Help:Undo
Help:Undo is here to explain how to revert mistakes, disasters, and “bold edits” that turned into flaming garbage. Whether you typo’d a word or detonated the entire layout, MediaWiki has your back. Sort of.
The Undo Link
- Every edit in a page’s history has a handy undo link next to it.
- Clicking it will open the edit window with the offending changes automatically reversed.
- At this point you should either:
- hit Save page immediately and hope nobody notices, or
- write an edit summary admitting nothing and blaming “formatting issues.”
Syntax
There is no fancy markup for undoing, because undoing is the markup. The process looks like this:
- Go to the page history.
- Find the mistake (usually yours).
- Click undo.
- Save the page.
- Pretend you were never there.
When Undo Fails
Undo will not work if:
- The edit conflicts with subsequent edits, especially when the same line has been touched.
- The wiki gods decide you deserve to suffer.
- You are trying to erase evidence of your own incompetence, which always leaves a digital trail.
In these cases you will have to use the nuclear option: a full revert to a previous revision. This is done by opening an old version, hitting edit, and saving it as the new one. It is messy, but so are you.
Etiquette
- Avoid undo wars. Nothing looks dumber than two people repeatedly slapping the undo button on each other’s work.
- Leave an edit summary explaining why you undid something. Even “lol no” is better than nothing.
- If someone undoes your undo, maybe take a hint.