (test edit)

'diff' and 'hist' links.

diff - takes you to the page diff view, which shows you the difference from the last version in comparison with the newest version.
hist - takes you to the page history where you can compare old versions of the page.

N, m, b or no letter at all.

These are listed before the page name.
- N signifies that the page is a new page.
- m means that the editor marked the change as a minor edit.
- b signifies that the page was edited by a bot.
If there's no letter before the page name, that means it was a normal edit. It could have been something like adding a section or sourcing claims.

Page name

The page name is listed and links to the most recent version of the page (including for images and files).

Timestamp

A timestamp places itself before the page name, and is shown in the time zone you have chosen in your preferences.

Colored numbers

The positive/negative numbers after the page name show how many characters were added to or removed from the old page, which gives you a rough idea how much the page has changed.
This can be very helpful in spotting great new additions, or page-blanking vandalism.

Italic text inside the parentheses.

The italic comment inside the parentheses is the edit summary of an edit: a small comment explaining how someone changed a page. For example, if you cleaned up a messy page, you could leave cleanup as the edit summary.
Since edit summaries are made by choice, not all edits in recent changes will have edit summaries.

Recent changes options

Rclinks — Links at the top of recent changes page

The first line provides links to allow you to increase the size of the RC page, so that you can see more edits going further back in time. (Items do eventually drop off of the Recent changes — you can't go back forever.)

The second line allows you to hide or show edits marked "minor", "bot", "anon", "logged-in" or your own edits. Each of these is helpful to different kinds of editors, who use Recent changes for different tasks.

The drop-down box allows you to show only recent changes for a particular namespace, such as 'File' or 'Template'.

The "Hide grouped recent changes" link turns off and on the advanced Recent Changes page, described below.

Note: This box of links can collapsed and reopened by clicking the 'Recent changes options' heading. The expanded/collapsed state is remembered on a per-community basis.

Advanced Recent Changes

By default, "advanced/enhanced/grouped recent changes" is enabled. The preference is located in the "Under the Hood" tab of Special:Preferences, under "Use advanced recent changes".

It groups recent changes per day, where "day" is defined by the time in your preferences. For each day, it groups the changes for each article, and displays each group in order of the most recent edit.

This feature is especially useful if many edits are likely to occur to a single article over the course of a day, as that article will only show once on the list, with all changes to it grouped together.

Standard Recent Changes

If you turn off advanced recent changes in your preferences, Recent Changes will show every edit will be listed in order. This can be useful for getting a clearer view of the overall activity on a wiki.

Next steps

Further help and feedback

Browse and search other help pages at Help:Contents
Check Fandom Community Central for sources of further help and support
Check Contacting Fandom for how to report any errors or unclear steps in this article

