UESPWiki:Edit Filter/False Positives

If you were prevented from making an edit on UESP, but believe that the edit was falsely blocked, you can place a request here to have it reviewed as blocked edits are not automatically reviewed.

Many terms are blocked from being added by most editors and anonymous editors and we do our utmost to prevent words being falsely identified as vandalism or spam, but sometimes words get overlooked and end up blocking an otherwise acceptable post/edit. If you are unsure of what word blocked you from making the edit, don't worry, all we need is your name/IP address as it is captured in the filter and it can be found.

When making your request you may request that the edit be posted on your behalf where it was intended, or simply have the filter updated for you to safely make the edit yourself.

Requested ReviewsEdit

Before making a request please check whether you were blocked outright from posting (the warning), or simply asked to confirm your edit (the warning). If you were only warned then please resubmit your edit, there is no need to make a request here unless you know the specific word.

Please type the name of the page you tried to edit as the header, then an explanation and a roundabout version of the word (this is not necessary but will help quicken the procedure), finally your name/IP address and whether you wish the edit to made on your behalf, or have the filter updated so you can make the edit yourself (in which case your edit will be retrieved and posted for you to quickly copy and paste).

BeolfagEdit

I was looking at the catch yesterday and I think Beolfag was the reason. We'll know when I try to submit this anyway. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 17:51, 9 September 2014 (GMT)

Same here, everytime I have edited something and added her name in it, a warning comes up. 2.126.177.223 23:40, 16 November 2014 (GMT)

Better a year late than never, but this should be fixed now. This page is also on my watchlist now, so any future reports should be spotted much sooner than this one was. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 02:29, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Atmora Project linkEdit

Hello Admins and Forum users, I do not have a forum user account yet, I just wanted to link the "Atmora" project on the "Atmora Lore talk" page, and want to make sure, you agree with me, that this is not a spam commercial but actually a topic related input, that gives users of the forum useful information as fan of Elderscrolls, gamers and modders about Atmora... Thanks for reading and answering! see you! Hannes821

here: http://www.uesp.net/w/index.php?title=Lore_talk:Atmora&action=submit — Unsigned comment by 84.141.89.33 (talk) at 19:48 on 26 November 2015 (UTC)

Wiki talk pages are not a forum. They're intended to be used to talk about the actual article. If you'd like to show off your mod, please visit our actual forums. —Legoless (talk) 20:10, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

Breton NamesEdit

Formulating the creation of a separate "Reachman Names" category, I attempted to make a draft copy of the Breton Names sheet on my user profile. The filter decided, I suppose, that one or more of the myriad of Breton names is obscene or nonsensical. — Unsigned comment by Kyncaith (talk • contribs) at 03:18 on 17 January 2017

Your edit was only blocked by the bulk spamming filter, the language one you triggered would only have tagged the edit not disallowed it. I know you removed a part of your message about spamming your own userpage, but that is precisely why that filter was created, the vast majority of spam was on userpages in an attempt to use the relaxed rules in that namespace to avoid scrutiny. The limit of 10 edits is standard wiki-practice to establish yourself as a genuine account. Finally trying to find which of the names triggered the filter is a futile exercise unless someone who can access the list uses it to search and then decide if it warrants exclusion. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 03:43, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

I specifically received this warning on my first edit, as well as the notice that large edits by early accounts in the userpage is disallowed. When I shortened the edit, it allowed it to go through. Now I can't edit the shortened version, as I get that second notice or a "bulk spam" notice every time. In any case, I'm not really able/willing to make 10 edits. I'm only interested in a certain part of the Lore, and that is mostly fleshed out past my knowledge. Could you possibly direct me to somewhere to freely write out a draft for a Reachman Names section? — Unsigned comment by Kyncaith (talk • contribs) at 04:04 on 17 January 2017

Yes, that's the warning given by the 'common vandalism' filter (nonsense or obscenities). I know which filter you triggered because anyone can look it up. Go to your contributions (link at the top right when logged in), and one of the links to the top left is 'abuse log'. Funnily enough, you now have the 10 edits necessary to avoid the bulk spam filter. The warnings are a necessity, but are designed as a basic double-check on the edit and won't block the edit outright, only highlight it for extra scrutiny by our patrollers. If you utilise show preview, you should only activate the filter when saving the page. If you needed a quick bypass on the bulk filter as stated above you only need to say what you wanted moved, but that should no longer be a worry. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 19:13, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

The problematic name was Morgayne, which I've now added to the exemptions list. In future, that page should no longer trigger the obscenity warning, though of course the size warning will still be an issue for non-autoconfirmed users. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 19:50, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

Morrowind talk:Mages GuildEdit

When editing my own comment for clarity, I received a nasty-gram about inclusion of nonsense terms, which directed me here for false-positives.

The edit was, as far as I can see, entirely benign, and can't see how it triggered the filter in the first place. At a guess, because I included a pair of similar numbers?

