Wikipedia:Edit filter/Requested

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Requested edit filters
Shortcuts

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

Disallow redirect of public sandboxes

--Prothe1st (leave me a message)-- 00:09, 4 February 2026 (UTC)

Google Translate

I was referred here by Wikipedia talk:Reliable sources/Perennial sources#Google Translate.

  • Task: Warn editors against adding citations to Google Translate in article space.
  • Reason: The original web page should be cited, not a machine-generated translation, and the language noted. Editors who only speak English can get their own translation if need be. {{cite web}} has fields for English translations of title and quotation, but no citation is needed for the translations, only for the original text.
  • Diffs: Special:diff/1326327814, Special:diff/1326203741

-- Beland (talk) 19:06, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Un-archiving; this request was never discussed. -- Beland (talk) 00:12, 11 February 2026 (UTC)
Bot archived it again. - Bᴏᴅʜı ***** Hᴀᴙᴩ** 17:22, 13 March 2026 (UTC)
Adding another comment to avoid archiving by a bot. - Bᴏᴅʜı ***** Hᴀᴙᴩ** 05:02, 19 March 2026 (UTC)

Labeling as a pedophile

Some time ago I requested a filter, which to the best of my knowledge was implemented (possibly to one of the general-purpose ones). It should catch stuff like this too. JayCubby 02:14, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

I'm fairly certain that's in a private filter somewhere, probably 189. Children Will Listen (🐄 talk, 🫘 contribs) 03:10, 1 March 2026 (UTC)

Antizalgo

  • Task: Prevent disruption of the wiki interface via use of Zalgo text in edit summaries. This works by blocking edits with summaries containing six or more consecutive Combining Diacritical Marks. Legitimate use of these particular diacritics should not extend beyond around two at most per letter in normal (non-English) writing and around four at most per letter in vary particular IPA use cases. This isn't anywhere near a comprehensive protection, but it raises the bar for disruption from copy-pasting off of zalgo.org to understanding at least some aspects of Unicode.
  • Reason: Zalgo text can be abused to cause edit summaries to extend far beyond their vertical location, disrupting edit history/contributions page/diffs among other things.
  • Diffs: Special:Contributions/WiseInsomiac0wl as an example
!contains_any(user_groups, "extendedconfirmed", "sysop", "bot") &
summary rlike "[\N{U+0300}-\N{U+036F}]{6,}"

— chrs [talk] 03:32, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

I'm looking into this. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 06:15, 7 March 2026 (UTC)
 Done. I added this to filter 135 since it targets repeated characters. I also broadened 135 to match on more content namespaces and somewhat more users than before (based on the prefilters used by filter 614). The Zalgo detection will match in any namespace because it should be very accurate. I considered excluding Zalgo text, but it attracts disruptive edits and already has a short example. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 06:55, 7 March 2026 (UTC)

Filter to warn users about adding A-series CSD tags to non-articles

- BᴏᴅʜıHᴀᴙᴩ 03:47, 10 February 2026 (UTC)

Un-archived - Bᴏᴅʜı ***** Hᴀᴙᴩ** 22:30, 12 March 2026 (UTC)
Adding another comment to avoid archiving by a bot. - Bᴏᴅʜı ***** Hᴀᴙᴩ** 15:58, 20 March 2026 (UTC)
@BodhiHarp: How common is this mistake? If it happens only a couple times every year, then a filter would not be worth it. – PharyngealImplosive7 (talk) 13:54, 27 March 2026 (UTC)
I don't know how common this actually is, but we may want to improve the CSD page to exclude drafts or something, but probably not without discussion since it was reverted. - Bᴏᴅʜı ***** Hᴀᴙᴩ** 16:36, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

Overwriting of birth range templates

  • 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. , . Belbury (talk) 09:12, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

New users commenting out blocks of text

  • Task: If new users add hidden comments to articles (using <-- --> plus !, I can't figure out how to escape it) that encompass large blocks of text, it should be flagged.
  • Reason: This is a sneaky way of hiding text without appearing as a removal of content and there are very few valid reasons to do this.
  • Diffs: SmartSE (talk) 23:08, 18 March 2026 (UTC)
    I'm looking into implementing this. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 00:07, 19 March 2026 (UTC)

Related Articles

Wikiwand AI