Help:Patrolled edits

Patrolled edits is a feature which allows specific users to mark [[<tvar|newpg>Special:NewPages|new pages]] and items in <tvar|recent>Special:RecentChanges as "patrolled", meaning "approved". By default this is only available if you have the [[<tvar|sysop>Special:MyLanguage/Help:Sysops and permissions|sysop permission]]; many wikis grant a <tvar|patrol>'patrol' permission to groups of users.

This feature is useful when reviewing recent changes for undesirable edits, link spam and vandalism. This allows people (with permission to do so) to coordinate their patrolling activity, such that edits get checked over once, with less wasted effort (different people checking the same edit).

This feature also allows setting trustworthy users' edits to be automatically patrolled, so that the people who review recent changes need not spend time to make unnecessary review.

Marking edits as patrolled[edit source]

To mark an edit as patrolled

Access <tvar|recent>Special:RecentChanges
Changes which are not patrolled display with a red exclamation mark (!).
Click the (Template:Mediawiki) link next to an edit.
To mark the edit as patrolled, click the <tvar|mark>Mark as patrolled link.

To mark a new page as patrolled

Access Special:NewPages

New pages which are not patrolled display with a yellow background.

To mark a new page as patrolled, visit it and click the <tvar|text>⧼markaspatrolledlink⧽ link near the bottom of the page.

To mark a new file as patrolled

Access Special:NewFiles

If you want to see only unpatrolled files, check "<tvar|hide>Hide patrolled uploads"

To mark a new file or new file version as patrolled, visit it and click the <tvar|text>⧼markaspatrolledlink⧽ link near the bottom of the file description.

Hiding patrolled edits from recent changes[edit source]

Patrolled edits can be hidden from recent changes by adding &hidepatrolled=1 to the URL in the following form:

https://wiki.mattrude.com/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&hidepatrolled=1

Note: this works only for users with the patrol or patrolmarks right. This might change after <tvar|bug>Template:Task is solved in future.

Customization[edit source]

Enabling/disabling[edit source]

Template:MW 1.4

Patrolled edits are enabled by default in MediaWiki 1.4 and later. To disable this, set <tvar|UseRCPatrol>$wgUseRCPatrol in <tvar|LocalSettings>LocalSettings.php to false.

$wgUseRCPatrol = false;

Permissions[edit source]

Template:MW 1.4

In MediaWiki 1.4, patrolled edits are enabled for all users. To restrict this to sysops, set $wgOnlySysopsCanPatrol in <tvar|LocalSettings>LocalSettings.php to true.

$wgOnlySysopsCanPatrol = true;

Template:MW 1.5

In MediaWiki 1.5 and later, patrolled edits are enabled for sysops. Use the <tvar|GroupPermissions>$wgGroupPermissions configuration variable to assign this to new or existing user groups. See [[<tvar|rights>Special:MyLanguage/Manual:User rights management|Manual:User rights management]].

For instance, to create a patrollers group:

$wgGroupPermissions['patrollers']['patrol'] = true;

Automatic patrolling[edit source]

In MediaWiki 1.6 through 1.8, there is a [[<tvar|pref>Special:MyLanguage/Help:preferences|user preference]] available to users who are able to mark edits as patrolled. When set, this causes their edits to be patrolled automatically.

This option is not available if the patrolled edits feature is switched off.

Template:MW 1.9

In MediaWiki 1.9 this user preference has been removed and replaced by a new "autopatrol" right, assigned only to sysops by default. Also, users cannot mark their own edits as patrolled.

Marker[edit source]

The formatting of the unpatrolled edit marker can be altered using CSS. The exclamation mark displayed on the Recent changes log is styled using the span.unpatrolled class.