Wikipedia:Long-term abuse/Detailed instructions

Explanation

This page should contain only properly categorized, unique entries on specific vandals with enough relevant and correct information to allow other people to identify them and their tracks. To keep this page functioning smoothly, please:

Do not add an entry here requesting action, such as a block or page protect. This page is not scanned regularly, as Administrator intervention against vandalism (WP:AIV), Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents (WP:ANI) and, to a lesser degree, Requests for page protection (WP:RFPP) are. If you need someone blocked or a page protected, please refer to those two links.

Only add vandals here; if you have been blocked as well as the "vandal" for edit warring or similar, do not add them yourself or use sockpuppets to do so. This page is not for dealing with two sided edit-wars, only one-sided vandalism.

Only add vandals who need to be pointed out, such as sneaky sockpuppeteers, trolls, etc. Really obvious vandals should be reported to WP:AIV or, if they use sockpuppets, Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations. Likewise, vandals should only be added here if their vandalisms are serious (A good rule of thumb is whether or not their primary account has been indefinitely blocked). If you are not sure, ask on the talk page; we'll help.

Do not report IP addresses! Reports for unregistered users are sometimes given a pseudonym, but severe IP vandals should usually be reported to WP:AIV or WP:ANI, not here.

Do not use this page for discussions. If there needs to be a discussion, start it on the talk page and link to its section from this page. If there is a discussion going on elsewhere, link to it.

Do not "sign" your entries, but do say who originally reported them, or who are the most knowledgeable about them so they can be contacted if need be.

Do not use relative phrases like "recently" or "lately" without qualification. Try using "as of" to remedy this: "As of August 3, ..."

Do not add entries without the vital information enumerated below; they will almost certainly be useless and end up being removed.

Keep this page free of useless content: Avoid off-topic discussion or other unneeded text, do not add images (Link to them if they are relevant to the entry), and refrain from injecting emotions into reports here.

Remember to update entries with new or important information.

Criteria for addition

Users listed should have a marked past of policy violations well before and after their final, indefinite, block. User accounts that are listed as vandals but only have minor blocks, or "major vandals"/"sockpuppets" that aren't blocked indefinitely, will likely be removed. The relevant logs should back up your assertions.

Note that shared IP addresses (e.g. Schools, libraries, prisons, legislatures, etc.) engaging in egregious vandalism should be reported to WP:AIV or WP:ANI.

Criteria for removal

Any entry may be removed by anyone if it is clearly:

• An old entry of an inactive vandal; subpages may be nominated for deletion on Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion. Users should research widely before declaring a vandal to be inactive.
• Completely improper, incorrect or malicious (false report), incomplete or totally incoherent. Vandals "reporting themselves" should almost always be reverted.

Unless the page is going to be deleted, the following should be done:

• Update the last active date in the infobox. Change the status to 'Archived'. This will set the correct category; other categories should be removed.
• Remove the entry from the Active list. Remove from the full list?

Adding to this page

1. Check the subpages to ensure that they aren't already known about there.
2. If the vandal's totally new, create an entry at the bottom of the appropriate section (see below for an explanation), with a descriptive heading, and under it a "Modus operandi" subsection.
   • This is vital: Without information on what a certain "vandal" does or how they do it, it will be impossible for other readers to understand how to spot them. Entries without this information will almost certainly be removed. See below for more information.
3. If they're already listed on this page, add new information if you have it (Such as new sockpuppets or MOs). Discussion should be kept to a minimum, such as an open ended question about a puzzling attribute. In this instance, if you post the answer, incorporate it into the entry and remove the question. This page is extremely long as it is, if there needs to be prolonged discussion, use a talk page and link to it from the entry. Off topic discussion should be removed by anyone and any large discussion that has idled may be summarized.

Necessary information in an entry

Entries MUST have the following information to have utility:

• A sample of the vandal's account(s) and IP addresses where these show useful attributes. If they have a category for their sockpuppets, link to it.

• A description of his/her modus operandi. Good detail is important; unneeded information will be trimmed out by others, but an under-explained entry will require other people to sift through links, or just remove it. Linking some "diffs" (revisions) of their vandalism is a good way to provide information on their vandalism it will show exactly what the vandal has been doing. Note that linking to a "rolling list", such as a page's history, is NOT passable: pages keep getting edits and after a while, the relevant entries are several pages back.

In either report, you don't need to list more than five socks/examples, barring something extremely unusual. If there are more than that many sockpuppets, consider creating a category and tagging their userpages with sockpuppet tags.

If you aren't sure that your entry is correct, it is OK to request formatting help in the entry. If people have questions when they fix the format, they may ask you for more details.