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# {{anchors|1}} '''Blatant copyright violations''' that can be redacted without removing attribution to non-infringing contributors. If a redacting a revision would remove any contributor's attribution, this criteria can not be used. Best practices for copyrighted text removal can be found at [[Wikipedia:Copyright problems]] and should take precedence over this criteria.
# {{anchors|G1}} Blatant '''copyright violations'''. This does not include revisions on the same page that contain non-violating content that were posted in good faith by users not associated with the copyright violator.{{why}}
# {{anchors|G2}} '''Grossly insulting, degrading, or offensive material against a person, group or organisation''' that has little/no encyclopedic or project value. This includes slurs, smears, and grossly offensive material of little or no encyclopedic value, but '''not''' mere factual statements, and '''not''' "ordinary" incivility, personal attacks or conduct accusations.
# {{anchors|2}} '''Grossly insulting, degrading, or offensive material against a person, group or organisation''' that has little/no encyclopedic or project value and/or violates our [[WP:BLP|Biographies for living people]] policy]]. This includes slurs, smears, and grossly offensive material of little or no encyclopedic value, but '''not''' mere factual statements, and '''not''' "ordinary" incivility, personal attacks or conduct accusations.<!--
#:''Or possibly:''
#:''Or possibly:''
#:'''Purely offensive material''', where the revision or log contains (and is apparently posted to promote) blatantly defamatory, privacy breaching or grossly offensive material. This might include log entries, edits, usernames, uploads, pagemove vandalism, attack usernames, attack filenames and the blocks of attack usernames.
#:'''Purely offensive material''', where the revision or log contains (and is apparently posted to promote) blatantly defamatory, privacy breaching or grossly offensive material. This might include log entries, edits, usernames, uploads, pagemove vandalism, attack usernames, attack filenames and the blocks of attack usernames.-->
# {{anchors|G3}} '''Purely disruptive material''', for example where the entry contains (and is apparently posted to promote) blatant provocation, warring, or perpetuation of an off-wiki battleground within the project, including allegations, grossly inappropriate threats or attacks, browser-crashing or malicious HTML, and the like, being of little or no relevance or merit within the project. This is distinguished from G2 in that, although the material is not necessarily grossly offensive, it is clearly harmful to the project, has little or no project benefit, is usually not posted by established and respected editors, and merely encourages the hostile use of the project as a battleground.
# {{anchors|3}} '''Purely disruptive material''' that is of little or no relevance or merit to the project. For example where the entry contains (and is apparently posted to promote) perpetuation of an off-wiki [[WP:BATTLE|battleground]] within the project. This includes allegations, grossly inappropriate threats or attacks, browser-crashing or malicious HTML, shock pages, phishing pages, known virus proliferating pages, and links to web pages that disparage or threaten some person or entity and serve no other valid purpose, but not mere [[WP:SPAM|spam links]].
# {{anchors|G4}} '''Personal and non-public information''' according to usual criteria.{{which?}} This includes actual facts, speculation and allusions as to places of residence, name, sexual orientation, contact, work, family, or home information, intimate relationships, and the like, that have been posted in breach of usual privacy norms. This also covers likely privacy breaching material where suppression will be promptly requested. ''(Note that it does not matter for this item whether it was posted by the user themselves or by a third party, nor whether in good or bad faith)''
# {{anchors|4}} '''Personal and non-public information''' in accordance with the [[Wikipedia:OVERSIGHT#Policy|Oversight policy]]. This includes actual facts, speculation and allusions as to places of residence, name, sexual orientation, contact, work, family, or home information, intimate relationships, and the like, that have been posted in breach of usual privacy norms. It does not matter for this item whether it was posted by the user themselves or by a third party, nor whether in good or bad faith. If this information is a serious breach of privacy please suppress the information as normal, but also ''[[Wikipedia:Requests for oversight|request normal oversight]]''.
⚫
