Van Helsing Wiki:Vandalism

**Vandalism** will not be tolerated on this wiki. Vandalism is defined as any edit made in a deliberate attempt to disrupt the Van Helsing Wiki, deliberately damage its content in any form. Vandalism is usually committed either by a user fooling around with the edit functionality with no regard for the site's content, or by a user deliberately setting out to damage the wiki.

Common types of vandalism include the addition of obscenities, crude humor, page erasing, and the insertion of nonsense on non-related material into articles. This can result in said a user being temporarily banned.

## Forms of Vandalism

* **Inappropriate Content** — This refers to the changing of the language of a page (Van Helsing Wiki is in US English only) or inserting nonsense such as crudities or random text into articles.

* **Offensive Material** — Such as excessive unwarranted swearing, offensive comments, racism, homophobia, pornography or anything else deemed to be offensive in any manner. This covers any form of content (text, links, images, video, audio etc.).

* **Content Removal** — Mainly references the removing of large quantities of content from pages with no clear explanation. However, it can also refer to the removal of non-trivial parts of a page's content without an acceptable reason. The difference between vandalism and a bold edit is as little as an edit summary or even a post to a talk page or comment.

* **False Content** — Including in deliberately misinformative information. It should be noted that Van Helsing tolerates speculation in small doses, but speculation should be clearly stated to be such when it occurs in an article and not stated as fact.

## Dealing with Vandalism

Vandalism can be dealt with in a number of ways.

If a user encounters vandalism, they can deal with the issue themselves by simply reverting the changes and fixing the vandalised page itself and if necessary, contacting this user on their message wall. However, it is possible the edit was simply a mistake by an inexperienced user. Do not immediately accuse them of vandalising the wiki. Genuine vandalism is usually blatant and easy to spot.

If a user discovers a persistent vandal who has vandalised numerous pages repeatedly, they should report the issue to an Administrator as soon as possible. Administrators and Bureaucrat have the power to block vandals in order to prevent them from disrupting again. Reverting the vandalism would also be appreciated — evidence of the original incident will be stored in the page's history.

The decision is up to an Administrator/Bureaucrat to determine what happens to the vandal. In any dispute, the decision of an Administrator/Bureaucrat is final. Users deemed to be vandalising may be blocked from the site temporarily or permanently, depending on the level of the situation.

Pages that are repeatedly vandalised may be protected temporarily to prevent future vandalism. Protection ensures that only registered wiki users are allowed to edit the page. If you feel a page needs to be protected because of vandalism, please contact an Administrator/Bureaucrat.

We here at Van Helsing wiki insist you remember that the primary goal of vandals is to cause disruption, therefore users should not rise to the bait and become unduly agitated by them. Every time we respond to those trying to damage the wiki, we are giving them what they want, and the more exasperated our response, the more satisfaction they will feel. Generally, if the disruption they cause is dealt with quickly and quietly, they will be discouraged from from continuing. The less attention they get, the more likely they are to move on.