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Guide to article Moderation

Moonwatcher x Qibli
Moonwatcher x Qibli • 23 October 2023 • User blog:Moonwatcher x Qibli

This guide is almost done, there are a few things that need fixed up, but it's just about there.
This is targeted mainly toward Content Moderator's, but may also be a good resource for new Administrators.

Who this applies to/What tools are availible

Content-Moderators, and Administrators[1] 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[2] 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.

Protecting and unprotecting pages

Types of protection/why to protect

First off; There are three types of protection.

  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.

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.

How to

Desktop

To protect a page or file on desktop, all you need to do is:

  1. Click the three dots in the top right corner of the article/file you want to protect.
  2. click "Protect"
    This is where you click to protect a article/file

Then, on the page, it brings you to:

  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 ?action=protect 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

Deleting and undeleting pages and files

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.

How To

Desktop

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"
    This is where you click to delete a article/file
  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 (view/undelete), click it.
  3. Scroll down a little, and under "Undelete revisions" enter a reason.
  4. Push "UNDELETE"


Mobile

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 ?action=delete 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.

Rollbacking

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.

Deleting and undeleting article and blog comments

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.

How To

Desktop

Delete
  1. Scroll to the bottom of the article/blog and wait for the comments to load, or click the comments icon near the edit button
  2. Hover over the three dots
  3. Click Delete.

That's it! Now it's deleted

Undelete
  1. Scroll to the bottom of the article/blog 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.

Now it's undeleted!

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

Deleting, undeleting, editing, locking, and unlocking Message Wall threads

Why to delete, undelete, edit, lock, and unlock Message Wall threads

You'll want to delete Message Wall threads that break the Wiki rules. You'll want to undelete Message Wall threads in the case that if someone accidently deleted a thread in their wall, and they requested you undelete it, it was accidentally deleted by yourself, or many other reasons. You may want to edit a message if a small part of it breaks Wiki rules, but not the whole thing. You might need to lock a message if its comments are getting out-of-hand, perhaps if people are arguing and it needs to be stopped; but you don't want to delete the thread. You'll need to unlock messages in the case of a temporary lock, when you locked a message for a short period of time to let people cool off.

How To

Delete

Click the three dots in the top-right corner of the message, then select Delete Message.

Undelete

Click the green icon of a trash bin in the top right of the thread.

Edit

Click the three dots in the top-right corner of the message, then select Edit Message. You can then edit it, and save you changes by pushing save in the bottom right-hand corner.

lock

Click the three dots in the top-right corner of the message, then select Lock Message.

Unlock

Click the three dots in the top-right corner of the message, then select Unlock Message.

Other expectations

Content Moderators have several responsibilities. Among them are Respectability, Patrolling RecentChanges, Monitoring articles marked for deletion, and several more.

Respectability

As a Content Moderator, and especially an Administrator, you need to hold an air of respectability about you. That means good grammar (at the very least, punctualize every sentnce and capitalize any I's), less emojies, etc.

Patrolling RecentChanges

Every Wiki has a RecentChanges page, found at Special:RecentChanges. It logs every edit, upload, article creation, blog post, everything. This is your main vandal-fighting tool, you should daily inspect every edit made to the Wiki so that you can find and revert any vandalism. This is a no-exception thing when it comes to Content Moderating, you need to look over RecenChanges at least daily.

Monitoring articles marked for deletion

Every Wiki, upon creation, has a template that users can put on articles they believe should not exist. This template is found at Template:Delete, when placed in an article it also puts the article in Category:Candidates for deletion.
Daily, you should check the category to see if any articles have been added to it by users. If there are any, you should review the article and see if it does need deleted.

Other

The local Administrator(s) might also assign you tasks that need to be done, in which case you should do those as often as they ask.

Other tools you can make available to yourself (and, in the case of sysops, to other moderators on your Wiki)

Below are several tools that you can use to make parts of your job so much easier. I've put short description of each script as well as a link to an article that explains it in more detail.

WHAM

a popup on a userpage that allows you to the following:

  • Quick block: Easily block a user. Ban duration and reason can be edited. Default duration is "2 weeks"; default reason is "Vandalism."
  • Delete all pages: Delete all pages and comments a user has made that are visible on the contributions page.
  • Delete selected: Delete specific pages made by the user (places checkboxes and two buttons next to user's contributions, version 2 only), similar to the Nuke extension.
  • Rollback all edits: Rollback edits a user has made that are visible on the contributions page. In version 2 it will default to 100ms per rollback to improve accuracy, though this can be changed.
  • All of the options: Block a user, delete pages and rollback edits the user has made that are visible on the contributions page. Displays a prompt to delete the user's userpage as well.

User Admin Tools

User Admin Tools (or user quicklinks) adds buttons and links to common moderation tools under a user's profile picture in their masthead. The script only activates if the logged in (script) user is part of the sysop (Administrator) local user group or one of the several global staff user groups.

MassProtect

MassProtect provides a link to a modal which allows the user to list pages to be protected. Protection options include edit, move, upload, and create with various levels: unset, none ("Allow all users"), autoconfirmed ("Block new and unregistered users"), and sysop ("Administrators and Content Moderators only").

MassEdit

Run as an in-browser application, MassEdit provides users with the ability to automate otherwise tedious editing and upkeep tasks. It can create a new set of pages (articles, templates, categories, et cetera), add or remove content from existing pages, categorize or recategorize pages in bulk, find-and-replace select content from pages at will, message users, generate lists of member pages belonging to categories or namespaces, or generate listings of pages transcluding certain templates. In addition to providing a listing of loose pages, users may also input the names of categories or namespaces to edit their respective member pages in bulk.

MultipleFileDelete

MultipleFileDelete is a script that adds a "Selective Delete" button to the following special pages:

The script will load for these rights:

  • Content Moderator
  • Administrator
  • SOAP
  • Wiki Specialist
  • ⧼userprofile-global-tag-wiki-representative⧽
  • Staff

References

  1. ↑ also known as Admins, and Sysops (short for System Operator)
  2. ↑ Make a change to a file/Upload a new version of the file

Cite

Help:User rights
Help:Page protection




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