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+<jwplayer media-id="neqPwyj5" />[[File:Recentchanges.PNG|thumb|300px|A screenshot of a recent changes list]]
-{{tocright}}
+{{UCP update}}
-'''Recent Changes''' &mdash; or as it's sometimes referred to as 'RC' &mdash; is much like [[Help:Wiki Activity|Wiki Activity]]. They both track contributions on a wiki. But Recent Changes records ''all of the activity''. It's more of a technical feed of everything that's taking place on a wiki. With Recent Changes, you can actually see everything that is happening. Recent Changes is also really helpful to look back and find something you did, uploaded or added. It's a quick short cut to seeing what's happening on your wiki and all of the wikis you are stopping by to check out. Whenever a change occurs, it is listed along with the user who made the change, the time, and a link to the edit. Recent changes can be found in your wikis sidebar or at [[Special:RecentChanges]].
+'''Recent Changes''' (or as it's sometimes referred to, '''RC''') is similar to [[Help:WikiActivity|Wiki Activity]]: they both track contributions on a wiki. However, Recent Changes records ''all'' of the activity - it's more of a technical feed of ''everything'' that's taking place on a wiki.
+Recent Changes is a way of monitoring a wiki. It can also be really helpful as a way to look back and find something you edited, uploaded or removed. It's a quick short-cut to seeing what's happening on each wiki you visit. Whenever a change occurs, it is listed along with the user who made the change, the time, and a link to the edit. Recent Changes can be found at [[Special:RecentChanges]].
-==How do I interpret what I see on Recent changes?==
-This is an example of a recent changes list item:<br />
+== How to interpret the log ==
-<tt>(diff) (hist) . . N Page Name; 03:10 . . (+65) . . User Name (Talk | contribs ) ''(test edit)''</tt>
+An example change:
+:; <u>N</u> 21<nowiki>:</nowiki>02 [[Page Name]] (diff | hist) . . (+33) . . [[User:User Name|User Name]] ([[Message Wall:User Name|wall]] | [[Special:Contributions/User Name|contribs]]) ''(test edit)''
-[[File:Recentchanges.PNG|thumb|300px|A screenshot of a recent changes list]]
-===Diff and hist links===
+=== 'diff' and 'hist' links. ===
-<tt>(diff)</tt> takes you to the page diff view, which shows you what was changed from the last version in comparison with the newest version.
+* diff - takes you to the page diff view, which shows you the '''diff'''erence from the last version in comparison with the newest version.
+* hist - takes you to the page '''hist'''ory where you can compare old versions of the page.
+=== N, m, b or no letter at all. ===
-<tt>(hist)</tt> link takes you to the page history where you can compare old versions of the page.
+* These are listed before the page name.
+** '''N''' signifies that the page is a new page.
+** '''m''' means that the editor marked the change as a [[Help:Minor edit|minor edit]].
+** '''b''' signifies that the page was edited by a [[Help:Bots|bot]].
+* If there's no letter before the page name, that means it was a normal edit. It could have been something like adding a section or sourcing claims.
-===N, m, b or no letter at all?===
+=== Page name ===
+* The page name is listed and links to the most recent version of the page (including for images and files).
-These are listed before the page name.
-The letter '''N''' signifies that the page is a ''new page''.
+=== Timestamp ===
-The letter '''m''' means that the editor marked the change as a ''[[Help:Minor edit|minor edit]]''.
+* A timestamp places itself before the page name, and is shown in the time zone you have chosen in your [[Help:Preferences|preferences]].
+=== Colored numbers ===
-The letter '''b''' signifies that the page was edited by a [[Help:Bots|bot]].
+* The positive/negative numbers after the page name show how many characters were added to or removed from the old page, which gives you a rough idea how much the page has changed.
+* This can be very helpful in spotting great new additions, or page-blanking vandalism.
+=== Italic text inside the parentheses. ===
-If there's no letter before the page name, that means it was a normal edit. It could have been something like adding a section or sourcing claims.
+* The italic comment inside the parentheses is the ''edit summary'' of an edit: a small comment explaining how someone changed a page. For example, if you cleaned up a messy page, you could leave ''cleanup'' as the edit summary.
+* Since edit summaries are made by choice, not all edits in recent changes will have edit summaries.
+== Recent changes options ==
-===Page Name===
+[[File:Rclinks.png|thumb|300px|Links at the top of recent changes page]]
-The page name is listed and links to the most recent version of the page (including images and files).
+The first line provides links to allow you to increase the size of the RC page, so that you can see more edits going further back in time. (Items do eventually drop off of the Recent changes — you can't go back forever.)
+The second line allows you to hide or show edits marked "[[Help:Minor edit|minor]]", "[[Help:Bots|bot]]", "[[Help:User rights|anon]]", "logged-in" or your own edits. Each of these is helpful to different kinds of editors, who use Recent changes for different tasks.
