Help:Monitoring recent changes

Patrolling recent changes

1. Click on the Admin menu item.
2. Click on Recent changes.
3. Click on the Hide patrolled edits link to so that you don't waste time monitoring already-patrolled changes.
4. Choose a namespace to monitor in the Namespace drop-down box and click Go.
5. Once you click Go, you will be presented with a list of changes. These changes are the ones not patrolled (reviewed) in that Namespace. You can see the title of the page, the time of the change, and the user who made the change.
6. If there is a bold N at the beginning of the page title, it is a new page and you'll need to click on the page title to review it.
7. If there is no bold N, click on the blue diff link at the far left of the line.

Once you are in the Diff screen, you can do one of a few things.

• If the change looks OK, then do the following.

1. Click on the "Mark as patrolled" link. This link is near the top of the right-hand side of the page. Make sure you do this before you edit the page if you are going to edit the page. Reminder: If this is a new page, then you’ll need to click on the Edit button at the top of the page in order to edit the page. You'll also need to do this if the link above the right-hand column in the differences view says "Current revision". BEWARE: If you see a warning about editing an out-of-date revision, don't edit the page. This is because then the later changes to the page will be lost. The later changes could have already solved the problem you intend to correct.

• If you are unsure how to fix the page, you can leave the page unpatrolled, and another member of a review patrol can fix it. If you have questions, you can also leave a message on the talk page of the appropriate Quality Control listed on the Portal:Maintenance page.

A note on patrolling

• The "Mark as patrolled" link only appears when you click on the "diff" link or the title of a new page. It won't appear if you click on the page, then click on the "History" button, then click on "Compare selected versions."
• Optimally, there will be more than one person patrolling any particular namespace. We don't want patrolling to be too onerous. Sometimes we have a huge influx of new pages and/or users. Plus, everyone goes on vacation, gets sick, has a bad day, gets busy. So please don't be offended or feel unappreciated if you find others patrolling your namespace. We need everyone of you.
• Important note: Don't mark your own edits as patrolled. Let someone else review your edits and mark them patrolled. This will also help others learn from the kinds of changes you are making. Remember, it's the changes that you are patrolling and not the page in general. Patrol the edits made by others before making your changes. That way, their edits will be marked as patrolled, while your edits will remain unmarked so they'll be patrolled by other administrators.