Difference between revisions of "SandBox1"

Latest revision as of 11:58, 25 January 2010

The below information stolen directly from Wikipedia --- Please ignore the relinks, they are because we are not on Wikipedia

Undo or Reverting means returning an article to an earlier version. More broadly, reverting may also refer to any action that reverses the actions of others.

Revert vandalism on sight, but revert a good faith edit only as a last resort. Edit warring is prohibited. See Template:Selfref. Editors should provide an explanation when reverting.

When to revert

Template:Selfref Revert vandalism and other abusive edits upon sight but revert a good faith edit only as a last resort. A reversion can eliminate "good stuff," discourage other editors, and spark an edit war. So if you feel the edit is unsatisfactory, then try to improve it, if possible - reword rather than revert. Similarly, if only part of an edit is problematic then consider modifying only that part instead of reverting the whole edit - don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Template:AnchorsTemplate:ShortcutDon't revert to undo a good faith reversion of your change. If there is a dispute, the status quo reigns until a consensus is established to make a change. Instead of engaging in an edit war, propose your reverted change on the article's talk page or pursue other dispute resolution alternatives.

Amanda is a jerk

If you are not sure whether a revert is appropriate then first propose the reversion on the article's talk page. If there is reason to believe that the author of problematic material will not be induced to change it, editors sometimes choose to transfer the text in question to the talk page itself, thus not deleting it entirely.

Explain reverts

Template:Shortcut It is particularly important to provide a valid and informative explanation when you perform a reversion. A reversion is a complete rejection of the work of another editor and if the reversion is not adequately supported then the reverted editor may find it difficult to assume good faith. This is one of the most common causes of an edit war. A substantive explanation also promotes consensus by alerting the reverted editor to the problem with the original edit. The reverted editor may then be able to revise the edit to correct the identified problem. The result will be an improved article and a more knowledgeable editor.

In addition to helping the reverted editor, providing information regarding the reversion will help other editors by letting them know whether - or not - they need to even view the reverted version, such as in the case of blanking a page. Explaining reverts also helps users who check edit histories to determine the extent to which the information in the article is reliable or current.

If your reasons for reverting are too complex to explain in an edit summary, leave a note on the article's Talk page. It is sometimes best to leave a note on the Talk page first and then revert, rather than the other way around; thus giving the other editor a chance to agree with you and revise their edit appropriately. Conversely, if another editor reverts your change without any apparent explanation, you may wish to wait a few minutes to see if they explain their actions on the article's or your user's talk page.

How to revert

Manual method

• Go to the top of the page in question, click on the "history" or "page history" (in some skins) tab; then, click on the "time and date" of the earlier version, to which you wish to revert.
• When that page displays, you will see a phrase similar to: "This is an old revision of this page, as edited by ***.*.***.*** (Talk) at 15:47, January 24, 2009. It may differ significantly from the current revision."
• Verify that you have selected the correct "old revision" version and click on the "edit this page" tab, as you would normally do.
  • Important: in the case of vandalism, take the time to make sure that you are reverting to the last version without the vandalism; there may be multiple consecutive vandal edits or they may be interspersed between the constructive edits.
• Above the edit box, you will see a warning similar to: "You are editing an old revision of this page. If you save it, any changes made since then will be removed."
• Ignore this warning and save the page. Be sure to add the word "revert" or the abbreviation "rv" and a brief explanation for the revert to the "edit summary". It is possible to wikilink the usernames, associated with the versions that you are reverting from and to.
  • For example, when reverting vandalism by a user identified only by their IP address, an edit summary would be:
    
    rv edits by [[Special:Contributions/<IP address>|<IP address>]] to last version by [[User:Example|Example]]
    
    
  • When the username is known, an edit summary would be:
    
    rv edits by [[User:<username>|<username>]] to last version by [[User:Example|Example]]
    
    

Note: when reverting blatant vandalism, "rvv" normally suffices, as speed is more important than a full edit summary with usernames or IP addresses.

• Click on the "history" tab again. A new line will have been added and you will be able to verify (by clicking on "last"), that you undid the vandalism, plus all subsequent bona fide edits, if any. It is courteous to redo all the constructive edits that were undone, along with the edit(s) which you intended to revert. This should always be done, where it is reasonably possible.
• In a vandalism case, where sections of text were simply deleted and then, subsequent edits were made by others, it may be easier for you to cut and paste those missing sections of text back in, than to revert and then, re-do the edits.
• Check the contribution history of the user, who vandalized the article. (Click on the IP address for anonymous users or the "contribs" for registered users.) If this user is vandalizing many articles, please report them to administrator intervention against vandalism at Wikipedia or to the relevant administrators' noticeboard on other projects.