Halopedia:Vandalism

Welcome to Halopedia's Education Center for Vandalism!

Definition of Vandalism
Vandalism is any addition, removal, or change of content made in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of Halopedia. Anyone who commits such an act is a vandal. Vandalism is prohibited on Halopedia.

There are four mechanisms by which vandals can vandalize:


 * plain-text edits (includes "hidden" vandalism embedded within an article)
 * image uploads/inclusions
 * addition of external links
 * page moves/redirects

There are two types of vandalism: deliberate and ambiguous. A concerted effort should be made to differentiate between the two in regards on how to counter vandalism.

Definition
Deliberate Vandalism is vandalism where it is definitively concluded that vandalism was intentional and was a deliberate effort to damage Halopedia, and not a faux pas on behalf of the vandal.

Examples
Types of deliberate vandalism are as follows:


 * Sexual mentions
 * Racist mentions
 * Making article(s) with offensive name(s)
 * User page blanking/replacement
 * Talk page blanking/replacement
 * Creation of account(s) with offensive name(s)

What Can I Do?

 * 1) Leave a message on the vandal's talk page telling them to stop immediately. However, do not provoke the vandal in any way or form, and state it perfunctorily and business-like.
 * 2) Inform administrators immediately
 * 3) Administrators should administer a username/IP ban immediately without remonstration with the vandal

Definition
Ambiguous Vandalism is vandalism where it can not be definitively concluded that vandalism was an intentional and deliberate effort to damage Halopedia, and may have been an accidental edit, a misunderstanding of Halopedia policy, etc...

Examples
Types of ambiguous vandalism are as follows:


 * Article blanking - If a user does not understand Halopedia policy and means to delete a page to recreate it, make space for a redirect, etc...
 * Spam - Examples could be advertisement or self-promotion on article namespace pages, etc...
 * Example: "Come visit my Freewebs site!" on an article


 * Nonsense additions - Adding irrelevant information to an article that in no way pertains to the article. This does not, however, include adding information to a wrong section of an article. Mentioning that SPARTAN-117 was a male in the "references" section would not be construed as vandalism...the sentence should be moved to the appropriate section. This is, however, NOT nonsense. Nonsense is graffiti, etc...
 * Example: "hax0r 133t pwnz0r ter8t3btqy948y" on an article or "I LOVE YOUUUUUU!" on the Cortana article


 * Abuse of tags - Adding/removing " ", etc...when inappropriate.
 * Example: adding " " to the SPARTAN-117 article


 * Modifying user comments
 * Deleted page re-creation
 * Example: remaking  to taunt the vandal

What Can I Do?

 * 1) Leave a message on the user's talk page with the below-referenced templates. For the first time of ambiguous vandalism, leave Template:Vandalism Warning-1. For a second time, leave Template:Vandalism Warning-2, etc...
 * 2) Be extremely careful not to mistake inexperience for deliberate vandalism! Accusing a user merely unfamiliar with the wiki's functions of deliberate vandalism could be very offensive!

Warnings

 * Template:Vandalism Warning-1
 * Template:Vandalism Warning-2
 * Template:Vandalism Warning-3
 * Template:Vandalism Warning-4

Blocks

 * Template:Vandalism Blocked
 * Template:Blocked