 | This page documents an English Wikipediabehavioral guideline. Editors should generally follow it, thoughexceptions may apply.Substantive edits to this pageshould reflect consensus. |
 | You takefull responsibility for any actions taken using Rollback. You must read and abide by all relevantWikipedia policies when using this tool; failure to do so may result in you losing access to the tool or beingblocked from editing. |
The MediaWikirollbackuser right provides users with a button that willrevert, with a single click, the last edit to a given page, along with anyconsecutive previous edits made by the same editor to that page. It is used to undo problematic edits such asvandalism. Some counter-vandalism tools also require the user to possess the rollback user right to use the tool.
An editor with rollback user rights will see a buttonrollback:n edits next to relevant revisions on pages such as theirwatchlist, onuser contributions pages (including their own), and on theedit history of pages.
MediaWiki rollback is enabled and available to alladministrators automatically and can be given to other users upon request, subject to the approval of an administrator. A user who has been assigned this right explicitly is called arollbacker. There are currently826 administrators and6,998 rollbackers (7,824 total; however, most of these accounts haven't edited for years), not includingglobal rollbackers andstewards who have been assigned the right across allWikimedia projects.
Where the following text refers to MediaWiki rollback, it means the form of rollback built in to theMediaWiki editing software.MediaWiki rollback may only be used in certain situations. As with any other tool, editors who misuse MediaWiki rollback (for example, by using it to makeunexplained reversions ofgood-faith edits in situations where an explanatoryedit summary or talk page note would normally be expected) may have their rollback rights removed. Since rollback is part of the core administrator tools, theoretically an admin could bestripped of their administrative privileges entirely to remove those tools.
Users with the MediaWiki rollback permission have extra "rollback" links next to revisions on therecent changes page,page histories,diffs,user contribution pages, and theirwatchlist:
Clicking one of these links restores the page to the most recent revision that isnot made by the revision's author. This appears in the page history with a generic summary that looks like this:
A link to the reverted user's contribution history is provided, so that it may be easily checked for further problematic edits. The link on the user's name does not appear if you are reverting contributions done by a user whose username is not visible, previously having beenremoved orsuppressedprior to the reversion, the result being "a hidden user":
If the username is removedafter reversion, the default edit summary remains and will need to be deleted separately in its entirety:
All edits using the MediaWiki rollback feature aretagged with the "Rollback" tag inrecent changes andpage histories.
Technical limitations:
Other tools can perform similar edits with non-generic edit summaries; see theAdditional tools section below.
MediaWiki rollback can be used on the mobile web interface by enabling advanced mode in settings—which can be accessed by tapping the three-bar menu at the top left of the screen next to the Wikipedia logo—which allows access to it inpage histories,diff pages, users'contributions, and users'watchlists without needing to switch to desktop view.
By default, each click on the MediaWiki rollback link requires confirmation, to prevent misclicks on mobile.
MediaWiki rollback is a fast way of undoing problematic edits, but it has the disadvantage that special tools are required to provide a customedit summary. MediaWiki rollbackmay be used:
As with any other methods of reverting, when using rollback torestore text to a page, ensure that the content being restored does not violate anyWikipedia policies.
The built-in MediaWiki rollback link does not provide an option to provide a custom edit summary, though someuser scripts and tools allow this. Use of MediaWiki rollback with the default summary for any other purposes (such as reverting good-faith changes which you happen to disagree with) is likely to be considered misuse of the tool because those edits should be explained. When in doubt, use another method of reversion, supply a custom edit summary to explain your reasoning, or start a discussion on the talk page.
Also, do not use the default rollback edit summary when it will contain disruptive text which may need to berevision-deleted. For example, avoid use of the default edit summary to revert edits made by an account with an unambiguously offensive, insulting, or egregious username that violates Wikipedia'susername policy. MediaWiki rollback automatically includes the username of the editor who made the edits you are removing.