#{{anchors|5}} '''Valid deletion under [[WP:DEL#REASON|Deletion Policy]], executed using RevisionDelete'''. There are four main reasons why a matter that falls under deletion policy may be better handled by using the RevisionDelete tool. It is important that the underlying reason for deletion is made clear in the log summary.
#{{anchors|G5}} '''Link to a web page of a purely malicious or grossly inappropriate nature'''. This includes pornographic pages (when used out of any context), shock pages, phishing pages, known virus proliferating pages, and links to web pages that disparage or threaten some person or entity and serve no other valid purpose, but not mere [[WP:SPAM|spam links]].
⚫
#{{anchors|G6}} '''Valid deletion under [[WP:DEL#REASON|Deletion Policy]] or [[WP:CSD|Speedy Deletion]], executed using RevisionDelete'''. There are four main reasons why a matter that falls under deletion policy may be better handled by using the RevisionDelete tool. It is important that the underlying reason for deletion is made clear in the log summary.
#:*''Long page history'' - the page may have a long history so that deletion using other tools is difficult or impossible
#:*''Long page history'' - the page may have a long history so that deletion using other tools is difficult or impossible
#:*''Log redaction required'' - material that would be deletable on any page cannot be deleted if it occurs in a log entry without RevisionDelete
#:*''Log redaction required'' - material that would be deletable on any page cannot be deleted if it occurs in a log entry without RevisionDelete
#:*''Minimizing harm'' - e.g., a post that is deletable under normal deletion policy or CSD may only need ''some'' data, such as the revision text, removed; leaving other fields such as the username of the poster visible in the page history and contributions may be both harmless and, at times, positively desirable
#:*''Minimizing harm'' - e.g., a post that is deletable under normal deletion policy or CSD may only need ''some'' data, such as the revision text, removed; leaving other fields such as the username of the poster visible in the page history and contributions may be both harmless and, at times, positively desirable
#:*''Avoiding mass delete + undelete activity'' - other administrator tools require full deletion and selective undelete to selectively delete revisions. This may inadvertently expose past deletions to the public on some pages with significant deletion history. RevisionDelete can avoid this risk.
#:*''Avoiding mass delete + undelete activity'' - other administrator tools require full deletion and selective undelete to selectively delete revisions. This may inadvertently expose past deletions to the public on some pages with significant deletion history. RevisionDelete can avoid this risk.
# {{anchors|S1}} '''Deletion mandated by a decision of the [[WP:ARBCOM|Arbitration Committee]]'''. At times the Arbitration Committee may determine that a logged item was sufficiently improper that the record should be formally deleted in the public log. The deletion reason should clearly link to the decision. Deletions under this criterion are considered to be [[WP:AE|Arbitration Enforcement]] matters and should not be overturned improperly; they may however be appealed.
# {{anchors|ARB}} '''Deletion mandated by a decision of the [[WP:ARBCOM|Arbitration Committee]]'''. At times the Arbitration Committee may determine that a logged item was sufficiently improper that the record should be formally deleted in the public log. The deletion reason should clearly link to the decision. Deletions under this criterion are considered to be [[WP:AE|Arbitration Enforcement]] matters and should not be overturned improperly; they may however be appealed.


