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Automatic edit summaries are created by the MediaWiki software for certain actions. These summaries appear inrecent changes,page histories, andcontributions lists, unless you provide your own edit summary.
Auto edit summaries exist for several actions, if the user fails to provide an edit summary:
Additionally, when using section editing, the section name appears in the edit summary box in light grey text between comment tags and is used as the edit summary unless the user alters or replaces it.
Typing the summary is unimportant when a user creates a new page; leaving the summary area blank, the edit summary in this case is automatically set to "Created page with", followed by around 200 characters of the entered wikitext (the maximum summary length), with a trailing ellipsis. If the summary describes, for example, aredirect or replacement of the content with a{{copyvio}} template, this most likely means that an editor allowed the software to generate the summary out of convenience. If the listed target or replacement text is reasonable, no further action is required.
A summary indicative of an inappropriate edit (such as the blanking or replacement of legitimate content) is probablynot a deliberate description on the part of the user (who might not even have realized that they were harming Wikipedia).
Ifvandalism (or a well-meaning test requiring reversion) is suspected, please examine the edit to determine its nature and respond accordingly. Remember toassume good faith in the absence of evidence to the contrary. Keep in mind that the edit summary was not typed by the user, so it should not be interpreted as such evidence.
When an anonymous editor blanks all or part of a BLP, this might be the subject attempting to remove problematic material. Edits like these by subjects should not be treated as vandalism; instead, the subject should be invited to explain their concerns.
Automatic edit summaries include the following. The text may be edited by administrators:
| Action | Page | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Removing all content on a page, resulting in an empty page with no content (criteria: newpage size of 0 bytes) | MediaWiki:Autosumm-blank | ←Blanked the page |
| Removing nearly all content on a page, and possibly replacing it with new content (criteria: at least 90% of original content removed, and a new page size not exceeding 1,000 bytes) | MediaWiki:Autosumm-replace | ←Replaced content with 'The cat sat on the mat' |
| Creating anew page with content (criteria: page size greater than 0 bytes) | MediaWiki:Autosumm-new | ←Created page with 'The cat sat on the mat' |
| Creating anempty page with no content (criteria: page size of 0 bytes) | MediaWiki:Autosumm-newblank | ←Created blank page |
| Adding aredirect to another page | MediaWiki:Autoredircomment | ←Redirected page toHelp:Contents |
| Changing the target of a redirect | MediaWiki:Autosumm-changed-redirect-target | ←Changed redirect target fromHelp:Contents toHelp:Introduction |
| Removing a redirect from a page | MediaWiki:Autosumm-removed-redirect | ←Removed redirect toHelp:Contents |
| Undoing a past revision of the page (by clicking "undo" in thepage history) | MediaWiki:Undo-summary | Undid revision11572 byExample (talk) |
| Reverting one or more edits to a page by a user (using therollback feature) | MediaWiki:Revertpage | Reverted edits byExample (talk) to last version by Username |