How is Wikipedia able to prevent vandalism on their pages?

Question

I just edited a wiki page for a tv series that I am watching, because I saw that an episode summary was inaccurate. All I had to do to edit was click the edit button, make my changes, and then click "save page". The page then instantly updates with my changes included. So my question is, if someone decides to intentionally add in false or misleading information on a wiki page, how does Wikipedia catch them and reverse the changes? There are millions of pages, and only a couple of employees that are responsible for proofreading information. But there have been very little instances in which I have come across blatantly false or intentionally offensive information on a Wikipedia article. How is that possible?

Answer 1

The short answer is: we make it hard to vandalize pages and very easy to undo vandalism.



First, some of the super-obvious cases hit the edit filter:

< https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Edit_filter >



Some that are slightly less obvious are reverted within seconds by ClueBot NG, an anti-vandalism program (a "bot"). It uses machine learning to help identify vandalism:

< https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:ClueBot_NG >



From there, there are usually a few human anti-vandalism patrollers around at any given time. They're usually using specially-coded tools with names like "Twinkle", "Huggle", and "STiki" that help them deal with the high rate of edits.

< https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cleaning_up_vandalism/Tools >



Editors can get a user right called "rollback". Users with the rollback right can click a "rollback" button to revert vandalism with a single click. Rollback is given out fairly liberally; most users with a few hundred edits can successfully apply for it.

< https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Rollback >



If particular pages are getting a lot of vandalism, they can be "protected". Most of the time, this is only "semi-protection", meaning anyone with an account that's at least 4 days old with at least 10 other edits can edit it freely. The "full" protection setting where only administrators can edit is rarely used on articles, though it's often applied to templates that are transcluded onto hundreds or thousands of other pages, like the cleanup messages that are present on some articles. There's also "pending changes", where some or all edits are held for review before going "live" to the default view of the article.

< https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Protection_policy >

< https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Pending_changes >



A little bit manages to slip through all this, but thankfully it usually gets caught eventually. If you happen to see some, you can revert it yourself:

< https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Reverting >



Oh, and I noticed you said "employees". While the Wikimedia Foundation accepts donations, runs the servers, develops the software, and other institutional things, the writing and maintenance of Wikipedia is done entirely by volunteers like myself. You can join us if you like! There's lots of ways to help.

Answer 2

The Pages are highly moderated. Usually, if it is not moderated, the page will warn you saying that you didn't cite enough, or, you didn't give any type of degree with your name.

Answer 3

Some pages are locked, many are moderated either by wiki staff or individuals who take it upon themselves, the system doesn't seem like it should work, but it does.