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This page is an official policy on SporeWiki.
It is a standard that all users should follow. Comments or input are always excepted on policies which should reflect consensus among editors. When editing this page, ensure that your revision reflects consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
What is vandalism?[]
Vandalism is defined as "Willful or malicious destruction of public or private property." To be put bluntly, vandalism of a wiki article includes (but is not limited to): “blanking” an article, adding useless comments to an article, removal of sections of an article without just cause, altering images offensively, and changing an article without just cause.
Vandalism is not funny. Members of the SporeWiki have spent their time working to contribute easily available information about the game Spore to the general public. Willfully destroying this information is not only immature, but is extremely unproductive. There are other wikis that vandalism is accepted; the SporeWiki is not one of them.
Having a disagreement over information in an article is not vandalism. Remember to always Assume good faith. Not everyone will agree with what you believe to be true and expecting such is simply foolishness. A wiki exists to collaborate information from several individuals, not from a single person.
However, bickering over information is vandalism. Changing an article constantly over a tiny fact is not the best course of action if there is a point to be made. Talk pages exist for discussing issues within an article. Call for a debate in the talk page, not in the article.
Punishments for vandalism[]
Vandalism violates SporeWiki's policy. Vandals who ignore warnings to stop should be reported to an admin who will block the vandal. The vandal may be blocked from days or even indefinitely, depending on the severity of the vandalism commited.
Reporting vandalism[]
Vandalism can be reported to a Rollback or sysop, such as when the vandal has edited a page more than once, or when the vandalism can only be dealt with by an admin.
Repairing vandalism[]
Vandalism is serious and it is expected to undo the malicious edit. If you suspect vandalism, click the "History" button and the top of the article, and then compare the two recent edits. If the current edit looks like a malicious edit, click undo, which is located at the top of the vandalized edit. Save the page, and the vandalism is gone. If the same user vandalizes the page two or more times, ask a Rollback or Administrator to revert the edits of that user, all the way back to the non-vandalized edit.
What is not vandalism[]
Occasionally some users or anonymous IPs make mistakes, such as experimenting users who discover the "edit this page" button, add unhelpful information such as random characters, bold edits, ect. Instead of being warned of vandalism, warmly greet them, and give a reference to the sandbox. Also new editors to SporeWiki or a similar Wiki may unintentionally make a mistake so just assume good faith as they may not be trying to vandalize a page.