Wikipedia:Automatic edit summaries

Shortcuts: WP:AES WP:←

[edit] What happened

An edit summary that links to this page via a left-pointing arrow (←) probably was left blank by the user and automatically filled in by the MediaWiki software. In other words, the user did not type the summary. (The manual insertion of such a link is possible but unlikely to occur.)

Typing the summary is not important only when a user creates a new page. Just leaving the summary area blank, the edit summary in this case is automatically the entered wikitext, up to the maximum length for this summary: ca. 160 characters, plus "Created page with '" at the start and "...'" at the end. It is also true when redirecting a page.

If the summary says "→Section title: new section", a new section on a talk page was created with the special facility for this (which does not allow an edit summary other than the section title). If the summary describes a redirect, or a replacement of the content with a {{copyvio}} template, this most likely means that an editor allowed the software to generate the summary out of convenience. If the listed target is reasonable, no further action is required.

A summary indicative of an inappropriate edit (such as the blanking or replacement of legitimate content) probably is not a deliberate description on the part of the user (who might not even have realized that he/she was harming Wikipedia).

[edit] What to do

If vandalism (or a well-meaning test requiring reversion) is suspected, please examine the edit to determine its nature and respond accordingly. Remember to assume good faith in the absence of evidence to the contrary. Keep in mind that the edit summary was not typed by the user, so it should not be interpreted as such evidence.

From WP:BLP#f5ffffale: "If an anonymous IP address or a new account turns up to blank a page about a living person, or a section of it, it may well be the subject. Try not to act aggressively, but instead engage the person in dialogue, and check that the article in question does not contain any unsourced or poorly sourced criticism. If it does, remove that portion."

[edit] The different automatic edit summaries

Action of the user	Auto-generated text	Page
Removed all contents of page	← Blanked the page	MediaWiki:Autosumm-blank
Removed all contents of page and replaced with new text	← Replaced content with 'new text'	MediaWiki:Autosumm-replace
Created a new page	← Created page with 'new text'	MediaWiki:Autosumm-new
Created a redirect	← Redirected page to target	MediaWiki:Autoredircomment
Added a new section to a page using the "new section" tab	/ New section title / new section rendered as →New section title: new section	MediaWiki:Newsectionsummary
Reverted to last edit not made by most recent editor (sysops, rollbackers)	Reverted edits by Vandal (talk) to last version by User	MediaWiki:Revertpage