-===Time stamp===
-A time stamp follows the page name, and is in sync with the time zone you have chosen in your [[Help:Preferences|preferences]].
+The drop-down box allows you to show only recent changes for a particular namespace, such as 'File' or 'Template'.
-===Strange numbers, what do they mean?===
-The positive/negative numbers after the page name and timestamp show how many characters were added to or removed from the old page, which gives you a quick idea how much the page has changed. This can be very helpful in spotting great new edits, or page-blanking vandalism.
+The "Hide grouped recent changes" link turns off and on the advanced Recent Changes page, described below.
-===What is that inside the parentheses?===
-The italic comment inside the parentheses is the ''edit summary'' of an edit &mdash; a small comment explaining how someone changed a page. For example, if you cleaned up a messy page, you could leave ''cleanup'' as the edit summary. Since edit summaries are made by choice, not all edits in recent changes have edit summaries.
+'''Note:''' This box of links can collapsed and reopened by clicking the 'Recent changes options' heading. The expanded/collapsed state is remembered on a per-community basis.
-===What do the links at the top do?===
-[[File:Rclinks.png|thumb|300px|Links at the top of recent changes page.]]
+== Advanced Recent Changes ==
-The first line identifies the current (default) settings.
+By default, "advanced/enhanced/grouped recent changes" is enabled. The [[Help:Preferences|preference]] is located in the "Under the Hood" tab of [[Special:Preferences]], under "Use advanced recent changes".
+It groups recent changes per day, where "day" is defined by the time in your preferences. For each day, it groups the changes for each article, and displays each group in order of the most recent edit.
-The second line provides links to allow you to increase the size of the RC page, so that you can see more edits going further back in time. (Items do eventually drop off of the Recent changes &mdash; you can't go back forever.)
+This feature is especially useful if many edits are likely to occur to a single article over the course of a day, as that article will only show once on the list, with all changes to it grouped together.
-The third line allows you to hide or show edits marked "[[Help:Minor edit|minor]]", "[[Help:Bots|bot]]", "[[Help:User access levels|anon]]", "[[Help:User access levels|logged-in]]" or your own edits. Each of these is helpful to different kinds of editors, who use Recent changes for different tasks.
+== Standard Recent Changes ==
-The final line shows the time that the RC page was loaded in your browser. By clicking on the date/time link in this line, you can reload Recent changes to show only edits that are newer than that time.
+If you turn off advanced recent changes in your preferences, Recent Changes will show every edit will be listed in order. This can be useful for getting a clearer view of the overall activity on a wiki.
+== Next steps ==
-The drop-down box allows you to show only recent changes for a particular namespace, such as Image: or Template:.
+* [[Help:Renaming pages|Renaming pages]]
+* [[Help:Delete|Deleting pages]]
-The "Toggle enhanced recent changes" link turns off and on the JavaScript-enhanced RC page.
+* [[Help:Special pages|Special pages]]
-==Enhanced Recent Changes==
-Instead of the classic RecentChanges described above, you can set your preferences to use the '''enhanced recent changes''' feature which relies on JavaScript. The preference is located in the "under the hood" tab of the [[:Special:Preferences|preferences page]].
-It groups recent changes per day, where "day" is defined according to local time. For each day, it groups the changes for each article, and displays the titles of the changed articles in order from new to old latest change of the day concerned, or in the case of hiding minor edits, latest major change.
-This feature is especially useful if many edits are likely to occur to a single article over the course of a day, as that article will only show once on the list, with all changes to it grouped together.
-==See Also==
-* {{#NewWindowLink:http://community.wikia.com/index.php?title=Admin Central:Guide to Recent Changes|Admin Central: Guide to Recent Changes}}
-* [[m:Help:Enhanced recent changes|Help:Enhanced recent changes]] on Meta-Wiki.
-==Next Steps==
-*[[Help:Moving pages|Renaming and moving pages]]
-*[[Help:Special pages|Special pages]]
-*[[Help:Delete|Deletion]]
+== Further help and feedback ==
+{{Help and feedback section}}
+[[ar:مساعدة:أحدث التغييرات]]
+[[ca:Ajuda:Canvis recents]]
+[[de:Hilfe:Letzte Änderungen]]
 [[es:Ayuda:Cambios recientes]]
+[[fi:Ohje:Tuoreet muutokset]]
 [[fr:Aide:Modifications récentes]]
+[[ja:ヘルプ:最近の更新]]
-[[fi:Ohje:Tuoreet muutokset]]
 [[nl:Help:Recente wijzigingen]]
+[[pl:Pomoc:Ostatnie zmiany]]
+[[pt:Ajuda:Mudanças recentes]]
 [[ru:Справка:Свежие правки]]
+[[tr:Yardım:Son değişiklikler]]
-[[Category:Help|Recent changes]]
+[[uk:Довідка:Нові редагування]]
-[[Category:Out of date help|{{PAGENAME}}]]
+[[zh:help:最近更改]]
+[[vi:Trợ giúp:Thay đổi gần đây]]
-[[pl:Pomoc:Ostatnie zmiany]]
+[[Category:Special pages]]
+[[Category:Help]]