Uncyclopedia:Check the history DAMMIT!
 | This is an essay. It is not an ignorable policy on Uncyclopedia, so you should ignore it even more and disregard the mad ramblings of its writer. Or you could submit it as an Uncycloversity assignment in lieu of doing any actual work. |
Uncyclopedia, like all wikis, keeps an extensive history of every page between its creation and the last edit. Every single version is stored on the database and can be restored very easily.
It is this very principle that allows reverting and rollback to take place. However if a page is vandalized over a long term (gradually vandalized by n00bs and anonymous users) it may appear totally irredeemable and either have a 30 day maintenance template slapped on it or be put on Votes for Deletion. Which takes me to this. Check the history DAMMIT!
VFD[edit source]
If you come across a stupid article, a stub, cruft or any other article type that we at Uncyclopedia generally prefer to not have included in our statistics, STOP! before adding a VFD template and creating an entry, check the history! If you see a version of the page that is funny and well formatted it takes 5 seconds to restore it. If you can see that the article has at no point been funny, then knock yourself out, add it to VFD and the voting will take place.
Maintenance templates[edit source]
By and large you can't simply vandalize a page into needing one of these. Redlinks for example appear as other articles are deleted and are actually inspiring. But as with VFD if you can see a problem with a page, check the history to find a better version. If all seems bad even in the history add your tag.
Before deletion[edit source]
Although seemingly unrealistic if an admin could check the pages in either criteria before deletion a lot of innocent and vandalized articles could be saved!
So in summary[edit source]
Checking the history is often the difference between seeing an ok article being huffed and it being saved. It's easy and in return for which you will get paid. In sex. [citation needed]