Help:Recent changes patrol

This extension is not enabled by default but may be available upon request.

Recent changes patrol is a feature that shows whether each edit has been checked to make sure it is a valid, good faith edit, and conforms to the policies of the wiki. It prevents a duplication of effort by clearly indicating which edits have and have not yet been checked by a member of the patrol.

Members of the patrol

When recent changes patrol is enabled, anyone with admin or content moderator rights is automatically part of the patrol (however, participation is optional).

How to patrol edits

• Edits that have not been checked will be preceded by a red exclamation mark on the Recent changes page.

• To patrol an edit, click through to the diff page to find the "[Mark as patrolled]" link, as shown here:

Patrolling isolated diffs in groups of edits

• The diff among a group of edits (click triangle to expand the group) can be isolated by clicking the prev link to get to the diff page with "[Mark as patrolled]".

Patrolling a series of edits

The "[Mark as patrolled]" command only appears when displaying the difference between two pages. When more than one edit needs be checked, make a note of the timestamp of the first edit, then click on the "hist" link to display the history of the page.

After the Revision history is displayed, click on the timestamp immediately prior to the edit to be checked. Next, click on the "(diff)" link at the top of the page to the right of "Newer revision →". The differences will then be displayed with the "[Mark as patrolled]" command.

It is often helpful to divert the status message into a separate tab when clicking on "[Mark as patrolled]". This will allow you to click on "Newer edit →" to review the rest of the edits.

Patrolling a new page

For newly created pages that have not had any further edits, click on the page name. The page can be approved by clicking on "[Mark this page as patrolled]" in the lower-right corner. If the page is not acceptable, either fix the problem or edit it to add {{delete}} to signal to an administrator or content moderator that the page needs to be deleted.

Note: When viewing newly created pages on Special:NewPages, unpatrolled pages are highlighted with yellow.

For newly created pages with later edits, you will first need to click on the time stamp of when the page was created. The "[Mark this page as patrolled]" is displayed, along with "Newer revision → (diff)" at the top. Edits can then be checked the same as described in the "Patrolling a series of edits" section above.

Other usage notes

• Hiding patrolled edits: On the Recent changes page, there is an option to hide the patrolled edits so that only the edits that have not yet been checked will be displayed. It is located in the "Recent changes options" box at the top of the page.
• Patrol member edits: Edits made by users with patrol rights are automatically marked as patrolled.
• How to enable: The feature can be enabled/disabled on any wiki on request, but is disabled by default. It is always possible for admins and content mods to patrol page creation through Special:NewPages, though.
• Logs: Special:Log/patrol (the patrol log) will display all pages that have been patrolled. By default, the Patrol log is not included when viewing Special:Log (all public logs).

See also

• Help:Recent changes
• Help:User rights
• The original version of this article and additional patrol advice from the Phineas and Ferb Wiki

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