=== Notes on use ===
=== Notes on use ===

Revision as of 07:51, 17 October 2009

RevisionDelete is a software feature that allows individual entries in a page history or log to be removed from public view. RevisionDelete can hide the text of a revision, the username that made the edit or action, or the edit or log summary.

On the English Wikipedia, criteria exist to govern the use of RevisionDelete, which are outlined below. Use of RevisionDelete by oversighters in "Suppression" mode is covered separately by the Oversight/suppression policy.

Overview of RevisionDelete

RevisionDelete allows selective redaction of posts and log entries by oversighters, as well as peer review by any oversighter of the correct use of the tool. Hidden entries still appear in redacted form on the public wiki, and any user may request that an oversighter review a RevisionDelete action, to determine whether its hiding was reasonable.

RevisionDelete, as a deletion tool, is capable of removing material from the wider community's view. Because of this, the tool should only be used within strict guidelines. Barring rare exceptions, RevisionDelete should not be used outside the criteria outlined on this page.

Oversighters should consult as usual if uncertain that a revision meets criteria. In time-sensitive situations, an oversighter may redact and then immediately bring the matter to the oversight mailing list for wider discussion.

Criteria for redaction

A certain low degree of inappropriate or disruptive posting is normal within a large community. In general, only material that meets the criteria below should be deleted. Users should consider whether simply reverting or ignoring would be sufficient in the circumstances. If deletion is needed, only redact what is necessary (i.e. leave non-harmful fields visible), and give a clear reason for the removal.

RevisionDelete should not be used without prior clear consensus for "ordinary" incivility, attacks, or for claims of editorial misconduct. The wider community may need to fully review these at the time and in future, even if offensive.

  1. Blatant copyright violations that can be redacted without removing attribution to non-infringing contributors. If a redacting a revision would remove any contributor's attribution, this criteria can not be used. Best practices for copyrighted text removal can be found at Wikipedia:Copyright problems and should take precedence over this criteria.
  2. Grossly insulting, degrading, or offensive material against a person, group or organisation that has little/no encyclopedic or project value and/or violates our Biographies for living people policy]]. This includes slurs, smears, and grossly offensive material of little or no encyclopedic value, but not mere factual statements, and not "ordinary" incivility, personal attacks or conduct accusations.
  3. Purely disruptive material that is of little or no relevance or merit to the project. For example where the entry contains (and is apparently posted to promote) perpetuation of an off-wiki battleground within the project. This includes allegations, grossly inappropriate threats or attacks, browser-crashing or malicious HTML, shock pages, phishing pages, known virus proliferating pages, and links to web pages that disparage or threaten some person or entity and serve no other valid purpose, but not mere spam links.
  4. Personal and non-public information in accordance with the Oversight policy. This includes actual facts, speculation and allusions as to places of residence, name, sexual orientation, contact, work, family, or home information, intimate relationships, and the like, that have been posted in breach of usual privacy norms. It does not matter for this item whether it was posted by the user themselves or by a third party, nor whether in good or bad faith. If this information is a serious breach of privacy please suppress the information as normal, but also request normal oversight.
  5. Valid deletion under Deletion Policy, executed using RevisionDelete. There are four main reasons why a matter that falls under deletion policy may be better handled by using the RevisionDelete tool. It is important that the underlying reason for deletion is made clear in the log summary.
    • Long page history - the page may have a long history so that deletion using other tools is difficult or impossible
    • Log redaction required - material that would be deletable on any page cannot be deleted if it occurs in a log entry without RevisionDelete
    • Minimizing harm - e.g., a post that is deletable under normal deletion policy or CSD may only need some data, such as the revision text, removed; leaving other fields such as the username of the poster visible in the page history and contributions may be both harmless and, at times, positively desirable
    • Avoiding mass delete + undelete activity - other administrator tools require full deletion and selective undelete to selectively delete revisions. This may inadvertently expose past deletions to the public on some pages with significant deletion history. RevisionDelete can avoid this risk.
  6. Deletion mandated by a decision of the Arbitration Committee. At times the Arbitration Committee may determine that a logged item was sufficiently improper that the record should be formally deleted in the public log. The deletion reason should clearly link to the decision. Deletions under this criterion are considered to be Arbitration Enforcement matters and should not be overturned improperly; they may however be appealed.

Notes on use

Grossly insulting or offensive comments against a person, group or organization:

It is not necessary that the target is identifiable. It is sufficient that it appears to refer to some real person, organization or group, or could be intended to suggest a specific target to the right reader.[1]

Deletion of privacy breaching or defamatory material prior to requesting suppression:

Since Oversight is not immediate, an administrator who notices material that might require suppression may provisionally delete the information from public view to minimize harm, then promptly contact an oversighter to request its full removal. For this reason, even if the material is ultimately found not to be suppressable, administrators are allowed to err on the side of caution, provided it is immediately passed to an oversighter and the deletion is in good faith. If the oversighter decides suppression was not appropriate, the material will be restored or admin-deleted instead.

