Revision as of 22:25, 19 November 2019 editPatiodweller (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users1,048 edits →Shut down Article Rescue Squadron← Previous edit | Latest revision as of 15:39, 8 January 2025 edit undoLowercase sigmabot III (talk | contribs)Bots, Template editors2,301,571 editsm Archiving 1 discussion(s) to Misplaced Pages:Village pump (proposals)/Archive 216) (bot | ||
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{{short description|Discussion page for new proposals}} | {{redirect|WP:PROPOSE|proposing article deletion|Misplaced Pages:Proposed deletion|and|Misplaced Pages:Deletion requests}}<noinclude>{{short description|Discussion page for new proposals}}{{Village pump page header|Proposals|alpha=yes| | ||
The '''proposals''' section of the ] is used to offer specific changes for discussion. ''Before submitting'': | |||
<noinclude>{{pp-move-indef}}{{Village pump page header|Proposals|alpha=yes| | |||
New proposals are discussed here. ''Before submitting'': | |||
* Check to see whether your proposal is already described at ''']'''. You may also wish to search the ]. | * Check to see whether your proposal is already described at ''']'''. You may also wish to search the ]. | ||
* Consider developing |
* This page is for '''concrete, actionable''' proposals. Consider developing earlier-stage proposals at ]. | ||
* Proposed '''software''' changes should be filed at ] (configuration changes should have ]). | |||
* Proposed '''policy''' changes belong at ]. | * Proposed '''policy''' changes belong at ]. | ||
* Proposed '''speedy deletion criteria''' belong at ]. | |||
* Proposed '''WikiProjects''' or '''task forces''' may be submitted at ]. | * Proposed '''WikiProjects''' or '''task forces''' may be submitted at ]. | ||
* Proposed '''new wikis''' belong at ]. | * Proposed '''new wikis''' belong at ]. | ||
* Proposed '''new articles''' belong at ]. | * Proposed '''new articles''' belong at ]. | ||
* Discussions or proposals which warrant the '''attention or involvement of the Wikimedia Foundation''' belong at ]. | |||
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== RfC: Log the use of the ] at both the merge target and merge source == | |||
== RfC on inclusion criteria for lists of political endorsements == | |||
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:''The following discussion is an archived record of a ]. <span style="color:var(--color-destructive, red)">'''Please do not modify it.'''</span> No further edits should be made to this discussion.'' ''A summary of the conclusions reached follows.'' | |||
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Numerically, option 1a has 6 !votes in its favor (4 if we don't count second-choice !votes (Graham87 and Abzeronow), 0 if we only count exclusive !votes), 1b has 10 (7 exclusive), and option 2 has 4. Most of the !votes in support of option 1a were cast early into the RfC before experienced history mergers expressed concerns about how the creation of dummy edits might disturb page histories. No proponent of option 1a replied to these objections, and many later proponents of 1b cited them as justification for not supporting 1a. Thus, option 1a is rejected. Next, we will consider option 2. Proponents of this option primarily cited the purported need for history merging to be seamless, and a dummy edit would disrupt that fact; the aforementioned objection to 1a. However, only one of the proponents of this option attempted to object to 1b specifically (that is, the need for a log entry at the target page), saying that page moves similarly only log at the source page. Proponents of option 1b convincingly replied to this objection by noting that that is less problematic because of the fact that page moves produce a dummy edit, unlike history merges. One additional proponent of option 2 asserted that no MediaWiki developers would be interested in this project. However, this is not a sufficiently strong argument to outweigh those made by proponents of option 1b. The primary argument by its proponents was that the current system wherein history merges are logged only at the source page was confusing, since it requires having access to the source page's title, which is not always the case. Some proponents of opt. 2 objected that you can look at abnormalities such as "Created page with..." edit summaries in the middle of a page history or unusual byte differences to determine that a history merge occurred at the target page. However, this undermines the most common argument for option 2; namely, that history merging ought to be seamless, since only the "seams" left behind by the process can show that a history merge occurred while looking only at the destination page. Thus, I see '''consensus to <u>request that the developers</u> adopt option 1b'''. The Phabricator tickets will be updated accordingly. ]<sub>]<sub>]</sub></sub> (]/]) 16:38, 29 December 2024 (UTC) <small>I added four words to this closure per ]. ]<sub>]<sub>]</sub></sub> (]/]) 03:10, 2 January 2025 (UTC)</small> | |||
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Note: If you are seeing this page as a result of an attempt to register a new request for comment, you must manually edit the nomination links in order to create a new discussion page using the name format of ]. When you create the new discussion page, please provide a link to this old discussion. | |||
{{rfc|pol|rfcid=E3CADB8}} | |||
We have many stand-alone and embedded lists of political campaign endorsements (see for example, ]). The inclusion criteria of these lists are frequently debated, and the lists themselves subject to frequent additions based on unclear language published only on social media. This RfC attempts to create baseline inclusion criteria for such lists, which can be built upon as needed on article talk pages. — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 14:27, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
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{{cot|Links to some past discussions}} | |||
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Discussions are sprawling across many articles and project pages. This list isn't intended to be exhaustive -- just those which were easily findable. | |||
<!-- ] 16:01, 25 December 2024 (UTC) -->{{User:ClueBot III/DoNotArchiveUntil|1735142470}} | |||
Currently, there are open proposing that the use of the HistMerge tool be logged at the target article in addition to the source article. Several proposals have been made: | |||
*'''Option 1a''': When using ], a null edit should be placed in both the merge target and merge source's page's histories stating that a history merge took place. | |||
*: (]: '''Special:MergeHistory should place a null edit in the page's history describing the merge''', authored Jul 13 2023) | |||
*'''Option 1b''': When using ], add a log entry recorded for the articles at the both HistMerge target and source that records the existence of a history merge. | |||
*: (]: '''Merging pages should add a log entry to the destination page''', authored Nov 8 2015) | |||
*'''Option 2''': Do not log the use of the ] tool at the merge target, maintaining the current status quo. | |||
Should the use of the HistMerge tool be explicitly logged? If so, should the use be logged via an entry in the page history or should it instead be held in a dedicated log? — ] <sub>]</sub> 15:51, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
===Survey: Log the use of the ]=== | |||
*'''Option 1a/b'''. I am in principle in support of adding this logging functionality, since people don't typically have access to the source article title (where the histmerge is currently logged) when viewing an article in the wild. There have been several times I can think of when I've been going diff hunting or browsing page history and where some explicit note of a histmerge having occurred would have been useful. As for whether this is logged directly in the page history (as is done currently with page protection) or if this is merely in a separate log file, I don't have particularly strong feelings, but I do think that adding functionality to log histmerges at the target article would improve clarity in page histories. — ] <sub>]</sub> 15:51, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Option 1a/b'''. No strong feelings on which way is best (I'll let the experienced histmergers comment on this), but logging a history merge definitely seems like a useful feature. ] (] · ]) 16:02, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Option 1a/b'''. Choatic Enby has said exactly what I would have said (but more concisely) had they not said it first. ] (]) 16:23, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''1b''' would be most important to me but but '''1a''' would be nice too. But this is really not the place for this sort of discussion, as noted below. ] (]) 16:28, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
* '''Option 2''' History merging done right should be seamless, leaving the page indistinguishable from if the copy-paste move being repaired had never happened. Adding extra annotations everywhere runs counter to that goal. Prefer 1b to 1a if we have to do one of them, as the extra null edits could easily interfere with the history merge being done in more complicated situations. ] ] 16:49, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:Could you expound on why they should be indistinguishable? I don't see how this could harm any utility. A log action at the target page would not show up in the history anyways, and a null edit would have no effect on comparing revisions. ] (]) 17:29, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:: Why shouldn't it be indistinguishable? Why it it necessary to go out of our way to say even louder that someone did something wrong and it had to be cleaned up? ] ] 17:45, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::All cleanup actions are logged to all the pages they affect. ] (]) 18:32, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
* '''2''' History merges ], so this survey name is somewhat off the mark. As someone who does this work: I do not think these should be displayed at either location. It would cause a lot of noise in history pages that people probably would not fundamentally understand (2 revisions for "please process this" and "remove tag" and a 3rd revision for the suggested log), and it would be "out of order" in that you will have merged a bunch of revisions but none of those revisions would be nearby the entry in the history page itself. I also find protections noisy in this way as well, and when moves end up causing a need for history merging, you end up with doubled move entries in the merged history, which also is confusing. Adding history merges to that case? No thanks. History merges are more like deletions and undeletions, which already do not add displayed content to the history view. ] (]) 16:54, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:They presently are logged, but only at the source article. Take for example . When I search for the merge target, I get . It's only when I search the that I'm able to get a result, but there isn't a way to ''know'' the merge source. | |||
*:If I don't know when or if the histmerge took place, and I don't know what article the history was merged from, I'd have to look through the entirety of the merge log manually to figure that out—and that's suboptimal. — ] <sub>]</sub> 17:05, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::... Page moves do the same thing, only log the move source. Yet this is not seen as an issue? :) | |||
*::But ignoring that, why is it valuable to know this information? What do you gain? And is what you gain actually valuable to your end objective? For example, let's take your {{tq|There have been several times I can think of when I've been going diff hunting or browsing page history and where some explicit note of a histmerge having occurred would have been useful.}} Is not the revisions left behind in the page history by both the person requesting and the person performing the histmerge not enough (see {{tl|histmerge}})? There are history merges done that don't have that request format such as the WikiProject history merge format, but those are almost always ancient revisions, so what are you gaining there? And where they are not ancient revisions, they are trivial kinds of the form "draft x -> page y, I hate that I even had to interact with this history merge it was so trivial (but also these are great because I don't have to spend significant time on them)". ] (]) 17:32, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::{{tqb|... Page moves do the same thing, only log the move source. Yet this is not seen as an issue? :)}}I don't think everyone would necessarily agree (see Toadspike's comment below). ] (] · ]) 17:42, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::Page moves ''do'' leave a null edit on the page that describes where the page was moved from and was moved to. And it's easy to work backwards from there to figure out the page move history. The same cannot be said of the ] tool, which doesn't make it easy to re-construct what the heck went on unless we start diving naïvely through the logs. — ] <sub>]</sub> 17:50, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::It can be *possible* to find the original history merge source page without looking through the merge log, but the method for doing so is very brittle and extremeley hacky. Basically, look for redirects to the page using "What links here", and find the redirect whose first edit has an unusual byte difference. This relies on the redirect being stable and not deleted or retargetted. There is also ] that relies on byte difference bugs as described in the above-linked discussion by ]. Both of those are ... particularly awful. ] (]) 03:48, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::In the given example, the history-merge occurred ]. Your "log" is the edit summaries. "Created page with '..." is the edit summary left by a normal page creation. But wait, there is page history before the edit that created the page. How did it get there? Hmm, the previous edit summary "Declining submission: v - Submission is improperly sourced (AFCH)" tips you off to look for the same title in draft: namespace. Anyone looking for help with understanding a particular merge may ask me and I'll probably be able to figure it out for you. – ] (]) 05:51, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::Here's another example, of a merge within mainspace. The ] (created by the MediaWiki software) of this ] "Removed redirect to {{no redirect|Jordan B. Acker}}" points you to the page that was merged at that point. . . . – ] (]) 13:44, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::::There are times where those traces aren't left. ] (]) 13:51, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::::Here's another scenario, this one from ]. The shows an edit adding '''+5,800''' bytes, leaving the page with 5,800 bytes. But the previous edit did not leave a blank page. Some say this is a bug, but it's also a feature. That "bug" is actually your "log" reporting that a hist-merge occurred at that edit. , the log for that page shows a temp delete & undelete setting the page up for a merge. The first item on the log: | |||
*::::::@ 20:14, 16 January 2021 Tbhotch moved page ] to {{no redirect|Flag of the Republic of Yucatán}} (Correct name) | |||
*:::::clues you in to where to look for the source of the merge. , that single edit which removed '''−5,633''' bytes tells you that previous history was merged off of that page. The provides the details. – ] (]) 16:03, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::::(]: '''Special:MergeHistory causes incorrect byte change values in history''', authored Dec 2 2014) <!-- Template:Unsigned --><small class="autosigned">— Preceding ] comment added by ] (] • ]) 18:13, 21 November 2024 (UTC)</small> | |||
*::::::Again, there are times where the clues are much harder to find, and even in those cases, it'd be much better to have a unified and assured way of finding the source. ] (]) 16:11, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::::::Indeed. This is a prime example of an unintended ]. ] (]) 08:50, 22 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::::::::Yeah. I don't think that we can permanently rely on that, given that future versions of MediaWiki are not bound in any real way to support that workaround. — ] <sub>]</sub> 04:24, 3 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support 1b''' (log only), oppose 1a (null edit). I defer to the experienced histmergers on this, and if they say that adding null edits everywhere would be inconvenient, I believe them. However, I haven't seen any arguments against logging the histmerge at both articles, so I'll support it as a sensible idea. (On a similar note, it bothers me that page moves are only logged at one title, not both.) ] </span>]] 17:10, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
* '''Option 2'''. The merges are ], so there’s no reason to add it to page histories. While it may be useful for habitual editors, it will just confuse readers who are looking for an old revision and occasional editors. ] & ]<sub>(])</sub> 18:33, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:But only the source page is logged as the "target". IIRC it currently can be a bit hard to find out when and who merged history into a page if you don't know the source page and the mergeperson didn't leave any editing indication that they merged something. ] (]) 18:40, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''1B'''. The present situation of the action being only logged at one page is confusing and unhelpful. But so would be injecting null-edits all over the place. <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> — ] ] ] 😼 </span> 01:38, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
* '''Option 2'''. This exercise is dependent on finding a volunteer MediaWiki developer willing to work on this. Good luck with that. Maybe you'll find one a decade from now. – ] (]) 05:51, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*: And, more importantly, someone in the to review it. I suspect there are many people, possibly including myself, who would code this if they didn't think they were wasting their time shuffling things from one queue to another. ] ] 06:03, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::That link requires a Gerrit login/developer account to view. It was a struggle to get in to mine (I only have one because of an old Toolforge account and I'd basically forgotten about it), but for those who don't want to go through all that, that group has only 82 members (several of whose usernames I recognise) and I imagine they have a lot on their collective plate. There's more information about these groups at ]. ] (]) 15:38, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::: Sorry, I totally forgot Gerrit behaved in that counterintuitive way and hid public information from logged out users for no reason. The things you miss if Gerrit interactions become something you do pretty much every day. If you want to count the members of the group you also have to follow the chain of included groups - it also includes https://ldap.toolforge.org/group/wmf, https://ldap.toolforge.org/group/ops and (another login-only link), as well as a few other permission edge cases (almost all of which are redundant because the user is already in the MediaWiki group) ] ] 18:07, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support 1a/b''', and I would encourage the closer to disregard any opposition based solely on the chances of someone ever actually implementing it. <span style="white-space: nowrap;">—] <sup>(]·])</sup></span> 12:52, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:Fine. This stupid RfC isn't even asking the right questions. Why did I need to delete (an expensive operation) and then restore a page in order to Should we fix the software so that it doesn't require me to do that? Why did the page-mover resort to cut-paste because there was page history blocking their move, rather than ask a administrator for help? Why doesn't the software just let them move over that junk page history themselves, which would negate the need for a later hist-merge? (Actually in this case the offending user only has made 46 edits, so they don't have page-mover privileges. But they were able to move a page. They just couldn't move it back a day later after they changed their mind.) ] (]) 13:44, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::Yeah, ] would be amazing, for a start. ] (]) 15:38, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Option 1b'''{{snd}}changes to a page's history should be listed in that page's log. There's no need to make a null edit; pagemove null edits are useful because they meaningfully fit into the page's revision history, which isn't the case here. ] (]) 00:55, 22 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Option 1b''' sounds best since that's what those in the know seem to agree on, but 1a would probably be OK. ] (]) 03:44, 23 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Option 1b''' seems like the one with the best transparency to me. Thanks. <span style="text-shadow:3px 3px 3px lightblue">]<sup>'''537'''<sub>]</sub> (]|])</sup></span> 06:59, 25 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
===Discussion: Log the use of the ]=== | |||
*] | |||
*I'm noticing some commentary in the above RfC (on widening importer rights) as to whether or not this might be useful going forward. I do think that having the community weigh in one way or another here would be helpful in terms of deciding whether or not this functionality is worth building. — ] <sub>]</sub> 15:51, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*] | |||
*:<small>] . — ] <sub>]</sub> 16:01, 20 November 2024 (UTC)</small> | |||
*] | |||
*This is a missing feature, not a config change. ] (]) 15:58, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*] | |||
*:Indeed; it's about a feature proposal. — ] <sub>]</sub> 16:02, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*] | |||
*As many of the above, this is a ] and not something that should be special for the English Misplaced Pages. — ] <sup>]</sup> 16:03, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*] (related to above) | |||
*:See ]. I'm not seeing any sort of reason this would need per-project opt-ins requiring a local discussion. — ] <sup>]</sup> 16:05, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*] | |||
*:True, but I agree with Red-tailed hawk that it's good to have the English Misplaced Pages community weigh on whether we want that feature implemented here to begin with. ] (] · ]) 16:05, 20 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
*] | |||
* Here is the , and the project's . – ] (]) 18:13, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
{{cob}} | |||
* I agree that this is an odd thing to RFC. This is about a feature in MediaWiki core, and there are a lot more users of MediaWiki core than just English Misplaced Pages. However, please do post the results of this RFC to both of the phab tickets. It will be a useful data point with regards to what editors would find useful. –] <small>(])</small> 23:16, 21 November 2024 (UTC) | |||
<div style="padding-left: 1.6em; font-style: italic; border-top: 1px solid #a2a9b1; margin: 0.5em 0; padding-top: 0.5em">The discussion above is closed. <b style="color: var(--color-error, red);">Please do not modify it.</b> Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.</div><!-- from ] --> | |||
</div><div style="clear:both;" class=></div> | |||
== Revise ] == | |||
The scope of this RfC is on lists of endorsements of political campaigns, whether stand-alone or part of another article. It does not apply to endorsements discussed outside of lists. | |||
{{atop | |||
| result = There is consensus against this proposal. ]<sub>]<sub>]</sub></sub> (]/]) 17:48, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
}} | |||
Point 1 of Procedural removal for inactive administrators which currently reads "Has made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least a 12-month period" should be replaced with "Has made no administrative actions for at least a 12-month period". The current wording of 1. means that an Admin who takes no admin actions keeps the tools provided they make at least a few edits every year, which really isn't the point. The whole purpose of adminship is to protect and advance the project. If an admin isn't using the tools then they don't need to have them. ] (]) 07:47, 4 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
There are three proposals for inclusion criteria, which should be evaluated separately (one does not depend on the others). (If you would like to add to this list, please start a separate thread rather than add to this one). | |||
===Endorsement/Opposition (Admin inactivity removal) === | |||
'''1. Lists of endorsements should only include endorsements by ].''' | |||
*'''Support''' as proposer. ] (]) 07:47, 4 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
:Note on #1: Whether or not it is necessary for the person to also have a Misplaced Pages article can be determined at the article level | |||
*'''Oppose''' - this would create an unnecessary barrier to admins who, for real life reasons, have limited engagement for a bit. Asking the tools back at BN can feel like a faff. Plus, logged admin activity is a poor guide to actual admin activity. In some areas, maybe half of actions aren't logged? ] (]) 19:17, 4 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose'''. First, not all admin actions are logged as such. One example which immediately comes to mind is declining an unblock request. In the logs, that's just a normal edit, but it's one only admins are permitted to make. That aside, if someone has remained at least somewhat engaged with the project, they're showing they're still interested in returning to more activity one day, even if real-life commitments prevent them from it right now. We all have things come up that take away our available time for Misplaced Pages from time to time, and that's just part of life. Say, for example, someone is currently engaged in a PhD program, which is a tremendously time-consuming activity, but they still make an edit here or there when they can snatch a spare moment. Do we really want to discourage that person from coming back around once they've completed it? ] <small><sup>]</sup></small> 21:21, 4 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:We could declare specific types of edits which count as admin actions despite being mere edits. It should be fairly simple to write a bot which checks if an admin has added or removed specific texts in any edit, or made any of specific modifications to pages. Checking for protected edits can be a little harder (we need to check for protection at the time of edit, not for the time of the check), but even this can be managed. Edits to pages which match specific regular expression patterns should be trivial to detect. ] ] 11:33, 9 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' There's no indication that this is a problem needs fixing. ]] <small><sup>Shoot Blues, Tell VileRat!</sup></small> 00:55, 5 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
* '''Support''' Admins who don't use the tools should not have the tools. ] ] 03:55, 5 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' While I have never accepted "not all admin actions are logged" as a realistic reason for no logged actions in an entre year, I just don't see what problematic group of admins this is in response to. Previous tweaks to the rules were in response to admins that seemed to be gaming the system, that were basically inactive and when they did use the tools they did it badly, etc. We don't need a rule that ins't pointed a provable, ongoing problem. ] ] 19:19, 8 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' If an admin is still editing, it's not unreasonable to assume that they are still up to date with policies, community norms etc. I see no particular risk in allowing them to keep their tools. ] (]) 19:46, 8 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''': It feels like some people are trying to accelerate admin attrition and I don't know why. This is a solution in search of a problem. ] (]) 07:11, 10 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' Sure there is a problem, but the real problem I think is that it is puzzling why they are still admins. Perhaps we could get them all to make a periodic 'declaration of intent' or some such every five years that explains why they want to remain an admin. ] (]) 19:01, 11 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' largely per scribolt. We want to take away mops from inactive accounts where there is a risk of them being compromised, or having got out of touch with community norms, this proposal rather targets the admins who are active members of the community. Also declining incorrect deletion tags and AIV reports doesn't require the use of the tools, doesn't get logged but is also an important thing for admins to do. '']]<span style="color:#CC5500">Chequers</span>'' 07:43, 15 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose'''. What is the motivation for this frenzy to make more hoops for admins to jump through and use not jumping through hoops as an excuse to de-admin them? What problem does it solve? It seems counterproductive and de-inspiring when the bigger issue is that we don't have enough new admins. —] (]) 07:51, 17 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' Some admin actions aren't logged, and I also don't see why this is necessary. Worst case scenario, we have ]. ] (]) 15:25, 17 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' I quite agree with David Eppstein's sentiment. What's with the rush to add more hoops? Is there some problem with the admin corps that we're not adequately dealing with? Our issue is that we have too few admins, not that we have too many. ] <sup>]</sup>] 23:20, 22 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose:''' I'm not seeing this as a real issue which needs to be fixed, or what problem is actually being solved. ] (]) 21:17, 28 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' per all the good points from others showing that this is a solution in search of a problem. ] </span>]] 21:57, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' The current wording sufficiently removes tools from users who have ceased to edit the English Misplaced Pages. ] (]) 22:28, 3 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
===Discussion (Admin inactivity removal)=== | |||
'''2. Lists of endorsements should only include endorsements which have been covered by ] independent sources.''' | |||
* Making administrative actions can be helpful to show that the admin is still up-to-date with community norms. We could argue that if someone is active but doesn't use the tools, it isn't a big issue whether they have them or not. Still, the tools can be requested back following an inactivity desysop, if the formerly inactive admin changes their mind and wants to make admin actions again. For now, I don't see any immediate issues with this proposal. ] (] · ]) 08:13, 4 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
:Note on #2: This means endorsements should not be sourced solely to a Tweet or Instagram post, for example. | |||
* Looking back at previous RFCs, in ] the reasoning was to reduce the attack surface for inactive account takeover, and in ] it was about admins who haven't been around enough to keep up with changing community norms. What's the justification for this besides "use it or lose it"? Further, we already have a mechanism (from the 2022 RFC) to account for admins who make a few edits every year. ]] 12:44, 4 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
* I also note that not all admin actions are logged. Logging editing through full protection requires ]. Reviewing of deleted content isn't logged at all. Who will decide whether an admin's XFD "keep" closures are really ]s or not? Do adminbot actions count for the operator? There are probably more examples. Currently we ignore these edge cases since the edits will probably also be there, but now if we can desysop someone who made 100,000 edits in the year we may need to consider them. ]] 12:44, 4 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:I had completely forgotten that many admin actions weren't logged (and thus didn't "count" for activity levels), that's actually a good point (and stops the "community norms" arguments as healthy levels of community interaction can definitely be good evidence of that). And, since admins desysopped for inactivity can request the tools back, an admin needing the bit but not making any logged actions can just ask for it back. At this point, I'm not sure if there's a reason to go through the automated process of desysopping/asking for resysop at all, rather than just politely ask the admin if they still need the tools.{{pb}}I'm still very neutral on this by virtue of it being a pretty pointless and harmless process either way (as, again, there's nothing preventing an active admin desysopped for "inactivity" from requesting the tools back), but I might lean oppose just so we don't add a pointless process for the sake of it. ] (] · ]) 15:59, 4 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
* To me this comes down to whether the community considers it problematic for an admin to have tools they aren't using. Since it's been noted that not all admin actions are logged, and an admin who isn't using their tools also isn't causing any problems, I'm not sure I see a need to actively remove the tools from an inactive admin; in a worst-case scenario, isn't this encouraging an admin to (potentially mis-)use the tools solely in the interest of keeping their bit? There also seems to be somewhat of a bad-faith assumption to the argument that an admin who isn't using their tools may also be falling behind on community norms. I'd certainly like to hope that if I was an admin who had been inactive that I would review P&G relevant to any admin action I intended to undertake before I executed. ] (]) 15:14, 4 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
* As I have understood it, the original rationale for desysopping after no activity for a year was the perception that an inactive account was at higher danger of being hijacked. It had nothing to do with how often the tools were being used, and presumably, if the admin was still editing, even if not using the tools, the account was less likely to be hijacked. - ] 22:26, 4 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:And also, if the account of an active admin ''was'' hijacked, both the account owner and those they interact with regularly would be more likely to notice the hijacking. The sooner a hijacked account is identified as hijacked, the sooner it is blocked/locked which obviously minimises the damage that can be done. ] (]) 00:42, 5 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*I was not aware that not all admin actions are logged, obviously they should all be correctly logged as admin actions. If you're an Admin you should be doing Admin stuff, if not then you obviously don't need the tools. If an Admin is busy IRL then they can either give up the tools voluntarily or get desysopped for inactivity. The "Asking the tools back at BN can feel like a faff." isn't a valid argument, if an Admin has been desysopped for inactivity then getting the tools back '''should''' be "a faff". Regarding the comment that "There's no indication that this is a problem needs fixing." the problem is Admins who don't undertake admin activity, don't stay up to date with policies and norms, but don't voluntarily give up the tools. The ] change was about total edits over 5 years, not specifically admin actions and so didn't adequately address the issue. ] (]) 03:23, 5 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:{{tpq|obviously they should all be correctly logged as admin actions}} - how ''would'' you log actions that are administrative actions due to context/requiring passive use of tools (viewing deleted content, etc.) rather than active use (deleting/undeleting, blocking, and so on)/declining requests where accepting them would require tool use? (e.g. closing various discussions that really shouldn't be NAC'd, reviewing deleted content, declining page restoration) Maybe there are good ways of doing that, but I haven't seen any proposed the various times this subject came up. Unless and until "soft" admin actions are actually logged somehow, "editor has admin tools and continues to engage with the project by editing" is the closest, if very imperfect, approximation to it we have, with criterion 2 sort-of functioning to catch cases of "but these specific folks edit so little over a prolonged time that it's unlikely they're up-to-date and actively engaging in soft admin actions". (I definitely do feel '''criterion 2''' could be significantly stricter, fwiw) ]] 05:30, 5 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::Not being an Admin I have no idea how their actions are or aren't logged, but is it a big ask that Admins perform at least a few logged Admin actions in a year? The "imperfect, approximation" that "editor has admin tools and continues to engage with the project by editing" is completely inadequate to capture Admin inactivity. ] (]) 07:06, 6 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::Why is it "completely inadequate"? ] (]) 10:32, 6 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::::I've been a "hawk" regarding admin activity standards for a very long time, but this proposal comes off as half-baked. The rules we have now are the result of careful consideration and incremental changes aimed at specific, ''provable'' issues with previous standards. While I am not a proponent of "not all actions are logged" as a blanket excuse for no logged actions in several years, it is feasible that an admin could be otherwise fully engaged with the community while not having any logged actions. We haven't been having trouble with admins who would be removed by this, so where's the problem? ] ] 19:15, 8 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
{{abot}} | |||
== Allowing page movers to enable two-factor authentication == | |||
'''3. Lists of endorsements should only include endorsements which are specifically articulated as "endorsements".''' | |||
{{discussion top|reason={{tracked|T382879}} '''Consensus to assign''' <code>oathauth-enable</code> to the <code>(extendedmover)</code> group, giving page movers the option to enable two-factor authentication. ] ] 11:43, 2 January 2025 (UTC)}} | |||
