Editing Encyclopedia:Vandalism (section)

==Types of vandalism==
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Vandalism on Wikipedia usually falls into one or more of these categories:

===Abuse of tags===
Bad faith placing of non-content tags such as {{tl|afd}}, {{tl|db}}, {{tl|sprotected}}, or other tags on pages that do not meet such criteria. This includes baseless removal of {{tl|policy}} and related tags.

{{anchor|Avoidance vandalism}}{{anchor|Avoidant vandalism}}
===Avoidant vandalism===
Removing {{tl|afd}}, {{tl|copyvio}} and other related tags in order to conceal deletion candidates or avert deletion of such content. However, this is often mistakenly done by new users who are unfamiliar with AfD procedures and such users should be given the benefit of the doubt and pointed to the proper page to discuss the issue.

===Edit summary vandalism===
Making offensive edit summaries in an attempt to leave a mark that cannot be easily expunged from the record (edit summaries cannot simply be "reverted" and require [[Wikipedia:Revision deletion|administrative action]] if they have to be removed from a page's history). Often combined with malicious account creation.

===Format vandalism===
Changing the formatting of a page unreasonably and maliciously. But many times, editors might just make an unintended mistake or are testing how the wikicode works. Sometimes it might be a bug in the Wikipedia software. Some changes to the format are not vandalism, but rather either good faith edits of editors who don't know the guidelines or simply a different opinion on how the format should look, in which case it is just a disputed edit.

===[[WP:GAME|Gaming the system]]===
Deliberate attempts to circumvent enforcement of Wikipedia policies, guidelines, and procedures by causing bad faith edits to go unnoticed. Includes marking bad faith edits as minor to get less scrutiny, making a minor edit following a bad faith edit so it won't appear on all watchlists, recreating previously deleted bad faith creations under a new title, use of the {{tl|construction}} tag to prevent deletion of a page that would otherwise be a clear candidate for deletion, or use of [[WP:SOCK|sock puppets]].

===Hidden vandalism===
Any form of vandalism that makes use of embedded text, which is not visible to the final rendering of the article but visible during editing. This includes link vandalism, or placing malicious, offensive, or otherwise disruptive or irrelevant messages or spam in hidden comments for editors to see.

===[[WP:Hoaxes|Hoaxing vandalism]]===
<span id="VDHOAXES"></span>Deliberately adding falsities to articles, particularly to [[WP:BLP|biographies of living people]], with hoax information is considered vandalism.

===Illegitimate blanking===
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{{for|legitimate cases of blanking articles|Wikipedia:Redirect#Redirects that replace previous articles}}
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{{anchor|Blanking}}[[WP:PRESERVE|Removing encyclopedic content]] without any reason, or replacing such content with nonsense. Content removal is {{em|not}} considered to be vandalism when the reason for the removal of the content is readily apparent by examination of the content itself, or where a non-frivolous explanation for the removal of apparently legitimate content is provided, linked to, or referenced in an edit summary.

Blanking that could be legitimate includes blanking all or part of a [[WP:LIVING|biography of a living person]]. Wikipedia is especially concerned about providing accurate and unbiased information on the living; blanking may be an effort to remove inaccurate or biased material. Due to the possibility of unexplained good faith content removal, {{tl|uw-test1}} or {{tl|uw-delete1}}, as appropriate, should be used as initial warnings for content removals without more descriptive edit summaries.

===Illegitimate page creation===
Creating new pages with the sole intent of malicious behavior. It also includes [[WP:ATTACK|personal attack pages]] (articles written to disparage the subject), [[WP:HOAX|hoaxes]] and other intentionally inaccurate pages. There are many other types of pages that merit deletion, even [[WP:SPEEDY|speedy deletion]], but which are not vandalism. [[WP:NEWBIE|New users]] sometimes create test pages containing [[WP:NONSENSE|nonsense]] or even autobiographies, and doing so is not vandalism; such pages can also be moved to become their sandbox or userpage. Pages on non-notable topics are not vandalism. [[WP:SPAM|Blatant advertising pages]], and [[WP:POVPUSH|blatant POV pushes]], are not vandalism, but frequently happen and often lead to editors being blocked. It's important that people creating inappropriate pages be given appropriate communication; even if they aren't willing to edit within our rules, they are more likely to go away quietly if they understand why their page has been deleted.

===Illegitimate page lengthening===
Adding very large (measured by the number of [[byte]]s) amounts of bad faith content to a page so as to make the page's load time abnormally long or even make the page impossible to load on some computers without the browser or machine crashing. Adding large amounts of good faith content is not vandalism, though prior to doing so, one should consider if splitting a long page may be appropriate (see [[Wikipedia:Article size]]).

===Image vandalism===
Uploading shock images, inappropriately placing explicit images on pages, or simply using any image in a way that is disruptive. Please note though that [[Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#Wikipedia is not censored|Wikipedia is not censored]] and that explicit images may be uploaded and/or placed on pages for legitimate reasons (that is, if they have encyclopedic value).

