Editing Help:User contributions (section)

==User contributions pages==
===Accessing===
* '''Your own contributions page'''. To access your own user contributions page, click the drop down labelled with a person icon at the top right corner of the page. Then click <kbd>{{int:mycontris}}</kbd>. An alternative is to type in the Search box: <kbd>[[Special:MyContributions]]</kbd>.
* '''Another registered user's contributions page'''. To access the contributions of a [[Help:Logging in|logged-in]] user (named account), go to the [[WP:USERPAGE|user page]] (e.g., <samp>[[User:Example]]</samp>) and click on the <kbd>User contributions</kbd> link listed under the <kbd>Tools</kbd> menu. This works even if the user page has not been created yet (i.e., an edit box displays).
* '''Contributions of an IP address'''. To access the contributions of a [[Wikipedia:Anonymous user|logged-out user]] (who is, {{as of|2024|lc=y}}, identified by [[IP address]]), use one of the following methods:
:* Just like with a registered user, you can go to the user page (e.g. <samp>User:IP number</samp>) and click on the <kbd>User contributions</kbd> link listed under the <kbd>Tools</kbd> menu.
:* Click on the IP address where it appears on your watchlist, in [[Help:Recent changes|Recent changes]] or in [[Help:Page history|Page history]].
:* Put the IP address in the [[Help:Searching#Search box|search box]] and press Go.
:* If the user is currently [[Wikipedia:Blocking policy|blocked]], a notice will be displayed at the very top of the contributions screen, [[Special:Contributions/Blocked user|like this example]].

Bear in mind that a public IP address may have been used by different users at different times. Equally, a given user may have used multiple IP addresses and/or usernames (which may well be illegitimate use of multiple accounts, or "[[WP:Sockpuppetry|sockpuppetry]]"). Where a user [[Wikipedia:Sockpuppetry#Legitimate uses|legitimately uses alternative accounts]], the alternative accounts should be clearly identified by the user. In any case, each account or IP address will have its own contributions page.

===Using the page===
====Parts of the page and their purposes====
Below is a labelled screenshot of a User contributions page and a numbered list discussing each labelled part, followed by a few things not shown in this example:<br/>
[[File:User contributions February 2013.xcf|Example of a user contributions page]]
# The username or IP of the contributor, followed by links to various logs.
# This part of the search form allows you to search by username, IP address, or IP address range. An IP range search can use a [[Classless Inter-Domain Routing|CIDR]] range such as ''10.0.0.0/8'' or a [[wildcard character|wildcard]] asterisk, such as ''10.11.12.*'' or ''192.168.*''. Searching with a wildcard  (but not searching with a CIDR range) requires you to be logged in and to have selected <small>"Allow /16, /24 and /27 – /32 CIDR ranges on Special:Contributions forms (uses API), as well as wildcard prefix searches"</small> under Gadgets in [[Special:Preferences]].
# These controls allow you to search by namespace: for example, to see only contributions made to [[Wikipedia:Template|templates]]. The "Invert selection" checkbox displays contributions to namespaces ''other than'' the selected namespace. The "Associated namespace" checkbox displays edits to the selected namespace ''and'' its talk namespace: for example, the "Template" and "Template talk" pair of namespaces. 
# The "[[Wikipedia:Tags|Tag]] filter" restricts the display to show only those edits that have been tagged by an [[WP:Edit filter|Edit filter]]. For example, "references removed" may be entered here.
# The "Only show edits that are latest revisions" checkbox will only display edits where no other change has yet been made to the page. The additional options "Only show edits that are page creations" and "Hide [[Help:Minor edit|minor edits]]" are not included in the image. The English Wikipedia use [[mw:ORES|ORES]], which adds the option "Hide probably good edits", described at [[:mw:ORES review tool]].
# The year and month fields allow a quick jump when a user has made many contributions.
# Click the "Search" button to redisplay the list of edits after changing any of these selection controls.
# The list of edits, shown from newest to oldest. Each edit takes up one line which contains:
# The time and date of the edit, displayed in the user's preferred format. The display format, as well as the selected time zone offset, can be changed in the user's "Preferences" page at the top menu, in the "Date and time" section.
# ''(diff)'' takes you to a [[Help:diff|diff]] page showing the changes between that edit and the previous revision. The revision after the edit appears below the changes so you can see the result of the edit.
# ''(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.
# The difference in size between this revision and the previous revision. A green number with a plus sign <span class='mw-plusminus-pos'>(+1,864)</span> indicates that the edit added this number of bytes (roughly corresponding to characters) to the page, while a red number with a minus sign <span class='mw-plusminus-neg'>(-29)</span> indicates removal. See more at [[Wikipedia:Added or removed characters]].
# This is the current name of the page that was edited.
# This is the [[Help:edit summary|edit summary]]. It is the text the user wrote in the edit summary box (below the large edit box) describing the purpose of the edit.
# Edit summaries like this one begin with an arrow link and grey text, signifying that the user has only selected one section of the page to edit (named in the grey text). This text is automatically added when you select Edit for a section rather than an entire page.
# '''{{int:Newpageletter}}''' indicates a [[Help:Starting a new page|new page]].
# '''{{int:Minoreditletter}}''' indicates a [[Help:minor edit|minor edit]].
# '''{{int:Parentheses-start}}{{int:Uctop}}{{int:Parentheses-end}}''' signifies that the edit is the current revision. In other words, the page is as the user last saved it because no other user or [[WP:Bot|bot]] has modified it. This can be used to monitor pages; if your last edit to the page does not display '''{{int:Parentheses-start}}{{int:Uctop}}{{int:Parentheses-end}}''', then the page has been changed.
# If an editor has made more edits than will fit on one page, these links display the most recent edits ''(latest)'' and the oldest edits ''(earliest)''
# Similarly, these links display the next or previous page of edits ''(newer [number] / older [number])''.
# The blue numbers list the number of edits displayed on a page: 20, 50, 100, 250, or 500. The number you select will display as the ''[number]'' in the links to the previous or next pages: for example, ''(newer 100 / older 100)''. Views of up to 5,000 edits per page are possible by modifying the number in the page's [[URL]].
# This panel contains links to additional tools relating to a user's contributions (via [[MediaWiki:Sp-contributions-footer]] and [[MediaWiki:Sp-contributions-footer-anon]]).