:Note on #3: Expressions of support, use of particular hashtags, comments about donating to a campaign, and other forms of praise of a candidate is often included as an "endorsement". Support of this criterion would require the endorsement be explicit. In most cases, this would require use of the word "endorsement" by the person endorsing or by media coverage thereof. Other language which can be understood as unequivocal endorsement can be discussed on a case-by-case basis (for example, "I am campaigning for Candidate X" or "I am backing Candidate X"). | |||
I would like to propose that members of the ] user group be granted the <code>oathauth-enable</code> permission. This would allow them to use ] to enable ] on their accounts. | |||
=== Rationale (2FA for page movers) === | |||
— <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 14:27, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
The page mover guideline already obligates people in that group to ], and failing to follow proper account security processes is grounds for ] of the right. This is because the group allows its members to (a) move pages along with up to 100 subpages, (b) override the title blacklist, and (c) have an increased rate limit for moving pages. In the hands of a vandal, these permissions could allow significant damage to be done very quickly, which is likely to be difficult to reverse. | |||
Additionally, there is precedent for granting 2FA access to users with rights that could be extremely dangerous in the event of account compromise, for instance, ], ], and ] have the ability to enable this access, as do most administrator-level permissions (sysop, checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward, interface admin). | |||
===Criterion 1: Endorsements should be by notable people or organizations=== | |||
*'''Support''' as per ], et al. — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 14:31, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''', ditto. ] (]) 15:52, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''': this prevents laundry lists of non-notable people. I think whether or not this exempts certain people without their own articles, such as state-level legislators (currently the case on ]), should be determined on a per-article basis. ] (]) 17:51, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support'''. Helps prevent trivia lists and reduces potential BLP problems from ambiguous listings. Potential to override on a case-by-case basis if coverage under criterion #2 below is very strong, such as might occur with an unusual endorsement (cross-party, for example). --] (]) 18:09, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' per common sense: there should be no policy in which I can tweet out an endorsement of ] and be added to a list of endorsements. Both because who cares and for the respect of privacy of non-notable individuals. ]] 18:25, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
:*Actually, I have to disagree with this, though I support the sentiment. Vermin may be satirical, but so was George Carlin. Your background is as irrelevant as your given sex, taken without context. Intellectual communities, when not subject to obvious detailed public scrutiny, such as Misplaced Pages, often ''thrive'' on humour. Have you not allowed The Cabal to affect you here on Misplaced Pages? It's really down to notability and verifability. Vermin himself may or not be notable enough for this sort of thing, but when a personality like this ''is'' notable, they must be respected, or bias is institutionalised. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, dash of RFC, a sprinkling of neutrality, there. <span style="color: #8a87a6; font-size: small; font-family: Impact">~ ].].]</span> 21:04, 24 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
::* {{re|RTG}} I'll have you know that I don't even know what a mop is and ]. But to my point, perhaps you misunderstand? Vermin Supreme is undeniably notable, however I am definitely not. If Vermin Supreme tweeted out an endorsement of me, that could be included ] because he is notable. If I tweet out an endorsement of Vermin Supreme, that should not be added to ]. Essentially, while there is some wiggle room over whether twitter is a reliable source, that an endorsement is sourced is not sufficient for the endorsement to be included. ]] 04:30, 26 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::*I thought you must be somehow trying to reject Supremes authority... Well I would point that point out if it is brought up. <span style="color: #8a87a6; font-size: small; font-family: Impact">~ ].].]</span> 12:50, 28 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' <span style="color: #8a87a6; font-size: small; font-family: Impact">~ ].].]</span> 18:33, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' - a la LISTN, but I'm happy for additions from those without articles (most likely state/province level politician endorsements) ] (]) 08:55, 24 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' - This aligns well with existing policy, and the type of information that an encyclopedia should include (]).- ]] 🖋 12:53, 24 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' - as above. ]<sup>]</sup> 19:30, 24 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' but the usual wording for lists of people, is "have an article or be unquestionably entitled to one", and remember that every member of a state or national legislature is presumed to be entitled to a Misplaced Pages article, whether or not it has been written ,and this is among the strongest of our presumed notabilities--Icannot recall a single exception in the last 10 years. ; this also applies generally to mayors of cites with population > 100,000 or perhaps > 5000 ) , and members of city councils of the largest cities. This will include a very large proportion of the people who tend to be listed ''']''' (]) 05:09, 25 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
* '''Support''' under ] (first criterion, {{tq|"Every entry meets the notability criteria"}}) combined with the generally accepted rule of thumb that ]. There are simply too many endorsements otherwise. — ''''']''' <small>]</small>'' 00:12, 28 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' per our various criteria for lists. If our contributors weren't so lazy, they'd develop prose within paragraphs. <span class="nowrap" style="font-family:copperplate gothic light;">] (])</span> 14:12, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' - As stayed by others above, this fits with multiple existing policies and guidelines ] (]) 14:17, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
* '''Support 1 & 2 in altenative''' That is if a notable person makes an endorsement (a clear and explicit endorsement, not "I would support") that is enough for the endorsement to be listed, '''or''' if an endorsement by anyone at all is reported in major media, that is enough to be listed. The two together are not required ] ]] 12:46, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''': I should think this is ''sine qua non'', so long as the caveat stated by DGG is heeded. <span style="font-family: serif; letter-spacing: 0.1em"> — ] (]|])</span> 23:37, 6 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' I support adding all three of these proposals to a rule, though I consider this the least important one - if an reliable source reports someone supports, say, ], the person supporting will very likely be notable anyways. ] ''<span style="font-size:small; vertical-align:top;">]</span>''·''<span style="font-size:small; vertical-align:bottom;">]</span>'' 08:23, 7 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''', provided option 2 passes. I understand the thinking behind this proposal and why it has received so much support, but consider this in the context where the "independent reliable sources" requirement passes. This criterion would be used to argue that an endorsement that has received substantial coverage but which is from someone not otherwise considered notable should not be listed; I don't agree with that. We should report any endorsement that has received significant secondary coverage, and should not second-guess sources by saying "sure, the NYT covered this endorsement, but they were wrong to do so because this guy isn't notable." If criterion 2 fails I would reluctantly support this as necessary, but I think relying on our own judgment of whether a endorser is notable is a mistake (and if we rely on secondary sources, then this is made entirely redundant by criterion 2.)--] (]) 12:24, 11 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
===Discussion |
=== Discussion (2FA for page movers) === | ||
* '''Support''' as proposer. ]<sub>]<sub>]</sub></sub> (]/]) 20:29, 12 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
* '''Support''' (but if you really want 2FA you can just request permission to enable it on Meta) ] ] 20:41, 12 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:For the record, I do have 2FA enabled. ]<sub>]<sub>]</sub></sub> (]/]) 21:47, 12 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::Oops, that says you are member of "Two-factor authentication testers" (testers = good luck with that). ] (]) 23:52, 14 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::: A group name which is IMO seriously misleading - 2FA is not being tested, it's being actively used to protect accounts. ] ] 23:53, 14 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::::] still says "currently in production testing with administrators (and users with admin-like permissions like interface editors), bureaucrats, checkusers, oversighters, stewards, edit filter managers and the OATH-testers global group." ] ] 09:42, 15 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' as a pagemover myself, given the potential risks and need for increased security. I haven't requested it yet as I wasn't sure I qualified and didn't want to bother the stewards, but having <code><nowiki>oathauth-enable</nowiki></code> by default would make the process a lot more practical. ] (] · ]) 22:30, 12 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*: Anyone is qualified - the filter for stewards granting 2FA is just "do you know what you're doing". ] ] 22:46, 12 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Question''' When's the last time a page mover has had their account compromised and used for pagemove vandalisn? Edit 14:35 UTC: I'm not doubting the nom, rather I'm curious and can't think of a better way to phrase things. ''']]''' 02:30, 13 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*Why isn't everybody allowed to enable 2FA? I've never heard of any other website where users have to go request someone's (pro forma, rubber-stamp) permission if they want to use 2FA. And is it accurate that 2FA, after eight years, is still ]? I guess my overall first impression didn't inspire me with confidence in the reliability and maintenance. ] (]) 06:34, 14 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
** Because the recovery process if you lose access to your device and recovery codes is still "contact WMF Trust and Safety", which doesn't scale. See also ]. ]] 15:34, 14 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
**:We should probably consult with WMF T&S before we create more work for them on what they might view as very low-risk accounts. Courtesy ping @]. –] <small>(])</small> 16:55, 14 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
**:No update comment since 2020 doesn't fill me with hope. I like 2FA, but it needs to be developed into a usable solution for all. '''] <sup>(] • ])</sup>''' 00:09, 15 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
**::I ain't a technical person, but could a less secure version of 2fa be introduced, where an email is sent for any login on new devices? ''']]''' 01:13, 15 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
**:::Definitely. However email addresses also get detached from people, so that would require that people regularly reconfirm their contact information. —] (] • ]) 11:01, 18 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:For TOTP (the 6-digit codes), it's not quite as bad as when it was written, as the implementation has been fixed over time. I haven't heard nearly as many instances of backup scratch codes not working these days compared to when it was new. The WebAuthn (physical security keys, Windows Hello, Apple Face ID, etc) implementation works fine on private wikis but I wouldn't recommend using it for CentralAuth, especially with the upcoming SUL3 migration. There's some hope it'll work better afterward, but will still require some development effort. As far as I'm aware, WMF is not currently planning to work on the 2FA implmentation.{{pb}} As far as risk for page mover accounts goes, they're at a moderate risk. Page move vandalism, while annoying to revert, is reversible and is usually pretty loud (actions of compromised accounts can be detected and stopped easily). The increased ratelimit is the largest concern, but compared to something like account creator (which has noratelimit) it's not too bad. I'm more concerned about new page reviewer. There probably isn't a ton of harm to enabling 2FA for these groups, but there isn't a particularly compelling need either. ] (]) 12:47, 19 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' per nom. PMV is a high-trust role (suppressredirect is the ability to make a blue link turn red), and thus this makes sense. As a side note, I have changed this to bulleted discussion; # is used when we have separate sections for support and oppose. <b>]]</b> (] • he/they) 07:19, 14 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' As a pagemover myself, I find pagemover is an ''extremely'' useful and do not wish to lose it. It is nowhere near the same class as template editor. You can already ask the stewards for 2FA although I would recommend creating a separate account for the purpose. After all these years, 2FA remains experimental, buggy and cumbersome. Incompatible with the Microsoft Authenticator app on my iphone. ] ] 23:59, 14 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:The proposal (as I read it) isn't "you must have 2FA", rather "you have the option to add it". '''] <sup>(] • ])</sup>''' 00:06, 15 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::@], ] is correct. This would merely provide page movers with the option to enable it. ]<sub>]<sub>]</sub></sub> (]/]) 00:28, 15 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::Understood, but I do not want it associated with an administrator-level permission, which would mean I am not permitted to use it, as I am not an admin. ] ] 09:44, 15 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::::It's not really that. It would be an opt-in to allow users (in the group) to put 2FA on their account - at their own digression. | |||
*::::The main reasons why 2FA is currently out to admins and the like is because they are more likely to be targeted for compromising and are also more experienced. The 2FA flag doesn't require any admin skills/tools and is only incedentally linked. '''] <sup>(] • ])</sup>''' 12:58, 15 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::::Wait, so why is 2FA not an option for everyone already? ] (]) 01:15, 18 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::::::@] the MediaWiki's 2FA implementation is complex, and the WMF's processes to support people who get locked out of their account aren't able to handle a large volume of requests (developers can let those who can prove they are the owner of the account back in). My understanding is that the current processes cannot be efficiently scaled up either, as it requires 1:1 attention from a developer, so unless and until new processes have been designed, tested and implemented 2FA is intended to be restricted to those who understand how to use it correctly and understand the risks of getting locked out. ] (]) 09:36, 18 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*It probably won't make a huge difference because those who really desire 2FA can already ], and because no page mover will be required to do so. However, there will be page movers who wouldn't request a global permission for 2FA yet would enable it in their preferences if it was a simple option. And these page movers might benefit from 2FA even more than those who already care very strongly about the security of their account. ] (]) 03:18, 15 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' and I can't think of any argument against something not only opt-in but already able to be opted into. ] (]) 08:09, 15 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' this is a low value permission, not needed. If an individual PMV really wants to opt-in, they can already do so over at meta - no need to build custom configuration for this locally. — ] <sup>]</sup> 15:06, 18 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support'''; IMO all users should have the option to add 2FA. ] (]) 10:26, 19 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' All users should be able to opt in to 2FA. Lack of a scalable workflow for users locked out of their accounts is going to be addressed by WMF only if enough people are using 2FA (and getting locked out?) to warrant its inclusion in the product roadmap. – ] (]) 14:01, 19 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:That (and to @] above) sounds like an argument to do just that - get support put in place and enable this globally, not to piecemeal it in tiny batches for discretionary groups on a single project (this custom configuration would support about 3/10ths of one percent of our active editors). To the point of this RFC, why do you think adding this for this '''specific''' tiny group is a good idea? — ] <sup>]</sup> 15:40, 19 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::FWIW, I tried to turn this on for anyone on meta-wiki, and the RFC failed (]). — ] <sup>]</sup> 21:21, 19 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::Exactly. Rolling it out in small batches helps build the case for a bigger rollout in the future. – ] (]) 05:24, 20 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:I'm pretty sure that 2FA is already available to anyone. You just have to want it enough to either request it "for testing purposes" or to go to testwiki and request that you made an admin there, which will automatically give you access. See ]. ] (]) 23:41, 21 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::We shouldn't have to jump through borderline manipulative and social-engineering hoops to get basic security functionality. <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> — ] ] ] 😼 </span> 04:40, 22 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose'''. It sounds like account recovery when 2FA is enabled involves Trust and Safety. I don't think page movers' account security is important enough to justify increasing the burden on them. <span style="white-space: nowrap;">—] <sup>(]·])</sup></span> 14:10, 21 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:Losing access to the account is less common nowadays since most 2FA apps, including Google Authenticator, have implemented cloud syncing so that even if you lose your phone, you can still access the codes from another device. – ] (]) 14:40, 21 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::But this isn't about Google Authenticator. ] (]) 02:58, 22 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::Google Authenticator is a 2FA app, which at least till some point used to be the most popular one. – ] (]) 07:07, 22 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::::But (I believe), it is not available for use at Misplaced Pages. ] (]) 07:27, 22 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::::That's not true. You can use any ] authenticator app for MediaWiki 2FA. I currently use Ente Auth, having moved on from Authy recently, and from Google Authenticator a few years back. {{pb}}In case you're thinking of SMS-based 2FA, it has become a thing of the past and is not supported by MediaWiki either because it's insecure (attackers have ways to trick your network provider to send them your texts). – ] (]) 09:19, 22 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support'''. Even aside from the fact that, in 2024+, everyone should be able to turn on 2FA .... Well, {{em|absolutely certainly}} should everyone who has an advanced bit, with potential for havoc in the wrong hands, be able to use 2FA here. That also includes template-editor, edit-filter-manager, file-mover, account-creator (and supersets like event-coordinator), checkuser (which is not strictly tied to adminship), and probably also mass-message-sender, perhaps a couple of the others, too. Some of us old hands have several of these bits and are almost as much risk as an admin when it comes to loss of account control. <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> — ] ] ] 😼 </span> 04:40, 22 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:Take a look at ] - much of what you mentioned is already in place, because these are groups that could use it '''and''' are widespread groups used on most WMF projects. (Unlike extendedmover). — ] <sup>]</sup> 17:22, 22 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:Re {{tq|That also includes , file-mover, account-creator (and supersets like event-coordinator), and probably mass-message-sender}}. How can in any way would file mover, account creator, event coordinator and mass message sender user groups be considered privileged, and therefore have the <code>oathauth-enable</code> userright? ] (]) 17:37, 24 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*Comment: It is really not usual for 2FA to be available to a user group that is not defined as privileged in the WMF files. By default, all user groups defined at CommonSettings.php (iirc) that are considered to be privileged have the <code>oathauth-enable</code> right. Also, the account security practices mentioned in ] are also mentioned at ], despite not being discussed at all. Shouldn't it be fair to have the <code>extendedmover</code> userright be defined as privileged. ] (]) 08:33, 23 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:Regardless, I will '''support''' per the above comments. Page mover rights are sensitive and can disrupt the encyclopedia (though not as large as template editor/administrator would). I do see people supporting the idea of 2FA for all, but I think this needs to be reconsider in another discussion because it was discussed a lot previously and never gain implementation. ] (]) 18:12, 28 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support'''. Like SMcCandlish, I'd prefer that anyone, and particularly any editor with advanced perms, be allowed to turn on 2FA if they want (this is already an option on some social media platforms). But this is a good start, too.{{pb}}Since this is a proposal to allow page movers to ''opt in'' to 2FA, rather than a proposal to ''mandate'' 2FA for page movers, I see no downside in doing this. – ] (]) 17:02, 23 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' this opt-in for PMs and the broader idea of '''everyone having it by default'''. Forgive me if this sounds blunt, but is the responsibility and accountability of protecting ''your'' account lie on ''you'' and not WMF. Yes, they can assist in recovery, but the burden should not lie on them. <span style="font-family:monospace;font-weight:bold">]:<]></span> 17:13, 23 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:What about users who are unable to enable 2FA, which requires either multiple devices or fancy gizmos? '']'' 🎄 ] — ] 🎄 17:33, 28 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::@] I have mentioned to ''give the choice to turn 2FA on'' for everyone. No comments to ''mandate'' it for PMs. | |||
*::Also, 2FA is easy to enable on every mobile phone (which is not a fancy gizmo, I believe everyone here has access to one?). <span style="font-family:monospace;font-weight:bold">]:<]></span> 07:16, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::Then what do you mean by "everyone having it by default"? '']'' 🎄 ] — ] 🎄 16:20, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::::Everyone has the ability to turn it on <span style="font-family:monospace;font-weight:bold">]:<]></span> 10:46, 30 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:::::Okay, sorry. I misread your comment as everyone having it by default, not everyone having it by default. | |||
*:::::Happy new year, '']'' 🎄 ] — ] 🎄 19:53, 31 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Allow 2FA for en-wiki users with verified emails'''. I can't think of any other website that gates 2FA behind special permissions - it's a bizarre security practice. I hear the concerns about T&S needing to get involved for account recovery, but if the user has a verified email address that shouldn't be necessary. – ] 15:43, 27 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' security is good, but pagemoving isn't an area where increased security will lead to any sort of improvement. I'm a pagemover and I certainly don't want to go through that hassle everytime I log in, which can be several times a day because I edit from different (at home) devices.  <span style="font-variant:small-caps; whitespace:nowrap;">] {] · ] · ] · ]}</span> 19:43, 31 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:The proposal is for ''allowing'' page movers to enable 2FA, not ''forcing'' them to do so. – ] (]) 21:37, 31 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
* '''Support''' as an option, sure, seems beneficial. Those who are against it can simply opt out. – '''<span style="font-family:Lucida;">]]</span>''' 22:02, 31 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
{{discussion bottom}} | |||
== RfC: Enable override-antispoof for importers == | |||
* I Support 1 & 2 in thee alternative. That is if a notable person makes an endorsement (a clear and explicit endorsement, not "I would support") that is enough for the endorsement to be listed, '''or''' if an endorsement by anyone at all is reported in major media, that is enough to be listed. The two together are not required, if either is satisfied, the endorsement can be (not must be) listed. ] ]] 12:49, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
{{atop|result=QoH has withdrawn the RfC as Graham87 has been ] the ]. Involved closure; if someone objects, reopen this discussion. <b>]]</b> (] • he/they) 04:36, 1 January 2025 (UTC)}} | |||
Should the <code>override-antispoof</code> permission be enabled for the <code>importer</code> group? ] ] 18:44, 28 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
=== Support (override-antispoof for importers) === | |||
===Criterion 2: Endorsements should be covered by independent reliable sources=== | |||
# Similar to the ] from last month, importers sometimes have to create accounts when importing old edits, and those are occasionally too similar to existing users or trigger filter {{efl|890}} (which I coded a workaround into). Currently, the only rights that have <code>override-antispoof</code> are account creator and sysop; the one non-admin importer, {{noping|Graham87}}, had account creator revoked because he was not a member of the account creation team, and <code>override-antispoof</code> would prevent him from having to ask an admin each time. ] ] 18:44, 28 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' - For reasons of ] as well as RS. Self-published sources can be reliable for someone's own opinion, but the ephemeral sentiments expressed in a Tweet are far from a formal endorsement in most cases. — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 14:31, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
#'''Support''' in principle as the affected user, but I'm also open to less drastic solutions. See below. ] (]) 07:19, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''(Weak-ish) support''' I don't think Misplaced Pages should be engaging in the ]-like behaviour of trawling social media sites to compile lists of people who have tweeted in favour of a candidate. If an endorsement is notable as an endorsement, then it will receive decent secondary source coverage. I say "weak-ish" because I fear this will be difficult to police. ] (]) 15:54, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' as the general rule. This is what we want for most content anyway, and we should not be in business of interpreting statements drawn from original research. If #1 and #3 are both clearly satisfied, then maybe an exception could be made, but those cases will typically draw third-party coverage anyway. --] (]) 18:11, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' Let me preface this by saying that of course having a reliable source for every endorsement would be ideal. However, there are many individuals who are notable enough to have their own Misplaced Pages articles, but are often not notable enough to have their tweets and political sentiments covered by the media. This is especially true for non-politicians, such as many of the individuals who have endorsed ], ], and others via tweets and social media. It is also worth noting that many of these independent sources are actually based on tweets themselves. ] is a prime example; he made a , and it was instantly picked up by myriad media sources. Also, per ]: {{tq|Self-published and questionable sources may be used as sources of information '''about themselves''', usually in articles about themselves or their activities, without the self-published source requirement that they be published experts in the field ... This policy also applies to material published by the subject on social networking websites such as Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, and Facebook.}} As for the five criteria listed, as far as I'm concerned, none of them are violated by citing tweets that are ''published by the individuals themselves'' when they are explicitly endorsements. I agree that sometimes, tweets that are not explicit expressions of support slip in, but these non-endorsements can easily be removed by any editor. I myself have done this extensively on ] for the past few months. ] (]) 18:13, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
:*The idea that {{tq|there are many individuals who are notable enough to have their own Misplaced Pages articles, but are often not notable enough to have their tweets and political sentiments covered by the media}} strikes me as a highly problematic reason to include something. Inclusion of, well, anything on Misplaced Pages should be because it's important enough for independent sources to cover it. It's not the case that once a person becomes notable, whatever they say is worth including in the encyclopedia. (For context, a difference of opinion between Bobbychan193 and me on this point at ] is what led me down a path searching for past discussions, to try to find precedent for a clear inclusion criteria). — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 18:40, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
::*The whole point of endorsement lists is to list out endorsements. What makes one endorsement more important than another? Only if the media reports it? I disagree with this sentiment. {{tq|It's not the case that once a person becomes notable, whatever they say is worth including in the encyclopedia.}} This is not what I am saying. Again, the whole point of endorsement lists is to list out endorsements, and I don't see why we can't do that if an individual tweets out an endorsement. <small>(Other users have mentioned other reasons on that talk page. Some examples: {{tq|Given the sheer volume of potential endorsements, not every single expression of support is going to be reported on, so it's inevitable that tweets will sometimes be the only place they will be mentioned}} and {{tq|a celebrity's personal account tweeting in support has been used frequently as a source for endorsement and it is often without another citation. When they specifically say they support the candidate, it's an endorsement. If not, then remove most of Bernie Sanders' endorsements. The criteria in 2016 was explicit support and/or the campaign hashtag.}} Just pointing out arguments that other editors have laid out.)</small> ] (]) 18:49, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
::::"What makes one endorsement more important than another? Only if the media reports it?" Yes. That's how Misplaced Pages works. We report what reliable sources say. What makes any event more important than another? Because a reliable source talks about it. ] (]) 10:36, 24 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::::Those were rhetorical questions. My point was that all endorsements are categorically equal. An endorsement isn't "less of an endorsement" just because the media doesn't pick up on it. Think about it, if person A and person B both endorse candidate C, but the media only reports endorsement A, endorsement B is still categorically an endorsement. Sure, some people, like Elon Musk, might be more "important" than others, and that's part of why there are media sources reporting on these endorsements (other reasons: money/clickbait, bandwagon reporting, etc.). But other endorsements wouldn't be considered "lesser" endorsements just because the media doesn't report them. ] (]) 01:46, 25 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::::::No, all endorsements are ''not'' categorically equal, just as all information is not categorically of equal value on Misplaced Pages. Misplaced Pages is not an indiscriminate container of all facts. We are selective. We are an encyclopaedia. We decide what information merits inclusion with reference to reliable, secondary sources. If you went to an AfD and said an article should be included without secondary source reporting, no-one would listen to you. If some political scandal could only be sourced to some private tweets and wasn't covered by secondary source reporting, we wouldn't add it to an election article. Why should endorsements be treated differently from other facts on Misplaced Pages? ] (]) 15:12, 25 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
::::::::When I said "categorically", I meant by definition. An endorsement is by definition an endorsement. ]. It doesn't matter whether a news source reports on it. An unreported endorsement is still by definition an endorsement. (Also see ]) Sure, you can argue that unreported endorsements shouldn't be included, but they are still endorsements by definition. In my view, given the other two criteria (notability and explicitness), we would be selective, and the lists would not be an indiscriminate container of all facts. Why should we cast aside all unreported endorsements? Why shouldn't we make these lists more complete? ] (]) 05:09, 6 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' per ] as potentially controversial information about a living person. ]] 18:26, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*<s>'''Neutral/Oppose''', per Criterion 1, it should be clear this refers to standalone information, and not information itself.</s> <span style="color: #8a87a6; font-size: small; font-family: Impact">~ ].].]</span> 18:33, 23 October 2019 (UTC)</s> | |||
:*{{tq|this refers to standalone information, and not information itself}} - Hmm. I don't intend to respond to all the opposers here, but I can't make heads or tails of that this means. Would you mind rewording? — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 18:41, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
::*{{tq|We have many stand-alone and embedded lists of political campaign endorsements}}, {{tq|This RfC attempts to create baseline inclusion criteria for such lists}}. As to my words, the key is {{tq|it should be clear this refers to standalone}}, as even short lists within independent articles, ''I imagine'', will be regularly challenged by invoking this guideline. Maybe I should have said '''Conditional''' and demanded that "standalone" be made clear. Or maybe it should pass and wait and see if further clarification is required to avoid creep. I'll keep my eye on it, but I'm flying by this instant, thanks o/ <span style="color: #8a87a6; font-size: small; font-family: Impact">~ ].].]</span> 19:33, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::*Thanks for clarifying. I did intend this to apply to lists of endorsements in both stand-alone and embedded lists, but not article prose. If people would support for one but not the other, that seems like a reasonable distinction to make, which could be factored in at closing. — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 19:39, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::::*You're right, my comment didn't make sense. You did say "embedded". I'm just going to strike from any input here for the moment. Sorry about that. Thanks for pointing out the error. <span style="color: #8a87a6; font-size: small; font-family: Impact">~ ].].]</span> 00:11, 24 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose for organizations''' specifically for media outlets. I'm unsure whether this is the case in the United States, but in the UK and Australia at least it is routine for newspapers to officially endorse a party in elections via an editorial (]). These are going to be more significant than any endorsement by an individual, but they're rarely going to be covered in an ''independent'' RS. Partly because they all come out at the end of the campaign, partly because no one likes writing about the competition unless they've done something embarrassing. --] (]) 11:31, 24 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
::I have seen independent reporting of newspaper endorsements. That said, you raise an interesting point. I was presuming that, say, ''The Times'' saying who it supported in an editorial would count under this rule. ] (]) 15:14, 25 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
::I'm glad this was raised, but I don't think it's as much of an issue as you'd think. Just looking at the most recent UK general election, it's easy to find coverage of the other papers' endorsements in the '''', and the ''''. I'm not sure the benefits of such an exception would outweigh the risks of permitting ] listings of newspapers and blogs. – ] (]) 11:19, 26 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' as a sensible limit to avoid sprawling lists of unimportant endorsements. For example, a minor comedian tweeting that he likes Tulsi, should not make the list unless an reliable independent publication takes notice. I also endorse RaiderAspect's exception for media outlets, provided that they are notable media outlets.- ]] 🖋 13:00, 24 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support for individuals and organizations, but not on media outlets''' - If no RS reports on the endorsement, I think it's unlikely it will be very noteworthy. With the ample coverage of modern campaigns, it seems quite likely that nearly all endorsements of any significance at all will have some coverage in RS. For media outlets (i.e., editorials), I view the editorial itself as the RS for its own opinion. ]<sup>]</sup> 19:30, 24 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support'''. Go back to basics. The notability criteria apply to the content of the endorsement; it needs to be covered by reliable, independent third parties. Notable people say all kinds of things, but we don't add it to an article unless it is reported in a reliable, independent source. The notability and reliable sourcing criteria don't change just because someone endorses a politician. If they posted on their personal website that they encouraged people to check out the Chicken Kiev at Notable Restaurant, we wouldn't be putting that in the article about the restaurant. ] (]) 05:26, 25 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
