# How to report Wikipedia vandalism **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 27, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-report-wikipedia-vandalism/420722 "2007-09-27T19:46:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-report-wikipedia-vandalism/420722/1 "2007-09-27T19:46:16Z")
While browsing this [Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotta-) I noticed that the phrase “penis lover” appears at the top. Obviously this is incongruent with and inappropriate for this article and it seems to be the work of someone with nothing better to do. I didn’t see any links for reporting vandalism or abuse on Wiki’s page. Can anyone help me out here? I do not have an account for editing Wiki articles, so can this be done by the average Joe Lurker? ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-report-wikipedia-vandalism/420722/2 "2007-09-27T19:49:52Z")
Not so quick there! Let a few high school students copy and paste the article into their science report first! _Then_ go here > **[Wikipedia:Vandalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vandalism)** > > On Wikipedia, vandalism has a very specific meaning: editing (or other behavior) deliberately intended to obstruct or defeat the project's purpose, which is to create a free encyclopedia, in a variety of languages, presenting the sum of all human knowledge. > The malicious removal of encyclopedic content, or the changing of such content beyond all recognition, without any regard to our core content policies of neutral point of view (which does not mean no point of view), verifiability and no o... But I think the short answer is that you are expected to edit it out yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-report-wikipedia-vandalism/420722/3 "2007-09-27T22:37:06Z")
Damn, I missed it. I guess it’s for the greater good. Stupid greater good. ---
**Author:** ![gyushi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@gyushi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gyushi)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-report-wikipedia-vandalism/420722/4 "2007-09-27T23:01:44Z")
[QUOTE=dwc1970] I do not have an account for editing Wiki articles, so can this be done by the average Joe Lurker? [/QUOTE] Yes, you can edit articles without an account (hence the unwavering proliferation of penis-related edits!). Just click “edit this page” at the top. Your IP address will be publicly listed as having edited the article under “history”, though. Just a heads-up. Getting an account is very quick and easy,\* mind you; you don’t even need a valid e-mail address. Just pick a random user name and password and you can sign up, no confirmation or anything. In general, though, you don’t need to worry about reporting or reverting vandalism. Many users and “bots” (automated programs and scripts) watch all of Wikipedia’s edits, and they are quite good at catching vandalism. It is extremely rare for extreme vandalism (the “penis” variety) to last more than a few minutes, and fairly rare for even more subtle vandalism (the incorrect-information-on-obscure-topics variety) to last more than a few hours or days. - disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Wikipedia in any way! ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-report-wikipedia-vandalism/420722/5 "2007-09-27T23:20:28Z")
[QUOTE=Flander] Damn, I missed it. I guess it’s for the greater good. Stupid greater good. [/QUOTE] [Here you go](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yotta-&diff=160739916&oldid=158467486) ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-report-wikipedia-vandalism/420722/6 "2007-09-28T15:57:39Z")
Thanks **Otto** , the days are long and slow here in the office. It often doesn’t take much to keep control of my AK-47. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-report-wikipedia-vandalism/420722/7 "2007-09-28T19:55:49Z")
At the other end of the scale, does anyone but me feel that Zepto- and Yocto- would have been appropriate names for replacement Marx Brothers?