| EBTHK's Policies and Guidelines |
|---|
| Content Standards |
| Editing Rules Neutral Views Available for verification Privacy protection State the source |
| Format Guidelines |
| Editing Guidelines Route info template system |
| Managements |
| Deleting Rules and Guidelines Page Protection Guidelines Image Usage Guidelines |
| Attitude on User Communication |
| User Page Guidelines Etiquette and Civility Don't resort to legal threats No personal attacks |
| User Violation Behaviours |
| Vandalism Copyright Infringement User Offence Policy and Blocking |
| Resolution of Disuputes |
| Consensus Resolving disuptes Preventing Common Mistakes |
Vandalism refers to the deliberate addition, deletion or modification of the contents of the EBTHK for the purpose of degrading the quality of the EBTHK, e.g. replacing normal contents with obscene, defamatory or otherwise irrelevant contents.
Whilst some well-intentioned improvements to the EBTHK may be misleading or misinterpreted, they are by no means destructive. Even ill-intentioned editing is generally not considered vandalism unless it is irrefutably malicious. For example, the occasional addition of a personal opinion is not vandalism; it is simply useless and should be removed or modified.
Vandalism is against EBTHK policy, and anyone has the right to find and deal with vandalism, and if you can't deal with it, ask for help.
Not all vandalism is obvious, and not all extensive or controversial modifications are vandalism, so be careful when checking whether new data or information is correct, or whether it is a mistake made in good faith, or whether it is outright vandalism.
Types of vandalism[]
The following lists the common types of vandalism in EBTHK.
Removing content from page[]
Completely deleting (emptying) a created page or removing part of the data, some people overwrite the original page with some profanity.
Conscious and prolonged edit wars[]
New users may not be aware that EBTHK is against edit wars, but users who persist in fighting edit wars with others after being notified of the above message are considered to be "consciously" disruptive, and both sides of the edit war should be warned or banned. "Persistent" generally refers to two or more rounds of edit wars.
Maliciously resuming deleted articles[]
Reinstating articles that have been voted out with no improvement in content, or worse, a new name for the article as a cover.
Childish vandalism[]
Making the page blank, adding graffiti to the text, or replacing some content with some unknown language, foul language.
Silly vandalism[]
Users sometimes create articles to be added or replace or expand the original content with frivolous stuff that seems to make sense.
Sneaky vandalism[]
It refers to spoilers that are hard to detect. Such as: fake news, tampering with data, switches and typos that can only be detected on close inspection.
Eye-catching vandalism[]
Adding of some offensive posts and use hostile accounts to get the attention of EBTHK users, see No personal attacks.
User page vandalism[]
Maliciously modifying, moving or emptying user pages, including user discussion pages.
Template vandalism[]
Adding the above destruction information to the template.
Vandalism by moving pages[]
Replacing the original page name with something so offensive or irrelevant that no one can find the page. (It is not considered vandalism to move a page to replace a page and change its purpose by not retaining the redirection if it is a temporary subpage created in response to a data change or update, or if it is a redirected page that expires with the expiration of its time limit.)
Vandalistic redirection[]
Redirect some pages to some offensive images or pages, or redirect to some wrong pages.
Vandalistic links[]
Rewriting the page so that the hyperlinks inside look the same as the original, but are linked to the wrong layout.
Removal of warning templates[]
Removing warning templates to prevent administrators from processing, modifying, or deleting problematic layouts and entries.
Vandalism of others' comments[]
Unauthorised deletion of signed messages and comments that distort the meaning of others on the discussion page. Please respect the opinions of any EBTHK user in the discussion forums, except for personal attacks or infringing comments that we need to delete.
Vandalism of official policies[]
The content of the EBTHK guidelines that we do not agree with is deleted or changed without discussion. However, normal textual changes to the guidelines are not vandalism.
