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Wikipedia:Edit filter/Requested

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    This page can be used to request edit filters, or changes to existing filters. Edit filters are primarily used to address common patterns of harmful editing.

    Private filters should not be discussed in detail. If you wish to discuss creating an LTA filter, or changing an existing one, please instead email details to wikipedia-en-editfilters@lists.wikimedia.org.

    Otherwise, please add a new section at the bottom using the following format: 

    == Brief description of filter ==
* '''Task''': What is the filter supposed to do? To what pages and editors does it apply?
* '''Reason''': Why is the filter needed?
* '''Diffs''': Diffs of sample edits/cases. If the diffs are revdelled, consider emailing their contents to the mailing list.
~~~~

    Please note the following:

    • Edit filters are used primarily to prevent abuse. Contributors are not expected to have read all 200+ policies, guidelines and style pages before editing. Trivial formatting mistakes and edits that at first glance look fine but go against some obscure style guideline or arbitration ruling are not suitable candidates for an edit filter.
    • Filters are applied to all edits on all pages. Problematic changes that apply to a single page are likely not suitable for an edit filter. Page protection may be more appropriate in such cases.
    • Non-essential tasks or those that require access to complex criteria, especially information that the filter does not have access to, may be more appropriate for a bot task or external software.
    • To prevent the creation of pages with certain names, the title blacklist is usually a better way to handle the problem - see MediaWiki talk:Titleblacklist for details.
    • To prevent the addition of problematic external links, please make your request at the spam blacklist.
    • To prevent the registration of accounts with certain names, please make your request at the global title blacklist.
    • To prevent the registration of accounts with certain email addresses, please make your request at the email blacklist.
    Click here to create a new request




    Overwriting of birth range templates

    [edit]
    • Task: Warn or disallow when an edit replaces a {{birth based on age as of date}} template with a date or year, without simultaneously adding a URL or reference tag
    • Reason: This "based on age" template is a strong indicator that Wikipedia editors have already tried and failed to find an exact, reliably-sourced birth date for a person, and have only been able to confirm a two-year date range. Readers sometimes step in to replace these with a particular year or date, offering no source, often just asking IMDb or Google. An unsourced DOB is obviously against WP:BLPDOB, and a "based on age" template suggests that any added date (even if correct) has not been widely published by reliable sources.
    • Diffs: eg. [1], [2]. Belbury (talk) 09:12, 17 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

    New users commenting out blocks of text

    [edit]

    Exclude AFCH edits from filter 1045?

    [edit]

    I recently attempted to decline an AfC draft for copyvio, and part of that involves pasting the URL for the copyvio'd site into the Articles for Creation helper script interface, which adds the url to the AfC submission template. I'm not sure if I just wasn't paying attention or if the AfC helper script somehow hid the warning, but I had to re-fill the form again to get it to get past the warning. (I didn't realize the issue until I then requested {{cv-revdel}}). I understand why the latter would be difficult to exclude from the filter, but I think edits that are already tagged to be using the AfC helper script could be excluded to avoid this confusion, as I don't think this filter could reasonably be triggered while using the script other than this particular circumstance.

    Filter log entries in question: Special:AbuseLog/43343600, Special:AbuseLog/43343601

    ScalarFactor (talk) 07:09, 5 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

    Filter to prevent random date changing

    [edit]
    • Task: Catch any edit that changes a date (Usually any four-digit number between 1500 and today) to another number inside this date range, without any other significant changes. This filter would be log-only, and shouldn't apply to EC editors or any edits with a summary of "revert", "rvv", "undid revision", etc.
    • Reason: Date changing is a common form of low-effort vandalism that doesn't get detected in the edit history, due to its unassuming character differences.
    • Diffs: [4]. I have probably seen at least 50 other occurences on AV since I begun editing.

    Somepinkdude (talk) 03:01, 29 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

    Could maybe try something like the below? I've never done anything like this before and just thought it'd be fun, so please do correct me.
    :equals_to_any(page_namespace, 0) & 
:(
:    year := "\b(?:1[5-9][0-9]{2}|20[0-1][0-9]|202[0-6])\b";
:    revert := "^(?:revert|restore|rv|undid)";
:    action == "edit" &
:    !("autoconfirmed" in user_groups) & 
:    !(summary rlike revert) &
:    rcount(year, removed_lines) == 1 &
:    rcount(year, added_lines) == 1 &
:    str_replace_regexp(removed_lines, year, "") == str_replace_regexp(added_lines, year, "") &
:    new_content_model == "wikitext" &
:    edit_delta <= 15
:)
    InfernoHues (talk) 04:19, 12 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]
    There may be useful hints in a similar filter for number articles. (Vandals regularly replaced their subject by 69, 420, etc.) See Wikipedia:Edit filter/Requested/Archive 15#Number change. Certes (talk) 10:49, 12 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]
    I just reverted two date change vandal edits: [5] [6]. What really worries me is the first one, a nav template which hadn't been reverted since November. This type of vandalism is hard for ORES to catch (and, therefore, gets missed by HG/AV/CVPI users) and appears innocent due to its diff being 0. I can't see any solution other than a tag/warn filter here. Somepinkdude (talk) 01:11, 24 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]
    [edit]
    • Task: To note that an external link has been placed outside of the "external links" section.
    • Reason: As far as I can tell, per Manual of Style/Layout and External links, ELs are generally not placed in the body of an article. I would argue that most edits adding external links to the body are doing so incorrectly. Also, as far as I can tell the only section titles used for external links are "External links" and perhaps "Bibliography" and "Further reading" although those typically use the cite book/journal/thing templates so it will not usually be necessary.

    Now, this filter would probably be permanently left at no action, but I feel it would be useful to have for people to patrol. If necessary, exclusions could also be added for wikimedia wikis, especially Wikisource and Wiktionary, which are described as useful to link to in the EL guideline, and perhaps for templates including external links as well.

    𝓕𝓵𝓸𝓫𝓵𝓲𝓷 (Talk to me! · My contribs) 03:13, 1 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

    More specifically, I think the issue is with external-linking existing text in the body, or replacing some text with [foo.bar.com some text]. There are still context issues this could run into, however, such as articles which have a "bibliography" section instead of "external links". The best way I can think of to avoid those is to look for insertions before the earliest appearing EL, and in a different section, and that should also help with any edge cases where ELs are needed in the body. Somepinkdude (talk) 03:58, 1 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]
    Yes, that makes sense. 𝓕𝓵𝓸𝓫𝓵𝓲𝓷 (Talk to me! · My contribs) 12:43, 1 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]
    See Special:AbuseFilter/1048 "Possible spam". I believe this does what you are asking, though it doesn't seem to exclude the external links section. OutsideNormality (talk) 20:59, 1 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]
    Right, but I'm talking more broadly that any non-wikimedia non-templated uses of external links outside of the appendixes should be noted. 𝓕𝓵𝓸𝓫𝓵𝓲𝓷 (Talk to me! · My contribs) 16:10, 2 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

    Filter that prevents vague edit summaries for redirect creation

    [edit]

    Warudo (talk) 02:45, 30 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

    As much as I dislike vague summaries, I think a filter like this would end up being disruptive. I'd suggest starting a discussion at WP:VPI to discuss requesting potential improvements to MediaWiki itself to encourage better edit summaries. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 03:06, 30 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]
    Needs wider discussion – PharyngealImplosive7 (talk) 03:15, 30 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]
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