Wikipedia:Requests for investigation

The purpose of this page is to provide instant notice of vandalism taking place. However, please do not label isolated instances of text deletions, replacements or odd additions as VANDALISM unless they are overtly lewd or offensive. More often than not, this is just a visitor to the site experimenting with how to use it -- labeling them as a VANDAL is a sure way of ensuring they will not become contributors. Only add alerts to this page of true VANDALISM such as a systematic attack on several articles. Above all, please be polite at first and give the person the benefit of the doubt until they prove they deserve otherwise.

For a list of currently blocked IPs and the reason why they were blocked, visit: Special:Ipblocklist.
If you would like to look up information about the vandal's IP please visit http://network-tools.com/ and enter in the IP.

CURRENT ALERTS

Sept 19 2002 - 64.163.38.122 replacing Israeli-Palestinian conflict articles w/slogans
Sept 19 2002 - 207.75.101.98 (Dave's Good Stuff) vandalised Television
Sept 17 2002 - 66.157.7.121 random obscenity - IP blocked
Sept 16 2002 - 67.248.54.146 [http://www.wikipedia.com/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Contributions&target=67.248.54.146

67.248.54.146] is making inane changes to sexuality related articled.

Sept 15 2002 - 199.217.189.57 is deleting all Yugoslavia entries! -- Zoe

See also: Vandalism in progress - old alerts

Here's how it works:

When you notice what you believe to be an act of vandalism at work, take note of that person's IP number or handle.

Edit this page, adding the person's IP number, the date and the approximate time (server) of the alleged vandalism.

Then put the person's IP or handle in the Summary box and hit save. (Important!!! Otherwise people have to open the vandalism page to see what's happening.)

VANDALISM IN PROGRESS appears in caps on Recent Changes, along with the id of the alleged vandal, and the rest of Wikipedia can jump in to decide whether damage has actually occurred. If there is consensus that an attack was correctly identified, everyone will help repair the damage (see guidelines below for how to remove undesired changes).

If no attack occurred (e.g. it was just a difference of opinion about what is appropriate content or style, not intentional defacement), you should probably apologize to the person you branded as a vandal.

When the attack is finished, come back and remove the information you added. When it is removed, you may wish to add it to Vandalism in progress - old alerts for future reference.

Please only use this page for geniune malicious vandalism, and only for a sustained attack. If you make any changes to this page for other reasons, check the minor edit box, or put something like "Not calling a vandalism alert" in the Summary box.

Notes and further guidelines:

When you list times, please modify to "server" time for the international community. You can obtain the current server time from the preferences tab.

How to remove undesired changes:

click "History" for the damaged page.
click "View" for a previous version.
click "Edit Revision x of this page" (located at the bottom of the page)
save the old version.

If you wish to minimise your actions, just enter the letters "VR" as a comment, and choose "minor edit". This informs the other editors (if they choose to view minor edits in their preferences) that a page has been repaired.