RecentChanges
RecentChanges is a page on a wiki where all of the edits to its pages are logged. When you make an edit at a wiki, the system is transparent by showing the edit on its RecentChanges page.
At AboutUs.org we actually have two different RecentChanges pages, or streams:
- The RecentChanges that we link to in our top left navigation includes all edits made to pages on AboutUs. This is a stream that we built to include all edits to a page like wiki text and formatting, tags, summary and edits to section on our new style of pages. To see what a person edited on the page you can go to the page and then its history tab.
- Special:RecentChanges includes all edits made to the strictly wiki parts of pages. This is the stream that comes standard on MediaWiki wikis. This stream doesn't include non-wiki edits like to tags and summaries, but it does include helpful links like to things like the "diff" of an edit and the editor's contributions (more info on these below).
What do the things on Special:RecentChanges mean?
- (diff) link shows the difference in the edits between the current version and the last version.
- (hist) links to history of all the edits of the page.
- Their name links to that person's personal page
- (Talk | contribs) gives links to that person's talk page (a place to leave them a message on the wiki) and their contributions, meaning the edits that person has made on the wiki
- There are +- numbers next to the edits, that refers to the number of characters added or deleted. This helps people look for patterns of activity. e.g. spammers and vandals.
- Sometimes there are small m's - those denote minor edits, usually for copy editing.