** The recent Canadian election featured several candidates and even a major political party claiming endorsements that hadn't actually been given, misquoting notable people to imply that an endorsement had been given, and so on. I have no doubt it is already happening in the US election. We should not rely on any source that hasn't been fact-checked by a reliable source with a reputation for fact-checking. ] (]) 04:22, 5 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support'''. If significant, non-independent sources such as ]s and media outlet endorsements will definitely be mentioned by other independent reliable sources. — ''''']''' <small>]</small>'' 00:23, 28 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' Since many social media users can delete or hide prior posts, we ought not even consider that as a potential source on themselves. Published records are in the hands of consumers (like libraries). <span class="nowrap" style="font-family:copperplate gothic light;">] (])</span> 14:10, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' - If no reliable sources think an endorsement is worth mentioning, why should Misplaced Pages? Doing so gives the endorsement (and perhaps the endorsee) UNDUE weight. ] (]) 14:25, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
* '''Support 1 & 2 in alternative''' That is if a notable person makes an endorsement (a clear and explicit endorsement, not "I would support") that is enough for the endorsement to be listed, '''or''' if an endorsement by anyone at all is reported in major media, that is enough to be listed. The two together are not required ] ]] 12:47, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support for individuals and organizations, but not on media outlets''': For the former, of course; the latter is a simple distinction: media outlets are, by and of themselves, the reliable source for the endorsement. <span style="font-family: serif; letter-spacing: 0.1em"> — ] (]|])</span> 23:39, 6 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' Absolutely. All endorsements need to be covered by reliable sources independent either the person or organisation making the endorsement. ] ''<span style="font-size:small; vertical-align:top;">]</span>''·''<span style="font-size:small; vertical-align:bottom;">]</span>'' 08:24, 7 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Strong support'''. This should be the ''only'' criteria, just like anything else. I would go so far as to say that I'm unsure whether this RFC is necessary on this point, since ] / ] already applies and is not subject to consensus; an endorsement is a statement about a third party (and therefore never covered by ] or ].) Such statements ''always'' require a high-quality reliable secondary source, without exception. --] (]) 12:24, 11 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
=== Oppose (override-antispoof for importers) === | |||
===Discussion of criterion 2=== | |||
# This is too far off from the ] for my taste, especially given that a solution already exists. ] ] 19:21, 28 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*I guess to clarify my stance, my main issue with this is that we shouldn't exclude an endorsement just because a media source didn't report it. Like, if a notable individual has clearly endorsed a candidate (based on our criteria #3) and the media didn't report it, it's still an endorsement. It just doesn't make sense to me to exclude such endorsements. ] (]) 18:40, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
# per Pppery ] (]) 19:52, 28 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*:The endorsement is only notable if it is covered by reliable, independent sources. Notability applies to the content of the edit, not the person who said whatever was said. ] (]) 05:22, 25 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
# Nah, non-admins that need to create odd accounts could just become account creators, ] isn't a hard policy, it is descriptive. If there is community support for someone not working on the ACC project to have this access, they should be able to hold it. — ] <sup>]</sup> 16:41, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*::actually, ] only applies to teh existanc or non-existanced of an articel it never applies to selection of article content, and the policy says this explicitly. ] ]] 07:38, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
#While I trust Graham to use this power, edit filter 890 already doesn't run on importers, and for the only other scenario—where it's too close to an existing account name—I don't want to risk giving <em>all</em> importers the power to impersonate. As xaosflux said, prospective importers should be able to apply for account creator separately. ] (]) 16:52, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
::::Well then obviously I said it wrong. An endorsement by Cousin Becky in the family newsletter should not make it into our article. An endorsement by Senator Foghorn, reported in the New York Times, probably should. Notable person (i.e., someone who has WP article about them) publicly endorsing the candidate as reported in well-regarded reliable source should be the boundary. ] (]) 08:51, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
#'''Oppose''' Unlike importing and history merging, the link between importing and creating accounts with usernames similar to existing ones is tenuous at best. There is already a solution for importers who genuinely need to do that—the account creator group—and we should not turn the importer group into nothing more than a "Graham87 group." ]<sub>]<sub>]</sub></sub> (]/]) 14:31, 31 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
:::::That siad, the above is clearer but I disagree with it. If anyone's endorsement is reported by the NY Times, then it should be liated, whether the person has an article or not. And If SAenator Foghorn endor5ses Joe Blow for Gov, that is worth listing even if it is done in a tweet, and not reported in the media. ] ]] 12:55, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
::::::Ah see, this is where actual practice disagrees. We decide what to include in articles on a daily basis by looking at whether or not the proposed content is "notable". We might very well be able to find reliable sources that say Notable Cousin Becky has a wart on her elbow, but we're not going to include it ''unless'' her claim to notability is that she has a wart on her elbow. And I do disagree with you that Notable Senator putting out a tweet endorsing Candidate A should make the list. It should only make the list when an independent third party thinks the endorsement is significant enough to report it. It's okay for us not to agree about this, but I want to make it clear that I don't think any endorsement that is not independently reported should be included; otherwise, it's just an advert. ] (]) 19:21, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* Would some of the proponents of this be willing to sandbox versions of the articles in ] so we can see just what effect this might have? I worry that the US media's tendency to ignore third-party candidates might result in unbalanced articles, where Democratic and Republican candidates have many more "minor" endorsements listed. ]] 13:34, 27 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
**If you look at the history of ] you can see where I removed everything that was sourced only to social media. Another run-through would be required to remove those just sourced to the candidate/campaign's website, but it's an approximation. I tend to wince a little when I read "balance" in this sort of context, though. Isn't a balance achieved by throwing out the extent to which subjects receive secondary source coverage a definition of false balance? — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 00:19, 28 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*** Thanks, but I'm particularly interested in a comparison of the resulting states of different parties' articles than in one major party's. ]] 12:17, 28 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
* I Support 1 & 2 in the alternative. That is if a notable person makes an endorsement (a clear and explicit endorsement, not "I would support") that is enough for the endorsement to be listed, '''or''' if an endorsement by anyone at all is reported in major media, that is enough to be listed. The two together are not required, if either is satisfied, the endorsement can be (not must be) listed. ] ]] 12:56, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
=== Discussion (override-antispoof for importers) === | |||
===Criterion 3: Endorsements should be unequivocal and explicit=== | |||
*Got some examples of why an account '''has''' to be created here? — ] <sup>]</sup> 20:51, 28 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' - I was surprised to see how many "endorsements" we include are actually just people using a particular hashtag, expressing positive feelings about a candidate, saying they've donated, talking about going to a fundraiser, etc. This also gets at the problem of using only social media as sources. Something published in a reliable independent source would be less likely to pick something like that up and call it an endorsement. — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 14:31, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*:Here is an example of when such an account was just made: ]. But just because it was made, doesn't seem to justify that it must be made. And it certainly doesn't justify that the credentials for such accounts should now be getting managed by another volunteer. — ] <sup>]</sup> 03:16, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Maybe''' As per basic principles, if we're claiming X backs Y, we need a source showing that X backs Y and merely expressing positive feelings or attending an event shouldn't cut it. That said, I am wary about requiring specific language, like expecting the word "endorsement". Different countries, even those notionally speaking the same language, use different words and phrases. There is a particular culture of endorsement in the US and we shouldn't be applying how endorsements are done in the US and the language used around them to other countries. ] (]) 15:59, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*::See my comment below. ] (]) 07:19, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Preferably''', but this is the weakest of the three suggested criteria. If there is a consensus of independent reliable sources under criterion #2 above that X has made an endorsement, then we should follow their lead rather than trying to interpret primary-source material. --] (]) 18:14, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*Are there common-ish scenarios other than edit filter 890 where an importer has to bypass antispoof? ] (]) 00:26, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' Donating to a campaign, using particular hashtags, and/or attending any candidate event are not enough to be considered endorsements '''in isolation'''. This is because 1. Any individual can donate to multiple candidates or attend the events of multiple candidates (Example: ] donated to both ] and ]) 2. Hashtags, such as #YangGang, could be interpreted as a way to boost the visibility of a tweet, or attract attention from people who search said hashtag. I think that minor variations of "I endorse xyz", such as "I support xyz", "I am campaigning for xyz", or "I am voting for xyz", are explicit enough to be considered support. (Example: again, . If myriad independent sources consider this an endorsement, then I don't see any reason we as editors can't similarly interpret other tweets. Why should we wait for a media source to essentially do the same thing?) I agree that this should be discussed on a case-by-case basis, especially for tweets that may be slightly more ambiguous than your standard "I support xyz". ] (]) 18:25, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*As the user who would be affected by this, let me try to explain the situation a bit more. So when a page is imported with an edit by a named user, the edit will usually be attributed with an importation prefix as "wiki name>oldusername" (e.g. ), unless a check box is checked saying "Assign edits to local users where the named user exists locally", in which case the software will attempt to assign the imported edit to an existing user's contributions. When doing imports from old English Misplaced Pages databases, I always check this box (or at least ]), because, well, it's an edit originally made to this exact encyclopedia and I want the imported edit to be included in a user's contributions here as if it had always been part of the database, which it would have been, under ideal circumstances. Edits with an importation prefix cannot be collected under a user's contributions page (for an example see basically the entirety of the Nostalgia Misplaced Pages, a copy of the Misplaced Pages database from 20 December 2001, like ). The Nostalgia Misplaced Pages has been like this since ] as part of the database ].<p>So when importing edits from the August 2001 database dump, I sometimes create accounts to match the original usernames/domain names, to make contribution history match as closely as possible with the modern database. I create them with randomly invented passwords that I forget three seconds later and have been doing this sort of thing for . It's better that I create these accounts than them being created by people like Grawp, as had previously . When I lost my adminship, I started having problems with account creations; see ] and ]. I support the premise obviously, but as I said in the latter link, I'm also open to having account-creator permissions for, say, a month, and during that time intensively working on matching the August 2001 database usernames with modern ones. ] (]) 07:19, 29 December 2024 (UTC)</p> | |||
*Prefer 2. If a reliable independent source calls it an endorsement, we should list it as an endorsement regardless of whether an editor thinks it's equivocal. Obviously we should prefer unequivocal and explicit endorsements, but I'd prefer following RSs over our own judgment on what that constitutes. In the absence of 2, I'd support this, but am otherwise neutral on it. ]] 18:30, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*:Right, so can't we just '''not''' Assign edits to local users - when there isn't a "user" on these? Because whatever user you are making, isn't the original user anyway. — ] <sup>]</sup> 13:09, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
:*{{ping|Wugapodes|RL0919}} I agree with both of you. I added this as separate from #2 for two reasons. First, in case #2 doesn't pass. Second, because there's still the question of interpreting the language of reliable sources. If a reliable source says that someone attended a fundraiser, tweeted in support of, used a particular hashtag, praised, etc., do we interpret that as an endorsement, or does the RS need to call it an endorsement? There are some other terms which, to me, are quite close in meaning or allow easy inference like "backed," "declared full support for," "campaigned for," etc. but there, too, I think it's tricky. — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 19:17, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*::I think Graham is saying that we should prevent people from creating old usernames. ] (]) 13:25, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Somewhat support''' - most of the examples should be gone, but I don't think it needs to be as ironclad as "I endorse X for president" etc. On a distinct tack, if a RS says it's an endorsement and it isn't blatantly vague, then that should also suffice. However some filtering is clearly needed - a positive statement doth not an endorsement make ] (]) 08:58, 24 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*:::Yes, exactly. Or at least make sure they're in good hands. And we should be able to get to their contributions to see what else they've edited, just like almost any other user (]). Thanks to my creation of their account (based on their ]) and my imports of their edits, it can readily be determined that ] created the articles ] and ] ... which happen to be the only edits by this user under that domain name in the August 2001 database dump. If I hadn't created the account in this case, we wouldn't be able to do that. Re not being the original user: well as I said above that ship sailed a while ago. The incident that inspired me to do all this activity is a perfect example of why these re-created accounts can be useful. Inspired by ] to what is now ], I discovered that the first woman to get a biography here was ] and ], to that page. The user who created it, ], was only active under that name in January 2001 and none of their edits were in the English Misplaced Pages database until I imported them (this can be verified by checking their revision ID numbers in the URL's and noting that they're not in the 200000's, as edits from the ] are). The are interesting, and show that it was deleted in April 2008 because there was ], restored by me in July 2009 when I finally created the account after discovering the user page when checking deleted contributions of ] , and had an edit imported in March 2010 (this user's only visible contribution until just over a week ago). And now we know that they created Misplaced Pages's first biography about a woman, which certainly wasn't apparent when I restored their user page back in 2009, before the ]! ] (]) 16:11, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' - It's unfortunate that this has to be documented, but it's surprising what some editors consider endorsements. An endorsement should include the word endorse, or a synonym like support, recommend, back, approve, etc. If a reasonable person questions whether something is an endorsement, then it should not be considered such. Vague comments, shout outs, donations, attending events, and the like should not be interpreted as endorsements. ] is the underlying policy. - ]] 🖋 13:17, 24 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*More ramblings that might be useful to someone, slightly adapted from my talk page: Before I lost my admin userrights, I ] on the remote chance I'd need antispoof permissions, but I hadn't read the ] page at that point and didn't realise that there's now such a division between account creators and ]. when ], I wasn't particularly phased because I didn't think I would use antispoof permissions very often (but after the Rosa Parks discovery, I found many more very early edits to import and ran in to antispoof problems twice, as noted above. At first I was a bit surprised by the level of opposition here compared to the support for the ], but I've just realised: it's possible to unmerge edits, but it's impossible to unimpersonate a user (or undo the potential social damage impersonation can potentially cause). I'd be OK with closing this RFC early to allow me to ask for account creator permissions (or should I just ask for them ... or would some admin be willing to grant them to me for, say, a month)? I think I'd be able to do all the account creations I'd need in that time. ] (]) 17:25, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' - Agree wholly with {{u|MrX}}. ]<sup>]</sup> 19:30, 24 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*:Pinging ] as the initiator of this RFC, for which I'm very grateful. I'm glad things are being hammered out here. ] (]) 17:29, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' Given the nuances of the English language, there are many things that sound supportive that aren't endorsements. Let us stick to the explicit and if necessary go behind the RS (who have their own agendas) to look at the statement and see if it really is an endorsement. I agree with Ched that we should not have such lists of endorsements, but am also dubious that they could be stamped out if we wanted to.--] (]) 06:18, 25 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*{{re|JJMC89}} You removed Graham's accountcreator permissions as "not a member of the ] team". As Xaos notes above, there isn't a strict rule that accountcreators must be ACC members, and here there's a demonstrated benefit to the project in Graham being an accountcreator (at least, if you buy the argument about potential re-registration of imported accounts, which I do buy, given that it happened with e.g. ]). Would you object to me regranting accountcreator? <span style="font-family:courier"> -- ]</span><sup class="nowrap">[]]</sup> <small>(])</small> 17:39, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' under ]. I agree with {{np|MrX}} here: we cannot extrapolate a claim that is stronger than what is presented in the underlying source. — ''''']''' <small>]</small>'' 00:19, 28 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
**{{replyto|Tamzin}} Thanks very much; I'd be happy to relinquish it when I've finished analysing the August 2001 database dump for possible mismatched usernames. pedantic point though: ] wasn't an account; it was just a script that happened to use an ID number of 0, which was OK then; the same was true for ] and ]. It's way past my bedtime ... I should really sign off now. ] (]) 17:52, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' per ]. <span class="nowrap" style="font-family:copperplate gothic light;">] (])</span> 14:08, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
**'''Support''' this <ins>(i.e. granting ACCR)</ins> as the easiest solution. <b>]]</b> (] • he/they) 02:22, 30 December 2024 (UTC); clarified 15:28, 30 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' - Turning a “statement of support” into a full blown “endorsement” would violate WP:NOR. So requiring that the endorsement be explicit makes sense. ] (]) 14:31, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
** Also fine with Graham87 being granted account creator. ] ] 16:29, 31 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support'''. "Endorsement" is loaded language if it were used to describe mere passing statements of support. ] (]) 12:31, 3 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
**:Per JJMC's silence (while editing elsewhere), I've regranted ACC. Fine with this being closed as moot if Graham is. ] ] 21:23, 31 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
* '''Support''' this definitely seems justified. ] ]] 12:57, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
**::I would have granted it myself without all this RfC business - except that I'm on a downer. VPT watchers may understand. --] 🦌 (]) 02:04, 1 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' Absolutely agree. ] ''<span style="font-size:small; vertical-align:top;">]</span>''·''<span style="font-size:small; vertical-align:bottom;">]</span>'' 08:28, 7 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
**::Yep, we can close this now. ] (]) 04:32, 1 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
*'''Strong oppose''' per my logic to criterion 1 (and I strenuously urge the support !votes to step back and consider the implications of having this pass alongside criterion 2) - yes, this proposal sounds appealing, but this is ''not'' a call we should be making ourselves. The call on whether a particular statement counts as an "endorsement" is entirely based on how reliable sources characterize it, and should never depend on editors adjudicating whether the statement is "unequivocal and explicit." If this passes, I foresee people saying things like "yes, the NYT, LA Times, etc. describes this as an endorsement, but ''I'' personally think their wording was ambiguous, so we can't include it because the RFC required that it be unequivocal or explicit." If ]es say it's an endorsement, then it's an endorsement and ought to be listed. Fullstop. (EDIT: Unless this is interpreted to mean just "the endorsement must be described as such by reliable sources", but that's not how I read it now.) --] (]) 12:24, 11 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
{{abot}} | |||
:*{{ping|Aquillion}} the wording of the proposal (well, specifically, the "Note on #3" just below the bolded bit) says 'In most cases, this would require use of the word "endorsement" by the person endorsing or by media coverage thereof' - I suspect the interpretation of this along the lines of what you describe is uncontroversial, given ] and the support for #2 above. I worded it to talk about the endorsement itself, too, because going into this RfC we're still using Tweets, etc. as sources. — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 02:38, 17 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
== Collaboration with PubPeer == | |||
===Discussion of criterion 3=== | |||
*Please give an example of an equivocal or inexplicit endorsement, and why that disqualifies the notability assumed by Criterion 1. <span style="color: #8a87a6; font-size: small; font-family: Impact">~ ].].]</span> 18:33, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
{{cot|Examples}} | |||
*"Let's win the era! @PeteButtigieg has me excited about the next generation of American government" | |||
*"I have listened with an open heart and an open mind and time after time, the individual who has continually impressed me with his consistent, thoughtful, and error-free presentation of our values and needs in this country is @PeteButtigieg. He has risen to the top" | |||
*"Go #PETE !!@PeteForUSA2020 @PeteButtigieg" | |||
*"@PeteButtigieg i think you have a shot at uniting this country again. i am a big fan and am sending you all my support. if there is anything i can ever do for you pls let me know" | |||
*"Same" ''(responding to the one above)'' | |||
*"Buona settimana!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!! Feliz semana! 👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻 @PeteButtigieg #mayorpete #petebuttigieg #accettomiracoli #aceptomilagros #buonacattivasorte #buenamalasuerte #tzn2020" | |||
*"This guy is so smart and on point and he wore the 🇺🇸 uniform. Good luck @PeteButtigieg - you are what this country needs." | |||
*"A candidate for #President that speaks, genuinely, of #unity, #prayer and #reflection. I'm all over that, thanks #PeteButtigieg #PeteForAmerica @PeteButtigieg" | |||
*"Still believe Mayor Pete is our best candidate for the presidency. His unique combination of qualifications is unbeatable. All our candidates are talented and good, but Mayor Pete stands out. He will be a great president. And we desperately need greatness in the Oval Office" | |||
*"Please RT. Only 174 $1 donations by midnight to reach goal for @TulsiGabbard !pic.twitter.com/KTOCZp0NNR" | |||
*“Oh noooooo, @KamalaHarris guess what?! @TulsiGabbard has your number. She is by far the better candidate. Go Tulsi" | |||
*"A Joe Biden/Kamela Harris ticket or a Kamala Harris/Joe Biden ticket would please me greatly!" | |||
*"GHosts for @BetoORourke fundraiser tomorrow evening in NYC:" | |||
*"Bernie @SenSanders or @elizabethforma (Elizabeth Warren) would be two people I would LOVE to see in the White House, as both of them would be capable and ready to fix the damage caused by the @GOP and the Trumpino crime family" | |||
*"God I wish we weren't a sexist hellscape so she'd get the nomination" | |||
*"Increasingly all-in for Elizabeth Warren, gotta say" | |||
*"Here's one very good reason to be for Elizabeth Warren. Wall Street is terrified of her" | |||
*"Greatest Of All Time! #GOAT twitter.com/ewarren/status/1179851099978846209 …" | |||
*"Russell Brand will be joining me in Los Angeles on Sept. 15" | |||
*"We need an uprising of consciousness #Marianne2020.com #JoinTheEvolution #WagePeace A #President who leads with #Love & #Intelligence ." | |||
*"I was there at his launch party in SF!" | |||
*"Andrew is actually the "not stuck in the past and open to new good ideas guy"" | |||
*"read up on @AndrewYang. he's the only young candidate addressing issues that nobody else is. his politics are actually good (more than just giving every american $1,000/month), and he has a fun and transparent personality. I uhhhh, i think we ✈️ #YangGang 2020" | |||
*"It takes an amazing amount of strength to be this vulnerable in public. This display of emotion makes me admire @AndrewYang even more..." | |||
*"I've actually donated for the first time ever. New podcast with @AndrewYangVFA is up! Check it out on offthepillpodcast! #yanggang" | |||
*"LFG!!!!! #YANGYANG" | |||
*"Thanks man. Best of luck future Mr President!" | |||
*"Yanggang" | |||
{{cob}} | |||
:*The above are all ''currently'' in the ]. I had removed them and they were restored. Ran out of steam at the end (there are a lot of refs, and I only searched for twitter). This omits the somewhat clearer but still uncertain "I would vote for this person", "I support this person", "I donated to this person", and so on. — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 19:01, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
::*Full disclosure, I was the one who restored them. It was 50KB worth of removals and certainly a ] by size alone, so I reverted them (temporarily) based on ]. I view this RfC as the "Discuss" phase, and if there is strong community consensus to remove tweets as sources, then I do not oppose the re-removal of these entries. ] (]) 19:09, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::*My first impression of this is that it lacks a third party reliable source stating that each detail is individually notable beyond the fact of endorsement. | |||
:::*The endorsement is possibly notable, but saying yah boo fifty seven ways until Sunday about it is not notable at all. Oh how I love thee is notable, that they do. Oh let me count the ways is a bit wandering, unless you can establish the particular commenters way-counting as notable. <span style="color: #8a87a6; font-size: small; font-family: Impact">~ ].].]</span> 20:14, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
::::OR is often bent to provide or enhance simple academic study. This seems to be a deep research of trivial twittes to highlight faces in a crowd who went woop at a certain time, and it may prove harmful to living persons. I mean, apply these precedents to the Trump endorsement page on Misplaced Pages and see what you get. Bending OR is for like, simple but important primary resources directly relevant to a subject. Endorsements should be directly relevant or presented as a number. People can be notable, but when you cross that notability over to something they aren't notable for, they can mislead you, and if we follow misleading resources, we mislead people, and we don't want to obstruct peoples right to disappear. None of these twittes are authorative. Collectively, they have an individual value, but if we record that value today with a fact checked number, there is no need to save the woops for playback tomorrow. Show me a Trump doing something cruel and unusual, and I'll show you a Democrat playing the other side to prove a bet that the people cannot be trusted. I mean, its my bet, and he's proved it so hard we might not recover... I've defended Trump ''loads'' of times for the purpose of revealing the other side, but I've never endorsed him. He's not my president. I'm not even American. <span style="color: #8a87a6; font-size: small; font-family: Impact">~ ].].]</span> 07:21, 24 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
::::<small>Clarify that: OR is often bent to connect resources. To make lists, for instance. To provide "See also" sections. To clarify points. This above list however, is like listing woops, to an extent.. And it's not just the trivial nature of the individual items, it's the hotbed of emotion around ongoing events,</small> <span style="color: #8a87a6; font-size: small; font-family: Impact">~ ].].]</span> 18:01, 24 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
:*Oops didn't reply to the second part of your comment. Although I'm not sure what you mean by {{tq|why that disqualifies the notability assumed by Criterion 1}}. It has nothing to do with the notability of the people speaking. It has to do with ], relying on Wikipedians to interpret someone's words to be an "endorsement". — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 19:08, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
::*Replied above upon the examples, thanks. <span style="color: #8a87a6; font-size: small; font-family: Impact">~ ].].]</span> 20:14, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
Dear all, Over the past few months, I have been in contact with the team managing ] - a website that allows users to discuss and review scientific research after publication, i.e. post-publication peer review - to explore a potential collaboration with Misplaced Pages. After reviewing some data regarding citations (e.g., the , , , and Misplaced Pages), they agreed, in principle, to share data about papers with PubPeer comments that are also used as sources in Misplaced Pages. | |||
===General discussion: inclusion criteria for political endorsement lists=== | |||
From our calculations on a , we estimate that there are around 5,000 unique DOIs cited in Misplaced Pages that may have PubPeer comments. | |||
* Personally I'm against ''ANY'' list of political support or endorsements in any way shape or form. It's one thing to say "Senator X supported Candidate Y in the past election" in a prose article. To my mind said "lists" or categories of "support political anything" goes against what our project is supposed to stand for and be. It's far too easy to put "list 1" which supports candidate A in a more front and center position than "list 2" which supports candidate B. IMO, there's far too much political POV pushing going on throughout wiki as it is - these "lists" simply add to that, and I can NOT support such things. ] (]) 14:57, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
This message is intended to brainstorm some possible ways to use this data in the project. Here are some of my initial ideas: | |||
:*Just to be clear, this RfC isn't about the validity of the lists. Whether we should have them at all may be worth discussing, but at the moment we have oodles of such lists, so let's at least create some baseline rules. — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 15:06, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
# ''Create a bot'' that periodically (weekly? monthly?) fetches data about papers cited in Misplaced Pages with PubPeer comments and leaves a note on the Talk page of articles using these sources. The note could say something like, "There are PubPeer comments related to articles X, Y, Z used as sources in this article." | |||
::*The sheer number of these lists suggests there's consensus for their existence. I agree with {{U|Ched}} that I'm not sure how useful they are, but I think getting consensus for their exclusion would be an uphill battle that would cause more problems than it's worth. Many of these are suitable as standalone lists per ] (FiveThirtyEight for example keeps ), so if we prohibit inclusion in articles they will and (and maybe should) be spun out. Those that can't will probably be included in the relevant article ], and we'll just wind up back where we started or worse: fighting edit wars over stupid stuff and blocking people who could otherwise be useful contributors to politics articles. For better or worse, I think it's best to let the lists be and figure out how to curate them to minimize the negative aspects of such lists. ]] 18:44, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
# ''Develop a gadget'' that replicates the functionality of the . | |||
*The US has a particular system of political parties and endorsements that doesn't always translate to other countries. I note that on UK endorsement lists for general elections, we don't cover members of a party endorsing that party, as that goes without saying in a UK context. (If a Conservative MP endorsed anyone other than Johnson in a general election, they'd be out of the party very quickly.) In comparison, intra-party endorsements dominate US endorsement lists. Likewise, when considering recent referendums, we didn't include every single SNP politician as endorsing Scottish independence: we just included the party as a whole doing so. ] (]) 16:03, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
Let me know your thoughts on these ideas and how we could move forward. --] (]) 00:02, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
* Just to note 2 things: 1. My comment above is in no way a reflection of or on {{u|Rhododendrites}} who I've seen around and I think they do excellent work. (I even appreciate this particular RfC/proposal) 2. I'm aware of the ''many'' lists out there - that doesn't mean I think they belong; hence my statement. I also fully aware that there's not going to be any removal of said lists. While I don't usually stick my nose into any of the political stuff - I am aware of it. I just don't care for how our project deals with it. ] (]) 18:51, 23 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
* It will go against ] to use those social media posts outside the article for the publisher of the media posts themselves. It will also go against articles 6 and 7 of ]. Hmm.. ]? <span style="color: #8a87a6; font-size: small; font-family: Impact">~ ].].]</span> 17:00, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