It would have been rather more usable to be told what the ‘offending’ text was, or at least some indication of what triggered the nasty-gram in order to make a clueful decision as to whether there was something truly objectionable, or if it really was a false-positive. Lee Carré (talk) 22:35, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

Seems that the edit was tagged as: Possible bot. Perhaps because it was shortly after I'd submitted the original. Lee Carré (talk) 22:39, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

The filter was actually the nonsense bot filter. The offending word was vehicle, which will no doubt earn me an entry. It's there because it has never appeared in the games as a word and is a frequent topic for bot spamming. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 23:07, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation, I'll keep that factor in mind, in future. Kind of fascinating; the bizarreness of spam+vandalism filtering(!) Not the most absurd case I know of, though. Lee Carré (talk) 15:46, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

You might also want to refrain from posting anything in Cyrillic or Chinese, for a similar reason :) Jeancey (talk) 16:38, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

I tend to spend more time with other scripts, and Unicode blocks, fortunately ☺.

I wonder, though; has UESP considered taking a Bayesian approach to spam+vandalism? It's proven rather effective for e-mail; the data-set is actually more important than the specific algorithm, too. Could this be a bot-project, for someone? Lee Carré (talk) 21:33, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

I assume that would be a different thing to the edit filter? The idea for the edit filter is something that can either block or just tag an edit (it can also block users but we don't use that). It also designed to be used by wikians who are not technically minded. Once a base filter is setup all someone needs to do is add another offending word to the list. Any system the UESP uses would need to conform to the larger idea of wiki's being open to all, and be update-able (if needed) without bureaucrat level access or higher. If there's anything you'd like to propose take it to the Administrators page. I think we're too far off topic now to continue this section. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 21:49, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

The ‘Administrators page’ referring to UESPWiki:Administrator Noticeboard?

My suggestion is more fundamental than what you're thinking of, Silencer; it'd do away with the need to manually edit lists of keyword patterns. I'll elaborate+explain+clarify in the future post I'll make, once I know where it should be submitted. Lee Carré (talk) 19:50, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

Yes, that would be the most appropriate page unless you'd like to address the site owner, Daveh, directly. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 19:55, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

Warning for extensive link spamming on profile pageEdit

I was updating my profile and got a warning that posting links to external pages might be questionable. Maybe it would be okay to exclude that namespace from external link checks? — Unsigned comment by Manavortex (talk • contribs) at 08:57 on 11 January 2018

That seems reasonably safe, given our other filters, so I've gone ahead with your suggestion on a trial basis and we'll see how it goes. Thanks for the idea! – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 09:18, 11 January 2018 (UTC)

Glad to help :) Manavortex (talk) 10:17, 11 January 2018 (UTC)

UESP YoutubeEdit

The Youtube filter needs an exception for the official UESP link in the default welcome message. One posted by Timeoin was tagged earlier today. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 18:52, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

Thanks. That's a bit awkward, but I think I've gotten it. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 20:34, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

Lore: PeopleEdit

Tried to add small entries for Eshita of Pellitine on People: E and Keirgo of Anequina on People: K, was blocked. Can't think of any specific blocked words. — Unsigned comment by WildPeacock (talk • contribs) at 17:20 on 9 December 2018

It's words within words that create false positives. Its rather obvious what the problem is, and as you tried to add her name to his entry, thats why it was tagged there too. Someone will deal with this soon. Also, you should have been able to post the edit after the warnings, unless that filter was changed. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 18:41, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

I double-checked both filters that triggered on your edit, and as Silencer says, I believe it would have allowed the edit to go through, if you'd tried to save again. I also added "eshita" as a legitimate word while I was there, though, so any future attempts should go through with no warnings. Please post back here if you have any further problems. (Update: I've also reinstated the text of both edits.) – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 19:03, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

Daggerfall:Stealth page editing problemEdit

Hello - for some reason, the site's spam filter is preventing me from replacing the vague/inaccurate text at the top of the Daggerfall:Stealth page with certain revised text. The filter claims I'm adding external web links through this edit, but I'm clearly not, and re-applying the edit after the warning still doesn't work; this appears to be a page error. If a site admin could please check to see if there's something that can be fixed in my user profile to prevent this, I'd appreciate it! (I would copy the proposed text here, but every time I do I get blocked again, even though there's absolutely no external link in the edit - not sure how I can get around this.) Mikeprichard (talk) 20:21, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

It's a general problem that thinks you are adding an external link if you touch any text near it. After you reply to this message (while logged in) you will be able to submit the edit after the warning because your account will now be autoconfirmed. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 22:16, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

Thank you - it worked! Mikeprichard (talk) 22:24, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

Wow, it was really giving you a hard time—thanks for persevering! I believe the problem was the word "ambient", which our filter was blocking because it contains the word "ambien". I've adjusted the filter to be more discriminating. Although, now that you're autoconfirmed, our filters should be a lot nicer to you all around, as Silencer noted. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 06:10, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

Ha, yeah, I did try a LOT of slightly different variations just to get the edits onto the page, but I never would have guessed that was the issue. Anyway, looks like I'm good to go from now on - thanks again for your help! Mikeprichard (talk) 08:40, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

