Help:Wiki University--Patrolling Recent Changes Page

What Is Patrolling?
One of our responsibilities as missionaries is to ensure that articles comply with Wiki policies. Changes to the Wiki go live as soon as they are saved. For this reason, patrolling recent changes and new pages on a daily basis is a standard part of the Wiki missionary assignment. (We missionaries are the Meerkats of the wiki and the first line of defense.)

The Recent Changes Page
All new pages and changes and additions to existing pages, no matter how trivial, are listed on a page named Recent Changes. This page can be accessed through "Special Pages" under "Toolbox" on the right toolbar or you may wish to set a desktop icon or bookkmark.

All changes on the page must be patrolled. (The only exception is pages that are edited by moderators [Wiki missionaries].)

Setting Your Recent Changes Page Preferences
Selecting "Recent changes" under My preferences on the right side of your screen under "Personal tools" gives you options on how recent changes are displayed when you patrol. For example, you can specify how many changes you want to see at a time and how far back they should go. It is also recommended that you check


 * Hide patrolled edits in recent changes
 * Hide patrolled pages from new page list

Anatomy of the Recent Changes Page
Here is a sample of three entries from the "Recent Changes" page.


 * ( diff | hist ) . . m ! Ship Brooklyn ; 15:45 . . (-57) . . KeslerJL ( Talk | contribs | block )

diff - means "difference" (not shown on new pages). By clicking on "diff" it will take you to a page which shows what change or changes were made. Here is a sample diff page from the first entry above:


 * The yellow on the left highlights the previous version of the article (or section)
 * The green on the right highlights the current version of the article (or section)
 * The actual changes are in red.
 * Below these yellow and green boxes is the whole article as it now appears. Scroll down the page and check out the rest of the page in case something else has been missed in the past (content or article anatomy).

The next chapter will deal with problems you may see in this quick look.
 * In this case, the change was a minor correction to the text. However, some changes involve paragraphs and sometimes whole pages. Occasionally you will find a page with no changes; this occurs when the user does not make changes and saves the page rather than canceling the edit.
 * If the present change appears to be okay, click "Mark as patrolled" and go on to the next entry.
 * If you see problems that need to be fixed, make sure you come back to fix them. You can do this by fixing the page on the spot or writing down the title of the article (or add it to your watch list) so you can fix it later after you have finished patrolling.


 * ( diff | hist ) . . m ! Ship Brooklyn ; 15:45 . . (-57) . . KeslerJL ( Talk | contribs | block )

hist - by clicking on "hist" you can see all edits and changes that have been made to this page since its creation. (Reminder: you can also access the history of the article through the history tab at the top or the history link under Views on the right toolbar.)

Why is this important? Looking at the history of a page will give you relevant information to help make a decision, including the following:
 * the original author of and main contributors to the article
 * the particular edit where an error was introduced
 * how long ago a certain edit was made

In rare situations you may want to revert to an older version of an article but not roll back. In that instance you can use the history to find the appropriate version, open it and save it as the current page. Obviously, you should use caution and possibly seek advice before doing that.


 * ( diff | hist ) . . m ! Ship Brooklyn ; 15:45 . . (-57) . . KeslerJL ( Talk | contribs | block )

Kind of Edit - "M", "N" or blank.


 * M - stands for minor edit.
 * N - stands for new page. If the article is new, there will not be a "diff" entry and the reviewer will need to click on the name of the article.
 * blank designates the edit as a major change. Edits default to major unless you click the "minor edit" box. (Whether an edit is a major or minor change is a judgment call. Many times the user is unsure as to what it is and as a result doesn't check anything.


 * ( diff | hist ) . . m ! Ship Brooklyn ; 15:45 . . (-57) . . KeslerJL ( Talk | contribs | block )

Checked or not - ! means the edit has NOT been checked or patrolled.

Why is this important? If you are seeing articles that do not have the ! , you are either not signed in or need to change the page settings (or your personal settings) to hide patrolled edits. Note: Edits by Wiki missionaries who have been given moderator privileges show as "patrolled (automatic)" on the patrol list.


 * ( diff | hist ) . . m ! Ship Brooklyn ; 15:45 . . (-57) . . KeslerJL ( Talk | contribs | block )

Article title - "Ship Brooklyn" is the title of article that has been edited or changed.


 * ( diff | hist ) . . m ! Ship Brooklyn ; 15:45 . . (-57) . . KeslerJL ( Talk | contribs | block )

Time of edit - 15:45 in military time.


 * The time displayed will be according to the time zone you selected in your "Date and time" preferences. If you do not select a time zone, the time will be the time on the server.


 * ( diff | hist ) . . m ! Ship Brooklyn ; 15:45 . . (-57) . . KeslerJL ( Talk | contribs | block )

Size of edit - (-57) the number of bytes added to or subtracted from the article. Generally, a byte equates to a letter, number, or space. In this example 57 letters, numbers or spaces have been removed from the article.


