Wiki Vandals

In earlier times there was a list here of instances of WikiVandalism?. Of late, vandalism has become a non-issue, so this page is no longer used.

Here because of shark.armchair.mb.ca see SharkBot, an automated response to GrammarVandal.

It's not automatic; it is frequently "guided" by its author, hence its frequent mistakes, such as reverting its own edits and editing FrontPage without changing anything, even whitespace.

[Hi, GrammarVandal. You'll be pleased to know that certain operations are entirely automated, but others require my approval and get actioned in batches. I can adjust the degree of automation, and often turn it up to "full" if I'm around to keep an eye on it. I've spent an amused evening or several watching GrammarVandal desperately fight against it, with me not touching a button. It's a multi-pass mechanism where data gathered from later edits may be used to revise earlier ones, so it can (and does) indeed revert its own edits. And, yes, sometimes I override its actions. However, it only edits FrontPage in response to edits by GrammarVandal, which must (by the definition of "edit") include some change to whitespace if nothing else.] -- DaveVoorhis

The last "edit" of FrontPage does not change anything, even whitespace.

[The SharkBot's interpretation of "whitespace" can include null edits, e.g., those in which some text is added, then deleted shortly thereafter.]

The last "edit" was by the bot, and did not change anything, even whitespace.

[Yes. It reverted a null edit, just like the one before this edit.]

The edit referred to as "the one before this" reverted a real edit that removed exactly 26 characters (or spaces), whereas the last edit of FrontPage didn't change it at all, as proved by a character-by character comparison of the current version and the latest history version.

[Ah! Well, there you go. It wasn't a null edit, then. I generated it the way they usually occur, but I didn't spend any care or effort on it and merely intended it for illustration. SharkBot can revert both real edits and null edits. If you're not happy with that, please submit a formal complaint through the usual channels and my secretary's assistant will get back to you in due course.]

By definition, a null edit can't be reverted and doesn't need reversion. Some of the bot's attempts to do so fail with the message "No change to text".

[Funny thing, that. It turns out there are circumstances where you can revert a null edit and it happens as a side-effect of the way the machinery works. However, it's rare enough and unimportant enough not to worry about.]

A null edit is the overall effect of making an edit, then reverting it. There is no edit left to revert, so it can't be reverted, but Wiki sometimes allows an unchanged page to be saved instead of issuing "No change to text". That's not a side-effect, just a minor fault in how Wiki assesses whether a change has occurred.

[By "side-effect", I meant that it's a byproduct of the way WardsWiki software and the SharkBot software behave and interact.]

That may be, but whatever the bot does is not a revert, as there is nothing left to revert once an edit has been reverted by the original editor.

[You can revert an edit of, say, 100 characters, yes? And you can revert 10 characters, right? And 1 character? In general, WardsWiki supports edits of 'n' characters. Under the right conditions, as described above, WardsWiki effectively supports an edit of 0 characters. Thus, WardsWiki supports edits of 'n' characters, where 'n' is any whole number. A reversion is just another edit, so it obviously supports reversions of 'n' characters. Thus, logically, WardsWiki can support a reversion of an edit of 0 characters.]

The term "revert" implies a change of at least 1 character. A "change" of 0 characters is neither an edit nor a revert, even if the save is allowed, much as entering and immediately leaving a train is possible but doesn't constitute a journey and doesn't have a corresponding return journey.

[Quibbling about the terminology does not alter the truth of its manifestation. Call it what you like -- it happens. If it helps, think of it as entering and immediately leaving a train, and then being told by the conductor to get off the train.]

Somebody has been messing with GuiPrototypingTools for the last week or so. It appears to be driven by motivation to put "iRise" at the top of the list, but other oddities are going on also. Somebody volunteered and alphabetized the list, but that has been undone.

20110330: Someone from 141.214.17.5 has twice replaced the whole of FrontPage with a rude remark. -- JohnFletcher

Somebody deleted UsingBagsForPrivacyPurposes without explanation. I have an archive copy, but first I wish to figure out what the hell happened. The user label says "agrestic.vectro.com". (3/19/2012). -- top

That was GrammarVandal having one of his childish little edit-trantrums.

Thanks for the update. I thought it was due to something else at first.

web8.cirtexhosting.com deleted JavaScriptSucks for unknown reasons.

186-174.111.65.serverpronto.com is also doing some suspicious activity. DeleteTantrum perhaps.

See: SharkBot, WikiVandalsDiscussion, InvestigatingVandals, FastWayToUndelete, BotWar

CategoryWikiMaintenance