Wikipedia:Dealing with coordinated vandalism

This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

On 31 July 2006, on the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert urged his viewers to modify the Wikipedia article Elephant to report incorrectly that the African elephant population had recently tripled.^[1] The segment was very funny, and also provided a chance for us to show interested viewers what Wikipedia is about.

Unfortunately, this opportunity was partially undermined by some over-reactions and ill-coordinated handling of the resulting influx of users trying to follow Mr. Colbert's advice. This essay discusses how to handle similar future situations; it is a collection of existing policies and guidelines and a discussion of how they apply in such cases, not an attempt to formulate new policy.

It is important, in order to deal with and to benefit from such potentially disruptive situations, to:

1. Not bite the new users, and
2. Present a united, organized, and calm front to deal with the problem, as our reaction may be subject to external scrutiny.

Here are some things that can be done to deal with the situation: