Classic WoW Wiki:Violations/Outro

Identifying Fake Spam Cleaners
Thanks to CJ for noticing these "sneaky bots".

Here are easy steps to identify fake spam cleaners:
 * 1) Go to the history page of the article that was supposedly cleaned.
 * 2) Click the left radio button next to the entry you think was the last non-spam edit (spammers usually have red user links, since they're not real users).
 * 3) Click the right radio button next to the entry of the "fake spam cleaner" edit.
 * 4) Click the "Compare selected versions" button.

If you see lots of spam remaining, this user is probably a "fake spam cleaner".

Put them on the vandals list!

About reverting vandalism
It is worth noting that admins can quickly revert a bot's changes with one click, but only if it is the last edit. If you have better things to do than undo all their edits, you can just add the vandal's name here and we will block them. Once added to the list a 'contribs' link appear, giving quick access to a list of all their contributions. In that case we can open each revert link and thereby revert all their edits in one fell swoop. So unless it gets really bad and it looks like we admins won't be able to block a user or revert all their changes, there's no need to try to undo their works.

Therefore, unless you have a reason to contribute to an article that has been vandalized, there's no need to undo vandalism by bots. It will save time overall, but this doesn't remove the necessity to add them here. Now, it won't hurt if any of you continue to remove vandalism, but it's not as necessary. But if the bot is not on the list here, we may never catch it. Thank you for all your assistance, everyone.

If you wish to revert vandalism, open the last correct version (by clicking on the date), hit edit on that page and save it with an appropriate note!

How to add a new month
Very simple, add the following (replace  and   with appropriate month and year):
 * &lt;new vandal&gt;
 * &lt;new vandal&gt;
 * &lt;new vandal&gt;

How to add a new vandal
Also easy to do. Just add the template in the appropriate month/year at the top please:
 *  ==== &lt;month&gt; &lt;year&gt; ====
 *  {| 
 * &lt;other vandals...&gt;
 *  |} 
 *  |} 

Note that underscores are important. If a user has a space in his name, you must put an underscore in its place.

Administrative actions
When a user is marked as a vandal, an admin will investigate the claim (usually by reviewing the accused vandal's contributions) and follow the policy. This may include reverting acts of vandalism and informing the user on their talk page that they have been accused of vandalism, if their contributions don't seem to be overt vandalism.

In addition, admins can do a few things the average user cannot to deal with vandalism:
 * Use the &#91;rollback&#93; link to quickly revert vandalism (if it was the last edit on an article).
 * Use the Special:Blockip page to ban/block the user from editing for a period of time (based on policy).
 * Use the tab in situations where a regular user might not be able to, to maintain the history of a vandalized article.
 * Use the tab to give a reprieve to a frequently vandalized article, assuming it doesn't undergo frequent necessary updates.

Blocking a vandal
After an admin has investigated they can ban/block the user according to policy by using the template:

Making a suspect
If the user subsequently contacts an admin with a reasonably explanation for the act (falsely accused, mistaken edit, misunderstood policy, etc.) and the admin is convinced the user has reformed or sufficiently explained their actions, the admin can use the template to put then on a sort of probation (and clear the ban/block, if warranted):