Not shown in this example: 
{{watchlist legend|caption=Bold indicators in the head of some lines}}
* Some edits may be automatically [[Wikipedia:Tags|tagged]] by the [[Wikipedia:Abuse Filter|abuse filter]]: for example, <samp>''(Tag: references removed)''</samp>. Any tags applied appear after the edit summary. They cannot be added or removed manually. 

:These tags help editors find and review ''potentially'' problematic edits and fix them if needed. They do not ''prove'' that an edit is problematic, nor that modifications must be done to it.

* Over time, editors have developed shortcuts or abbreviations that are manually added to the edit summary text, sometimes added so often that they could be mistaken for automatically added tags, such as "rv" for "reverted". If you run into one you can't figure out, try seeing if it's on the [[Wikipedia:Glossary]] page. If not, try asking on the talk page for the user or article. 

* A special case of such manually-added conventions is the [[Help:Dummy edit|dummy edit]]. When an editor saves a page and then realizes they made an important omission or error in the published edit summary, they can make a dummy edit: a change in the page that causes no visible effects, so that they can add further information about the first edit in that second edit's summary. They might indicate dummy edits by shortcut acronyms, such as WP:SUMMARYONLY or H:DUMMY.

* [[WP:Administrator|Administrator]]s and other users with [[Wikipedia:User access levels|access rights]] to special tools may have additional options on contributions pages.

====What normally does not appear====
The following information normally does not appear on a user contributions page:
* Edits from a page that has been deleted afterwards (unless the page, including the revision concerned, has been subsequently restored by an administrator). If the revision concerned has been restored but not the previous one, then the fact that the user has edited the page is preserved, including the time and the edit summary, and the resulting revision, but not the change. An administrator can use [[Special:DeletedContributions]] to see revisions that have not been restored. However, applying a diff is not directly possible.
* Uploading of a new image with the same name as one that already exists, thus replacing it.
* The act of deleting or restoring (undeleting) a page if the user is an administrator. Use [[Special:Logs]] for this.
* Edits in other Wikimedia projects. To access this, click on the "Global: contributions" link at the bottom bar.