The present work can be embedded in the context of (algorithmic) quality-control mechanisms on Wikipedia.
There is a whole ecosystem (syn?) of actors struggling to maintain the anyone-can-edit encyclopedia as good^^ and vandalism free as possible.
We want to be able to better understand the role of edit filters in the vandal fighting network of humans, bots, semi-automated tools, and the machine learning framework ORES.
To this end, in the current chapter we investigate vandalism and vandalism fighting guidelines, as well as the mechanisms mentioned above.
\section{Vandalism on Wikipedia}
According to Wikipedia's newspaper, the Signpost, edit filters were initially introduced as a vandalism prevention mechanism (one of several)~\cite{Signpost2009}.
The aim of this section is to provide a better understanding of vandalism on Wikipedia. (What is vandalism, and what not; who engages in vandalism; who is striving to prevent it and with what means)
According to Wikipedia's newspaper, the Signpost, edit filters were initially introduced as a vandalism prevention mechanism~\cite{Signpost2009}.
The aim of this section is to provide a better understanding of vandalism on Wikipedia: What is vandalism, and what not; who engages in vandalism; who is striving to prevent it and with what means?
%What is vandalism
\subsection{What is vandalism}
According to EN Wikipedia's policy~\cite{Wikipedia:Vandalism}, vandalism means ``intentionally making abusive edits to Wikipedia'' or, more specifically ``editing (or other behavior) deliberately intended to obstruct or defeat the project's purpose, which is to create a free encyclopedia''.
Vandalism includes ``malicious removal of encyclopedic content, or the changing of such content beyond all recognition, without any regard to our core content policies of neutral point of view (which does not mean no point of view), verifiability and no original research''
as well as ``adding irrelevant obscenities or crude humor to a page, illegitimately blanking pages, and inserting obvious nonsense into a page''
and ``[a]busive creation or usage of user accounts and IP addresses''.
Wikipedians have elaborated a whole vandalism typology~\cite{Wikipedia:Vandalism}, illustrated by figure~\ref{fig:vandalism-typology}.
\begin{comment}
Types of vandalism \url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vandalism#Types_of_vandalism}:
(Abuse of tags; Account creation, malicious; Avoidant vandalism; Blanking, illegitimate; Copyrighted material, repeated uploading of; Edit summary vandalism; Format vandalism; Gaming the system; Hidden vandalism; Hoaxing vandalism; Image vandalism; Link vandalism; Page creation, illegitimate; Page lengthening; Page-move vandalism; Silly vandalism; Sneaky vandalism; Spam external linking; Stockbroking vandalism; talk page vandalism; Template vandalism; User and user talk page vandalism; Vandalbots;)
\end{comment}
Wikipedians have elaborated following vandalism typology~\cite{Wikipedia:Vandalism}:
\begin{itemize}
\item Abuse of tags
\item Account creation, malicious
\item Avoidant vandalism
\item Blanking, illegitimate
\item Copyrighted material, repeated uploading of
\item Edit summary vandalism
\item Format vandalism
\item Gaming the system
\item Hidden vandalism
\item Hoaxing vandalism
\item Image vandalism
\item Link vandalism
\item Page creation, illegitimate
\item Page lengthening
\item Page-move vandalism
\item Silly vandalism
\item Sneaky vandalism
\item Spam external linking
\item Stockbroking vandalism
\item talk page vandalism
\item Template vandalism
\item User and user talk page vandalism
\item Vandalbots
\end{itemize}
%What is not vandalism
\subsection{What is not vandalism}
There are different types of edits viewed as disruptive by the Wikipedia community.
Additionally, there are different types of edits viewed as disruptive by the Wikipedia community.
Edit warring and pushing a single point of view and disregarding community feedback are examples here of. %TODO what are other examples?
Nevertheless, the guidelines caution that ``[d]isruptive editing is not vandalism, though vandalism is disruptive''~\cite{Wikipedia:DisruptiveEditing}.
Nevertheless, the guidelines warn that ``[d]isruptive editing is not vandalism, though vandalism is disruptive''~\cite{Wikipedia:DisruptiveEditing}.
And that different procedures should be adopted by editors in both cases.
The vandalism policy also cautions about using the ``vandalism'' label since it tends to drive contributors away and prevent constructive discussions~\cite{Wikipedia:Vandalism}.
The vandalism policy also cautions against using the ``vandalism'' label unless absolutely necessary since it tends to drive contributors away and prevent constructive discussions~\cite{Wikipedia:Vandalism}.
%TODO vgl good faith memo
\begin{comment}
...
...
@@ -42,24 +68,23 @@ Okay what are disruptive edits that are not vandalism? (apart from edit wars)
"Engages in "disruptive cite-tagging"; adds unjustified {{citation needed}} tags to an article when the content tagged is already sourced, uses such tags to suggest that properly sourced article content is questionable."
\end{comment}
%Who engages in vandalism (and why?)
\subsection{Who engages in vandalism (and why?)}
The policy signals clearly that editors repeatedly engaging in vandalism are subject to banning.
Furthermore, it is explained that although warnings for vandalism are issued in general, these are not a prerequisite for banning~\cite{Wikipedia:Vandalism}.
%TODO: still not explained who and why
%Who is striving to prevent vandalism? How do they go about it?
\subsection{Who is striving to prevent vandalism? How do they go about it?}
Since Wikipedia is a ``do-it-yourself'' project, every editor who notices vandalism is called upon to help fixing it.
There is a formal process for reporting users who engage in vandalism %TODO look up Administrator intervention against vandalism
and requesting page protection for frequently vandalised pages. %TODO quote
There is a formal process for reporting users who persistently continue to engage in vandalism despite warnings~\cite{Wikipedia:AIV}, %TODO go into more detail?
as well as for requesting page protection for frequently vandalised pages~\cite{Wikipedia:PageProtection}.
And there are also users who specifically dedicate substantial amount of their Wikipedia contributions to fighting vandalism.
These dedicated vandal fighters mostly do so with the aid of some (semi or fully) automated tools which significally speeds up the process (see below).
These dedicated vandal fighters mostly do so with the aid of some (semi or fully) automated tools which not only significantly speeds up the process (see below),
but, according to research, fundamentally changes the nature of the encyclopedia and its collaboration ecosystem~\cite{GeiRib2010}.
and 197: "amerikanisch -> US-amerikanisch ([[WP:RS\#Korrektoren]])"
"Korrektoren sind besonders gebeten, sich an die hier vereinbarten Regeln zu halten. In Fällen, in denen verschiedene Schreibweisen zulässig sind, werden Korrektoren um taktvolle Zurückhaltung gebeten: Es ist kein guter Stil, in einer schlüssig formulierten Passage eine zulässige in eine andere zulässige Schreibweise zu ändern." from \url{https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Rechtschreibung#Korrektoren}