===Link vandalism===
Adding or changing internal or external links on a page to disruptive, irrelevant, or inappropriate targets while disguising them with mislabeling.

===Malicious account creation===
Creating accounts with usernames that contain deliberately offensive or disruptive terms is considered vandalism, whether the account is used or not. For Wikipedia's policy on what is considered inappropriate for a username, see [[Wikipedia:Username policy]]. See also [[Wikipedia:Sock puppetry]].

===Page-move vandalism===
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Changing the names of pages to disruptive, irrelevant, or otherwise inappropriate names. Only [[WP:AUTOCONF|autoconfirmed or confirmed]] users can move pages. Because of this, vandals of this variety will often create "sleeper" accounts to gain autoconfirmed status.

===Redirect vandalism===
[[WP:Redirect|Redirecting]] or changing the target of redirect pages to other pages that are vandalism, nonsense, promotional, non-existent pages, or attack pages. This also applies when a redirect or its title is created only to disparage its subject. Pages that redirect to non-existent or deleted pages are also applied with [[Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion#G8. Pages dependent on a non-existent or deleted page|G8]].

===Repeated uploading of copyrighted material===
Uploading or using material on Wikipedia in ways which violate [[Wikipedia:Copyright problems|Wikipedia's copyright policies]] after having been warned is vandalism. Because users may be unaware that the information is copyrighted, or of Wikipedia policies on how such material may and may not be used, such action becomes vandalism {{em|only}} if it continues after the copyrighted nature of the material and relevant policy restricting its use have been communicated to the user.

===Reverting to vandalism===
Reverting edits to the latest revisions that are nonsense, promotional, personal attacks, and/or harassment (except for when done by mistake).

===Silly vandalism===
Adding [[profanity]], [[graffiti]], or [[WP:Patent nonsense|patent nonsense]] to pages; creating nonsensical and obviously unencyclopedic pages, etc. This is one of the most common forms of vandalism. However, the addition of random characters to pages is often characteristic of an editing test and, though impermissible, may not be malicious.

===[[Wikipedia:External links#AVOID|Spam external linking]]===
Adding or continuing to add spam external links is vandalism if the activity continues after a warning. A spam external link is one added to a page mainly for the purpose of promoting a website, product or a user's interests rather than to improve the page editorially.

==={{anchor|Sneaky vandalism}}Subtle vandalism===
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Vandalism that is harder to spot, or that otherwise circumvents detection, including adding plausible misinformation to articles (such as minor alteration of facts or additions of plausible-sounding hoaxes), hiding vandalism (such as by making two bad edits and reverting only one), simultaneously using [[WP:SOCK|multiple accounts]] or IP addresses to vandalize, abuse of maintenance and deletion templates, or reverting legitimate edits with the intent of hindering the improvement of pages. Impersonating other users by signing an edit with a different username or IP address also constitutes subtle vandalism, but take care not to confuse this with appropriately correcting an unsigned edit made by another user. Some vandals even follow their vandalism with an edit that states "Rv vandalism" or similar in the [[Help:Edit summary|edit summary]] in order to give the appearance the vandalism was reverted.

===Talk page vandalism===
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Illegitimately removing or editing other users' comments, especially in closed discussions, or adding offensive comments. However, it is acceptable to blank comments constituting vandalism, [[Wikipedia:Canvassing|internal spam]], or [[Wikipedia:Harassment|harassment]] or a [[Wikipedia:No personal attacks#Removal of text|personal attack]]. It is also acceptable to identify an unsigned comment. Users are also [[WP:OWNTALK|permitted]] to remove comments from their own user talk pages. A policy of prohibiting users from removing warnings from their own talk pages was [[Wikipedia:Perennial proposals#Talk pages and discussions|considered and rejected]] on the grounds that it would create more issues than it would solve.

===Template vandalism===
Modifying the wiki language or text of a [[WP:TM|template]] in a harmful or disruptive manner. This is especially serious, because it will negatively impact the appearance of multiple pages. Some templates appear on hundreds or thousands of pages, so they are [[Wikipedia:High-risk templates|permanently protected from editing]] to prevent vandalism.

===User and user talk page vandalism===
Unwelcome, illegitimate edits to another person's user page may be considered vandalism. User pages are regarded as within the control of their respective users and generally should not be edited without the permission of the user to whom they belong. See [[WP:UP#OWN]]. This is why there is an [[Special:AbuseFilter/803|edit filter that prevents new and non-(auto)confirmed users from editing user pages other than their own]]. Related to this is [[Wikipedia:No personal attacks]].

===[[m:Vandalbot|Vandalbots]]===
A [[Internet bot|script or "robot"]] that attempts to vandalize or add spam to a mass of pages.