MediaWiki:Edit Monitor Admin: Difference between revisions

The aim of the Edit Monitoring system is to monitor vandalism on the site. It does this by preventing excess activity from new accounts or IP addresses. This activity might originate from a malicious bot or a user who intends to corrupt content on the site.

Block codes

When the EM system blocks a user action, it provides a code explaining why the action was blocked.

Most frequent user action blocks

• 13: Vandalism detected. The system automatically blocks usernames for 2 days (change block to indefinite when vandalism is confirmed) and IP addresses for 3 months. Block should be changed to indefinite.
• 31: Website is in protected mode and account creation is disabled.
• 15: The website is in protected mode and edits from IP addresses, or users who are not on the two safe lists are disabled. Account creation is disabled.

Other activities

Edits:

• 10: User is not on the safe list and exceeded the number of edits allowed.
• 11: Website is in lockdown mode and editing from new users is disabled
• 12: Similar to the above case except only anonymous edits are disabled. Edits from all existing user names are still allowed. Account creation is disabled.
• 14: New user link. This function is currently not implemented however the site has other protections against spam (Captcha on account creation, or for all edits from an IP address).

Moves:

• 20: New users are not allowed to move pages to new titles.
• 21: The site is in manual protected mode and pages moves are disabled for new users.
• 22: Similar to above, except that unknown activity was detected and the site is in automatic protected mode.

Account creation:

• 30: Excess account creation was detected.
• 31: Account creation is disabled because site is in protected mode.

Safe User Lists

There are two safe user lists that can be maintained through User rights management:

• em-bypass-1: New users who have started contributing should be on this list to decrease the likelihood of being blocked by the system. Anyone can be added to this list without any risk. New users should be asked to use the Preview button as much as possible and space out the 'Saves' to about once every 5 minutes.
• em-bypass-2: Users on this list are not monitored at all. Only users who are completely trusted should be on this list. Explicit requests by new users to be added to this safe list should be ignored.

A user should only be added to one of these lists (whichever is applicable), and administrators do not need to be added to any.

Inclusion on these lists is to protect against accidental blocks, and is not related to a user's quality of editing. If a safe user begins to vandalize, they should be removed from the list and their edits should be reverted. If that proves difficult, the site can revert to a backup and retain any positive contributions.

Changing rights

1. Click a user's contribs link, for example: Special:Contributions/Amina
2. Click on "user rights management" at the top. You will see: Special:UserRights/Amina
3. Assign right of bypass 1 or 2 (choose only one)
   • Choose bypass-1 if its a new editor
   • Choose bypass-2 if its a trusted editor
4. Click "Save user groups"

These lists are separate for every multi-lingual site.

Clearing the Edit Monitor Table

This table should be cleared in the following conditions:

1. A User was a genuine editor blocked by mistake
2. User is new and has made some edits but cannot yet be trusted to be put on the "em-bypass-1" or "em-bypass-2" lists. Clearing the EM table occasionally will make sure they won't be blocked by the EM system while they are editing and establishing that they can be trusted. This is usually only needed for new editors who are making a lot of edits. In any case, it should still be safe to add them to the "em-bypass-1" list. Users can be added on the "em-bypass-2" only when it is certain that they can be trusted.
3. User cannot be trusted yet to be put on the em-bypass-2 list and is making some edits.
4. There have been some valid edits from an IP address.
5. Vandalism has subsided.

The table clears itself every now and then so it should not need to be cleared unless a user has been blocked.

Clear Edit Monitor Table

Unblock message

After unblocking a valid user, use {{subst:MediaWiki:Edit Monitor Admin/Unblock message}} as the unblock message (edit as needed).

Related Links

• WikiIslam:Administrators (turn Lock Down/Protected mode on or off)
• Edit Monitor Log | Auto Block Log
• Block Logs
• MediaWiki:Edit Monitor (for users who have been blocked)

The Edit Monitor log only shows the unsuccessful attempts of a user to edit or move a page. The actual blocking of the user is initiated by Edit Monitor but is shown in the regular block log.