Help:Wiki University--Patrolling Recent Changes Page





<< Previous Chapter Next Chapter >>

What Is Patrolling?
One of our major responsibilities as missionaries is to ensure that articles comply with Wiki policies. Changes to the Wiki go live as soon as they are saved. For this reason, patrolling recent changes and new pages is critical and needs to be done all through the day. This is our first priority even before editing or adding to the Wiki. We must make sure the Wiki shows the highest standards of language and content. It is a reflection on us and the Church if we allow substandard material and language in the Wiki. (We missionaries are the Meerkats of the wiki and the first line of defense.)

The Recent Changes Page
All new pages and changes and additions to existing pages, no matter how trivial, are listed on a page named Recent Changes. This page can also be accessed through "Special Pages" under "Tools" on the left toolbar of every Research Wiki page. You may wish to set a bookmark or desktop icon on your PC to accesses the page directly.

You must be logged in to the FamilySearch Wiki to view the changes needing to be patrolled; i.e. those with a red exclamation mark displayed before the pagename for each line.

You are to patrol the earliest or oldest change first (so start from the bottom of the list). This takes care of the oldest edits made that haven't been marked as patrolled yet.

All changes on the Recent Changes page must be patrolled with only a few exceptions which will be explained in Lesson 15-Patrolling Guidelines.

Setting Your Recent Changes Page Preferences
Select Preferences  at the top right side of your screen above the Search bar, then click on the Recent changes tab. You will be provided with selectable options on how recent changes are displayed when you patrol.

It is recommended that you specify how many changes you want to see at a time and how far back they should go. It is also recommended that you check or mark the following options before you begin patrolling:


 * Hide patrolled edits in recent changes
 * Hide patrolled pages from new page list

Sample of Recent Changes page
Here is a sample of eight entries from the "Recent Changes" page. Let's take the second from the top of the example and break it down into its parts.

Kind of edit
 m ! 20:06 Gardendale Alabama Family History Center ( diff | hist ).. (+87) .. Rickgwilliams ( talk | contribs | block )  ( Opening Hours and Charges for copying )  [ rollback 1 edit ] ( Tag Visual edit )

Kind of Edit - "N", "m", "b" or blank.


 * N - stands for new page. If the article is new, there will not be a "diff" entry and the reviewer will need to click on the name of the article.
 * m - stands for minor edit.
 * b - stands for a bot edit or one that is done automatically by the system.
 * blank designates the edit as a major change. Edits default to major unless you click the "minor edit" box. (Whether an edit is a major or minor change is a judgment call. Many times the user is unsure as to what it is and as a result doesn't check anything).

Has it been checked?
 m !  20:06 Gardendale Alabama Family History Center ( diff | hist ).. (+87) .. Rickgwilliams ( talk | contribs | block )  ( Opening Hours and Charges for copying )  [ rollback 1 edit ] ( Tag Visual edit )

Checked or not - ! means the edit has NOT been checked or patrolled.

Why is this important? If you are seeing articles that do not have the ! , you are either not signed in or need to change the page settings (or your personal settings) to hide patrolled edits. Note: Edits by Wiki missionaries and other users who have been given moderator privileges show as "patrolled (automatic)" on the patrol list.

Time of edit
 m ! 20:06 Gardendale Alabama Family History Center ( diff | hist ).. (+87) .. Rickgwilliams ( talk | contribs | block )  ( Opening Hours and Charges for copying )  [ rollback 1 edit ] ( Tag Visual edit )

Time of edit - 20:06 is Greenwich Mean Time in England using a 24 hour clock.

Why is this important? The time displayed will be according to the time zone you selected in your "Date and time" preferences. If you do not select a time zone, the time will be the time on the server which by default is Greenwich Mean time or sometimes referred to as Zulu time.

Article title
 m ! 20:06 Gardendale Alabama Family History Center  ( diff | hist ).. (+87) .. Rickgwilliams ( talk | contribs | block )  ( Opening Hours and Charges for copying )  [ rollback 1 edit ] ( Tag Visual edit )

Article title - "Gardendale Alabama Family History Center" is the title of the article that has been edited or changed.