**I mentioned this elsewhere, but per ]: {{tq|Self-published and questionable sources may be used as sources of information '''about themselves''', usually in articles about themselves or their activities, without the self-published source requirement that they be published experts in the field ... This policy also applies to material published by the subject on social networking websites such as Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, and Facebook.}} Endorsements are definitely considered part of "their activities". ] (]) 05:11, 6 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* I also have misgivings about such lists for the reasons given above (they <em>do</em> belong in sections of the relevant election's article, but I believe that ] should apply for standalone lists). If we do decide to have them, I '''support''' all three criteria, with the assumption that criterion #3 will be played by ear as necessary. – ] (] • ]) 02:01, 2 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* These lists are obviously political campaigning and so should all be deleted per ], ], ], ], ], ], &c. People's opinions on such matters can change and so they seem too ephemeral to be maintained in a timeless, encyclopedic fashion. Also, in the US, where money talks, celebrity endorsements may be bought. For example, I often see ] promoting ] or ] promoting insurance but don't think we should make lists of such. Only in the rare cases, where the endorsement becomes a cultural icon, should we create a page for it; for example the ]. ] (]) 15:54, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
**If you're proposing deletion of all endorsement lists, this is probably not the right place to do so. ] (]) 05:11, 6 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* I feel that a lot of the people who have !voted support on all three criterion need to stop and think about what they're saying. Do we actually want criterion 1 and 3 to be applied ''on top of'' the ] requirement? My feeling is that the only thing we should care about is whether an endorsement has coverage in reliable sources (and is referred to as an endorsement in them); I'm extremely skeptical of the way the wording of the other two criterion would seem to encourage or even require editors to substitute their own judgment for that of the sources. --] (]) 12:27, 11 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:How would this be valuable to Misplaced Pages? ] (]) 00:45, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
== Refbegin and refend templates == | |||
::PubPeer is a post-publication peer review forum. Most of the discussions over there report issues with papers. Knowing that a paper that is used as a source has comments on PubPeer is very valuable, IMHO, as It would be useful for editors to evaluate the quality of the source and decide if it makes sense to keep using it. Paper retractions are also reported on PubPeer (see ), and the PubPeer extension marks retracted papers in red. Basically the idea is to replicate the functionality of the PubPeer extension for editors that don't have it. Furthermore, ] are registered in Wikidata. --] (]) 18:14, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
:::But we cite information from reliable sources. I don't see why we'd want a list of people saying they don't think a publication is good, we'd want those sources addressed, surely? '''] <sup>(] • ])</sup>''' 18:28, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
::::I think the point is that an article with a lot of PubPeer commentary is quite likely not to be a reliable source. – ] <small>(])</small> 20:55, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
::::@], PubPeer is exactly a forum where issues with papers are raised, and the authors also have the opportunity to address the concerns. While a source such as a well-established scientific journal is generally reliable, we do not know anything about the quality of a specific paper. To me, knowing that there are comments on PubPeer about a paper is valuable because, in general, those comments are not just about "I like/dislike this paper;" instead, they usually raise good points about the paper that I think would provide valuable context to a Misplaced Pages editor who is trying to determine whether a given paper is a good source or not. PubPeer is regularly used by the community of "scientific sleuths" looking for manipulated or fabricated image and data as you can read in this press article: (there are many other examples) --] (]) 21:26, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
:This does seem like it could be very useful for users interested in the quality of research. I think a gadget highlighting DOIs would be most useful, but using a bot to tag affected pages with a template that adds them to a ] (like ]) would also be a great idea. ] </span>]] 22:35, 29 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
:I think this is a great idea. A bot-maintained notification and maintenance category would be a great starting point. As for a gadget, there are already several tools aimed at highlighting potential reliability issues in citations (e.g. ], ]) so I think it would be better to try and get PubPeer functionality incorporated into them than start a new one. – ] <small>(])</small> 10:13, 30 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
:Respectfully, I don't really think that collaborating with a website and using its number of user-generated comments to decide of the reliability of our sources is the best idea. While being informed of comments that have been made on the articles could be helpful, placing every article whose source have PubPeer comments in a maintenance category amounts to saying these sources are automatically a problem to be fixed, and that shouldn't be a call left to commenters of another website. ] (] · ]) 11:57, 30 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
::Why not? I don't think there's any realistic prospect of doing it internally. – ] <small>(])</small> 12:32, 30 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
:::Putting an article in a maintenance category because a user-generated review website made comments on a source is clearly not the level of source assessment quality we're striving for. Plus, there's the risk of things like canvassing or paid reviews happening on that other website, as they don't have the same policies that we do, but impact the (perceived) article quality here by tagging these sources as problems to be fixed. ] (] · ]) 12:39, 30 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
::::I believe the proposal is to add the ''talk page'' to a category (because it's attached to a talk page message), and not to do any tagging, so this would be pretty much invisible to readers. It would just be a prompt for editors to assess the reliability of the source, not a replacement for source assessments. PubPeer is also not really a "review" website but a place where people (in practice mostly other scientists) can comment on potential errors and misconduct in scientific papers, so the risk of abuse, while present, seems very slight. Who would benefit from it? – ] <small>(])</small> 14:06, 30 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
:::::That does make sense, thanks. I thought there could be cases where competing research teams might try to use it to discredit their opponents' papers, especially if it leads to visible Misplaced Pages messages, but if it is only a category on the talk page that is invisible for the readers, that sounds like a quite sensible idea. ] (] · ]) 17:45, 30 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
::::Hi @], the idea is to have the information readily available in the talk page, and that would make our editors' life easier. In the end, it is just a matter of having some links in the talk page that an editor can check, if they want. Furthermore, I second the comment above from @], PubPeer is very much used to report serious flaws with studies: a study from 2021 analyzed around 40,000 posts about 25,000 publications and found that . Take a tour on PubPeer and see for yourself. --] (]) 15:40, 30 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
:::::I often cite scientific studies when I'm writing Froggy of the Day. It sounds like it would be remotely possible to make a bot or tool that could flag sources that have > howevermany comments on Pub Peer. | |||
:::::I often think about Misplaced Pages's mission to curate rather than create knowledge in terms of the sugar vs fat debate in nutrition. At the time Misplaced Pages was founded, the prevailing idea was that fat was more fattening in sugar with respect to human beings gaining or losing weight. In the years since, much of that was found to have been a promotional campaign by the sugar industry. It is not Misplaced Pages's place to contradict established scientific information even when individual Wikipedians know better but rather to wait until newer and better reliable sources are published. Such a tool could help us do that more quickly. ] (]) 22:38, 3 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
:I think some sort of collaboration might be useful, but I don't want talk page notices clogging up my watchlist. Perhaps something that can complement existing userscripts that highlight source reliability would be good. ] (]/]) 00:39, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
== Appearance setting to hide all inline notes from articles == | |||
These templates shrink the size of the reference material (cites, references, bibliography, etc.) at the bottom of an article, mimicking the format used by many academic journal and books for this type of stuff. Not bound by the limitations of paper and the corresponding need to cut printing expenses, do these actually add any value to articles on Wiki? I would argue not and I believe that they actually impose a cost on visually impaired readers. | |||
While disabled by default, enabling it would hide all those , and even inline notes from all articles, which makes reading Misplaced Pages more clearer, especially when reading about controversial topics. Those citation notes can be a distraction for some, so that's why i am proposing such a feature like this. ] (]) 12:37, 30 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
The guidelines in ] in the ] page state: "Reduced or enlarged font sizes should be used sparingly", but I believe that using refbegin and refend should not be considered as falling within that category. Footnotes, etc., for most articles are generally fairly minimal, but I've seen ]s with over 200 footnotes and dozens of books and journal articles cited so they can actually be pretty substantial in high-quality articles. Why are we making them harder to read? What value are we adding by doing this? | |||
:Adding <code><nowiki>sup { display: none !important; }</nowiki></code> to your ] should do the job! (see also ]) ] (] · ]) 12:49, 30 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
::Yep. I'd oppose making it a default setting, though. I don't want to dictate to the IP how they should use Misplaced Pages or discount their experience, but those notes are vital for information literacy. If the IP is reading about controversial topics without them, they're risking exposing themselves to misinformation. <span style="border:3px outset;border-radius:8pt 0;padding:1px 5px;background:linear-gradient(6rad,#86c,#2b9)">]</span> <sup>]</sup> 17:18, 30 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
:::Agreed! If anything, it is far more vital to have those inline references/citations when reading controversial information. This is even more critical for tags like citation needed/OR/etc because without them the reader is likely to take the statement as generally accepted fact instead of with the grain of salt that should be applied when such a tag has been added. ] ] 17:31, 30 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
:This reminds me of proposals made long ago to move all maintenance templates to the talk pages so that readers wouldn't be exposed to how messy and unreliable article content actually is. ] 19:57, 30 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
:I'd personally advise against enabling this, IP. Things tagged with may be just flat-out wrong. '']'' 🎄 ] — ] 🎄 19:57, 31 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
::What about a third option to keep citation needed tags while hiding actual citations? | |||
::*Show all inline notes | |||
::*Show only inline maintenance notices | |||
::*Hide all inline notes | |||
::] (]) 21:58, 1 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
:::To build on what Donald Albury is saying, I think the readers ''should'' be reminded of how messy Misplaced Pages is. I just added a citation this afternoon, not only because I want the article's regulars to find an additional source but also because I want the readers to see the tag and know that the content is not sufficiently sourced at this time. (I believe in general that people should be more vigilant about assessing the reliability of what they read, and not only here on the Wiki.) If anyone does donate their time and trouble to make a way for readers to opt out of seeing ref tags and maintenance tags, I would oppose making it the default. ] (]) 22:31, 3 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
== Political bio succession boxes, need streamlining == | |||
What would be the downside of eliminating refbegin and refend entirely? The only thing that I can see is that the formatting of some sections will revert back to the baseline format as the additional parameters controlled by those templates are column number and hanging indents. I feel sure that some enterprising programmer can figure out a way to control those parameters outside the reflist template for those editors enamored with those formats. There may well already be such things already being used, although I wouldn't know because I don't about either of those things. Thoughts, comments?--] (]) 21:50, 29 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*See {{tl|refbegin}} and {{tl|refend}} ]] 21:59, 29 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
* We could probably just change ] so that the font size is 100% rather than removing a widely transcluded template. ]] 22:02, 29 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
**True, but is that actually a good reason to keep it? Why have a template that's actually not doing anything? Seems rather inelegant and a waste of processor time (even as cheap as that is nowadays). While I don't think that it would take long to add a task to remove them to a bot, I'll concede it might take a while to remove them from all the pages that it's used on.--] (]) 23:57, 29 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
***It also adds columns and hanging indents if specified (see the documentation at {{tl|refbegin}}). If the only thing objected to is the font size, we don't need to create busy work when our problem is resolved by changing 90% to 100% at ]. Consensus for that change can be built here, but deleting or merging a template should be done at ] as Pppery points out. However unless there's another better template that creates ref columns and hanging indents, it'll be hard to develop consensus to merge or delete (see ] #2). ]] 04:13, 30 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
***Actually, even better, it uses ] for its css which any template editor can change. If there's consensus in a couple days place {{tl|Edit template-protected}} on the template talk with a link to this discussion, or ping me and I can do it. ]] 04:23, 30 October 2019 (UTC) Oh wow ''even'' better, there's an undocumented parameter that lets the list be full size rather than 90%. We can just swap the default behavior and make small text opt-in. ]] 04:26, 30 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
****I would support swapping the default behavior of the template. ] (]) 16:07, 30 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*****While the purist in me objects to such a lack of elegance, the practical side says "whatever works easiest, baby".--] (]) 16:51, 30 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
**As a Wikipedian with ageing eyes I "20 mule team '''support'''" the move to a 100% font size :-) ]|] 22:08, 29 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
* This should be at ], not here. ] ] 00:05, 30 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*We should probably have size reductions as a choice in preferences, eg some skin for those that have trouble reading small text, or a preference option, and another that behaves like the current allowing smaller text. Sure you could use a custom .css, but that is beyond most people's capability to write. Whenever I see an unbalanced <nowiki><small></nowiki> tag I remove it. It is quite often used in tables, or infoboxes to specify a date or some qualification. ] (]) 00:13, 30 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
* Leave things be; they've been good enough since 2006 and shouldn't be a matter of individual caprice. ] (]) 15:46, 30 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
**This is not an argument; that you've done something one way for a decade is not evidence that said thing is good (or bad); it is merely evidence that you've done the thing that way. I'll try asking here: what benefit does making text smaller provide to readers? ] (]) 16:07, 30 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::@ Parsec: who made you the judge? I'll humour you by asking a simple question. "How many people have complained that they can't read bibliographical details under refbegin-refend?" Regards ] (]) 09:48, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
::::Anyone with a fundamental understanding of logic can tell you the same. It would perhaps shatter your mind the number of times in an average work week where I'm confronted with the argument "but we've always done it this way" and have to repress the urge to respond "well that ain't the damn policy, is it?". And as for your ridiculous counter (as if you imagine there to be some complaint department that tracks such things), if you'd bothered to read this very discussion, you'd see that some ''here'' have complained. ] (]) 12:45, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*Not much concerned about how it is done, but I see no benefit in small text. It is hard for some of us to read. · · · ] ]: 16:26, 30 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
* The size change that refbegin makes is also made across the board for all references using <references/>. If all references have consensus, then so does refbegin. If we really want to have this discussion, I expect you should have a full-on RFC changing the default size for references. I anticipate no-consensus. (I question whether the style switch for size in refbegin is valid--we should limit style variation on this point.) --] (]) 16:34, 30 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
**You're probably right, but I'm trying to get a feel for the arguments against. Right now they seem to be mostly IDONTLIKEIT.--] (]) 16:46, 30 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
***And nobody seems to be engaging the accessibility guidelines.--] (]) 16:53, 30 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
**** 90% is the understood minimum size on Misplaced Pages and was arrived at some time ago by quite a bit of hub-bub precisely because it was deemed to be the best consensus between accessible and inaccessible but preferential/lots of references in limited space. --] (]) 01:19, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*****Hi {{U|Izno}}, I was trying to find that discussion without luck. It would certainly have a huge bearing on this discussion. Regards, ] (]) 21:02, 1 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
******{{ping|Cinderella157}} ] of the early days for referencing specifically. ] making <references/> size consistent with {{tl|reflist}} (smaller), so it must have happened somewhen inbetween. --] (]) 02:33, 2 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
**I never noticed that before. You can see an example at ]. "Notes" uses <references /> but "Bibliography" uses the refbegin/end pair. The text size is the same between the two. I think I'd have to oppose changing this specific template without wider discussion on reference text size in general. I'm a little more optimistic about finding consensus; I think the accessibility point is an important one, and don't see a compelling reason to keep it small other than aesthetics. ]] 17:31, 30 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
***But the default way to present references, in the various {{tl|cite book}}, {{tl|cite journal}}, etc. templates, does ''not'' reduce the size. In most articles, the size of the full references is 100%, so why are we going out of our way to reduce the size of ''some'' of them? ] (]) 19:15, 30 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
**** Those do not decrease their font-size precisely because it is known they will predominantly appear inside reflist/refbegin/<references>; no, their use as in a bibliography or similar is {{em|not}} the predominant appearance. And, errors/maintenance messages that appear in these templates {{em|do}} decrease in size (95%). --] (]) 01:19, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*****Do you have any evidence for that? For either, actually; the creation of the cite templates predate either of our editing here, and earlier versions (like {{tl|book reference}}) are even older. In the early days, there were relatively few footnotes and most references were simply in bulleted lists (all that to say that neither of us were around for the discussions over these templates, and even if what you say about the predominance of one formatting style is correct, you ought not confuse how we do things now with why things were set up originally). As for error messages in the templates, I don't think you're right; see for instance. ] (]) 12:45, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*****:{{tlx|book reference}}, now long, long deprecated, does not appear to have ever specified font-size. Beginning with {{diff|Template:Book_reference|25145474|24962306|this edit}}, the rendered citation was wrapped in a {{tag|cite|attribs=style="font-style:normal;"}} tag. The descendants of that template and all of the other cs1|2 templates do not modify font-size except for the rendered subscription- and registration-required annotation (now deprecated and will be removed) and the value assigned to {{para|format}}. For these parameters, font-size is set to 95% in ]. All other font-size for these templates is inherited from the enclosing block. In this case, {{tlx|reflist}} font-size is specified in ] and {{tlx|refbegin}} font-size is specified by ]. cs1|2 error messages are wrapped in {{tag|span|attribs=class="error"}} tags (not sure where that class is defined – , I think). Because the <code>error</code> class makes <span class="error">big red error messages</span>, css in Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css resets the cs1|2 error message font-size to 100%, the same size as the text used in the rendered citation. Thereafter, cs1|2 font-size for the citation-proper and any error messages is controlled by enclosing markup. | |||
*****:—] (]) 16:57, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*****:{{ping|Parsecboy}} For illustrative purposes, the quantity of articles using a CS1/2 template is ~3.9m, which is an absolute majority of the current ~6m articles. The quantity of articles using a CS1 template and using reflist is in the realm of 3.6m. It's another 0.2m or so using <references/> and CS1. I daresay that's a convincing ratio of all articles that are using something with small text on it. As for not being here, you can see above where/why the text got small. As for "we've always had it small", you can also see above that is not the case in those discussions. (I did not make this argument, nor in fact did I argue for one side or the other.) As for CS1/2, no, I can basically guarantee that text was never changed because it would clearly have fallen afoul of ], because a reflist or similar is where the majority of CS1/2 citations are. (I can get into position territory here but I'll decline in the interest of supplying information :).) --] (]) 02:50, 2 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
******:Aye, but those searches don't tell us what you think it does. On the first page of results, I see the ] article, which formats its ] the way I was talking about - short cites in the {{tl|reflist}} section and full references at 100% size. ] (]) 09:15, 2 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
{{od}}@Parsec, the question is "How many people have complained that they can't read bibliographical details under refbegin-refend?" do you have an answer? Regards ] (]) 14:51, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
::Why would the number of people complaining be relevant? If the size of the text is a problem to some it is a problem worth looking into. The other side of it is what advantage does the smaller text provide? · · · ] ]: 15:03, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::Because Keith doesn't actually want a debate; he wants to stonewall and this nonsense is classic ]. ] (]) 18:27, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
:Sturmvogel asserts "I would argue not and I believe that they actually impose a cost on visually impaired readers" I would like to debate facts not assertions. I think one person so far has endorsed Sturm's view. Do you struggle to read biblio details? ] (]) 15:08, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
::Yes, one person in this unpublicized discussion says that it's a problem for them. So, at the very least, one reader is disadvantaged by the current format. That's a issue because that one person stands for an unknown number of other readers who aren't aware of this discussion. Let me turn your question around; how will you personally be inconvenienced if the format is changed to 100% text? Other than aesthetically, that is, 'cause that appears to be at the foundation of your argument, however much you cloak it in "that's the way that we've always done it". That's logically fallacious and does not stand when even a single person has admitted readability problems because of the smaller text. You need to address the accessibility guidelines, which are the basis for my entire argument, but you have entirely failed to engage with them thus far. How and why do you believe that the current format for refbegin/refend do not fail the guidelines? It's a simple question, deserving of an direct answer.--] (]) 16:06, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::{{ping|Keith-264}} Still waiting for an answer.--] (]) 10:18, 2 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*I too find small text unhelpful (at best) and downright obstructive much of the time. My eyesight is quite good for a man of my age (49), or so my optician tells me. I don't need glasses to read most books. ] (]) 16:11, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
** Two people say it's too small and one infers that many others do too; I think we need something a little more scientific before accepting a change to the status quo. PS I'm a dashing 57. ] (]) 16:16, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
***In a discussion that is not publicised, and does not mention text size or accessibility in the header. "]" is not a great argument. ] (]) 16:24, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
** Isn't the village pump a place for publicising something? If not, get off your backside and publicise it; show me how and I'll help. This is beginning to look like pathetic excuses on (poorly focused) stilts. PS I've been short sighted since I was an early teen, read with varifocals and have never had trouble reading reduced scripts. I haven't come out against a change, merely a capricious one. Did I mention that I was a dashing 57? I'm also debonair. On a technical point, does it have to be all or nothing or can Wiki be arranged for individual preference? ] (]) 16:55, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
*Does Parsec actually have a point or is he whining again? ] (]) 19:40, 31 October 2019 (UTC) | |||
**And here we are, again, trying to derail the conversation with personal attacks. Your stonewalling is pretty transparent, Keith; drop it, or we'll be heading to ANI. ] (]) 11:48, 1 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
***Yet again you claim the victim role and try to frame the debate as hostile; if you don't like retaliation, stop provoking. Simples. I'll set the example. If you make a substantive point I will reply but I will take no more notice of the extraneous comments. My question was simple, "how many people find the biblio details hard to read?" Two or three so far. I suggest ] ] (]) 13:45, 1 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
****What you're doing is classic ]; your question is BS and you are well aware of that fact. Answer . ] (]) 14:10, 1 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
***The number of people complaining is a measure of the necessity of a change, particularly when there is a lack of consensus. This was perfectly civil but when I mentioned it here you got uncivil rather quickly, instead of waiting for other editors to venture their opinions like me. ] (]) 14:22, 1 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
****How many people have complained somewhere besides this thread that you or I don't know about? How many people have had trouble reading the print and haven't said anything? What you're asking is an unanswerable question, and I'm sure you know that. Oh, and here's a thought for you: if in this short discussion, a few people have complained about it, how often do you think it's a problem for the readers who will never see this discussion to tell you they also have trouble with small text? | |||
****As for the rest, post a diff where I said something uncivil. If you can't handle being for dodging questions, maybe try answering them. And if you don't want to be , maybe don't engage in behavior that an objective person might reasonably describe as stonewalling. ] (]) 14:37, 1 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
***Why don't you ask around like I did? I thought that after what you disclosed on the Tel el talk page asking on the milhist board was your next step. I got fed up waiting and did it for you. Look how you responded. I humour you here by answering your loaded question and you write "how often do you think it's a problem for the readers who will never see this discussion"? Why don't you do the work like I did on the milhist board, instead of sniping? ] (]) 16:03, 1 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
****Um, why do you seem to think that Sturmvogel and I are the same person? This is the second time you've conflated the two of us. (And no, you have yet to respond to ''any'' question I've seen directed your way in a direct manner; do you see why I label this behavior as stonewalling? Do you see how this is clearly unproductive on your part?) ] (]) 16:22, 1 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
***Your presumption in trying to be judge and jury in your own cause does you no credit. I suggest that you change your approach. What do you want re: refbegin refend? ] (]) 17:49, 1 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
****It would be helpful if you responded to points made, though it seems you have no interest in an actual debate, despite your repeated utterances to the contrary. I suppose I ought to stop trying to squeeze blood from that particular stone. I'll answer your question with one of my own: why do you think yourself entitled to answers when you refuse the same to others? ] (]) 18:07, 1 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Propose renaming section''' - I suggest "Keith-264 derails all attempts at debate". It still won't mention font size or accessibility, but it would be more accurate. ] (]) 18:23, 1 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* I suggest you get a life; as for PSB he's still sulking so I'll leave it there. ] (]) 19:10, 1 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* I truly don't care whether the references have <code>font-size: 66.6%</code> or <code>100%</code>. Somebody else can vote on that. But I do feel strongly that any templates that allow customizing it on a per-page basis should have that feature removed. ―] 05:37, 2 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
**{{ping|cobaltcigs}}Why, though? Lots of things are customized on a per-page basis, including most things to do with references. Why is this specific thing different? ] (]) 15:05, 2 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
My goodness, I went through some American politician bios (didn't check other countries) & there's a lot of trivial info added to succession boxes. So called "Honorary titles" - like "Longest living U.S. Senator", "Earliest living American governor", etc. PS - I think these should be deleted. What would be added next? "Tallest Speaker of the House"? ] (]) 00:50, 31 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
So let's suppose the following: | |||
:I delete those on sight and you should too. --] (]) 19:06, 31 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
*<code><nowiki>]</nowiki></code> specifies a default size of <code>font-size: 85%</code> for references. | |||
*<code><nowiki>]</nowiki></code> overrides it to <code>60%</code> because she just fixes spelling and doesn't care about refs. | |||
*<code><nowiki>]</nowiki></code> overrides it to <code>100%</code> because he's ] and often clicks the wrong things by accident. | |||
*Both users independently stumble upon <code><nowiki>]</nowiki></code> which contains some crap like <pre>{{reflist|font-size=92.5% !important}}<!-- DO NOT CHANGE PER WP:TMJF CONCENSUS --></pre>(based on a 3–1 vote by members of some WikiProject that neither of them (and none of us) have heard of). | |||
Both users would be rightfully pissed to have their settings nullified. ―] 18:23, 2 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:That's not what we're talking about. The idea is to swap the default behavior of the templates so that the reduced size is opt-in. ] (]) 12:42, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
Apropos my comment above, I'm not wasting any more time on this; if anyone wants to change the status quo, the burden is on them to make a case. No-one has so the matter rests. Regards ] (]) 12:04, 2 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*That you refuse to see the argument that several of us has advanced is irrelevant (and only goes to further demonstrate your bad faith here); it's really quite simple: the size reduction does zero good (as you yourself have tacitly admitted by refusing to provide any benefit to it) and it causes harm to some readers. That's all we ''really'' need to justify the change. ] (]) 15:05, 2 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*From what I can see, the reduction in size is applied, either directly or indirectly to pretty much all of what is considered "non-readable prose" - ie captions, TOC, info boxes and references etc. In the case of reference templates, they are intended to be used with with RefBegin, which does more than just reduce the size of the text. So, there is more than just one windmill on the field of battle. If one perceives size to be a problem, then the solution lies outside of EN WP (at MediaWiki) but any change will affect every Wiki project? Consequently, this is probably not the place to argue the point without involvement of all of the (potentially) affected stakeholders. I would also suggest that an "opt out" option to then make everything the same size might be an equally valid alternative to the "opt in" option being suggested. Another alternative might be to add a toggle where the text appears. Yet another, we could scale everything up by 111% so that 90% would then be equal to the current normal text size. I also just noticed that the default editor also uses a "reduced" font size. Regards ] (]) 22:37, 8 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
**{{Re|Cinderella157}} Reference text size style is specific to the English Misplaced Pages. It's specified in ] which is a local page in the ]. The relevant css is the reflist class which ] uses so that each project can specify its own styling. ]] 07:49, 9 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
***Thankyou {{U|Wugapodes}}, but is that also true of all of the other cases identified? Regards, ] (]) 08:03, 9 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
***PS I take it then, that no other wiki platforms use ]? ] (]) 08:06, 9 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
****I'm sure they do, but they use their own copy. We use https://en.wikipedia.org/MediaWiki:Common.css, the Chinese Misplaced Pages uses https://zh.wikipedia.org/MediaWiki:Common.css ''etc.'' ] (]) 08:13, 9 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*****{{Re|Cinderella157}} A change to the reflist class wouldn't change the other instances of reduced font size that you mention. Captions, TOC, and infoboxes use their own CSS classes. Changing the definition of the reflist class would only affect text inside {{tl|refbegin}} and {{tl|refend}} tags or generated by <nowiki><references /></nowiki> which includes {{tl|Reflist}}. You can try this out by adding <nowiki>.reflist { color: red; }</nowiki> to ] which will make all references red for you (but not for anyone else). ]] 08:32, 9 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
******That was my understanding (with thanks) but I think it is valid to point out that, ''if'' there is a problem, it extends beyond just refs - unless it can be shown why refs are substantially different from the other cases I have identified. Regards, ] (]) 10:13, 9 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
== Transclusion of peer reviews to article talk pages == | |||
== By user in advanced search == | |||
{{Tracked|T237268}} | |||
Hello! | |||
Hello, | |||
I would like to have a "By user(s)" parameter in advanced search. If you for example search with "Search in" set to "File" and "By user(s)" set to "Jonteemil" you would see all files uploaded by me. Can this be done?] (]) 13:35, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:{{re|Jonteemil}} ] with Namespace set to File may do the job you need. (Expand "Search for Contributions" to see the Namespace box.) ] (]) 13:55, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
::{{re|Certes}} ] would also solve that problem but if I for example want to find all the files, uploaded by me that contains the word "extracted", which really is the reason I made this proposal, there isn't a way that I know of.] (]) 14:02, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* Good idea. This has been in my "wishlist" for some time now. I created ]. ]<sup>]</sup> 15:21, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::{{re|Certes}} Same here. Someone asked ”Hi, what is the underlying use case for that?”. I want to useit to find all the files uploaded by me that have been extracted from a PDF. In the source parameter in {{template|Logo fur}} in all of them I have written ”extracted from /pdf/”. I would therefor search ”extracted from” and by user(s) Jonteemil and find the wanted files.] (]) 22:59, 4 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
First time posting here. | |||
== Source reliability RfCs to counter systemic bias in new page patrol == | |||
I would like to propose that ] be automatically transcluded to talk pages in the same way as GAN reviews. This would make them more visible to more editors and better preserve their contents in the article/talk history. They often take a considerable amount of time and effort to complete, and the little note near the top of the talk page is very easy to overlook. | |||