Copyright-infringing vandalism[]
Adding content to the EBTHK that you know is copyrighted and violates the EBTHK copyright policy is considered vandalism. However, since the user may not be aware that the added content is infringing or may not be aware of the EBTHK's anti-infringement policy, repeating the infringing behaviour after being informed of the relevant anti-infringement policy is considered to be infringing vandalism.
Advertisement vandalism[]
Inclusion of inappropriate external links in the text for self-promotional purposes.
New user vandalism[]
Creating a new user with some offensive name is also seen as disruptive, even if the user may not be allowed to use.
Vandalism by massively increasing community burden[]
Abusing the complaint mechanism by submitting a large number of deletion requests with hollow and repetitive reasons for deletion that are not in good faith (e.g., proposing the deletion of important entries on this website), adding a large amount of burden to the community's discussion and handling.
Improper uploading of files stored in this site[]
Please do not upload pictures, videos or other files that are totally unrelated to the content of the entries or that involve personal privacy. EBTHK's upload function is not intended to be a private file storage space or photo album. See the Image Usage Guidelines for more.
What actions are not considered vandalism?[]
The following are not considered to be vandalism behaviour, despite what is sometimes perceived as such. These should be treated differently and should not be easily intimidated with warning templates, but should be raised in good faith on the other user's talk page:
New user tests[]
New users click on the "Edit this page" button to see if they can actually edit the page, so they write something in to test it out. This is not disruptive! Instead, encourage these people by guiding them to the sandbox (e.g., using the test template) so they can keep practising.
Learning the markup language and format of wikis[]
Some users take a while to learn the markup language and formatting of Wikipedia content, and in that time they may do some experimenting. Instead of classifying this as disruptive behaviour, it is better to give them some positive help and direct them to help articles such as Editing Guidelines, Formatting New Articles, and so on.
Violation of neutrality[]
Many of us may find it difficult to understand this side of the EBTHK, and even many professional users of the canon occasionally include content that is not suitable for a neutral point of view. In fact, all of us are more or less blinded by our own beliefs. As sad as that is, it is not destructive.
Courageous edits[]
EBTHK users often edit articles to improve them, because that's what EBTHK encourages us to do. Sometimes it is easy to think of vandalism when one sees something one has worked so hard on being completely deleted or rewritten, or moved to a discussion page, but such editing is not vandalism.
Being stubborn[]
Some users are unable to reach a consensus with others, and even stubbornly edit in spite of everyone else's objections. This is regrettable, but not disruptive, so please refer to Resolution of Disputes.
Harassment and Personal Attacks[]
EBTHK has a clear policy against personal attacks, and harassment of other EBTHK users is not allowed. While some harassment is vandalism, such as vandalising a user page or including personal attacks on other users in an entry, some harassment is not necessarily vandalism.
Replacement of Temporary Pages and Change of Page Usage[]
It is not vandalism to move a page to replace a page and change the use of the page by not retaining the redirection if it is a temporary subpage created in response to a change in data update, and if it is a redirection page that expires with the time limit.
Unexpected matters[]
It's not a vandalism if someone uses an unusual editing method. If someone expands the instant noodles section, but then writes something like "Mum said it's bad to eat instant noodles, so everyone should eat less of them" in the summary, that's not a weird way to vandalise the site, and they're probably just newbies. Please try to tell them the correct way to summarise, not to revert to all of them, not to attack them, and also to direct them to the New User Support Centre to ask questions.
Dealing with Vandalism[]
Procedures on dealing with vandalism[]
As a general rule, be careful to make sure that the other party is really being disruptive, or is just accidentally doing something that is not disruptive, and if the latter is the case, do not perform the following procedures:
- Revert vandalism.
- Leave a warning message on the vandal's talk page.
- If the vandal continues after being warned, report him/her to the board administrator in the Vandalism Report section. The board administrator can then block the user for violating the User Offence Policy and Blocking.
- The administrator will leave a notification message on the user's talk page after the user has been blocked.