Why is this important? Often, you will see that the title is for a user's user page or sandbox page. Since what users put on their sandbox pages is not seen by the public, we should give a lot of leeway in judging what they have put on their page. Often users are experimenting with material to see how it looks. If something looks strange but is not offensive, just mark it patrolled.

diff
 m ! 20:06 Gardendale Alabama Family History Center ( diff  | hist ).. (+87) .. Rickgwilliams ( talk | contribs | block )  ( Opening Hours and Charges for copying )  [ rollback 1 edit ] ( Tag Visual edit )

diff - means "difference" (not shown on new pages). Clicking on "diff" will open a page that shows the change(s) made. Here is a sample diff entry: Why is this important? The next two chapters will address common problems you may see in this "quick look".
 * The "diff" screen allows the patroller "a quick look" of the wikitext coding before changes are made (left) and after the new code was added (right) allowing the patroller to identify problems.
 * Below the "diff" screen, the whole article is displayed with the new changes in place.
 * In most cases, changes are minor corrections to the text or some new material added. However, some changes involve whole pages. Occasionally you will find a page with no changes; this occurs when the user does not make changes and saves the page rather than canceling the edit.
 * You can search for the change within the article body by pressing the down arrow key to do a manual search or quickly locate it by:
 * (1) highlighting the keywords or phrase to be searched;
 * (2) holding down the Ctrl key and clicking the F key; then,
 * (3) copying the highlighted keyword or phrase to the box that came up in the top right hand corner of your screen;
 * (4) click the down arrow key to go to the next item if there are multiple "hits".

hist
 m ! 20:06 Gardendale Alabama Family History Center ( diff | hist  ).. (+87) .. Rickgwilliams ( talk | contribs | block )  ( Opening Hours and Charges for copying )  [ rollback 1 edit ] ( Tag Visual edit )

hist - clicking on "hist" allows you to see all edits made to this page since its creation. (Reminder: you can also access the history of the article through the "View history" tab at the top of the page.) Why is this important? Looking at the history of a page will give you relevant information to help make a decision, including the following:


 * the original author of and main contributors to the article
 * the particular edit where an error was introduced
 * how long ago a certain edit was made

Added or substracted material
 m ! 20:06 Gardendale Alabama Family History Center ( diff | hist ).. (+87) .. Rickgwilliams  ( talk | contribs | block )  ( Opening Hours and Charges for copying )  [ rollback 1 edit ] ( Tag Visual edit )

Size of edit - (+87) the "net" number of "bytes" added to (+) and/or subtracted from (-) the article. Generally, a byte equates to a letter, number, or space. In this example, the value +87 represents the balance of bytes added and subtracted from the article during the edit.

user name
 m ! 20:06 Gardendale Alabama Family History Center ( diff | hist ).. (+87) .. Rickgwilliams   ( talk | contribs | block )  ( Opening Hours and Charges for copying )  [ rollback 1 edit ] ( Tag Visual edit )

User name - name of the user who made the edit. If the name is in blue, there is something on their user page. If in red, the user page is blank.

Why is this important? By going to the user page you can:
 * Learn more about the user who made the edits and the user's area of expertise or interest.
 * If you need to contact the user, you can by sending a message through their talk page or by generating an email through "Email this user" on the left tool bar under "Tools."
 * Check the user's other contributions by identifying them through "User contributions" on the left tool bar under "Tools."

talk
 m ! 20:06 Gardendale Alabama Family History Center ( diff | hist ).. (+87) .. Rickgwilliams (  talk  | contribs | block )  ( Opening Hours and Charges for copying )  [ rollback 1 edit ] ( Tag Visual edit )

Talk page - links to the user's talk page. If the link is blue, the page has been created. If the link is red, no messages have been sent to them or they have sent no messages from it. (Generally, shortly after a user begins contributing, the welcoming committee posts a welcome message that creates the talk page.) Why is this important?