While ] has largely been able to keep its backlog in check, one problem that we have is that, due to the relatively small roster of new page reviewers, we lack editors who are familiar with (or capable of researching) sources from many parts of the world. This is further compounded by Misplaced Pages's ], with the end result that articles reliant on sources from biased-against regions take significantly more time and effort to review, and even then reviewers are less likely to make an accurate decision in their review. In an effort to address this, for the past few months I and a few other editors have been compiling a source guide, ], primarily for use by new page patrol. The purpose is to help combat systemic bias in page reviewing by providing baseline, consensus-backed reliability information about sources for all topics and geographic regions. The main differences between it and ] are that NPPSG is sorted by topic and region, and that it has a much lower bar for inclusion on the list (consequently, NPPSG has explicit instructions that the inclusion of a source on that list should not be used as an argument for the (un)reliability of a source above and beyond whatever consensus the listing is cited to). | |||
This also might (but only might!) raise awareness of the project and lead to more editors making use of this volunteer resource. | |||
I started out this project by first transcribing all of the RSP entries to the list, and then further expanding it by keeping tabs on ] discussions as they are archived. However, this reliance on just monitoring RSN means that while there's still some useful information at NPPSG (and more importantly, useful information that would not belong at RSP), we're not closing our systemic-bias blindspots at anything faster than a glacial pace. Those of us who have been working on this guide, and others involved with NPP, have had previous discussions ] and ] to determine what our next steps should be, with a local consensus that we should move to start having regular discussions about regions that are underrepresented on RSP, likely using the RfC format, and inviting editors from NPP, relevant WikiProjects and other language Wikis, and the broader Misplaced Pages community to participate. Given that the ] included language about not having RfCs about sources that have never been discussed before, I wanted to get broader community support for this proposal before opening up a discussion. It is my opinion that a lot of the pushback against reliability RfCs has been from editors who are alarmed that these RfCs being used to aggressively deprecate sources; the sole purpose of this proposal is to address systemic bias in our ability to evaluate sources, particularly in the context of new page patrol. | |||
I posted this suggestion on the project talk page yesterday, but I have since realized it has less than 30 followers and gets an average of 0 views per day. | |||
]. I anticipate that some people may object to the amount of background summary provided; I would be amenable to cutting down the introduction to a list of links to relevant RS and Misplaced Pages articles, and to leave only completely uncontroversial statements in the sections for individual sources (any further relevant information can always be added in a signed comment in the discussion section). | |||
Thanks for your consideration, ] (]) 23:07, 2 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
'''TL;DR''' New page patrol has a systemic bias problem, ] is an attempt to help close that gap, but in order for it to be effective we need to proactively have discussions about sources covering regions and topics that do not often come up at RSN on their own. Please comment with your general thoughts on this proposal, as well as constructive criticism for the proposed discussion format. <sub>signed, </sub>] <sup>]</sup> 04:48, 6 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:I |
:I don't see any downsides here. ] (]/]) 01:55, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | ||
:'''Support'''; I agree with Voorts. Noting for transparency that ] of this discussion by {{noping|Patrick Welsh}}. <span class="nowrap">—]</span> <small>(])</small> 21:04, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
*This is a great idea, it's weird that it isn't done already. ] </span>]] 21:13, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
== Remove Armenia-Azerbaijan general community sanctions == | |||
<small>Notices about this discussion have been posted at the talk pages for ], ], ] and ] <sub>signed, </sub>] <sup>]</sup> 05:01, 6 November 2019 (UTC)</small> | |||
{{archive top|result=Opening this discussion is itself a violation of GS/AA, as SimpleSubCubicGraph is not extended-confirmed. Initial response from community members with standing to discuss these topics has been unanimously opposed so I see no reason to leave this open. <sub>signed, </sub>] <sup>]</sup> 01:25, 4 January 2025 (UTC)}} | |||
I believe Armenia and Azerbaijan sanction is now outdated and useless. I propose that the sanction on the two nations be removed permanently unless another diplomatic crisis happens between the two countries. My reasons are: A recent statement was made by Armenia offering condolences to Azerbaijan which has almost never happened, I believe that Armenia and Azerbaijan related pages blanket protection of Extended Confirmed should be lowered to Autoconfirmed protection, with the exception of the wars between the two sovereign nations. Additionally, relations are getting better between the two countries. For nearly 30 years, relations were rock bottom, diplomats were not found in Azerbaijan nor Armenia and tensions were at an all time high. However ever since the 2020 war the two nations have started to make amends. This first started with the peace deal ending the war between the two nations. Turkey whom is a staunch ally of Azerbaijan has started to resume direct flights from ], the capital of Armenia and ], the largest city in the Republic of Turkiye. In 2023, Armenia and Azerbaijan entered into extensive bilateral negotiations as well as a prisoner exchange between the two countries, and Armenia supported Azerbaijan for being the host of the UN climate change forum. Finally, last year the two countries solved many border issues and created a transport route between the two countries which is a symbol of peace. The two nations are much better off now than they were just 4 years ago and can be seen as having a cooperative/reconciling attitude. That is why I propose an amendment that will immediately downgrade all protections (from ] to ]) for all Armenia-Azerbaijan related pages. ] (]) 00:31, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
*{{block indent|em=1.6|1=<small>Notified: ]. ] (]/]) 00:53, 4 January 2025 (UTC)</small>}}<!-- Template:Notified --> | |||
* '''Oppose'''. This statement does not provide an adequate or relevant reason for vacating ]'s ECR remedy. Community sanctions are related to the conduct of editors on Misplaced Pages, not the conduct of international affairs. Since page and editor sanctions are regularly issued pursuant to GS/AA and ], there is still a clear need for ECR. ] (]/]) 00:46, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
*:@] '''Response''' Well I believe that the editors that cause edit conflicts and wars are mostly Armenian, Azerbaijani, or Turkish. They feel patriotic of their country and their side and have vilified the other side in their head, but with calming geopolitical tensions I believe that these editors will no longer feel the need to edit war on wikipedia. Its the same reason why you do not see British people edit warring on the page for the United States of America over the loss in the Independence War. Geopolitical relations between Great Britain and the United States of America are good. ] (]) 00:52, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
*::But you do see Armenian/Azerbaijani people edit warring on pages about Armenia/Azerbaijan still. ]<sub>]<sub>]</sub></sub> (]/]) 00:56, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
*::To add further context, you're correct that we don't have any sanctions regarding the US War of Independence. However, we do have sanctions regarding other historical topics, including anti-Semitism in Poland around World War II (]) and The Troubles (]). As such, just because country leadership may communicate a lack of conflict doesn't mean editors on Misplaced Pages immediately edit within policy and treat each other with civility. ] (]) 01:24, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
* Per Voorts, GS/AA is enacted in response to the actions of editors. Real world diplomatic activity is not directly relevant. ] (]) 01:01, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
{{abot}} | |||
== ITN Nominators == | |||
The essay at ] attempts to address a wide variety of biases. I have my doubts about an omnibus RfC meant to address them all. | |||
*Any new-page-patrol-level countermeasure addressing those without access to an Internet-connected computer is unlikely to have any resemblance to a new-page-patrol-level countermeasure addressing editing by corporations who deploy staffers and pay outside consultants to create/edit articles about themselves. | |||
* Any discussion on Misplaced Pages among experienced editors tends to focus far more on paid editing than on things like gender bias. That doesn't necessarily mean that paid editing is a bigger problem as opposed to just being something that pisses those editors off. | |||
* Any discussion on Misplaced Pages among brand new editors tends to focus on things like alt med or on whether Misplaced Pages is more based against Team Read or Team Blue, simply because so many people feel strongly about those issues and do not feel strongly about things like topics lacking sources in the native language of the topic. Alas, the proposed RfC is quite likely to become Yet Another Battleground About Alt Med, Donald Trump, Etc. | |||
* Some of the biases listed at ] may not be a problem at all. That page says that regions where English is an official language or English-language schooling is common participate more than countries without broad teaching of English. It is not clear to me that this is an actual problem. I would expect the French language Misplaced Pages to have more participation by French speakers than Spanish speakers, but is it an established fact that this is a real problem? Who decided that the Polish Misplaced Pages focusing in on Polish issues and the English Misplaced Pages focusing in on English issues is a real problem? | |||
I believe we should add a small section which includes all of the nominators who have made it onto In The News. I think this would be just a polite way of saying thank you for your proposal. ] (]) 05:15, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
One possible countermeasure to the above problems: separate sections for these different areas of bias with aggressive pruning of off-topic comments. --] (]) 10:29, 6 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:If editors of an English-language encyclopedia tend to create more articles about subjects known in the English-speaking world then that's no great problem, but if new page patrollers are using different standards for evaluating articles according to the origin of their subjects and the sources about them then it ''is'' a problem. ] (]) 18:07, 6 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:I will just note that we do not do that for nominators for any other elements on the main page. We don't use bylines in Misplaced Pages. Anyone who cares enough about who did what for an article can examine the page history. ] 15:16, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
::As I read this proposal. it seems to be saying just the opposite: that new page patrollers are using the same standards -- standards that are more appropriate for the US, UK, etc. -- no matter what the the origin of their subjects and sources. I am pretty sure that this is correct in my case. I have been studying ] and find that I already have a good feel for the reliability of a lot of the sources listed for North America, and far less familiarity with the sources listed for some other regions. --] (]) 18:49, 6 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:Disagree, that would just incentivize many people to try to get their name on the Main Page for millions of readers to see, leading to more competition and less constructive contributions. ] (] · ]) 15:51, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
:::I think it's less a question of ''standards'' and more a question of our ability to actually meet those standards, and these errors occur in two places. | |||
: A small section where? Obviously not on the main page, as the previous replies have been assuming. But if someone wanted to maintain some sort of list at ] and link it from ], 🤷. We have ] that is something similar for DYK. ]] 16:01, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
::: | |||
::That would be a much better idea indeed! ] (] · ]) 16:20, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
:::Any good page reviewer knows that before nominating an article for deletion, they need to put in a good faith effort to find sources that weren't included in the article. But if the article is about a Turkish singer, and the reviewer not only know nothing about Turkish music, but nothing about Turkish media landscape (or even enough of the language to begin to look for sources), then they're not going to be able to properly do such a search. | |||
:::I agree! ] (]) 18:18, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
::: | |||
::::] I created a page if anyone wants to edit it. ] (]) 18:21, 4 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
::: | |||
:::The other case is evaluating if sources already in the article are sufficiently reliable to establish notability. While there are publishing norms in American and British media that make it easy to spot a trash tabloid vs. a newspaper of record, these norms are not universal. For example, coverage of movie stars in highly regarded Indian dailies often adopts a tone that would be instantly dismissed as PR cruft in an American publication, and that's before we even deal with a language barrier. A reviewer might be able to evaluate English-language coverage from sources that they don't recognize on the basis that they can tell from the content itself whether information about the subject is significant, but when they have to rely on a machine translation (and especially a machine translation from a non-Latin alphabet) it becomes a shot in the dark. <sub>signed, </sub>] <sup>]</sup> 19:12, 6 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:For what it's worth, I don't think anyone is under the impression that this will solve systemic bias issues once and for all (and as you pointed out, some systemic biases are less problematic––I have no intent to mitigate the ] biases with this process). The goal here is simply to improve our ability to evaluate and find (and thus, our ability to rely on) sources that are unlikely to be familiar or to the typical enWiki editor. The main obstacles to source comprehension are language and the difference in media landscapes and formats across the globe; however, there are also some niche topics that are also difficult for the average editor to evaluate properly (in my experience at NPP: anime, theology, firearms, metal music) and I wouldn't rule out dedicating a discussion to establishing some baseline reliability assessments for sources that cover such topics <sub>signed, </sub>] <sup>]</sup> 19:01, 6 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
::Also in case it wasn't clear, the idea being proposed here is to make this a semi-regular thing that progressively moves across different types of sources. For example, one month we could have a discussion about Turkish sources, the next month one about Vietnamese sources, a third about Arabic-language sources from the Gulf states, etc. <sub>signed, </sub>] <sup>]</sup> 19:17, 6 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::The above comments have pretty much cleared up my doubts. --] (]) 10:27, 7 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* <p>'''Support'''. I'm going to start by reposting part of my response in the discussion at {{slink|WT:NPP/R|NPP Source Guide progress report and next steps}}:</p> | |||
{{bi|em=1.6|{{tq2|This regional sources RfC format is a wonderful idea. Regional sources are indeed underrepresented on the ]. Less popular sources are typically given the benefit of the doubt if they have an editorial team, and haven't been the subject of a reliability dispute. However, in many cases, the lack of guidance around regional sources causes new page patrollers to skip articles that are based on these sources, especially if the sources are in a foreign language. As a result, articles based on these regional sources receive less attention, and aren't vetted as rigorously as articles that are primarily based on international or English-language sources.<p>The results of these regional sources RfCs would allow new page patrollers to become less hesitant with reviewing articles based on regional and foreign-language sources. I like how the main goal of these RfCs is to identify reliable sources from media landscapes that were previously undocumented in Misplaced Pages discussions.<p>}} | |||
<p>Since there is some discussion about ], I want to clarify that this is absolutely not an ] proposal, i.e. the proposed RfCs would not result in editors being more lenient when evaluating regional sources. Instead, this proposal would help ] apply the ] and the ] consistently across all regions, since patrollers would have more information on foreign-language sources and sources that are less familiar to them. It's not easy to research the reliability of sources in a foreign language that one doesn't understand, since there is a lot of translating involved, and because it's difficult to assess ] when there is no readily available data on most of the sources in the region. This proposal would help resolve all of this, one region at a time.</p><p>Finally, I'd like to thank {{u|Rosguill}} for their work in maintaining the ], which has been very useful for determining how much trust to assign to foreign-language sources when I encounter them in articles. — ''''']''' <small>]</small>'' 08:14, 9 November 2019 (UTC)</p>}} | |||
== The use of AI-generated content == | |||
== Proposal to distinguish move and cascade-protect lock colors == | |||
As of late, the use of AI has caused controversy. As it currently stands, the only thing we have on AI generated content is ] which is more of an essay and not a policy/guideline. | |||
)]]] | |||
Following the previous thread ] on this topic, most of the padlock colors were changed to match with WMF logo colors. Most of the changes were perfectly fine, but I didn't notice until recently that because of the new changes, the padlocks for move and cascading protection look almost the same color-wise, which can be confusing. I propose that: | |||
#The cascade protection padlock be changed to the current color of the move protection padlock (i.e. WMF Green30) | |||
#The move protection padlock be reverted to its original color | |||
—] (] | ]) 21:07, 10 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
This lack of AI-generated content guideline is baffling considering the increasing prominence of AI in our daily lives. We don't have any form of guideline for such. | |||
*'''Support''' as proposer. —] (] | ]) 21:07, 10 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Go back to the old color''' per proposer. – ] (] • ]) 07:33, 13 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
As such I wanted to bring up that there should be a guideline and recommend a few things: | |||
===Proposal to change the interface-protect lock color to a redder color=== | |||
] | |||
] | |||
In the interest of getting all the ] proposals out of the way as soon as possible, I also propose that the color of ] be changed to WMF Red30 (#b32424 {{color box|#b32424}}), as it's more in keeping with the historical permanent protection color of red and goes along with the spirit of the RfC mentioned above. The current color is #aa4400 {{color box|#aa4400}}. —] (] | ]) 21:07, 10 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:Per {{u|Yair rand}}'s request, I have created a comparison image visible on the right. Changing the interface lock results in little-to-no visible change. —] (] | ]) 22:22, 18 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
1. As someone who uses a second language, I heavily rely on AI assistance, however, I do not believe all the content on Misplaced Pages should be AI-generated as such, I recommend the limitation of AI generated content which is as follows: | |||
*'''Support''' as proposer. —] (] | ]) 21:07, 10 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:a. While Misplaced Pages does not prohibit Wikieditors from using large language models to plan their contributions, the Wikieditor must personally check and take responsibility for every word and every fact. | |||
* Please make sure to take colorblind users into account when selecting colors for these icons. --] (]) 00:38, 11 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:b. It cannot be used in talk pages or any form of communication. This is because AI-generated content with headlines are a mess already, and we don't need clutter on the talk pages. Plus existing guidelines require competence and communication is a social skill that is important anyways. | |||
*'''Indifferent''' – ] (] • ]) 07:33, 13 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:c. If it is AI-generated or any form of it is, in the edit summaries, it must be disclosed. This should not be used against the editor in any form unless somehow it becomes an issue. | |||
2. You are responsible for making sure the content generated by AI follows the guidelines and policies. You cannot make the old "oh but AI generated it, not me, so I'm not responsible." excuse. This clause is being added to avoid that excuse from causing headaches that could already be avoided in the beginning. | |||
Many of the ideas that already exist at ] I can see also being part of the guideline. What are your thoughts on making an official policy on this. This means that the policy would rely on other policies and if the policies change, it must keep in mind about the AI policy. | |||
== Straw poll: clear out the accumulated cruft in the sandbox subpages == | |||
As it currently stands, essays and information pages are not POLICIES & GUIDELINES so we desperately need one for the sanity of everyone here working on Misplaced Pages. | |||
Over time, {{pagelinks|Misplaced Pages:Sandbox}} has accumulated a number of subpages and redirects that appear to be the result of various sandbox experiments. I propose deleting most of them all and making a fresh start. If there is consensus for deletion, I will post MfDs to make it official, but there is no point doing that if the consensus here is to keep them all. | |||
Pinging @] as I find he would be interested in adding some stuff regarding the creation of this policy. | |||
If any of them have content worth keeping I propose moving that content to a single page. | |||
Sincerely, <br> ] (]) 01:06, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
Here is a complete list of sandbox subpages and redirects. | |||
: By byte count, 71.38% of ] is currently taken up by discussions about AI. Why don't you join one of those discussions? ]] 02:20, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
::In this case, that wouldn’t be possible as what I’m requesting is a formal policy and guideline that actually explains what AI use is allowed and what isn’t. | |||
::From what I understand, the other threads are asking for clarification on if AI is allowed in a certain circumstance NOT a guideline. | |||
::<br>Cheers,<br> ] (]) 11:17, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
:::{{tq|what I’m requesting is a formal policy and guideline}} That's two separate things and...where is the proposal? ] (]) 11:22, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
::::Whoops! I thought that it was obvious that was what I meant when I said “I recommend a few things… as follows:”. That is my fault and I’m glad I was able to clarify! | |||
::::<br> | |||
::::Cheers,<br> ] (]) 11:31, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
:::A guideline won't happen without those threads being solved. I would recommend not using AI for second-language writing, translate in small chunks if needed, and it's likely closer to what you want to say. ] (]) 11:30, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
::::I disagree. I can write in English easily when it’s what I’m expressing in terms of what I’m thinking that’s easy.<br><br> | |||
::::However, whenever I write something with a lot of guidelines, I end up tensing up and my brain cannot create it completely from scratch without having random words in front of it. If random words are written already and all I need to do is revise it so it makes sense, that’s where I am able to be successful. I do this to avoid ] as that’s not what the Misplaced Pages project is for. That’s how I’m able to make constructive edits that contribute to Misplaced Pages as a whole. That’s also how I avoid the misuse of AI as it’s a godsend for me as someone who always tenses up when I’m writing something within guidelines and restrictions.<br><br> Of course I believe I need to clarify, I completely revise the text to the point none of the words from the AI is in the final version. <br><br> | |||
::::Cheers,<br> ] (]) 11:41, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
:::::That doesn't address my suggestion, which was using translation software that isn't designed to generate extra content. The idea that "none of the words from the AI is in the final version" is not believable, English is varied but generally there are some standard common words. ] (]) 11:44, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
::::::Oh! I COMPLETELY misunderstood. I don’t translate it whatsoever. The only way I translate anything is through DeepL or Google Translate. If it’s worth anything my first language is sign language so you can’t really translate that language with the use of AI.<br><br>Cheers, <br> ] (]) 11:51, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
:::::::Thank you, that's very helpful clarification. I'd like to know more, I'll take to the user talk. ] (]) 11:58, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
:I'd broadly support a proposal like this. If I'm being (very) nitpicky, I'd say we shouldn't include {{tq|must contain no words that were initially created by the AI}}, as this implies literally every word needs to be re-written, which might not be feasible (nor would it significantly impact AI-generated detector tools in the case of simpler phrases). — ''']''' <sup>''(])''</sup> 11:46, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
::What would an alternative be? I’m more than open to a different way of applying it. ] (]) 11:51, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
:::Whoops, I need to reclarify what I meant. I meant to say: | |||
:::Do you have any suggestions on an alternative for that part of the policy? I’m open to any ideas. <br><br>Cheers,<br>] (]) 11:52, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
:::"While Misplaced Pages does not prohibit Wikieditors from using large language models to plan their contributions, the Wikieditor must personally check and take responsibility for every word and every fact." How's that? If someone's little brother etc. gets into their account and violates policy, the person who holds the account is held responsible. Of course, that always involved the assumption that the user was lying about a little brother... ] (]) 13:11, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
::::That seems reasonable to me. I’ll edit it to include that. ] (]) 13:15, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
::::Isn't that already the case? LLMs do not exempt anyone from the responsibility of their edits. ] (] · ]) 23:51, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
:Can someone here move this to idea lab, it’s clear this needs more improvement and is not ready to be implemented as I previously thought. ] (]) 13:17, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
:As I've ], I think any guidance should not refer to specific technology, which changes rapidly and has many uses. ] (]) 15:53, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
::I'm sympathetic to this argument but in reality we do this all the time. This isn't a perfect analogy (i.e., if you nitpick it, then I am probably already aware of what you are nitpicking) but ] and by extension ] are both extremely useful resources about any given media outlet, and also something that lags behind how reliable they are ''now'', as opposed to when someone brought them up. | |||
::<small> (that is, if it wasn't just wrong from the outset; there are one or two cases where I literally know the guy employed as a fact-checker at publications people claimed were unreliable for not fact-checking)</small> ] (]) 18:36, 7 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
== Emptying ] == | |||
I suggest a '''Keep''', '''Delete''', '''Move''', '''Redirect''' or '''Blank''' comment. --] (]) 16:14, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
Hello, I am bringing a proposal here as I have received conflicting advice at the ] (perhaps due to an incorrect usage of {{tlx|edit request}} by me?). I propose the category is either unmarked as a ], or the existing top-level user pages are sorted/removed (with possible exception of historical users?). ] (]) 20:28, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
===Straw Poll=== | |||
:This comes up periodically when someone notices the container cat filling up with new users. | |||
All (comment here for delete all, keep all, etc.) --] (]) 16:14, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:Just follow the normal process of removing the users. Leave them a note to add themselves to some more appropriate subcat, if you wish. - <b>]</b> 20:43, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
*'''Delete all''' I thought the sandbox was periodically purged, anyway. Also, I'm not sure why you've included many examples above. – ] (] • ]) 18:46, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
** This isn't the sandbox. It is subpages to the sandbox. I listed as many subpages as there are are to consider deleting. --] (]) 23:06, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
***Fair enough, I'd say history merge or delete all as necessary, and then disable future creation of subpages in the sandbox, or if that's not possible have a bot automatically delete them after a while. – ] (] • ]) 23:38, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:Perhaps important context is that the categorization of Wikipedians is a minefield that has led to a lot of spilled ink and anger. If you dig in the archives you can find the discussions. Spending a lot of times to make those categories look nice does not help us achieve our goal of writing an encyclopedia, and therefore it may be considered a waste of time by some. See also ]. {{tlx|edit request}} is for when you can't make the edit so someone else ''has'' to do it for you (e.g. if you need an admin to edit a page you can't edit because it has been protected). ] (]) 20:48, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
::Did we finish the encyclopaedia? If nit surely there's some reader-facing makework we could do? ] | ] 20:51, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
* ] is a list of subpages. History merging might be possible, but there is more than one page history to merge over and some have ] issues. ] (]) 19:29, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::How are we ''ever'' supposed to finish when new articles? You are part of the problem! I propose we get rid of all articles, except ], and then we replace the content with . ] (]) 20:57, 6 January 2025 (UTC) | |||
* Sounds like more work than it's worth. Strong keep on history fragments though per ] and ]. The archives do not have the same ]. ] contains history discovered in a 2003 database dump so history merging it into the sandbox would mix history natively created and retained by the software and those which were recovered post hoc. ] was moved in response to the 2008 deletion disaster as a means of history control. The fact that it is separate is useful historical information that would be lost in a merge. {{U|Graham87}} would probably be able to tell you more. ]] 08:09, 15 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Keep all''', more or less per ]. If a page only contains problematic content in all of its revisions, delete it, otherwise let it be. Also, all of the various sandbox history fragments have their own story attached to them and should be kept as is to preserve them. ''']'''] 08:55, 15 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* '''Delete''' obvious leftover redirect from creating a page in the sandbox. --] (]) 16:14, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Keep''' – deletion would break ], for a start. ''']'''] 08:55, 15 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* '''Delete''' obvious leftover redirect from creating a page in the sandbox. --] (]) 16:14, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* '''Delete''' Obvious leftover redirect from creating a page in the sandbox. --] (]) 16:14, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* '''Delete''' Obvious leftover redirect from creating a page in the sandbox. --] (]) 16:14, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
] | |||
* '''Delete''' The page title actually says it is expected that this will be deleted, but is has hung around for six months. --] (]) 16:14, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:* This one just got deleted. --] (]) 23:06, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
] | |||
* '''Delete''' This talk page to a nonexistent page is another obvious leftover from creating a page in the sandbox. --] (]) 16:14, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:* This one just got deleted. --] (]) 10:26, 15 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
] | |||
* '''Delete''' This talk page to a nonexistent page is another obvious leftover from creating a page in the sandbox. --] (]) 16:14, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:* This one just got deleted. --] (]) 10:26, 15 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
] | |||
* '''Neutral''' For some reason, this talk page to a nonexistent page contains a history fragment. This might be a good place to merge the other history fragments if merging to the sandbox history is not feasible. --] (]) 16:14, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
] | |||
* '''Merge history and delete''' Yet another place where a fragment of the sandbox's editing history is. Do we really need three? --] (]) 16:14, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
Related issue. The sandbox gets a ''lot'' of edits and the history is quite large (727,150 edit total, 2,872 in the last 30 days). Would it make sense to set up a history page the years 2000 to 2005, another for 2005 to 2010, etc.? --] (]) 16:14, 14 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
== Template:Infobox person: proposal - Let's not insult the natives (BLP) == | |||
''Proposal'': remove the string ''native_name'' - the name of a parameter - from appearing in the rendered version of the ]. The content of the parameter, i.e. the person's name in his/her local script and/or language, would still appear in the rendered version of the template. | |||
''Example'': (as of 03:42, 15 November 2019 (UTC)) of the problem: top of infobox of ]; سهام سرقيوة is described to the reader as "native name". This proposal would instead give the appearance of the top of the infobox of ] (as of 03:42, 15 November 2019 (UTC)). | |||
''Original proposal'': This was proposed (by me) a few hours ago at ]. I pointed out that the string ''native_name'' does not appear in the rendered version of ], and it would be more respectful for it to be absent from ''Infobox person'' too, when rendered. (I'm not proposing to change it as a parameter name, where its role is more clearly technical; an editor has to cope with technical aspects of editing, while a reader is not required to understand these.) | |||
''Reason'': European colonial domination of much of the world over several centuries has resulted in certain words sounding derogatory, especially if used generically without checking context; "native" in certain contexts has this problem, especially when applied to living people in former colonies. See for example: {{tquote|I think what the writer of that definition was trying to say was that the word "native" as a stand-alone noun to mean a person from a non-Western culture with a low level of technology is now considered offensive. (Jay May 28 '13 at 12:40) ... Native is taken as offensive when applied to non-Europeans, for sound historical reasons. (StoneyB May 28 '13 at 12:49) ... Where I see the offensive nature is when you say simply "Jack is a native", meaning "a primitive, uncivilized person". (Jay May 30 '13 at 15:31)}} In our situation, "native" is strictly speaking an adjective, but I still think that the risk of misinterpretation, especially in the context of ], is a bit too high to take. | |||
''Technical side'': Example details of how to enact this suggestion technically are given at ]. | |||
''Why here'': The response over at ] was to raise this question here in the wider en.WP community, since the expression "native name" occurs quite a bit in en.Misplaced Pages, and since I didn't give a citation for the risk of the expression being interpreted as pejorative. I'm not proposing a blanket ban on the expression - just a removal of the term from the ''Infobox person'' template, where the removal would be easy and convenient and would improve the look of the rendered infobox (though maybe some other situations could be fixed too). ] (]) 03:42, 15 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*I don't think it's such a big deal, and I'd rather not have to go through this euphemism treadmill. Having said that, if this gains consensus I wouldn't be too terribly opposed to it. – ] (] • ]) 04:03, 15 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
