The Sims Wiki:Rollback
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See a list of users with rollback rights here.
Anyone can revert vandalism and bad-faith edits (even unregistered users!), but it often takes a few clicks to get the job done. Users with the "rollback" tool, however, can revert edits in the click of a mouse button.
All administrators are automatically granted the tool. Registered users can also be given the rollback tool by a bureaucrat, which will give them the rollback tool but won't give them the other tools administrators have.
What is rollback?
Rollback is a feature of the MediaWiki software that runs Wikia. It allows the edits of a user to be undone (reverted) in one click.
On The Sims Wiki, rollback is commonly used to revert malicious edits, such as vandalism.
How does rollback work?
Administrators and editors with the rollback permission see an extra button in page histories, user contributions, and diff pages. The button is labelled "rollback" and only appears next to the latest revision of a page.
Rollback reverts all consecutive edits made by one user and restores the last revision not made by that user. For example...
- (cur | prev) 18:33, June 21, 2014 User A (wall | contribs | block) m . . (1,598 bytes) (+3) . . (rollback | undo)
- (cur | prev) 18:32, June 21, 2014 User A (wall | contribs | block) . . (1,595 bytes) (+139) . . (undo)
- (cur | prev) 18:29, June 21, 2014 User B (wall | block) . . (1,456 bytes) (-195) . . (undo)
- (cur | prev) 18:27, June 21, 2014 User B (wall | block) . . (1,651 bytes) (+56) . . (undo)
The "rollback" link appears at the top, which is the latest revision. If rollback is clicked, it will revert the consecutive edits made by User A to the last version not made by User A, which is made by User B (third line). If rollback is clicked, that would be where rollback would revert to.
Rollback always leaves an edit summary and normally does not allow a custom edit summary to be entered. An edit summary left by rollback looks like this:
Rollback can also be used to revert one's own edit, and will again revert to the last revision not made by the target author. Rollback, however, cannot revert to a specific edit - it is always the last edit not made by the target author. Rollback cannot be used on a page with only one author, as there is nothing to revert to. Rollbacks are always marked as a minor edit.
When can rollback be used?
Rollback can be used for the following situations:
- To revert obvious vandalism and bad-faith edits, where the reason for reverting is obviously clear
- To revert edits in your own user space
- To revert your own edits (AKA self-reverting)
- To revert edits made to fanons that you are an author of.
- To revert widespread edits made by an inexperienced editor or malfunctioning bot that are considered to be unhelpful to the wiki but made in good faith, provided that an explanation is posted at the user's talk page.
Use of rollback in other circumstances, such as to revert a good faith edit you simply disagree with, is likely to be considered misuse of the tool. When in doubt, manually revert the edit and provide an edit summary.
Improper use of rollback
Rollback should only be used in the situations listed above. Misuse of the rollback tool is a serious occurrence, as it can lead to misunderstanding and demonstrate a failure to assume good faith. Users who repeatedly misuse the rollback tool despite warnings may have rollback rights revoked. As administrators automatically receive rollback rights, any administrator repeatedly misusing rollback may be at risk of losing all administrator rights as well.
In the case of an accidental and unintentional misuse of rollback, please be sure to manually revert the rollback and explain the issue within the edit summary. If possible, also leave a message on the talk page of the user whose edit(s) were rolled back, explaining the error.
Requesting rollback
On The Sims Wiki, experienced users with a strong history of contributions may be granted rollback rights by requesting it at Requests for Rollback; they may also be nominated for these rights by another user.
Rollback rights are a prerequisite for requesting adminship.