 * Through review of the talk page, you can determine whether the contributor has received the welcome message and links to training.
 * You can use the contributor's talk page to post a message to the contributor.
 * You can review the contributor's talk page to determine whether there has been previous communication that is relevant.

contribs
 m ! 20:06 Gardendale Alabama Family History Center ( diff | hist ).. (+87) .. Rickgwilliams ( talk |  contribs  | block )  ( Opening Hours and Charges for copying )  [ rollback 1 edit ] ( Tag Visual edit ) contribs - this links to a page listing the contributions this person has made to the Wiki. Why is this important? Checking other contributions can be one way to determine whether there are patterns of errors or failure to observe Wiki guiding principles as well as what their interests are in the Wiki.

block
 m ! 20:06 Gardendale Alabama Family History Center ( diff | hist ).. (+87) .. Rickgwilliams ( talk | contribs |  block  )  ( Opening Hours and Charges for copying )  [ rollback 1 edit ] ( Tag Visual edit )

block - This block only shows up when the person patrolling is an authorized administrator. If blocked, the user is prevented from adding more material to the Wiki. This step would only be taken if the contributor repeatedly violates Wiki guidelines. Unless the edits are very extreme, the user should be contacted through the user talk page to explain the issue. If the user doesn't respond, refuses to fix the problem, or continues to add inappropriate content, consult with mission leadership.

Why is this important?
 * A support team member without administrator privileges can recommend a user be blocked by posting on Yammer for an administrator.


 * If, in the future, the user agrees to follow Wiki policies and guidelines, the block can be removed.

brief summary of changes made
 m ! 20:06 Gardendale Alabama Family History Center ( diff | hist ).. (+87) .. Rickgwilliams ( talk | contribs | block )  ( Opening Hours and Charges for copying )  [ rollback 1 edit ] ( Tag Visual edit )

Summary - If a brief statement was entered in the summary box describing the edit to the article, it shows up here. If no entry is made, the section header where the change was made will be the default entry.

Why is this important? A summary helps the patroller understand the purpose of the edits. When researching the history of an article, summary entries help you find a particular change.

rollbacks
 m ! 20:06 Gardendale Alabama Family History Center ( diff | hist ).. (+87) .. Rickgwilliams ( talk | contribs | block )  ( Opening Hours and Charges for copying )  [  rollback 1 edit  ] ( Tag Visual edit )

Rollback - By clicking on "rollback 1 edit" you revert the page back to the way it was before the edit was made. Why is this important? This is helpful for changes such as an erroneously blanked page or significant format corruption.
 * If you clicked on the little arrow and it is pointing downward, you will see more than one edit. It could display "rollback 4 edits".  Regardless of the number, by clicking on this, you will reverse all the edits of this user to the previous user at once.

Tag Visual edit
 m ! 20:06 Gardendale Alabama Family History Center ( diff | hist ).. (+87) .. Rickgwilliams ( talk | contribs | block )  ( Opening Hours and Charges for copying )  [ rollback 1 edit ] (  Tag Visual edit  ) Why is this important? If you do not see the Tag Visual edit, the edit was done in Wikitext.

HOW TO PATROL

 * Login to FamilySearch Wiki.
 * Go to Recent Changes page and begin patrolling from the bottom of the list.
 * Patrol NEW ARTICLES by clicking on the article name.
 * Patrol the changes made to EXISTING ARTICLES by clicking on the diff or numeric value representing the number of changes made on the page.
 * Review all additions and changes and verify that Wiki standards and policies are being met. See Guiding Principles.

Handling of changes that meet Wiki Standards

 * If the changes on the page meets with Wiki standards, mark the page patrolled.
 * -For additions of NEW ARTICLES, click on the text [Mark this page as patrolled] found at the bottom right hand corner of the page;


 * -For changes in EXISTING ARTICLES, click on the text [Mark as patrolled] found at the top right side of the page;


 * -This action will remove the line from the Recent Changes list.

