Editing Wiki (section)

=== Security ===

{{hatnote group|{{redirect-distinguish|Edit war|Edit conflict}}
{{self-reference|For Wikipedia's policy on edit warring, see [[Wikipedia:Edit warring]].}}
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[[Troll (Internet)|Trolling]] and [[cybervandalism]] on wikis, where content is changed to something deliberately incorrect or a [[hoax]], offensive material or nonsense is added, or content is maliciously removed, can be a major problem. On larger wiki sites it is possible for such changes to go unnoticed for a long period.

In addition to using the approach of soft security for protecting themselves, larger wikis may employ sophisticated methods, such as bots that automatically identify and revert vandalism. For example, on Wikipedia, the bot ''ClueBot NG'' uses [[machine learning]] to identify likely harmful changes, and reverts these changes within minutes or even seconds.<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.theverge.com/2014/2/18/5412636/this-machine-kills-trolls-how-wikipedia-robots-snuff-out-vandalism|title = This machine kills trolls|date = February 18, 2014|access-date = September 7, 2014|website = [[The Verge]]|last = Hicks|first = Jesse|url-status=live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140827115824/https://www.theverge.com/2014/2/18/5412636/this-machine-kills-trolls-how-wikipedia-robots-snuff-out-vandalism|archive-date = August 27, 2014|df = mdy-all}}</ref>

Disagreements between users over the content or appearance of pages may cause ''edit wars'', where competing users repetitively change a page back to a version that they favor. Some wiki software allows administrators to prevent pages from being editable until a decision has been made on what version of the page would be most appropriate.<ref name=Legal/>

Some wikis may be subject to external structures of governance which address the behavior of persons with access to the system, for example in academic contexts.<ref name=Augar/>

==== Harmful external links ====

As most wikis allow the creation of hyperlinks to other sites and services, the addition of malicious hyperlinks, such as sites infected with [[malware]], can also be a problem. For example, in 2006 a German Wikipedia article about the [[Blaster Worm]] was edited to include a hyperlink to a malicious website, and users of vulnerable Microsoft Windows systems who followed the link had their systems infected with the worm.<ref name=Legal/> Some wiki engines offer a [[Blacklist (computing)|blacklist]] feature which prevents users from adding hyperlinks to specific sites that have been placed on the list by the wiki's administrators.