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{{policy}}
There are basically two types of vandalism -- manual and automated. Because this wiki is regularly maintained and Admins frquently frequently check the [[Special:RecentChanges]], manual vandalism typically gets taken care of very quickly. What we are more concerned about is vandalism automated by vandalbots. A vandalbot is a script which automatically performs some kind of edit or similar operation to the wiki. Because of the speed with which they work, they can do a lot of damage, and this damage can take time to fix. It is a sad fact that as our traffic and popularity has increased so have the automated attacks.
This page is specificially intended to help you know what to do in case a vandalbot attacks. There are a number of stages to any response.
==Notification==
The first step is notification. If you notice an automated attack occuring occurring and are not a Sysop, please let one of the [[Special:Listusers/sysop|Sysops]] know immediately, either by leaving a note on their User_talk page, or, for quicker results, by clicking the "E-mail this user" link on their user page.
If you are a Sysop and notice automated vandalism in progress, please ban the user(s) in question, and then send an email to the Sysop mailing list.
Unfortunately, this kind of impersonation is common in online communities of all types. If someone appears to say something out of character, it's definitely worth checking to make sure that the name is exactly the same as their real account and that their account has not been hacked. Fortunately, we have a vigilant community. If you suspect someone has impersonated you, let us know right away.
==Page Histories==
Occasionally, a vandalism attempt may leave offensive material in the comments on the page's history or in old revisions of an article. If you spot something like this, please notify a [[Category:Sysops|sysop]], who can clean this up.
==External References==