Help:User contributions

Editing Help
Index
Editing guide
Cheatsheet
Wiki training
Tutorials
Copyright
Textual standards
Visual standards
Glossary of terms
Edit review process

User contribution pages list the edits that a particular user has made.

You can check your own contributions, which is useful to refresh your memory about which pages you have worked on (and to easily access these again), but can also be used to find out whether there have been any subsequent edits (see below). This makes it possible to "watch" pages even if you haven't put them on your watchlist. Other users' user contribution pages can also be accessed and are useful for seeing how other users have contributed. They can be used to track down vandals, for example.

Accessing a user contributions page

Accessing your own user contributions page

• To access your own user contributions page, click My contributions. This is displayed at the top of the screen when you are logged in to Ballotpedia.

Accessing other user's user contributions page

• If the user has an account (username): bring up the user page and click User contributions - this works even if the user page has not been edited yet (i.e. an edit box displays).
• If the user has no login name, two methods are:
  • Click on the IP address in Recent Changes or Page History
  • Put the IP address in the search box and press Go

Using a user contributions page

After you've accessed either your own user contributions, or the contributions of some other Ballotpedia editor, here's how to understand them:

Edits are shown from newest to oldest. Each edit takes up one line which shows; time & date, the page name and the edit summary, as well as other diagnostic information. Lets have a look at some of the functions of this page:

1. The username or IP of the contributor appears here.
2. You can select a namespace to filter your results. For example, to see only templates select Template from the drop down list and press Go.
3. This gives the time and date of the edit.
4. (hist) takes you to the page history, so you can see all edits made to that page. This can be useful if someone has updated a page you have worked on, and you want to see their changes.
5. (diff) takes you to a diff page showing the changes between that edit and the current revision. The current revision appears below the changes so you can see how the page is now rendered.
6. m stands for minor edit (small corrections to a page). These help you understand the type of changes that have been made.
7. This is the name of the page the edit took place on. The current page name is used, so if the page has been renamed the name displayed will be different.
8. This is the edit summary. It is the text the user wrote in the edit summary box (below the edit box).
9. (top) signifies that the edit is the current revision. The page is as the user last saved it. This can be used to watch pages (if your last edit to the page does not display (top) the page has been changed). Sysops also have a rollback link here, see Help:Reverting.
10. This edit summary begins with an arrow link and grey text. This means the user has only edited a section of the page (named in the grey text). This text is automatically added when you edit a section. The black text is a standard edit summary and is added by the user.
11. This user has few edits, so all their edits fit onto one page. When their edits span more than one page, the black text in brackets will become links. These links take you to the users most recent edits (Latest), oldest edits (Earliest) or the next or previous page of edits (Next n / Previous n).
12. The blue numbers list the number of edits displayed on a page - 20, 50, 100, 250 or 500. A higher number increases the length of a page but reduces the number of pages The number you select replaces n in the links to the previous or next pages e.g. (Next 100 / Previous 100).

Also shown

• The creation of a new page

Not shown

• Edits from a page that has been deleted afterwards (unless it has been restored)
• Uploading a new image with the same name as one that already exists, thus replacing it
• The deletion or restoration (undeletion) of a page (if the user is a sysop)

Privacy

Your contributions can be viewed by anyone - please be mindful of this. Check the Ballotpedia privacy policies.