RevisionDelete

Revision deletion (RevisionDelete) functionality allows for reduced visibility of log entries and non-current page revisions. It became a core feature in MediaWiki 1.16 (mid-2009), and the old method of reducing revision visibility, deleting the page and restoring all revisions but those which need hiding, is long since deprecated in favor of RevisionDelete. Applying RevisionDelete to a page revision reduces the visibility of that revision's content, its summary, the name of the user who made it, or any combination of those three. Deleted revisions still exist in the database, but cannot be viewed by users without special permissions.

Permissions

Revision deletion is available to users who have the deleterevision permission. Deleting log entries requires the deletelogentry permission. Viewing deleted revisions requires the deletedtext permission.

There also exists an advanced form of revision deletion, known as "suppression" or "oversighting", which hides the deleted information even further. Suppressing revisions and log entries as well as viewing suppressed information requires the suppressrevision permission. Suppression should not be confused with ordinary revision deletion.

On Gamepedia, revision deletion is restricted to bureaucrats and staff, while suppression is only available to staff. Administrators, including wiki guardians, have the permission to view deleted, but not suppressed, revisions.

Policy for use

RevisionDelete should only be used in extreme cases when content needs to be completely hidden from other users. It should not be used to hide general spam, unwanted links, or other minor issues where simply reverting the revision is adequate. There are very few cases where RevisionDelete is appropriate and permitted to be used, as outlined below.

Instances where RevisionDelete may be used

Vile vandalism

Vandalism so vile that all record of it ought to be expunged from the wiki for normal users
Wikipedia defines it as "Grossly insulting, degrading, or offensive material that has little or no encyclopedic or project value"

Private personal information (PPI)

Example: a user’s private personal information has been put on the wiki and they wish to have it removed or it is obvious that it should be removed (a doxxing situation)
- Such information includes: real name, physical address, telephone number, email address, fixed IP address (can lead to other PPI)

Terms of Service violations

Content which violates Terms of Service for the game in question. Examples may include instructions for cheating in the game, hacking code, etc.

If a copyright violation / takedown request is received, the user requesting must be directed to send said request formally according to these guidelines: Fandom's help page on DMCA takedown notices

When using the RevisionDelete function on private personal information, it must be logged with Gamepedia staff by emailing community@gamepedia.com.

In that email provide the following:

User requesting deletion (if applicable)
Your email (matching account email)
The link to the revision in question
Why RevisionDelete was used (include a link to talk/user page if request made that way, screenshot of Discord, etc if made that way)

Private personal information can be an important legal concern. Repeated failure to send this email can result in loss of bureaucrat position.

Overview

When enabled on an installation and viewed by a user with the appropriate permissions, every page revision and log entry has a small (show/hide) button displayed next to it, as shown in the normal revision and protection log entry below.

(cur) (prev) (show/hide) 00:00, 1 Jan 1970 WikiUser (talk | contribs | block) (X bytes) (Edit summary) (undo)
(show/hide) 00:00, 1 Jan 1970 WikiUser (talk | contribs | block) protected "Page" [edit=sysop] (indefinite) [move=sysop] (indefinite) ‎ (Log summary) (hist | change)

When a revision or log entry is hidden from view in its entirety, it is displayed like that shown below, with the elements hidden from view stricken and greyed out. Once a revision is hidden, the contents of the revision (if hidden), cannot be viewed by any usergroup without the deletedtext right. Trying to compare the revision with other revisions or access its &oldid= page will result in an error stating that the revision has been removed from the public archives. Similarly, trying to search for a hidden log entry by the users involved, when they have been hidden, will turn up no results.

(cur) (prev) (show/hide) 00:00, 1 Jan 1970 (username removed) (comment removed) [deleted]
(show/hide) 00:00, 1 Jan 1970 (username removed) (log action removed) (comment removed)

NOTE: Revision deletion remains applied to a page even when deleted. If a page is undeleted, revisions that were previously hidden with RevisionDelete will remain hidden to the public.

Using RevisionDelete

Hiding a revision

To show/hide a revision, click the small (change visibility) button next to the relevant revision or log entry that you wish to show/hide. To change multiple revisions, check the checkboxes for the desired revisions in the page history and click the Change visibility of selected revisions button at the top right. Depending on your permissions, there may be between 3 and 4 different options to choose from:

show/hide revision text
show/hide edit summary
show/hide editor's username/IP address
Suppress data from administrators as well as others (only available to users with the suppressrevision right)

Tick the checkboxes next to each of the items that you wish to apply to the selected and then provide an informative summary in the "Log comment field". Once this information has been filled in, click the "Apply to selected revision(s)" button to submit the information. If this has been done correctly, "Revision visibility successfully set" should be displayed on your screen.

Unhiding a revision

To show/unhide a revision, click the (change visibility) button for the revision or log entry and simply untick all the boxes, provide your summary and click the "Apply to the selected revision" button. Success should be marked by the display of the "Revision visibility successfully set" message.

Changing the visibility settings

This is quite similar to unhiding a revision; click the (change visibility) button and tick/untick the options that you wish to modify and click the apply button.

Log entries

Normally, hiding a revision or page history item will produce a log message in the public deletion log or the private supression log (if "Suppress data from administrators as well as others" is ticked). Log entries created in the public deletion log look like those displayed below for page revision and log entries visibilities respectively.

(show/hide) 00:00, 1 Jan 1970 WikiUser (talk | contribs | block) changed revision visibility of Page ‎ (hid content, edit summary, username for 1 revision: Log summary) (diff | change visibility)
(show/hide) 00:00, 1 Jan 1970 WikiUser (talk | contribs | block) changed event visibility of (Protection log) ‎ (hid content, edit summary, username for 1 event: Log summary) (change visibility)

The (show/hide) link displayed leads to the visibility settings for that particular log entry, while the (change visibility) button leads to the visibility settings for the page affected by that particular log entry.