User pageEdit

Hello, I tried adding stuff to my user page and got hit by the filters. Just wanted to let you know so I don't end up flagged as a spammer.
I did eventually manage to fill my page in small chunks. Shalimain (talk) 14:09, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

I looked into it and you actually hit several of our abuse filters legitimately, despite an overall well-intentioned, benign user page. The main ones you kept hitting were for large posts by a new user and a swear-words filter because you used the word "poop" in your post. Yes, it's a relatively benign word, but we've had a lot of juvenile posts with that word in it in the past, so you got hit by that as well. All the restrictions you hit will automatically be lifted after 4 days and 10 legitimate edits, but in the meantime, I've tagged you as exempt from the rules that normally apply to brand new users, so hopefully, you won't be hit by them again. Thanks for your patience! – Robin Hood ^(talk) 21:41, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

Link to Modders' PageEdit

I got hit by the "confirm edit" warning when I added a link to CanadianIce and Howndog's mods on this talk page, possibly because of the note about the unsecure vs. secure link header which the filter may have taken as adding multiple links to the page. I was able to save the edit, but thought I'd post it on here anyway in case one of the filter wizards might be able to tweak the filter to distinguish between real links and non-links (if that was the issue), and also because I now have two entries on the Abuse Log which it would be nice to have expunged. Thanks! — Wolfborn↝^(Howl) 04:12, 14 February 2021 (UTC)

You got hit because you added an external link. That's supposed to happen to anyone who isn't a patroller or admin (and there are exceptions made for User space and for certain links that are deemed safe). We can't expunge entries in the abuse log, at least not that I'm aware of, but people hit them while making legitimate edits every so often. It's nothing anyone would pay any attention to unless you started hitting it a lot (in which case, someone like me would most likely just be looking to see if a filter needed to be changed). – Robin Hood ^(talk) 05:59, 14 February 2021 (UTC)

Adding item templateEdit

I was adding the furnishing summary to File:ON-item-furnishing-Dwarven Minecart, Ornate.jpg and the filter triggered. I then previewed the work to see why, saw nothing, then tried again (without any edits) and it went through. Still no idea why. -Caraamon (talk) 21:02, 15 March 2021 (UTC)

For whatever reason, "vehicle" was considered an undesirable word in the nonsense-bot filter, probably due to some historical bot spam. For now, I've just removed the word from the check altogether, and if we start seeing related spam pop back up, we can try to add a more specific check. Thanks for the report! – Robin Hood ^(talk) 21:15, 15 March 2021 (UTC)

Madam Whim Additional dialogue line reported as spamEdit

I've been trying to add an additional dialogue line that Madam Whim said after you spoke to the Anchorite and before you speak to Eveli in Hope Springs Eternal. It keeps being considered as spamming, I don't know why that is the case. Here is the line below:

"My, my. So many interesting potential clients at this little gathering. Who should I speak to first, I wonder?
Do not mind me, mortal. I am here at your request, I will adhere to whatever plans you have in store."

-99.229.138.52 3:04, 06 March 2022 (EST)

The problem phrase was "potential clients", which had been blocked at some point due to a spam attack. I've removed the phrase for now, so you should be able to add it now. – Robin Hood ^(talk) 09:14, 6 March 2022 (UTC)

One-Eye's Guard dialogue line reported as vandalismEdit

I was trying to put in an additional dialogue line that female guards would say if they caught you committing a crime. It was considered vandalism, which I don't know why. — Unsigned comment by 99.229.138.52 (talk) at 22:40 on 12 March 2023‎

Taken care of, per my talk page. – Robin Hood ^(talk) 09:25, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

Michael Kirkbride's Post additionsEdit

I added a snippet from the Shonni-Etta that no one else had posted, but there's a significant degree of "colorful" language used in it, which probably tripped the filter. ElCyrodElCyrodUT 13:20 GMT 12th July 2023

According to the logs, you only got a warning and it looks like you were able to edit the page just fine. So, it's not a "false positive" since the filter's working exactly as intended. However, after your edits, another administrator chose to remove them. I'd suggest you discuss this with Imperialbattlespire if you think the edits belong on the page. – Robin Hood ^(talk) 15:57, 12 July 2023 (UTC)

Vindolwae's lines after Keeper of the FateEdit

When I add in a specific updated line for Vindolwae, it is registered as vandalism. The line talks about the undead coming to life and attacking mortals. I have to space the words that might be the reason of why it can't be added in.

"Next thing that'll happen is that every word in this city of the d e a d comes to life and h u n t s every mortal down. That'd be fun.
No, it wouldn't be fun. If you think it'd be fun, please venture elsewhere."

— Unsigned comment by 173.33.71.76 (talk) at 16:03 on 08 December 2023‎

Actually, the problem was with the "pen is" in "happen is". The filter allows for spaces in that particular word, since it's common to try to do what you did above to avoid the filters. I've added "happen is" as an exception, so that should no longer trigger the issue, though there could be other combinations that will ("pen is mightier than the sword" comes to mind), but we'll deal with those as they arise. Thanks for reporting the issue! – Robin Hood ^(talk) 17:22, 13 December 2023 (UTC)