**I'm not proposing to replace the string by a euphemism; I'm proposing to remove the string from appearing in the rendered infobox. We don't have ''name'' appearing at the top of the infobox, and we don't have ''Article:'' appearing at the top of every Misplaced Pages article. ] (]) 04:14, 15 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*I really don't see the case for removal. Native name here clearly means the name of a person in their native language when it differs from modern English/Latinized version. If you want to interpret this in a different way, that's on you.  <span style="font-variant:small-caps; whitespace:nowrap;">] {] · ] · ] · ]}</span> 04:40, 15 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* Mmnm, not usually a fan of "political correctness", but here OP makes a good point. Altho its true that "native" is technically value-neutral, it *is* offensive to some. That is what matters. Even supposing that these people are snowflakes (I'm not saying that they are), it's reasonable to not offend people when it can be avoided. Support. ] (]) 04:49, 15 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* A hypothetical willful misinterpretation of the word "native" in this context doesn't seem to be worth catering to. But I don't oppose the change itself, just the reason given. ] as shown in ] seems to have a good style. ]] 12:33, 15 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Strong support''' to make {{para|native_name}} at {{t|infobox person}} render at the top under the name, the way {{para|native_name}} renders at {{t|infobox officeholder}} (], ]) and {{para|local_name}} renders at {{t|infobox islands}} (]), rather than having it render as the identified "native_name" field under the photograph, that way it does now (]). It looks much better the way the officeholder and islands infoboxes have it, rather than the way the person infobox has it now. <span style="white-space:nowrap;">– ]<span style="display:inline-block;position:relative;transform:rotate(45deg);bottom:-.57em;">]</span></span> 19:27, 15 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''', simply because it has a more streamlined look.--<span style="text-shadow:#FFD700 0.2em 0.2em 0.2em">] ]</span> 20:58, 15 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support'''. There's no need to concern ourselves with the precise meaning of "native", because this is an obvious improvement anyway. ] (]) 08:36, 16 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support'''. I've no opinion on whether 'native' is offensive or not: it just looks better on the rendered page without the label. ] (]) 11:49, 18 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Comment''' Editors may be interested in ] about updating the native name parameter. ]] 04:18, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
== ] == | |||
Hello https://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=Gosha_Kutsenko&diff=885956883&oldid=855597368 We need to return information about "Myrotvorets" | |||
:This information is not propaganda. Returning information will make the pack more informative--] (]) 14:22, 16 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
::I can see no reason why this argument is on this page. Should be on the article talk page, or possibly discussed at ], if that is a live project. — ] ] 14:49, 16 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
== Shut down Article Rescue Squadron == | |||
In principle, the ] is a good idea, but in practice it has become an unruly mob run by personalities who seem to relish in ]ing AfD to try to avoid the discussions that keep Misplaced Pages quality control running. I am amazed by this. What do you all think? Should this group be shut down? Reorganized? ] (]) 14:38, 17 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:Can you stay in one area and stop forum shopping all over the place?! You just started this at: ]. Also created a deletion discussion for it days ago that ended in a snow keep. ] 14:47, 17 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
::I think there is a big problem here. We probably need to shut down your baby. Or maybe we could just topic ban you, ] and ] from ARC? Might that help things? ] (]) 14:53, 17 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::There has been broad community support for ARS since it started. Your personal disputes with a couple people are disruptive. Your escalations are disruptive. -- ]] 15:25, 17 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:Nothing will come of this thread. It comes up at least once a year and goes something like this: | |||
::"can we do something about this page that seems to only serve to canvass keep !votes" | |||
::"the general idea of the project is positive, collaborating to find sources and improve articles to save them from deletion" | |||
::"but they usually just show up to support keeping, without finding new sources or improving articles. also, the notices are often non-neutral" | |||
::"they should be neutral. please work on that, ARS." | |||
::"ok" | |||
:The problem has never been the idea of ARS, which is why all attempts to shut it down have failed. The problem is when particular users treat it as a keep canvassing club. — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 15:47, 17 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
::The problem is people make accusations without checking the actual edit records. There are things that get listed by a regular member that have no one else show up to comment on such as ]. I couldn't find any sources so I didn't participate in that one. Also currently on the list ] which I did find sources for, listed them there, and stated why it should be kept. No one just shows up and says keep every time, they only do it if they believe there are sources to prove it meets the notability guidelines or its a valid list article. ] 16:26, 17 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::That there have been instances where members ''have'' found sources or have ''not'' shown up just to !vote isn't much of a counter-argument (to the extent I was even presenting an argument). — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 16:42, 17 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Comment''' ] has engaged in extremely disruptive editing (edit warring) on the ARS. Then engaged in forum shopping, and attempted to delete the project with an MfD. All the while ජපස refused to discuss anything on the talk page and blanked requests to come to discussion. I finally for edit warring this morning. My hope is that the editor will drop the stick and we can all go back to working on the project. This is like ]. We think the disruptions have ended but they have only moved to another section of the project. ] (]) 15:51, 17 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Comment'''- Yes, the ARS is a canvassing club and always has been. No, the community hasn't got the spine or the stomach to do anything about it. Never have, never will. ] <sub>]</sub> 18:26, 17 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Comment''' - I agree with the sentiment that ARS often functions as a canvassing board. Regardless of intent, it is quite common for a nomination to result in a number of "keep" !votes with no effort made to improve the article. I believe that greater oversight is the solution, with guidelines written by the community instead of project regulars. –] ] 03:56, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Comment''' I actually disagree that the primary problem with ARS is its essentially being a canvassing board. There are too few members left who haven't been site-banned or essentially forced off the project for them to actually swing the tables on ''most'' AFDs. The problem is that every time someone brings up how inappropriate some of the group's behaviour is, they start hounding and attacking that person all across the site, and by always moving in a group they make it near-impossible for ANI or the other relevant fora to deal with their disruptive battleground behaviour (I guess whenever they are brought to ANI the vast swath of "average" Wikipedians' eyes glaze over because they think it's an "inclusionists vs. deletionists" dispute -- I know I did until 21 months ago). Thing is, the community seems to be unwilling to shut down a WikiProject because the majority of its members are extremely tendentious, prone to not only attacking anyone who disagrees with personally but also violating Misplaced Pages copyright policy left, right, and center. So there isn't really anything that can be done. The disruption that has been going on at ] since roughly February 2018 is one example, and ] is probably the most blatant recent example. ] (<small>]]</small>) 04:53, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Comment''' I don't think this will be a very popular opinion, but I think we should reform ARS to be a beneficial part of the project by listing articles that have survived an AfD discussion since sources have been demonstrated in the discussion, but still need ]/proper cleanup in order to be a sufficient encyclopaedia article, thereby shifting the project's focus from "saving" articles at AfD to providing effective cleanup on articles which have survived AfD. ] ''<span style="font-size:small; vertical-align:top;">]</span>''·''<span style="font-size:small; vertical-align:bottom;">]</span>'' 09:30, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' I am fully in agreement. From my experience, the Rescue Squaddies I've encountered are extremely disruptive, entirely discourteous and bring zero benefit to the project. I am very active in a very small and narrow area of Misplaced Pages - that of AfDs for companies/organizations. The problem of the Rescue Squaddies is twofold. The first (as has been pointed out above) is that it really is a cavassing club. I see the same editors follow each other around and !vote to Keep articles often with similar reasoning. It is meat-puppetry, plain and simple. Also, an analysis of their !voting patterns and their stats will support this view. Secondly, this type of block !voting works most times. It is very frustrating to see closing admins ignore well-reasoned analysis of (for example) why various sources fail the criteria for establishing notability and instead lend weight to the Rescue Squaddies commenting in unison that all the sources are good. Many AfD's are closed based entirely on their participation. I've also seen the hounding and vilification an admin when they correctly and properly evaluated the reasoning and deleted the article even though the Keep !votes outnumbered the Delete !votes. I can provide links if anybody is interested but I won't until asked. In summary, while I have no doubt that the Rescue Squad was set up with honorable intentions, it is time to recognize that it is now a rallying and canvassing board to "Keep at all costs" and ignore our policies and guidelines. ]<sup>]</sup> 14:15, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' per Highking, the removal of any walled garden is never to be pitied. ]]] 14:21, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' per the 20 or so times it's been nominated for deletion and kept every time, but it's worth exploring whether some of the active members of the project have the right motives (i.e. "oppose all deletion of any content ever for any reason" is not a rational approach to building an encyclopedia). In principle, attracting more eyes to deletion discussions is a good thing, because deletion is disruptive and should be a last resort limited to topics entirely unfit for the encyclopedia, and too often AfD is being used to force article improvements contrary to ] and ]. If ARS results in some of those inappropriately nominated articles being saved from deletion then it's a net positive. Or to put it a different way, the editors crying that ARS participants "never improve articles" should consider dropping this crusade and improving the articles themselves. | |||
:Now, if the ''Article'' Rescue Squadron is being abused to sway consensus on project-side content discussions, such as Hijiri's SPI MFD, it's being used against its purpose and against ], and the editors involved should face sanctions. ] (<sup>]</sup>/<sub>]</sub>) 14:25, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* '''Support''' albeit pointless. I agree that ARS is well-intentioned as a concept, but that the execution of it falls short. However whether it should be shut down or not, ''how'' would one "shut it down"? It doesn't need to exist as a concrete entity, it's simply a mindset shared between a few like-minded editors and perhaps a listing of targets. "Shut it down" and it would only re-appear. Off-wiki if needs be. | |||
: Maybe the solution is to engage more with it, and to "rescue" based on improvement, rather than weight of numbers? ] (]) 14:38, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*{{ec}} I actually very much '''support''' SportingFlyer's proposal (assuming actually shutting the project down is off the table as Andy above seems to believe it to be), and I suspect if it were presented appropriately most of the community would support it. Every defense I've seen of ARS in the past has taken some form of "The ARS does good work fixing articles" -- non-members who are not especially involved seem to generally believe this to be the case, but even members frequently present this as being the case, apparently knowing that it's the only reason the rest of the community tolerates ARS. But this argument isn't borne out by the behaviour of many of ARS's members, who seem to be more interested in !voting down AFDs, regardless of whether the articles are improved. (Occasionally they show up after the AFDs to shut down redirect/merge proposals, and even rewriting/formatting/compromise proposals, apparently for no reason other than revenge against "deletionists".) Some recent listings have indeed been rescued as a result of delete !votes being retracted or ceasing following a series of edits by some members of ARS rewriting the articles during the AFDs. The ARS members in question have my gratitude and admiration for this, but such instances appear to be outnumbered overwhelmingly by cases where a discussion ended in "no consensus" and no ARS member ever touched the article itself either during or after the listing. All of these problems would be solved, or at least ameliorated, if the rules were rewritten so that either (a) only articles that had been nominated for AFD but with the AFD being closed with some non-deletion result could be listed there or (b) for every X articles listed during AFD discussions Y articles that have been AFDed in the past but not deleted need to be listed and noticeably improved by the members of the project. It would also discourage instances like those linked above where ARS members undermine attempts to improve articles after the fact if they were given explicit encouragement to support such efforts. ] (<small>]]</small>) 14:56, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' We just had an AFD for the project close days ago. So why is this being brought up yet again here by the same person who started that deletion nomination? I think the other place was the correct venue for such things, not here. Also note that on the Rescue List right now are two things that were put there by two different regulars that no one but them showed up to vote KEEP at. . Look through archives and this happens many times in the past as well. So obviously we don't all rush over and say KEEP no matter what. That is not a problem. ] 15:14, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' per ]: {{tq|Consensus is not based on a tally of votes, but on reasonable, logical, policy-based arguments.}} These AfD discussions are ], the quality of the arguments presented matter the most. I think editors get confused with which discussions canvassing has the most impact for. If we were lets say talking about a huge discussion with multiple editors taking a # vote (]), then it would matter much more. - ] (]) 15:45, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:*'''Excellent point''' ] (]) 16:01, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' The question to be asked is what is best for the project. All one needs to do is look in the archives: our last archive to see how difficult it is to save an article - most of the articles had zero participation from ARS members. Additionally there are about 3 editors who follow the ARS and obstinately !vote Delete on nearly every article listed on ARS. Also as every editor knows, an article can be sent to AfD over and over and over again. Yet a recreated article brings editors shouting SALT. This proposal to scrap the whole project in in bad faith and comes from a tendentious and difficult editor who has an extensive for: socking, edit warring, disruptive editing, personal attacks, redirecting articles without consensus, etc. I am also not surprised to see the High King here. The High King is smarting over the fact that I spotted them placing an AfD on an article just hours after that article survived AfD. In any event this is a bad faith nomination by a tendentious editor with a long history of disruption on the project. The only question about anything related to the encyclopedia should be: What is best for the project? ] (]) 15:48, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
**'''Response''' This perfectly highlights the problems. Let's break down Lightburst's reaction. First, Lightburst creates a strawman argument saying I am "smarting" over being caught re-nominating an article at AfD. Entirely fabricated view. and I clearly acknowledged that it had only just survived AfD and I provided my reasoning for resubmitting it. It also highlights the meat-puppetery of the Rescue Squaddies as can be seen at that AfD. All three ignore the nomination requesting production of references. The allegations that I have a history of socking, edit warring, disrputive editing, etc are no surprise but not the full picture. If anyone cares to check my block log, the last time I've been "in trouble" so to speak was in 2010. That's 9 years ago and was solely in a single topic area - the "British Isles". I haven't been near that since. But hey, why let facts get in the way of smearing another editor, eh? Not just me either - this is part and parcel of the normal everyday tactics from certain members of the Rescue Squad. Attack everything, especially other editors, but when that doesn't work, attack the policies/guidelines and even the if results don't go their way. ]<sup>]</sup> 17:36, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
***The block log he linked to is the guy who started this bit, he then talking about you after that. You link to something that was not tagged in the Rescue Article List. At ] you accuse the ARS of always showing up and voting keep but that was not mentioned at the Rescue Squadron's list either. Just one member who had been in the previous AFD that ended days before did comment, and then another regular member happened to show up. ] 17:54, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::* '''Apologies''' if you thought I was referring to you as the one who has a history of socking, edit warring, disrputive editing etc. I thought it was clear I was referring to the OP, User:JPS and I linked to the extensive block log. However you are what we refer to as a deletionist. . Out of 439 !votes at AfD you !voted to keep 28 times. So I am sure it is inconvienient when editors show up to attempt to improve one of your articles targeted for deletion. I think we can all agree it is easier to delete than improve. The OP is also a deletionist - only came across . ] (]) 17:57, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
::::*This is a great example of the toxic paranoid nonsense that seems the sole domain of ARS members (which is not to say ''all'' ARS members). The scourge of "deletionist" bogeymen who mindlessly !vote delete contrary to policy! Quick, poison the well! The reality, of course, is that HighKing's !votes are out of line with consensus an incredibly low 4.8% of the time. That's the only thing that matters. Just like HK shouldn't care that you're inclined to only get involved at XfD when it's something you think is worth keeping. You, however, . People have different kinds of engagement at XfD. Some people only get involved when there are particularly egregious issues in play. Some people only bother with promotional articles. Some people focus on particular topics. Some try to resolve contentious disputes. Some people only bother if they can justify keeping it. These are all perfectly fine as long as we're acting in good faith. Trying to undermine what people say because they're "deletionists" is not doing that. Canvassing is not doing that. — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 18:59, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::::*Toxic is a bit harsh. We have an attack on the project several times a year and the attack is from deletionists. You cannot blame the sheep for being weary of a wolf. And even paranoid people can have actual antagonists. It is very easy to be on the "winning side" in an AfD. One can assess the majority opinion and vote the majority. The ARS members usually come to an article after a concerted effort to delete, and !votes have been cast. In any event this is about what is best for the project. And your opinion is clearly stated. ] (]) 19:23, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Reluctant Support''' - I think I've opposed this in the past (or maybe abstained) because the central thrust of the oppose arguments is a sensible one: the original idea of the project is not a problem. And I agree with that. Every time we do this, people argue that it's a good project with a good aim, acknowledging that it's often used problematically but that the answer is to set stricter rules or enforce those rules or sanction the problematic editors. ''But none of that ever happens'', and it's still a keep-canvass-club. | |||
:It's the ''exception'', rather than the rule, that participants make nontrivial improvements to an article, finding new good sources to keep it based on our guidelines. | |||
:Sometimes a user does improve the article (kudos to them, truly), and then uses ARS to canvass keep votes with a "I've improved the article/added a source" notice (again, not what it's for). | |||
:Notices are often non-neutral or make no effort to argue why it should be kept, sometimes just making a joke about the subject (because adding something to the list just implies "go keep this"). | |||
:The people who use the project most operate according to unwritten rules, and those rules are by now well known. Regardless of what it says on the tin, the descriptions of ARS are not what the project is. ''This isn't a referendum on whether the ARS is a good idea, it's about whether the way it's actually used is beneficial to the project.'' — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 17:01, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
**Reminds me of some of the arguments against ] before it got decentralized and shut down. ]] 17:45, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Support''' (not that it would do much good) While I'm annoyed that whenever I see the usual suspects swoop into an AfD, one can count on the place being peppered with vague "meets GNG" and superficial Google Book title searches... - being personally annoyed should not be a factor here; and as stated, we are after the good of the project. So here's what I see as the actual damage done by this tag-team: they tend to water down the consensus-building in AfDs by piling on with weak Keep arguments. Raw biomass does tell in closing, however much an experienced closer might intend to weigh quality; a finding of "no consensus" is always easier to make than a "delete" that will clearly tick off several !voters. And "no consensus", after all, is a Win: article not deleted. Whether that's a conscious tactic (I suspect so) or an "innocent" outcome of the totally-not-a-canvassing-board list - it's deleterious to article quality. - However, seeing that this is always the same core of half a dozen editors with a few satellites, I don't see how this behaviour would stop if the ARS page went away. Nothing is preventing them from achieving the same effect by just keeping an eye on each other's contribution lists. It's a personal behavioural issue, exploiting a weakness of the consensus process to force a specific philosophy, too subtle for outright sanctioning. --<span style="font-family:Courier">]</span> <small>(] · ])</small> 17:41, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Strongly oppose''' The contributions to the improvement of articles is considerable and demonstrable. There is no merit to the alleged abuse. Indeed, ] never misses an opportunity to bring up the same arguments whenever and wherever the opportunity is remotely available. He doesn't like the outcome of his stupidly nominated AFDs. He doesn't like when articles and references are improved, and ] happens. He continues to ignore ]. Repetition of those repeatedly rejected arguments does not undo the ] nature of these efforts. Nor does it make them more worthwhile or credible. <span style="text-shadow:#396 0.2em 0.2em 0.5em; class=texhtml">] (])</span> 17:49, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Reluctant, but full, support'''. In theory, the ARS should be a useful place to improve articles. In practice, the ARS has become a place for people to canvas votes that automatically, and uncritically, vote keep at deletion discussions without any work, forethought, or intention to actually rescue the articles they claim to want to. As a concept, we should have a working ARS. As it works in practice, it needs to be shut down. --]] 18:16, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:*Please back up the accusation with some diffs of ARS members {{tq| votes that automatically, and uncritically, vote keep}}. Anyone can go through the archives or the present ARS page. You should be able to support these wild claims with diffs. As a member of ARS I have nominated many articles that not one single member !voted on. ] (]) 18:26, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
::*I am not a member of ARS, but I have to agree. Most of the people here supporting are not providing backup to their claims nor are they citing policies and guidelines. - ] (]) 18:30, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' as it improves articles and thus helps readers. If a few barely notable subjects are kept which otherwise wouldn't be, that's not much of a problem; certainly not enough bathwater to justify throwing out the baby. ] (]) 18:18, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose'''. Good grief, what has it come to when editors trying to ] is seen as a problem? If ARS is a "canvassing club" by nature, then so is ], ], and indeed ]. If individual editors are using it to canvas, that should be dealt with individually. But I think AfD closers are more than capable of sifting out unsubstantiated arguments on either side. – ] <small>(])</small> 18:47, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:*I don't intend to respond to all the opposers here (it's likely a futile exercise, after all), but I find it particularly disheartening to see an arb drop a drive-by straw man into a discussion. Nobody has argued anything like "editors trying to preserve content is a problem". I don't actually expect this to pass, but mainly because of people doing what you're doing -- looking at the purpose of ARS, saying "it looks great!" and moving on. That was my perspective at one point, too. ARS is not a problematic canvassing club by nature. It is a problematic canvassing club by nurture, per what I wrote above. It's a good idea executed in a way that far too often gets away from its intended purpose. If delsort and article alerts got to that point, we could discuss how to remedy it, but it's extremely unlikely because the reason those processes are great is that they're all about attracting participation based on knowledge of the subject/sourcing, not based entirely on their likelihood to !vote a particular way. — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 19:16, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' The OP doesn't provide any evidence and the supporters don't seem to have either. What we just seem to have are groundless personal attacks, aspersions and falsehoods. So, there's no case to answer. A couple of points while I'm here though: | |||
:# The ARS has a huge nominal membership which has accumulated over the years – ]. It would be good if more of these were to participate at AfD so that the few die-hards don't have to try to cover everything. This is a general problem with AfD and other patrolling activities – the number of active volunteers is dwindling and so the remainder get over-stretched and fractious. And it doesn't then help if attacks of this sort are made. I'd quite like to be focussing on other activities like editathons, the six millionth article and many topics of interest. So, I am combing through the ARS membership list to establish who is still active and may then send them out a newsletter, as is done for the New Page Patrol or AfC projects, which have similar issues of overstretch. | |||
:# For a fresh example of an article being rescued, see ]. Initially, a long list of editors said that there was nothing to be found; that the topic was probably a hoax. I wasn't convinced and spent some time digging into it. I found sources that other editors had missed and got the article back on track. Another editor has picked up the baton and continued to improve the article and so we have a good consensus now that it should be kept rather than deleted. Now, the key point here is that this work isn't easy. Few editors are capable of performing such work to a level of ]. ] is a good example but he likes to do his own thing and doesn't tend to edit much now. If the nay-sayers think they can do better, then they should try it. | |||
:] (]) 18:51, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
* '''Oppose''' I believe that I am listed as a "member" of the ARS, althoguh i ahve not been active in their internal discussions. But I have, from time to time, used the ARS list of 'threatened" articles to select ones to try to source and 'escue" and successfully doing so has been among my prouder and more rewarding contributions here. My "rescue" efforts have normally taken the form of finding and adding good sources, although sometimes also of debating the value of sources already found, or the meaning of specialized notability guidelines. I have certainly not engaged in 'tag-teaming" nor have I observed such behavior from the ARS, although it may have occurred. I am thinking of such articles as ], ], ], and ], all of which i was involved in sourcing while at AfD. ] ]] 19:43, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:*I have taken a number of articles that were proposed for deletion on to be ]s on the main page. This is part of what you now want to destroy. | |||
:Can you say, "]"? <span style="text-shadow:#396 0.2em 0.2em 0.5em; class=texhtml">] (])</span> 20:01, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose'''. I prefer to plough my own furrow and so occasionally see an article that looks like it's going to be deleted but can find sources myself to stop that happening, or, probably just as often, I look for sources but can't find them and say so. Others prefer to collaborate on such things. I think that the supporters above are only seeing the small minority of cases where people may have given rather dodgy "keep" opinions, rather than the majority where the sourcing of articles has been improved without any fuss. ] (]) 20:18, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Question''' - Can someone help me to see where I'm going wrong here? I'm taking up a lot of space in this thread, admittedly, but I feel like I agree with the underlying reasons given by several of the opposers here (and although I find ARS folks frustrating at times, I do value a lot of the work the users do). So please help me to understand. As per ], "Canvassing is notification done with the intention of influencing the outcome of a discussion in a particular way". It therefore seems important to distinguish posts which seek to improve an article and find sourcing from posts which simply influence the outcome of a discussion in a particular way. Nobody will dispute that when someone improves an article and finds sources that it is a very positive thing for Misplaced Pages. And I won't dispute that has happened via ARS (just like the same happens through the various other mechanisms we have to advertise deletion discussions). My question is about when that's not what it's used for -- what its <s>purpose</s>function is influencing the outcome of a discussion in a particular way. There are two scenarios that seem to me most fraught: | |||
:(1) Regarding the person posting to ARS: Cases where someone posts about a discussion to ARS just to turn the tide of an AfD. Maybe the person has added sources themselves and thinks it should be kept, maybe they think the people !voting delete are wrong, maybe they just like it, etc. Regardless of the reason, the function is to influence the outcome by attracting people who will agree with you (or, at minimum, certainly won't ''disagree'' with you). Is ARS exempted from this kind of canvassing? Is there some way that it is not canvassing? Is it sufficient to issue a catch-all "no, I want them to improve the article, and it's not my fault if they just show up to !vote keep"? | |||
:(2) Regarding those responding to posts at ARS: The more complicated one, and complementary to the first scenario. Given that the audience at ARS are people who are likely to !vote keep and will almost never !vote delete, if you learn of a discussion through ARS without the crucial step of finding additional sources or improving the article, and just show up to !vote keep, that would be considered canvassing on basically any other forum on Misplaced Pages where people are likely to !vote a particular way. Am I wrong? Maybe an easy provision to avoid the problematic responses would just be to make explicit somewhere that if you learn of a discussion through ARS (and we'll take you on good faith as to whether you did or not), you should only act on it if you're going to participate in the rescue beyond !voting keep. | |||
:What am I missing? — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 21:05, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
::I try to improve articles to the extent I can. I can't make sources up. | |||
::Sometimes I vote. Sometimes I don't. | |||
::Posting on ARS invites others (sometimes with better access to relevant sources than I) to help improve the article. I've seen it happen. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. And sometimes they put the sources into the AFD discussion (See ]), but don't bother putting them into the article. I wish they would follow through. But I can't control how editors (they are a cantankerous herd of cats) choose to respond. | |||
::In some respects, the ] of mandating contributions by a particular set of voters at AFD sounds like a ]. Or ]. Clearly not neutral; clearly set up to disadvantage those who want to keep an article. | |||
::If we are going to condition participation in AFD discussions, what rules should be imposed on those who seek deletion? ]. <span style="text-shadow:#396 0.2em 0.2em 0.5em; class=texhtml">] (])</span> 21:16, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
:::This is all well and good indeed, but when it's about finding sources and putting them in the AfD and/or in the article, that's uncontroversial. Where I'm unclear is about those cases when people don't bother with the sources/improvement and instead just !vote keep. It seems often that it's a matter of dispute whether the sources are sufficient to keep, or when someone feels strongly that an article ''should'' be kept due to sourcing that's been found, and ARS is a venue where one is most likely to find people to fall on the keep side of those disputes (i.e. cases when posting to ARS isn't about improving the article or improving sourcing, but about supporting the idea that the sourcing is good enough). Regarding rules about those who seek deletion, I'm having trouble thinking of an equivalent on the "other side". Feel free to suggest something? We should impose the same canvassing rules on everyone. The question here is about the extent to which there should be an exception to those rules. There's obviously broad support for advertising articles to people with subject-based interests, but there's no other venue where the common interest ''is'' a particular outcome independent of subject. There is no deletion equivalent to ARS (nor should there be). Outside of ARS, everyone follows the same rules for canvassing, and if there's a venue where that's not true, I'd appreciate learning of it so I can make the same arguments there. We do have the language of the deletion policy and ], in terms of conditions put on those seeking deletion, but this is all about canvassing, and I don't think there's an equivalent worth talking about. — <samp>] <sup style="font-size:80%;">]</sup></samp> \\ 21:33, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
::::ARS posts should be worded neutrally, and if they aren't that should be fixed. Usually IME they are. There is nothign stopping a person who tends to favor deletion from reading the ARS lists, going to the AfD pages, and posting in favor of deletion. Therefore, i don't see ARS posts as canvassing at all. They are either calls to help find and add sources to an article, or to evaluate the sources already there and give an opinion on whether they are sufficient. Both are perfectly acceptable. A call to "vote keep on XYZ, you don't need to know why" would be improper, but I trust ARS isn't doing anything of that sort. Any specific person doing that can and should be warned and eventually sanctioned. ] ]] 21:44, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
{{od}}{{tq|ARS posts should be worded neutrally, and if they aren't that should be fixed.}} How do you propose one goes about doing that? The wagon circling prevents any attempt to fix that. I think the problem here is that the ARS group refuses to take onboard any criticism. The concept ''in and of itself'' is not problematic. It's the way this particular group operates that has become the issue. ] (]) 21:50, 19 November 2019 (UTC) | |||
*'''Oppose''' – I periodically check in on the article rescue squadron, and I'm consistently impressed by the good work they do improving articles. I've popped into a number of deletion discussions where the article has greatly expanded since the discussion began. Clearly a positive to Misplaced Pages and not seeing any diffs to prove otherwise.] (]) 22:25, 19 November 2019 (UTC) |
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RfC: Log the use of the HistMerge tool at both the merge target and merge source
- The following discussion is an archived record of a request for comment. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.