 * ( diff | hist ) . . m ! Ship Brooklyn ; 15:45 . . (-57) . . KeslerJL ( Talk | contribs | block )

User name - name of user who made the edit. If the name is in blue, there is something on the user page. If in red, the user page is blank.

Why is this important? By going to the user page you can:
 * Learn more about the user who made the edits and the user's area of expertise or interest.
 * Contact the user by generating an email through "E-mail this user" on the right tool bar under "Views."
 * Check the user's other contributions by identifying them through "User contributions" on the right tool bar under "Views."


 * ( diff | hist ) . . m ! Ship Brooklyn ; 15:45 . . (-57) . . KeslerJL ( Talk | contribs | block )

Talk page - link to the user's talk page. It the link is blue, the page has been created. (Generally, shortly after a user begins contributing, the welcoming committee posts a welcome message that creates the talk page.) Why is this important?
 * Through review of the talk page, you can determine whether the contributor has received the welcome message and links to training.
 * You can use the contributor's talk page to post a message to the contributor.
 * You can review the contributor's talk page to determine whether there has been previous communication that is relevant.


 * ( diff | hist ) . . m ! Ship Brooklyn ; 15:45 . . (-57) . . KeslerJL ( Talk | contribs | block )

contribs - this links to a page listing the contributions this person has made to the Wiki. Why is this important? Checking other contributions can be one way to determine whether there are patterns of errors or failure to observe Wiki guiding principles.


 * ( diff | hist ) . . m ! Ship Brooklyn ; 15:45 . . (-57) . . KeslerJL ( Talk | contribs | block )

block - This block only shows up when the person patrolling is an authorized administrator. If blocked, the user ifs prevented from adding more material to the Wiki. This step would only be taken if the contributor repeatedly violates Wiki guidelines. Unless the edits are very egregious, the user should be contacted through the user talk page to explain the issue. If the user doesn't respond, refuses to fix the problem, or continues to add inappropriate content, consult with mission leadership.

A support team member without administrator privileges can recommend a user be blocked by posting on Yammer for an administrator.

If, in the future, the user agrees to follow Wiki policies and guidelines, the block can be removed.

Summary - Each time an edit is made, an explanation should be entered into the summary box. If no entry is made, the section header will be the default entry. Why is this important?
 * A summary helps the patroller understand the purpose of the edits.
 * When researching the history of an article, summary entries help you find a particular change.

Rollback - Clicking the rollback button will cancel all changes made by the most current user and return to the last version by the former user. (This rollback could affect editing sessions on different days.) Why is this important? This is helpful for changes such as an erroneously blanked page or significant format corruption.

Note: Be very careful with this. Once you click on rollback, you will not receive a message asking for confirmation--it just happens. Although a rollback cannot be reversed, it can possibly be undone in a workaround by accessing an earlier version in the article history.

Undo - By clicking on this undo button, an individual change can be canceled. This action can be reversed.

Patrolling the Change
After reviewing the change you will need to make a disposition. There are only three ways to remove the change from the Recent Changes list: mark it patrolled, roll back the contributor's edits, or undo the change. (Simply editing the article does not remove it from the list.) The vast majority of changes get marked patrolled, even if they need some correction or additional action.

Patrolling Tips:


 * Patrolling is a great way to learn about the Wiki. You should plan to patrol on every shift.


 * In patrolling, check the changes themselves and confirm that every newly-added link is for a legitimate site. In addition, check the rest of the article for tone, structure, and broken links.


 * When there are multiple changes to the same Wiki article, it is usually better to open several tabs of the individual changes. Start with the most recent change so you understand where the changes are going. It will keep you from bogging down in an early error that is later corrected.


 * If an article is being changed while you are patrolling, back off and give the contributor some time to complete the work. Otherwise you may both be trying to edit at the same time, and you may be trying to make corrections that the contributor is also making.


 * When you are patrolling and find something that needs to be referred to another missionary for resolution, mark the change patrolled so that someone else doesn't work on it at the same time.

In the next lessons you will learn more about specific patrolling situations and how to deal with them.

Try these out
 Quick Quiz
 * The green box on the diff page shows the part of the page that was changed as it was originally.


 * True
 * False


 * The changes in the text are in blue.


 * True
 * False


 * When you see the N it means the user is new to the Wiki.


 * True
 * False


 * When the number in the parentheses has a minus sign in front of it, it means the article had a reduction of material.


 * True
 * False


 * You can learn about a user if the user name is in red.


 * True
 * False


 * If no reason for the change is displayed, the user failed to type in a reason in the Summary box.


 * True
 * False


 * If you want to see how many times the page has been changed, you click on diff.


 * True
 * False


 * In the following circumstances indicate whether you would (A) mark the article patrolled, (B) revert the edits, or (C) undo the edit. Note: There may be more than one correct answer.


 * 1.	The contributor made one edit and entered a link to a cosmetics site.
 * 2.	The contributor added a good link but formatted it incorrectly and it is garbled.
 * 3.	A new contributor made 4 inappropriate edits in one day.

Check your answers