Editors must take full responsibility for any action they perform, regardless of the tools they are using. Regardless of the methods or means that are used to perform the actual reversions, Administrators may revoke the MediaWiki rollback user right, remove other tools, or impose a block in response to any editor who ispersistently failing to provide needed explanations for their reverts. However, admins should normally notify or warn the editor sufficiently first, and allow the editor the time and opportunity to respond and explain their reversions before taking any action, as there may be justification of which the administrator is not aware (such as reversion of edits made by a banned user), and because the edits may have been explained in another location.
Similarly, editors who persistently engage inedit warring –especially those who have a history of doing so – may have their MediaWiki rollback permissions revoked as a precaution, regardless of the methods or means that were used to engage in the behavior. Additionally, administrators who persistently misuse MediaWiki rollback may theoretically have their administrator permissions revoked by theArbitration Committee, solely in order to remove the rollback user rights from them.[2]
To request MediaWiki rollback rights, ask atWikipedia:Requests for permissions/Rollback or ask one of the administrators listedhere. Anyadministrator may grant or revoke rollback rights, using theuser rights page.
While there is no fixed requirement, a request is unlikely to be successful without a contribution history that demonstrates an ability to distinguish well-intentioned edits with minor issues from unconstructive vandalism.Rollback is not for very new users: it is unlikely that editors with under 200mainspace edits will have their request granted. In addition, editors with a recent history of edit warring will often not be granted rollback given concerns of abuse.
If you have been granted rollback rights, you may wish totest it out using these instructions.
Because MediaWiki rollback only takes a single click, without asking for confirmation, even experienced users may sometimes accidentally click rollback when attempting to click somewhere else. If this occurs, simply revert your edit manually, with an edit summary like "Self-revert accidental use of rollback". You could rollback the rollback, but this can cause confusion for others who look at the page history.
If MediaWiki rollback is used accidentally instead of undo to revert a good-faith edit, you could take a quick look to see if there is anything in the article you could improve (like a typo), and while making that edit also add the reason for the earlier reversion. You could also explain the reason for reversion on the talk page of the user who made the edit or on the article talk page, if appropriate. Alternatively, you can follow the rollback with adummy edit (not anull edit), with an edit summary like "Accidental use of rollback –your reason for the original reversion". This won't change the edit summary for the original rollback edit, but it will help people understand why you reverted the original edit.
Editors have the option of installing any of the multipleuser scripts that enable mandatory confirmation from the user before rolling back an edit. This is enabled by default on mobile devices via the "Require confirmation before performing rollback on mobile devices"gadget.
It is possible to hide the[rollback] links atSpecial:Watchlist (where most accidental clicks happen) while leaving[rollback] links available in other locations (e.g.,diffs). SeeWP:Customizing watchlists for instructions.
It is also possible to make rollback and rollback-like edits with an explanatory edit summary (instead of the default edit summary). Various editing tools let you do this; for example, see thislist of tools.
To manually add a custom edit summary with MediaWiki rollback, you can hand-edit the URL. First, copy the URL of the rollback link. Depending on your browser, this might be done by control-clicking on the [rollback] link on a history page so you can copy the URL. Then paste the URL into your browser's address bar, and append&summary= followed by your desired summary to the end of the URL.
The patrolling toolsTwinkle andRedWarn/Ultraviolet have rollback-like features in similar places to the MediaWiki rollback links, and (as of 2024) they also call them "rollback". Unlike MediaWiki rollback, these scripts may be used by anyautoconfirmed user. The scripts do basically the same thing as MediaWiki rollback, but they differ in their choice of edit summaries, and, in some small but significant ways, in their behavior.[3] Twinkle and RedWarn/Ultraviolet also offer additional options.
Users with the MediaWiki rollback user right and these scripts installed will see multiple "rollback" links, which can be confusing (see the picture). Twinkle's rollback feature can be disabled by unticking every box in the optionShow rollback links on these pages: atTwinkle preferences.
As of now, Twinkle rollback links are available on the mobile web interface when advanced mode is enabled in the settings. However, accessing RedWarn/Ultraviolet and the full features of Twinkle requires switching to desktop view on any Wikipedia page.
Alternatively, mobile users can install a third-party patch calledUser:Plantaest/TwinkleMobile, which includes most of Twinkle’s features.
For further customization, you can use the following user scripts:
