Wikipedia:Edit filter/Requested

Requested edit filters

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-editfilterslists.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

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)

Zoomer slang: "Goon"

• Task: Add "Goon" to the Zoomer slang edit filter (apologies, can't remember exact name/filter number)
• Reason: Prevent petty vandalism – See Gooning for context.
• Diffs: Special:Diff/1373674671 In solidarity, nil ^nz 06:51, 7 September 2026 (UTC)

   Done. Added to 644 instead of 614. This would generate an unacceptable level of false positives for a disallow filter. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 07:02, 7 September 2026 (UTC)

  Especially as "goon" is regularly used in South Asian media to mean "thug" or "criminal". Black Kite (talk) 09:19, 7 September 2026 (UTC)

  Perhaps the terms "gooning" "gooner(s)", and "gooned" could be set to disallow? They intuitively seem like the form most likely to show up as undesirable, and should reduce the false positive rate. (Don't have time to look for sample edits right now, just an off the cuff idea) Tazerdadog (talk) 14:13, 7 September 2026 (UTC)

  "gooner" is a common term for an Arsenal supporter , for some reason, so maybe not disallow on that one? No comment on the rest NicheSports (talk) 14:27, 7 September 2026 (UTC)

  Was unaware of that, thank you for the catch. Tazerdadog (talk) 14:29, 7 September 2026 (UTC)

  @Tazerdadog: Filter 614 does actually match on some variations of the term, but it's narrower than the original request and there are exceptions to reduce false positives. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 20:50, 15 September 2026 (UTC)

Change to filter 260

• Task: Filter 260 should be changed to not flag text inside citations
• Reason: In the vast majority of cases, a vandal is not going to hide their vandalism inside citations.
• Diffs: Special:AbuseLog/45106030

Szxq (talk) 16:36, 15 September 2026 (UTC)

There are some exceptions where this makes sense and filter 614 uses some similar techniques, but a blanket exception is probably a bad idea because vandals definitely place vandalism inside citations. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 17:57, 15 September 2026 (UTC)

Katie and Orbie

• Task: To stop persistent disruptive editing and/or edit warring on Katie and Orbie and related articles that conventional methods (i.e., semi-protection) have failed to stop.
• Reason: Since the mid-2010s, a persistent IP vandal (whose IP address keeps changing over and over again) has been making persistent, disruptive edits on the aforementioned article by adding poorly, machine-written text that is not contributive. Whenever the IP's edits are reverted, said IP reverts it, claiming excuses of, "this is better", "this is more fun to read", "Made some improvements to the character descriptions", etc. Despite past efforts to mitigate this, including (but not limited to) blocking the IP's multiple IP addresses, and protecting the article (the most recent protection was enacted 9/2/25 and ended 9/4/26), the IP continues to make the same disruptive edits. In particular, the IP has also made a false report against one other Wikipedian and actually had them falsely blocked when the user reverted the IP's disruptive edits.
• Diffs: Special:Diff/1375444160, Special:Diff/1309189988. If you need additional diffs, I shall provide them, but those two are just some of a long list of many occasions this has happened.

Loyalmoonie (talk) 23:21, 17 September 2026 (UTC)

 Not done. @Loyalmoonie: This type of issue is best handled with page protection or range blocks. If you haven't already, please make a request at WP:RFPP. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 01:52, 18 September 2026 (UTC)

I don't understand... I have stated that the page had been protected and the IP has had range blocks in the past, but the IP keeps persistently repeating the same thing when the block and/or protection on the page ends... Loyalmoonie (talk) 02:11, 18 September 2026 (UTC)

If protection is still needed, you can request a longer protection duration. It probably won't be an indefinite protection at this point, but that is the eventual result if disruption continues for more than several years. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 02:33, 18 September 2026 (UTC)

"Verity" meme to slang filter

• Task: Add "verity" to either zoomer slang filter (614 or 644 or whatever other ones exist).
• Reason: Prevent/flag potential vandalism.
• Diffs: diff diff and other edits by this user.

Bungle491 (talk) 17:32, 18 September 2026 (UTC)

I'm looking into this. "verity" is legitimately used in too many articles so it probably won't just be a simple one-word addition to 614. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 18:08, 18 September 2026 (UTC)

Casteist spam

• Task: Stop formulaic casteist spam in English, Hindi and another language
• Reason: mass vandalism
• Diffs Special:Diff/1323925427, Special:Diff/1375536271, Special:Diff/1375549359, Special:Diff/1375549166 Special:Diff/1375552325, and many more from the ranges involved. I'm not confident that my rangeblocks tied everything up, so a filter would be nice.

_signed, Rosguill ^talk 19:29, 18 September 2026 (UTC)

From my point of view, a common pattern of these diffs are the hidden edit summaries. Any admin may send me an email about this. Codename Noreste /// ⭐️✨ 00:46, 20 September 2026 (UTC)

That usually happens afterward, right? Sumanuil. _{(talk to me)} 04:17, 1 October 2026 (UTC)

Add photo of Paradise Bird

Pink Plumaged Bird of Paradise Ahclarice (talk) 22:12, 30 September 2026 (UTC)

Hi Ahclarice. Unfortunately, this is the wrong place to request the addition of the photograph. I'd suggest asking your question on the Wikipedia:Teahouse page. Please include the name of the article, the location of the image, and a brief explanation of what you'd like to see done and why. Cheers. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 22:25, 30 September 2026 (UTC)

Warn editors when adding thumbnails to infobox

• Task: Editors should receive a warning when attempting to add an infobox image with thumbnail tags.
• Reason:This is contrary to the MOS, and will have to be fixed manually otherwise.
• Diffs: Special:Diff/1377762794; Special:diff/1377766333; Special:Diff/1377685775

 Sumanuil. _{(talk to me)} 04:28, 1 October 2026 (UTC)

Disallow edits made through MediaWiki MCP server

• Reason: MCP is "an open standard and open-source framework ... to standardize the way artificial intelligence (AI) systems like large language models (LLMs) integrate and share data with external tools, systems, and data sources". AI edits are disallowed on Wikipedia.
• Diffs: special:diff/1352786055. Might be more, watch Wikipedia:AI noticeboard#"MediaWiki MCP Server" for updates, though general pattern with these is via ... on MediaWiki MCP Server in the edit summary.

sapphaline (talk) 09:51, 3 October 2026 (UTC)