Numerically, option 1a has 6 !votes in its favor (4 if we don't count second-choice !votes (Graham87 and Abzeronow), 0 if we only count exclusive !votes), 1b has 10 (7 exclusive), and option 2 has 4. Most of the !votes in support of option 1a were cast early into the RfC before experienced history mergers expressed concerns about how the creation of dummy edits might disturb page histories. No proponent of option 1a replied to these objections, and many later proponents of 1b cited them as justification for not supporting 1a. Thus, option 1a is rejected. Next, we will consider option 2. Proponents of this option primarily cited the purported need for history merging to be seamless, and a dummy edit would disrupt that fact; the aforementioned objection to 1a. However, only one of the proponents of this option attempted to object to 1b specifically (that is, the need for a log entry at the target page), saying that page moves similarly only log at the source page. Proponents of option 1b convincingly replied to this objection by noting that that is less problematic because of the fact that page moves produce a dummy edit, unlike history merges. One additional proponent of option 2 asserted that no MediaWiki developers would be interested in this project. However, this is not a sufficiently strong argument to outweigh those made by proponents of option 1b. The primary argument by its proponents was that the current system wherein history merges are logged only at the source page was confusing, since it requires having access to the source page's title, which is not always the case. Some proponents of opt. 2 objected that you can look at abnormalities such as "Created page with..." edit summaries in the middle of a page history or unusual byte differences to determine that a history merge occurred at the target page. However, this undermines the most common argument for option 2; namely, that history merging ought to be seamless, since only the "seams" left behind by the process can show that a history merge occurred while looking only at the destination page. Thus, I see consensus to request that the developers adopt option 1b. The Phabricator tickets will be updated accordingly. JJPMaster (she/they) 16:38, 29 December 2024 (UTC) I added four words to this closure per phab:T118132#10424866. JJPMaster (she/they) 03:10, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Currently, there are open phab tickets proposing that the use of the HistMerge tool be logged at the target article in addition to the source article. Several proposals have been made:
- Option 1a: When using Special:MergeHistory, a null edit should be placed in both the merge target and merge source's page's histories stating that a history merge took place.
- (phab:T341760: Special:MergeHistory should place a null edit in the page's history describing the merge, authored Jul 13 2023)
- Option 1b: When using Special:MergeHistory, add a log entry recorded for the articles at the both HistMerge target and source that records the existence of a history merge.
- (phab:T118132: Merging pages should add a log entry to the destination page, authored Nov 8 2015)
- Option 2: Do not log the use of the Special:MergeHistory tool at the merge target, maintaining the current status quo.
Should the use of the HistMerge tool be explicitly logged? If so, should the use be logged via an entry in the page history or should it instead be held in a dedicated log? — Red-tailed hawk (nest) 15:51, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
Survey: Log the use of the HistMerge tool
- Option 1a/b. I am in principle in support of adding this logging functionality, since people don't typically have access to the source article title (where the histmerge is currently logged) when viewing an article in the wild. There have been several times I can think of when I've been going diff hunting or browsing page history and where some explicit note of a histmerge having occurred would have been useful. As for whether this is logged directly in the page history (as is done currently with page protection) or if this is merely in a separate log file, I don't have particularly strong feelings, but I do think that adding functionality to log histmerges at the target article would improve clarity in page histories. — Red-tailed hawk (nest) 15:51, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- Option 1a/b. No strong feelings on which way is best (I'll let the experienced histmergers comment on this), but logging a history merge definitely seems like a useful feature. Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 16:02, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- Option 1a/b. Choatic Enby has said exactly what I would have said (but more concisely) had they not said it first. Thryduulf (talk) 16:23, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- 1b would be most important to me but but 1a would be nice too. But this is really not the place for this sort of discussion, as noted below. Graham87 (talk) 16:28, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- Option 2 History merging done right should be seamless, leaving the page indistinguishable from if the copy-paste move being repaired had never happened. Adding extra annotations everywhere runs counter to that goal. Prefer 1b to 1a if we have to do one of them, as the extra null edits could easily interfere with the history merge being done in more complicated situations. * Pppery * it has begun... 16:49, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- Could you expound on why they should be indistinguishable? I don't see how this could harm any utility. A log action at the target page would not show up in the history anyways, and a null edit would have no effect on comparing revisions. Aaron Liu (talk) 17:29, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- Why shouldn't it be indistinguishable? Why it it necessary to go out of our way to say even louder that someone did something wrong and it had to be cleaned up? * Pppery * it has begun... 17:45, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- All cleanup actions are logged to all the pages they affect. Aaron Liu (talk) 18:32, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- Why shouldn't it be indistinguishable? Why it it necessary to go out of our way to say even louder that someone did something wrong and it had to be cleaned up? * Pppery * it has begun... 17:45, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- Could you expound on why they should be indistinguishable? I don't see how this could harm any utility. A log action at the target page would not show up in the history anyways, and a null edit would have no effect on comparing revisions. Aaron Liu (talk) 17:29, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- 2 History merges are already logged, so this survey name is somewhat off the mark. As someone who does this work: I do not think these should be displayed at either location. It would cause a lot of noise in history pages that people probably would not fundamentally understand (2 revisions for "please process this" and "remove tag" and a 3rd revision for the suggested log), and it would be "out of order" in that you will have merged a bunch of revisions but none of those revisions would be nearby the entry in the history page itself. I also find protections noisy in this way as well, and when moves end up causing a need for history merging, you end up with doubled move entries in the merged history, which also is confusing. Adding history merges to that case? No thanks. History merges are more like deletions and undeletions, which already do not add displayed content to the history view. Izno (talk) 16:54, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- They presently are logged, but only at the source article. Take for example this entry. When I search for the merge target, I get nothing. It's only when I search the merge source that I'm able to get a result, but there isn't a way to know the merge source.
- If I don't know when or if the histmerge took place, and I don't know what article the history was merged from, I'd have to look through the entirety of the merge log manually to figure that out—and that's suboptimal. — Red-tailed hawk (nest) 17:05, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- ... Page moves do the same thing, only log the move source. Yet this is not seen as an issue? :)
- But ignoring that, why is it valuable to know this information? What do you gain? And is what you gain actually valuable to your end objective? For example, let's take your
There have been several times I can think of when I've been going diff hunting or browsing page history and where some explicit note of a histmerge having occurred would have been useful.
Is not the revisions left behind in the page history by both the person requesting and the person performing the histmerge not enough (see {{histmerge}})? There are history merges done that don't have that request format such as the WikiProject history merge format, but those are almost always ancient revisions, so what are you gaining there? And where they are not ancient revisions, they are trivial kinds of the form "draft x -> page y, I hate that I even had to interact with this history merge it was so trivial (but also these are great because I don't have to spend significant time on them)". Izno (talk) 17:32, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
I don't think everyone would necessarily agree (see Toadspike's comment below). Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 17:42, 20 November 2024 (UTC)... Page moves do the same thing, only log the move source. Yet this is not seen as an issue? :)
- Page moves do leave a null edit on the page that describes where the page was moved from and was moved to. And it's easy to work backwards from there to figure out the page move history. The same cannot be said of the Special:MergeHistory tool, which doesn't make it easy to re-construct what the heck went on unless we start diving naïvely through the logs. — Red-tailed hawk (nest) 17:50, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- It can be *possible* to find the original history merge source page without looking through the merge log, but the method for doing so is very brittle and extremeley hacky. Basically, look for redirects to the page using "What links here", and find the redirect whose first edit has an unusual byte difference. This relies on the redirect being stable and not deleted or retargetted. There is also another way that relies on byte difference bugs as described in the above-linked discussion by wbm1058. Both of those are ... particularly awful. Graham87 (talk) 03:48, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- In the given example, the history-merge occurred here. Your "log" is the edit summaries. "Created page with '..." is the edit summary left by a normal page creation. But wait, there is page history before the edit that created the page. How did it get there? Hmm, the previous edit summary "Declining submission: v - Submission is improperly sourced (AFCH)" tips you off to look for the same title in draft: namespace. Voila! Anyone looking for help with understanding a particular merge may ask me and I'll probably be able to figure it out for you. – wbm1058 (talk) 05:51, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- Here's another example, of a merge within mainspace. The automatic edit summary (created by the MediaWiki software) of this (No difference) diff "Removed redirect to Jordan B. Acker" points you to the page that was merged at that point. Voila. Voila. Voila. – wbm1058 (talk) 13:44, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- There are times where those traces aren't left. Aaron Liu (talk) 13:51, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- Here's another scenario, this one from WP:WikiProject History Merge. The page history shows an edit adding +5,800 bytes, leaving the page with 5,800 bytes. But the previous edit did not leave a blank page. Some say this is a bug, but it's also a feature. That "bug" is actually your "log" reporting that a hist-merge occurred at that edit. Voila, the log for that page shows a temp delete & undelete setting the page up for a merge. The first item on the log:
- @ 20:14, 16 January 2021 Tbhotch moved page Flag of Yucatán to Flag of the Republic of Yucatán (Correct name)
- clues you in to where to look for the source of the merge. Voila, that single edit which removed −5,633 bytes tells you that previous history was merged off of that page. The log provides the details. – wbm1058 (talk) 16:03, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- (phab:T76557: Special:MergeHistory causes incorrect byte change values in history, authored Dec 2 2014) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wbm1058 (talk • contribs) 18:13, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- Again, there are times where the clues are much harder to find, and even in those cases, it'd be much better to have a unified and assured way of finding the source. Aaron Liu (talk) 16:11, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- Indeed. This is a prime example of an unintended undocumented feature. Graham87 (talk) 08:50, 22 November 2024 (UTC)
- Yeah. I don't think that we can permanently rely on that, given that future versions of MediaWiki are not bound in any real way to support that workaround. — Red-tailed hawk (nest) 04:24, 3 December 2024 (UTC)
- Indeed. This is a prime example of an unintended undocumented feature. Graham87 (talk) 08:50, 22 November 2024 (UTC)
- Again, there are times where the clues are much harder to find, and even in those cases, it'd be much better to have a unified and assured way of finding the source. Aaron Liu (talk) 16:11, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- Here's another scenario, this one from WP:WikiProject History Merge. The page history shows an edit adding +5,800 bytes, leaving the page with 5,800 bytes. But the previous edit did not leave a blank page. Some say this is a bug, but it's also a feature. That "bug" is actually your "log" reporting that a hist-merge occurred at that edit. Voila, the log for that page shows a temp delete & undelete setting the page up for a merge. The first item on the log:
- There are times where those traces aren't left. Aaron Liu (talk) 13:51, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- Support 1b (log only), oppose 1a (null edit). I defer to the experienced histmergers on this, and if they say that adding null edits everywhere would be inconvenient, I believe them. However, I haven't seen any arguments against logging the histmerge at both articles, so I'll support it as a sensible idea. (On a similar note, it bothers me that page moves are only logged at one title, not both.) Toadspike 17:10, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- Option 2. The merges are already logged, so there’s no reason to add it to page histories. While it may be useful for habitual editors, it will just confuse readers who are looking for an old revision and occasional editors. Ships & Space(Edits) 18:33, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- But only the source page is logged as the "target". IIRC it currently can be a bit hard to find out when and who merged history into a page if you don't know the source page and the mergeperson didn't leave any editing indication that they merged something. Aaron Liu (talk) 18:40, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- 1B. The present situation of the action being only logged at one page is confusing and unhelpful. But so would be injecting null-edits all over the place. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 01:38, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- Option 2. This exercise is dependent on finding a volunteer MediaWiki developer willing to work on this. Good luck with that. Maybe you'll find one a decade from now. – wbm1058 (talk) 05:51, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- And, more importantly, someone in the MediaWiki group to review it. I suspect there are many people, possibly including myself, who would code this if they didn't think they were wasting their time shuffling things from one queue to another. * Pppery * it has begun... 06:03, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- That link requires a Gerrit login/developer account to view. It was a struggle to get in to mine (I only have one because of an old Toolforge account and I'd basically forgotten about it), but for those who don't want to go through all that, that group has only 82 members (several of whose usernames I recognise) and I imagine they have a lot on their collective plate. There's more information about these groups at Gerrit/Privilege policy on MediaWiki. Graham87 (talk) 15:38, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- Sorry, I totally forgot Gerrit behaved in that counterintuitive way and hid public information from logged out users for no reason. The things you miss if Gerrit interactions become something you do pretty much every day. If you want to count the members of the group you also have to follow the chain of included groups - it also includes https://ldap.toolforge.org/group/wmf, https://ldap.toolforge.org/group/ops and the WMDE-MediaWiki group (another login-only link), as well as a few other permission edge cases (almost all of which are redundant because the user is already in the MediaWiki group) * Pppery * it has begun... 18:07, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- That link requires a Gerrit login/developer account to view. It was a struggle to get in to mine (I only have one because of an old Toolforge account and I'd basically forgotten about it), but for those who don't want to go through all that, that group has only 82 members (several of whose usernames I recognise) and I imagine they have a lot on their collective plate. There's more information about these groups at Gerrit/Privilege policy on MediaWiki. Graham87 (talk) 15:38, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- And, more importantly, someone in the MediaWiki group to review it. I suspect there are many people, possibly including myself, who would code this if they didn't think they were wasting their time shuffling things from one queue to another. * Pppery * it has begun... 06:03, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- Support 1a/b, and I would encourage the closer to disregard any opposition based solely on the chances of someone ever actually implementing it. —Compassionate727 12:52, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- Fine. This stupid RfC isn't even asking the right questions. Why did I need to delete (an expensive operation) and then restore a page in order to "set up for a history merge" Should we fix the software so that it doesn't require me to do that? Why did the page-mover resort to cut-paste because there was page history blocking their move, rather than ask a administrator for help? Why doesn't the software just let them move over that junk page history themselves, which would negate the need for a later hist-merge? (Actually in this case the offending user only has made 46 edits, so they don't have page-mover privileges. But they were able to move a page. They just couldn't move it back a day later after they changed their mind.) wbm1058 (talk) 13:44, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- Yeah, revision move would be amazing, for a start. Graham87 (talk) 15:38, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- Fine. This stupid RfC isn't even asking the right questions. Why did I need to delete (an expensive operation) and then restore a page in order to "set up for a history merge" Should we fix the software so that it doesn't require me to do that? Why did the page-mover resort to cut-paste because there was page history blocking their move, rather than ask a administrator for help? Why doesn't the software just let them move over that junk page history themselves, which would negate the need for a later hist-merge? (Actually in this case the offending user only has made 46 edits, so they don't have page-mover privileges. But they were able to move a page. They just couldn't move it back a day later after they changed their mind.) wbm1058 (talk) 13:44, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- Option 1b – changes to a page's history should be listed in that page's log. There's no need to make a null edit; pagemove null edits are useful because they meaningfully fit into the page's revision history, which isn't the case here. jlwoodwa (talk) 00:55, 22 November 2024 (UTC)
- Option 1b sounds best since that's what those in the know seem to agree on, but 1a would probably be OK. Abzeronow (talk) 03:44, 23 November 2024 (UTC)
- Option 1b seems like the one with the best transparency to me. Thanks. Huggums 06:59, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
Discussion: Log the use of the HistMerge tool
- I'm noticing some commentary in the above RfC (on widening importer rights) as to whether or not this might be useful going forward. I do think that having the community weigh in one way or another here would be helpful in terms of deciding whether or not this functionality is worth building. — Red-tailed hawk (nest) 15:51, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- This is a missing feature, not a config change. Aaron Liu (talk) 15:58, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- Indeed; it's about a feature proposal. — Red-tailed hawk (nest) 16:02, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- As many of the above, this is a feature request and not something that should be special for the English Misplaced Pages. — xaosflux 16:03, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- See phab:T341760. I'm not seeing any sort of reason this would need per-project opt-ins requiring a local discussion. — xaosflux 16:05, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- True, but I agree with Red-tailed hawk that it's good to have the English Misplaced Pages community weigh on whether we want that feature implemented here to begin with. Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 16:05, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
- Here is the Phabricator project page for MergeHistory, and the project's 11 open tasks. – wbm1058 (talk) 18:13, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- I agree that this is an odd thing to RFC. This is about a feature in MediaWiki core, and there are a lot more users of MediaWiki core than just English Misplaced Pages. However, please do post the results of this RFC to both of the phab tickets. It will be a useful data point with regards to what editors would find useful. –Novem Linguae (talk) 23:16, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
Revise Misplaced Pages:INACTIVITY
There is consensus against this proposal. JJPMaster (she/they) 17:48, 4 January 2025 (UTC)The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Point 1 of Procedural removal for inactive administrators which currently reads "Has made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least a 12-month period" should be replaced with "Has made no administrative actions for at least a 12-month period". The current wording of 1. means that an Admin who takes no admin actions keeps the tools provided they make at least a few edits every year, which really isn't the point. The whole purpose of adminship is to protect and advance the project. If an admin isn't using the tools then they don't need to have them. Mztourist (talk) 07:47, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
Endorsement/Opposition (Admin inactivity removal)
- Support as proposer. Mztourist (talk) 07:47, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose - this would create an unnecessary barrier to admins who, for real life reasons, have limited engagement for a bit. Asking the tools back at BN can feel like a faff. Plus, logged admin activity is a poor guide to actual admin activity. In some areas, maybe half of actions aren't logged? —Femke 🐦 (talk) 19:17, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose. First, not all admin actions are logged as such. One example which immediately comes to mind is declining an unblock request. In the logs, that's just a normal edit, but it's one only admins are permitted to make. That aside, if someone has remained at least somewhat engaged with the project, they're showing they're still interested in returning to more activity one day, even if real-life commitments prevent them from it right now. We all have things come up that take away our available time for Misplaced Pages from time to time, and that's just part of life. Say, for example, someone is currently engaged in a PhD program, which is a tremendously time-consuming activity, but they still make an edit here or there when they can snatch a spare moment. Do we really want to discourage that person from coming back around once they've completed it? Seraphimblade 21:21, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
- We could declare specific types of edits which count as admin actions despite being mere edits. It should be fairly simple to write a bot which checks if an admin has added or removed specific texts in any edit, or made any of specific modifications to pages. Checking for protected edits can be a little harder (we need to check for protection at the time of edit, not for the time of the check), but even this can be managed. Edits to pages which match specific regular expression patterns should be trivial to detect. Animal lover |666| 11:33, 9 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose There's no indication that this is a problem needs fixing. ⇒SWATJester 00:55, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
- Support Admins who don't use the tools should not have the tools. * Pppery * it has begun... 03:55, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose While I have never accepted "not all admin actions are logged" as a realistic reason for no logged actions in an entre year, I just don't see what problematic group of admins this is in response to. Previous tweaks to the rules were in response to admins that seemed to be gaming the system, that were basically inactive and when they did use the tools they did it badly, etc. We don't need a rule that ins't pointed a provable, ongoing problem. Just Step Sideways 19:19, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose If an admin is still editing, it's not unreasonable to assume that they are still up to date with policies, community norms etc. I see no particular risk in allowing them to keep their tools. Scribolt (talk) 19:46, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose: It feels like some people are trying to accelerate admin attrition and I don't know why. This is a solution in search of a problem. Gnomingstuff (talk) 07:11, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose Sure there is a problem, but the real problem I think is that it is puzzling why they are still admins. Perhaps we could get them all to make a periodic 'declaration of intent' or some such every five years that explains why they want to remain an admin. Alanscottwalker (talk) 19:01, 11 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose largely per scribolt. We want to take away mops from inactive accounts where there is a risk of them being compromised, or having got out of touch with community norms, this proposal rather targets the admins who are active members of the community. Also declining incorrect deletion tags and AIV reports doesn't require the use of the tools, doesn't get logged but is also an important thing for admins to do. ϢereSpielChequers 07:43, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose. What is the motivation for this frenzy to make more hoops for admins to jump through and use not jumping through hoops as an excuse to de-admin them? What problem does it solve? It seems counterproductive and de-inspiring when the bigger issue is that we don't have enough new admins. —David Eppstein (talk) 07:51, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose Some admin actions aren't logged, and I also don't see why this is necessary. Worst case scenario, we have WP:RECALL. QuicoleJR (talk) 15:25, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose I quite agree with David Eppstein's sentiment. What's with the rush to add more hoops? Is there some problem with the admin corps that we're not adequately dealing with? Our issue is that we have too few admins, not that we have too many. CaptainEek ⚓ 23:20, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose: I'm not seeing this as a real issue which needs to be fixed, or what problem is actually being solved. Let'srun (talk) 21:17, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose per all the good points from others showing that this is a solution in search of a problem. Toadspike 21:57, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose The current wording sufficiently removes tools from users who have ceased to edit the English Misplaced Pages. Darkfrog24 (talk) 22:28, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
Discussion (Admin inactivity removal)
- Making administrative actions can be helpful to show that the admin is still up-to-date with community norms. We could argue that if someone is active but doesn't use the tools, it isn't a big issue whether they have them or not. Still, the tools can be requested back following an inactivity desysop, if the formerly inactive admin changes their mind and wants to make admin actions again. For now, I don't see any immediate issues with this proposal. Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 08:13, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
- Looking back at previous RFCs, in 2011 the reasoning was to reduce the attack surface for inactive account takeover, and in 2022 it was about admins who haven't been around enough to keep up with changing community norms. What's the justification for this besides "use it or lose it"? Further, we already have a mechanism (from the 2022 RFC) to account for admins who make a few edits every year. Anomie⚔ 12:44, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
- I also note that not all admin actions are logged. Logging editing through full protection requires abusing the Edit Filter extension. Reviewing of deleted content isn't logged at all. Who will decide whether an admin's XFD "keep" closures are really WP:NACs or not? Do adminbot actions count for the operator? There are probably more examples. Currently we ignore these edge cases since the edits will probably also be there, but now if we can desysop someone who made 100,000 edits in the year we may need to consider them. Anomie⚔ 12:44, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
- I had completely forgotten that many admin actions weren't logged (and thus didn't "count" for activity levels), that's actually a good point (and stops the "community norms" arguments as healthy levels of community interaction can definitely be good evidence of that). And, since admins desysopped for inactivity can request the tools back, an admin needing the bit but not making any logged actions can just ask for it back. At this point, I'm not sure if there's a reason to go through the automated process of desysopping/asking for resysop at all, rather than just politely ask the admin if they still need the tools.I'm still very neutral on this by virtue of it being a pretty pointless and harmless process either way (as, again, there's nothing preventing an active admin desysopped for "inactivity" from requesting the tools back), but I might lean oppose just so we don't add a pointless process for the sake of it. Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 15:59, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
- To me this comes down to whether the community considers it problematic for an admin to have tools they aren't using. Since it's been noted that not all admin actions are logged, and an admin who isn't using their tools also isn't causing any problems, I'm not sure I see a need to actively remove the tools from an inactive admin; in a worst-case scenario, isn't this encouraging an admin to (potentially mis-)use the tools solely in the interest of keeping their bit? There also seems to be somewhat of a bad-faith assumption to the argument that an admin who isn't using their tools may also be falling behind on community norms. I'd certainly like to hope that if I was an admin who had been inactive that I would review P&G relevant to any admin action I intended to undertake before I executed. DonIago (talk) 15:14, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
- As I have understood it, the original rationale for desysopping after no activity for a year was the perception that an inactive account was at higher danger of being hijacked. It had nothing to do with how often the tools were being used, and presumably, if the admin was still editing, even if not using the tools, the account was less likely to be hijacked. - Donald Albury 22:26, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
- And also, if the account of an active admin was hijacked, both the account owner and those they interact with regularly would be more likely to notice the hijacking. The sooner a hijacked account is identified as hijacked, the sooner it is blocked/locked which obviously minimises the damage that can be done. Thryduulf (talk) 00:42, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
- I was not aware that not all admin actions are logged, obviously they should all be correctly logged as admin actions. If you're an Admin you should be doing Admin stuff, if not then you obviously don't need the tools. If an Admin is busy IRL then they can either give up the tools voluntarily or get desysopped for inactivity. The "Asking the tools back at BN can feel like a faff." isn't a valid argument, if an Admin has been desysopped for inactivity then getting the tools back should be "a faff". Regarding the comment that "There's no indication that this is a problem needs fixing." the problem is Admins who don't undertake admin activity, don't stay up to date with policies and norms, but don't voluntarily give up the tools. The 2022 change was about total edits over 5 years, not specifically admin actions and so didn't adequately address the issue. Mztourist (talk) 03:23, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
obviously they should all be correctly logged as admin actions
- how would you log actions that are administrative actions due to context/requiring passive use of tools (viewing deleted content, etc.) rather than active use (deleting/undeleting, blocking, and so on)/declining requests where accepting them would require tool use? (e.g. closing various discussions that really shouldn't be NAC'd, reviewing deleted content, declining page restoration) Maybe there are good ways of doing that, but I haven't seen any proposed the various times this subject came up. Unless and until "soft" admin actions are actually logged somehow, "editor has admin tools and continues to engage with the project by editing" is the closest, if very imperfect, approximation to it we have, with criterion 2 sort-of functioning to catch cases of "but these specific folks edit so little over a prolonged time that it's unlikely they're up-to-date and actively engaging in soft admin actions". (I definitely do feel criterion 2 could be significantly stricter, fwiw) AddWittyNameHere 05:30, 5 December 2024 (UTC)- Not being an Admin I have no idea how their actions are or aren't logged, but is it a big ask that Admins perform at least a few logged Admin actions in a year? The "imperfect, approximation" that "editor has admin tools and continues to engage with the project by editing" is completely inadequate to capture Admin inactivity. Mztourist (talk) 07:06, 6 December 2024 (UTC)
- Why is it "completely inadequate"? Thryduulf (talk) 10:32, 6 December 2024 (UTC)
- I've been a "hawk" regarding admin activity standards for a very long time, but this proposal comes off as half-baked. The rules we have now are the result of careful consideration and incremental changes aimed at specific, provable issues with previous standards. While I am not a proponent of "not all actions are logged" as a blanket excuse for no logged actions in several years, it is feasible that an admin could be otherwise fully engaged with the community while not having any logged actions. We haven't been having trouble with admins who would be removed by this, so where's the problem? Just Step Sideways 19:15, 8 December 2024 (UTC)
- Why is it "completely inadequate"? Thryduulf (talk) 10:32, 6 December 2024 (UTC)
- Not being an Admin I have no idea how their actions are or aren't logged, but is it a big ask that Admins perform at least a few logged Admin actions in a year? The "imperfect, approximation" that "editor has admin tools and continues to engage with the project by editing" is completely inadequate to capture Admin inactivity. Mztourist (talk) 07:06, 6 December 2024 (UTC)
Allowing page movers to enable two-factor authentication
- The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.