Hiding usernames: (Requires review - not checked)

Hiding usernames responsible for edits can pose a potential problem as it breaks the chain of attribution. Only edits that cannot be licensed under the GFDL or CC-BY-SA should have their usernames hidden.[verification needed]

Large scale use

RevisionDelete is mainly intended for simple use and fairly recent material. Text that exists in numerous revisions (eg on busy pages) or which has been the subject of many others' comments, may not be practical to redact. Redaction of such material should take into account how practical and effective redaction will be, how disruptive it would be (eg to others' valid posts), and whether redaction will itself draw attention to the issue. No hard line exists; judgment is required.

Administrators in this situation may wish to initially edit the page to revert or remove the grossly improper material, and then consult.

Log redaction and improper use

Log redaction is intended solely for grossly improper content, and is not permitted for ordinary matters; the community needs to be able to review users' block logs and other logs whether or not proper. Due to its potential, use of the RevisionDelete tool to redact block logs or to hide unfavorable actions, posts and/or criticisms, in a manner not covered by these criteria or without the required consensus or Arbcom agreement, will usually be treated as abuse of the tool.

Appeal and discussion of actions

Actions performed using this tool remain visible in the public logs. They are subject to review by other administrators (who can see redacted material), and to reversal upon clear, wider consensus. As with other administrative tools, good judgment and appropriate use are expected; improper use can lead to sanctions or desysopping.

Technical details

The effects of two different visibility combinations on a page history. Redaction is shown to all users.
RevisionDelete (del/undel) link on page history and logs (administrators only). The same option is also added to diff pages and old revisions (example).

The revision deletion feature is available when a usergroup is given the deleterevision user right.

Functionality

Once enabled for administrators on Wikipedia and viewed by an admin or oversighter, every page revision and log entry has a small (del/undel) button displayed next to it, as shown.

When a revision or log entry is hidden from view in its entirety, it is displayed as shown to the right, with the elements hidden from view stricken and greyed out. The struck-out elements cannot be viewed by any usergroup which does not have the deleterevision right. A user who cannot access the relevant revisions and who tries to compare the revision with other revisions or access its &oldid= page will receive an error stating that the revision has been removed from the public archives. Similarly, looking up log entries by username will not show log entries where the username has been redacted.

The (del/undel) link can usually be clicked by an administrator to view the diff. It will appear in bold if suppression has been applied, in which case both the redacted material and its deletion settings cannot be accessed by administrators or users who lack access to the oversight tool.

Revision deletion actions are retained even when the revision or page is deleted in the traditional manner. If a page is later undeleted, data that was deleted with RevisionDelete will still remain deleted.

Changing visibility settings

The RevisionDelete dialog. The suppression option is included for completeness, although this is only visible to users with oversight access.

To hide or unhide a revision or a log entry, click the small (del/undel) button next to the relevant revision, diff, or log entry that you wish to show or hide. Depending on your permissions, there may be either three or four options to choose from:

  • Delete revision text
  • Delete edit comment
  • Delete editor's username/IP
  • Suppress data from administrators as well as others (only available to users with the suppressrevision right, namely oversighters)

Tick the checkboxes next to each of the actions you wish to apply to the selection, and provide an informative summary in the "Log comment field". Once this information has been filled in, click the "Apply" button to submit the information. If this has been done correctly, a success message should be displayed on your screen.

To unhide a revision or log entry, or to amend the data that is hidden, click the (del/undel) button for the revision or log entry and simply untick the boxes, provide a reason or summary and click the "Apply" button. Success should be marked by the display of a success message.

RevisionDelete's own log entries

File:RevDelete own log entries (2).png
RevisionDelete's own log entries in the public deletion log.

Use of RevisionDelete produces an entry in the public deletion log, or the private suppression log if used by an oversighter and "Suppress data from administrators as well as others" is checked. Log entries created in the public deletion log look like those displayed to the right, for page revision and log entries visibilities respectively. The options (diff | change visibility) provide an easy link to view or redact the underlying page revision to which the log entry refers.

See also

References

  1. ^ For example a smear could target a person known locally by a nickname or other allusion that no Wikipedia administrator has heard of, but that is instantly recognizable to people in that school, town or social community. It is therefore not necessary to be able to identify the target/s in order to treat it as if a target exists.
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