Guild Wars Wiki:Three-revert rule

This page is a rejected policy proposal. It has been unable to gain consensual support or it was replaced by an improved proposal.

The three-revert rule (3RR) is a policy that applies to all users, and is intended to prevent edit warring:

An editor must not perform more than three reverts, in whole or in part, on a single page within a 72-hour period.

The rule applies per editor. The use of multiple accounts is not a legitimate way to avoid this limit, and reverts by multiple accounts are counted as reverts made by one editor. The rule otherwise applies to all editors individually.

The rule applies per page. For example, if an editor performs three reverts on each of two articles within 72 hours, that editor's six reversions do not constitute a violation of this rule.

The rule does not convey an entitlement to revert once a day, nor does it endorse reverting as an editing technique. Rather, the rule is just one "electric fence", and does not preclude editors from being blocked for other reasons.

The bottom line: use common sense, and don't participate in edit wars. Rather than reverting multiple times, discuss the matter with other editors. If an action really needs reverting that much, somebody else will probably do it — and that will serve the vital purpose of showing that the community at large is in agreement over which course of action is preferable. Engaging in dispute resolution or making a request for page protection is often preferred to reverting.

What is a revert?

A revert, in this context, means undoing, in whole or in part, the actions of another editor or of other editors. This can include undoing edits to a page, undoing page moves ("move warring"), undoing administrative actions ("wheel warring"), or recreating a page.

An editor does not have to perform the same revert on a page more than three times to breach this rule; all reverts made by an editor on a particular page within a 72 hour period are counted. Consecutive reverts by one editor can often be treated as one revert for the purposes of this rule.

Mentioning "revert" or "rv" in the edit summary is strongly encouraged (but not required) when reverting, to reduce potential confusion.

Exceptions

Since the rule is intended to prevent rapid edit warring, reverts which are clearly not such will not breach the rule. Exceptions to the rule include:

• Reverting your own actions ("self-reverting").
• Reverting simple and obvious vandalism, such as graffiti or page blanking (this only applies to the most simple and obvious vandalism).
• Reverting clear copyright violations or clearly libelous material;
• Reverting actions performed by banned users.
• Normally, reverting by a user within their own user space.

Any of these actions may still be controversial; thus, it is only in the clearest cases that they will be considered exceptions to the rule. When in doubt, do not revert; instead, engage in dispute resolution or ask for administrative assistance.

Note that in the case of vandalism, blocking editors who have engaged in vandalism or protecting the page in question will often be better than reverting. Similarly, blocking or page protection will often be preferable in case of repeated addition of copyrighted material.

Enforcement

If an editor violates the three-revert rule, they should be blocked from editing for 3 days. In the cases where multiple editors violate the rule, administrators should treat all sides equally. Apparent breaches of the rule may be reported on the admin noticeboard.