Handling of changes that DO NOT meet Wiki Standards
- CONTACT the User via their talk page and/or their email
 * If the changes on the page does not meet with Wiki standards, you will perform one or more of the following steps:
 * > explain the issue or problem to the User;
 * > attempt to understand what they are trying to do and help them if you are able;
 * > refer them to Wiki standards and policies, as needed;
 * > invite them to make the correcting entries;
 * > flag the page to show up on your "watchlist";
 * > mark page as patrolled;
 * > follow-up in a few days to be sure the User acted upon your instructions;
 * > always follow-up (get back to the User) with a thank you message for their corrective action.

- REFER the issue to another missionary for resolution
 * > copy Username, article name, and URL for the "Difference between revisions of..." page and paste it into Yammer > Wiki 911;
 * > add an explanation of the issue or problem;
 * > indicate if you already contacted the user and what happened;
 * > indicate whether you marked the page as patrolled or not;
 * > post the message and watch Wiki 911 for responses by other missionaries;
 * > always follow-up with thanks to those who helped with issue resolution;
 * > learn by the final action taken.

- TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION by removing offensive material from the article

Patrolling Multiple Edits by the Same User
Remember that at this time each edit must be marked as patrolled. You can't just patrol the last change and assume that all the others were marked as well. Sometimes you have to go backward to go forward!

(One [or however many] intermediate revision by the same user not shown)
 * New Pages
 * The first edit of a new page is made by clicking on the name of the page, then scrolling to the bottom of the page and marking it as patrolled.
 * If there are other edits to the page you will need to go back to the patrolling page and click on the number of edits, then mark each as patrolled.
 * You may have to do this several times to get them all.
 * All Other Pages
 * Click on diff or the number of edits to get to the diff page. Just above where the differences are compared, there will be this line:
 * In order to see the "intermediate revisions," go backward once by clicking on Older edit on the left side of the page. This will take you back one edit.
 * Now, click on Newer edit on the right side of the page. You should now be able to mark all of the edits as patrolled one after the other.

Patrolling Tips

 * Patrolling is a great way to learn about the Wiki and you should patrol whenever you come on duty.


 * In patrolling, check the changes themselves and confirm that every newly-added link is for a legitimate site. In addition, check the rest of the article for tone, structure, and broken links.


 * If an article is being changed while you are patrolling, back off and give the contributor some time to complete the work. Otherwise, you may both be trying to edit at the same time, and you may be trying to make corrections that the contributor is also making.

In the next lessons, you will learn more about specific patrolling situations and how to deal with them.

Try these out
<div style="border-top:10px solid lightgray; border-left:10px solid lightgray; border-right:10px solid lightgray; border-radius:5px;"> Quick Quiz
 * Text highlighted in orange on the left of the diff page represents the original wikitext code.
 * True
 * False


 * The changes in the text are in blue.
 * True
 * False


 * When you see the N it means the user is new to the Wiki.
 * True
 * False


 * The size of an edit is shown inside parentheses and may have a plus or minus front of it.
 * True
 * False


 * You can learn about a user if the user name is in red.
 * True
 * False


 * If no reason for the change is displayed, the user failed to type in a reason in the Summary box.
 * True
 * False


 * If you want to see how many times the page has been changed, you click on diff.
 * True
 * False


 * In the following circumstances indicate whether you would (A) mark the article patrolled, (B) contact the user and follow-up, (C) post the article in Wiki 911, or (D) remove the changes myself. Note: There may be more than one correct answer.


 * 1.	The contributor made one edit and entered a link to a cosmetics site.
 * 2.	The contributor added a good link but formatted it incorrectly and it is garbled.
 * 3.	A new contributor made 4 inappropriate edits in one day.

<div style="width:160px; height:20px; padding-top:3px; padding-left:10px; background-color:orange; color:white; border:1px solid orange; border-radius:5px;">Check your answers

<< Previous Chapter Next Chapter >>