- Tracked in Phabricator
Task T382879
Consensus to assignoathauth-enable
to the(extendedmover)
group, giving page movers the option to enable two-factor authentication. SilverLocust 💬 11:43, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
- Tracked in Phabricator
I would like to propose that members of the page mover user group be granted the oathauth-enable
permission. This would allow them to use Special:OATH to enable two-factor authentication on their accounts.
Rationale (2FA for page movers)
The page mover guideline already obligates people in that group to have a strong password, and failing to follow proper account security processes is grounds for revocation of the right. This is because the group allows its members to (a) move pages along with up to 100 subpages, (b) override the title blacklist, and (c) have an increased rate limit for moving pages. In the hands of a vandal, these permissions could allow significant damage to be done very quickly, which is likely to be difficult to reverse.
Additionally, there is precedent for granting 2FA access to users with rights that could be extremely dangerous in the event of account compromise, for instance, template editors, importers, and transwiki importers have the ability to enable this access, as do most administrator-level permissions (sysop, checkuser, oversight, bureaucrat, steward, interface admin).
Discussion (2FA for page movers)
- Support as proposer. JJPMaster (she/they) 20:29, 12 December 2024 (UTC)
- Support (but if you really want 2FA you can just request permission to enable it on Meta) * Pppery * it has begun... 20:41, 12 December 2024 (UTC)
- For the record, I do have 2FA enabled. JJPMaster (she/they) 21:47, 12 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oops, that says you are member of "Two-factor authentication testers" (testers = good luck with that). Johnuniq (talk) 23:52, 14 December 2024 (UTC)
- A group name which is IMO seriously misleading - 2FA is not being tested, it's being actively used to protect accounts. * Pppery * it has begun... 23:53, 14 December 2024 (UTC)
- meta:Help:Two-factor authentication still says "currently in production testing with administrators (and users with admin-like permissions like interface editors), bureaucrats, checkusers, oversighters, stewards, edit filter managers and the OATH-testers global group." Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:42, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- A group name which is IMO seriously misleading - 2FA is not being tested, it's being actively used to protect accounts. * Pppery * it has begun... 23:53, 14 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oops, that says you are member of "Two-factor authentication testers" (testers = good luck with that). Johnuniq (talk) 23:52, 14 December 2024 (UTC)
- For the record, I do have 2FA enabled. JJPMaster (she/they) 21:47, 12 December 2024 (UTC)
- Support as a pagemover myself, given the potential risks and need for increased security. I haven't requested it yet as I wasn't sure I qualified and didn't want to bother the stewards, but having
oathauth-enable
by default would make the process a lot more practical. Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 22:30, 12 December 2024 (UTC)- Anyone is qualified - the filter for stewards granting 2FA is just "do you know what you're doing". * Pppery * it has begun... 22:46, 12 December 2024 (UTC)
- Question When's the last time a page mover has had their account compromised and used for pagemove vandalisn? Edit 14:35 UTC: I'm not doubting the nom, rather I'm curious and can't think of a better way to phrase things. JayCubby 02:30, 13 December 2024 (UTC)
- Why isn't everybody allowed to enable 2FA? I've never heard of any other website where users have to go request someone's (pro forma, rubber-stamp) permission if they want to use 2FA. And is it accurate that 2FA, after eight years, is still "experimental" and "in production testing"? I guess my overall first impression didn't inspire me with confidence in the reliability and maintenance. Adumbrativus (talk) 06:34, 14 December 2024 (UTC)
- Because the recovery process if you lose access to your device and recovery codes is still "contact WMF Trust and Safety", which doesn't scale. See also phab:T166622#4802579. Anomie⚔ 15:34, 14 December 2024 (UTC)
- We should probably consult with WMF T&S before we create more work for them on what they might view as very low-risk accounts. Courtesy ping @JSutherland (WMF). –Novem Linguae (talk) 16:55, 14 December 2024 (UTC)
- No update comment since 2020 doesn't fill me with hope. I like 2FA, but it needs to be developed into a usable solution for all. Lee Vilenski 00:09, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- I ain't a technical person, but could a less secure version of 2fa be introduced, where an email is sent for any login on new devices? JayCubby 01:13, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- Definitely. However email addresses also get detached from people, so that would require that people regularly reconfirm their contact information. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:01, 18 December 2024 (UTC)
- I ain't a technical person, but could a less secure version of 2fa be introduced, where an email is sent for any login on new devices? JayCubby 01:13, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- For TOTP (the 6-digit codes), it's not quite as bad as when it was written, as the implementation has been fixed over time. I haven't heard nearly as many instances of backup scratch codes not working these days compared to when it was new. The WebAuthn (physical security keys, Windows Hello, Apple Face ID, etc) implementation works fine on private wikis but I wouldn't recommend using it for CentralAuth, especially with the upcoming SUL3 migration. There's some hope it'll work better afterward, but will still require some development effort. As far as I'm aware, WMF is not currently planning to work on the 2FA implmentation. As far as risk for page mover accounts goes, they're at a moderate risk. Page move vandalism, while annoying to revert, is reversible and is usually pretty loud (actions of compromised accounts can be detected and stopped easily). The increased ratelimit is the largest concern, but compared to something like account creator (which has noratelimit) it's not too bad. I'm more concerned about new page reviewer. There probably isn't a ton of harm to enabling 2FA for these groups, but there isn't a particularly compelling need either. AntiCompositeNumber (talk) 12:47, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
- Because the recovery process if you lose access to your device and recovery codes is still "contact WMF Trust and Safety", which doesn't scale. See also phab:T166622#4802579. Anomie⚔ 15:34, 14 December 2024 (UTC)
- Support per nom. PMV is a high-trust role (suppressredirect is the ability to make a blue link turn red), and thus this makes sense. As a side note, I have changed this to bulleted discussion; # is used when we have separate sections for support and oppose. HouseBlaster (talk • he/they) 07:19, 14 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose As a pagemover myself, I find pagemover is an extremely useful and do not wish to lose it. It is nowhere near the same class as template editor. You can already ask the stewards for 2FA although I would recommend creating a separate account for the purpose. After all these years, 2FA remains experimental, buggy and cumbersome. Incompatible with the Microsoft Authenticator app on my iphone. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 23:59, 14 December 2024 (UTC)
- The proposal (as I read it) isn't "you must have 2FA", rather "you have the option to add it". Lee Vilenski 00:06, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- @Hawkeye7, Lee Vilenski is correct. This would merely provide page movers with the option to enable it. JJPMaster (she/they) 00:28, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- Understood, but I do not want it associated with an administrator-level permission, which would mean I am not permitted to use it, as I am not an admin. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:44, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- It's not really that. It would be an opt-in to allow users (in the group) to put 2FA on their account - at their own digression.
- The main reasons why 2FA is currently out to admins and the like is because they are more likely to be targeted for compromising and are also more experienced. The 2FA flag doesn't require any admin skills/tools and is only incedentally linked. Lee Vilenski 12:58, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- Wait, so why is 2FA not an option for everyone already? – Closed Limelike Curves (talk) 01:15, 18 December 2024 (UTC)
- @Closed Limelike Curves the MediaWiki's 2FA implementation is complex, and the WMF's processes to support people who get locked out of their account aren't able to handle a large volume of requests (developers can let those who can prove they are the owner of the account back in). My understanding is that the current processes cannot be efficiently scaled up either, as it requires 1:1 attention from a developer, so unless and until new processes have been designed, tested and implemented 2FA is intended to be restricted to those who understand how to use it correctly and understand the risks of getting locked out. Thryduulf (talk) 09:36, 18 December 2024 (UTC)
- Wait, so why is 2FA not an option for everyone already? – Closed Limelike Curves (talk) 01:15, 18 December 2024 (UTC)
- Understood, but I do not want it associated with an administrator-level permission, which would mean I am not permitted to use it, as I am not an admin. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:44, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- @Hawkeye7, Lee Vilenski is correct. This would merely provide page movers with the option to enable it. JJPMaster (she/they) 00:28, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- The proposal (as I read it) isn't "you must have 2FA", rather "you have the option to add it". Lee Vilenski 00:06, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- It probably won't make a huge difference because those who really desire 2FA can already request the permission to enable it for their account, and because no page mover will be required to do so. However, there will be page movers who wouldn't request a global permission for 2FA yet would enable it in their preferences if it was a simple option. And these page movers might benefit from 2FA even more than those who already care very strongly about the security of their account. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 03:18, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- Support and I can't think of any argument against something not only opt-in but already able to be opted into. Gnomingstuff (talk) 08:09, 15 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose this is a low value permission, not needed. If an individual PMV really wants to opt-in, they can already do so over at meta - no need to build custom configuration for this locally. — xaosflux 15:06, 18 December 2024 (UTC)
- Support; IMO all users should have the option to add 2FA. Stifle (talk) 10:26, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
- Support All users should be able to opt in to 2FA. Lack of a scalable workflow for users locked out of their accounts is going to be addressed by WMF only if enough people are using 2FA (and getting locked out?) to warrant its inclusion in the product roadmap. – SD0001 (talk) 14:01, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
- That (and to @Stifle above) sounds like an argument to do just that - get support put in place and enable this globally, not to piecemeal it in tiny batches for discretionary groups on a single project (this custom configuration would support about 3/10ths of one percent of our active editors). To the point of this RFC, why do you think adding this for this specific tiny group is a good idea? — xaosflux 15:40, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
- FWIW, I tried to turn this on for anyone on meta-wiki, and the RFC failed (meta:Meta:Requests for comment/Enable 2FA on meta for all users). — xaosflux 21:21, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
- Exactly. Rolling it out in small batches helps build the case for a bigger rollout in the future. – SD0001 (talk) 05:24, 20 December 2024 (UTC)
- FWIW, I tried to turn this on for anyone on meta-wiki, and the RFC failed (meta:Meta:Requests for comment/Enable 2FA on meta for all users). — xaosflux 21:21, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
- I'm pretty sure that 2FA is already available to anyone. You just have to want it enough to either request it "for testing purposes" or to go to testwiki and request that you made an admin there, which will automatically give you access. See H:ACCESS2FA. WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:41, 21 December 2024 (UTC)
- We shouldn't have to jump through borderline manipulative and social-engineering hoops to get basic security functionality. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 04:40, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- That (and to @Stifle above) sounds like an argument to do just that - get support put in place and enable this globally, not to piecemeal it in tiny batches for discretionary groups on a single project (this custom configuration would support about 3/10ths of one percent of our active editors). To the point of this RFC, why do you think adding this for this specific tiny group is a good idea? — xaosflux 15:40, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose. It sounds like account recovery when 2FA is enabled involves Trust and Safety. I don't think page movers' account security is important enough to justify increasing the burden on them. —Compassionate727 14:10, 21 December 2024 (UTC)
- Losing access to the account is less common nowadays since most 2FA apps, including Google Authenticator, have implemented cloud syncing so that even if you lose your phone, you can still access the codes from another device. – SD0001 (talk) 14:40, 21 December 2024 (UTC)
- But this isn't about Google Authenticator. Johnuniq (talk) 02:58, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- Google Authenticator is a 2FA app, which at least till some point used to be the most popular one. – SD0001 (talk) 07:07, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- But (I believe), it is not available for use at Misplaced Pages. Johnuniq (talk) 07:27, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- That's not true. You can use any TOTP authenticator app for MediaWiki 2FA. I currently use Ente Auth, having moved on from Authy recently, and from Google Authenticator a few years back. In case you're thinking of SMS-based 2FA, it has become a thing of the past and is not supported by MediaWiki either because it's insecure (attackers have ways to trick your network provider to send them your texts). – SD0001 (talk) 09:19, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- But (I believe), it is not available for use at Misplaced Pages. Johnuniq (talk) 07:27, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- Google Authenticator is a 2FA app, which at least till some point used to be the most popular one. – SD0001 (talk) 07:07, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- But this isn't about Google Authenticator. Johnuniq (talk) 02:58, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- Losing access to the account is less common nowadays since most 2FA apps, including Google Authenticator, have implemented cloud syncing so that even if you lose your phone, you can still access the codes from another device. – SD0001 (talk) 14:40, 21 December 2024 (UTC)
- Support. Even aside from the fact that, in 2024+, everyone should be able to turn on 2FA .... Well, absolutely certainly should everyone who has an advanced bit, with potential for havoc in the wrong hands, be able to use 2FA here. That also includes template-editor, edit-filter-manager, file-mover, account-creator (and supersets like event-coordinator), checkuser (which is not strictly tied to adminship), and probably also mass-message-sender, perhaps a couple of the others, too. Some of us old hands have several of these bits and are almost as much risk as an admin when it comes to loss of account control. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 04:40, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- Take a look at Special:ListGroupRights - much of what you mentioned is already in place, because these are groups that could use it and are widespread groups used on most WMF projects. (Unlike extendedmover). — xaosflux 17:22, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- Re
That also includes , file-mover, account-creator (and supersets like event-coordinator), and probably mass-message-sender
. How can in any way would file mover, account creator, event coordinator and mass message sender user groups be considered privileged, and therefore have theoathauth-enable
userright? ToadetteEdit (talk) 17:37, 24 December 2024 (UTC)
- Comment: It is really not usual for 2FA to be available to a user group that is not defined as privileged in the WMF files. By default, all user groups defined at CommonSettings.php (iirc) that are considered to be privileged have the
oathauth-enable
right. Also, the account security practices mentioned in wp:PGM are also mentioned at wp:New pages patrol/Reviewers, despite not being discussed at all. Shouldn't it be fair to have theextendedmover
userright be defined as privileged. ToadetteEdit (talk) 08:33, 23 December 2024 (UTC)- Regardless, I will support per the above comments. Page mover rights are sensitive and can disrupt the encyclopedia (though not as large as template editor/administrator would). I do see people supporting the idea of 2FA for all, but I think this needs to be reconsider in another discussion because it was discussed a lot previously and never gain implementation. ToadetteEdit (talk) 18:12, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Support. Like SMcCandlish, I'd prefer that anyone, and particularly any editor with advanced perms, be allowed to turn on 2FA if they want (this is already an option on some social media platforms). But this is a good start, too.Since this is a proposal to allow page movers to opt in to 2FA, rather than a proposal to mandate 2FA for page movers, I see no downside in doing this. – Epicgenius (talk) 17:02, 23 December 2024 (UTC)
- Support this opt-in for PMs and the broader idea of everyone having it by default. Forgive me if this sounds blunt, but is the responsibility and accountability of protecting your account lie on you and not WMF. Yes, they can assist in recovery, but the burden should not lie on them. ~/Bunnypranav:<ping> 17:13, 23 December 2024 (UTC)
- What about users who are unable to enable 2FA, which requires either multiple devices or fancy gizmos? Cremastra 🎄 u — c 🎄 17:33, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- @Cremastra I have mentioned to give the choice to turn 2FA on for everyone. No comments to mandate it for PMs.
- Also, 2FA is easy to enable on every mobile phone (which is not a fancy gizmo, I believe everyone here has access to one?). ~/Bunnypranav:<ping> 07:16, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Then what do you mean by "everyone having it by default"? Cremastra 🎄 u — c 🎄 16:20, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Everyone has the ability to turn it on ~/Bunnypranav:<ping> 10:46, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- Okay, sorry. I misread your comment as everyone having it by default, not everyone having it by default.
- Happy new year, Cremastra 🎄 u — c 🎄 19:53, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
- Everyone has the ability to turn it on ~/Bunnypranav:<ping> 10:46, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- Then what do you mean by "everyone having it by default"? Cremastra 🎄 u — c 🎄 16:20, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- What about users who are unable to enable 2FA, which requires either multiple devices or fancy gizmos? Cremastra 🎄 u — c 🎄 17:33, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Allow 2FA for en-wiki users with verified emails. I can't think of any other website that gates 2FA behind special permissions - it's a bizarre security practice. I hear the concerns about T&S needing to get involved for account recovery, but if the user has a verified email address that shouldn't be necessary. – Anne drew 15:43, 27 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose security is good, but pagemoving isn't an area where increased security will lead to any sort of improvement. I'm a pagemover and I certainly don't want to go through that hassle everytime I log in, which can be several times a day because I edit from different (at home) devices. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 19:43, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
- The proposal is for allowing page movers to enable 2FA, not forcing them to do so. – SD0001 (talk) 21:37, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
- Support as an option, sure, seems beneficial. Those who are against it can simply opt out. – Aza24 (talk) 22:02, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
RfC: Enable override-antispoof for importers
QoH has withdrawn the RfC as Graham87 has been granted the account creator permission. Involved closure; if someone objects, reopen this discussion. HouseBlaster (talk • he/they) 04:36, 1 January 2025 (UTC)The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Should the override-antispoof
permission be enabled for the importer
group? charlotte 18:44, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
Support (override-antispoof for importers)
- Similar to the RfC on mergehistory for importers from last month, importers sometimes have to create accounts when importing old edits, and those are occasionally too similar to existing users or trigger filter 890 (hist · log) (which I coded a workaround into). Currently, the only rights that have
override-antispoof
are account creator and sysop; the one non-admin importer, Graham87, had account creator revoked because he was not a member of the account creation team, andoverride-antispoof
would prevent him from having to ask an admin each time. charlotte 18:44, 28 December 2024 (UTC) - Support in principle as the affected user, but I'm also open to less drastic solutions. See below. Graham87 (talk) 07:19, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
Oppose (override-antispoof for importers)
- This is too far off from the single-responsibility principle for my taste, especially given that a solution already exists. * Pppery * it has begun... 19:21, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- per Pppery Feeglgeef (talk) 19:52, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Nah, non-admins that need to create odd accounts could just become account creators, Misplaced Pages:Account creator isn't a hard policy, it is descriptive. If there is community support for someone not working on the ACC project to have this access, they should be able to hold it. — xaosflux 16:41, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- While I trust Graham to use this power, edit filter 890 already doesn't run on importers, and for the only other scenario—where it's too close to an existing account name—I don't want to risk giving all importers the power to impersonate. As xaosflux said, prospective importers should be able to apply for account creator separately. Aaron Liu (talk) 16:52, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Oppose Unlike importing and history merging, the link between importing and creating accounts with usernames similar to existing ones is tenuous at best. There is already a solution for importers who genuinely need to do that—the account creator group—and we should not turn the importer group into nothing more than a "Graham87 group." JJPMaster (she/they) 14:31, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Discussion (override-antispoof for importers)
- Got some examples of why an account has to be created here? — xaosflux 20:51, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
- Here is an example of when such an account was just made: Special:Redirect/logid/166654727. But just because it was made, doesn't seem to justify that it must be made. And it certainly doesn't justify that the credentials for such accounts should now be getting managed by another volunteer. — xaosflux 03:16, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- See my comment below. Graham87 (talk) 07:19, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Here is an example of when such an account was just made: Special:Redirect/logid/166654727. But just because it was made, doesn't seem to justify that it must be made. And it certainly doesn't justify that the credentials for such accounts should now be getting managed by another volunteer. — xaosflux 03:16, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Are there common-ish scenarios other than edit filter 890 where an importer has to bypass antispoof? Aaron Liu (talk) 00:26, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- As the user who would be affected by this, let me try to explain the situation a bit more. So when a page is imported with an edit by a named user, the edit will usually be attributed with an importation prefix as "wiki name>oldusername" (e.g. this edit history containing edits imported from the German Misplaced Pages), unless a check box is checked saying "Assign edits to local users where the named user exists locally", in which case the software will attempt to assign the imported edit to an existing user's contributions. When doing imports from old English Misplaced Pages databases, I always check this box (or at least try to), because, well, it's an edit originally made to this exact encyclopedia and I want the imported edit to be included in a user's contributions here as if it had always been part of the database, which it would have been, under ideal circumstances. Edits with an importation prefix cannot be collected under a user's contributions page (for an example see basically the entirety of the Nostalgia Misplaced Pages, a copy of the Misplaced Pages database from 20 December 2001, like the history of the Main Page there). The Nostalgia Misplaced Pages has been like this since a script was run to clean up users in the database with no ID defined as part of the database actor migration.
So when importing edits from the August 2001 database dump, I sometimes create accounts to match the original usernames/domain names, to make contribution history match as closely as possible with the modern database. I create them with randomly invented passwords that I forget three seconds later and have been doing this sort of thing for a very long time. It's better that I create these accounts than them being created by people like Grawp, as had previously happened several times. When I lost my adminship, I started having problems with account creations; see the edit filter discussion and the discussion on my talk page that led to this RFC. I support the premise obviously, but as I said in the latter link, I'm also open to having account-creator permissions for, say, a month, and during that time intensively working on matching the August 2001 database usernames with modern ones. Graham87 (talk) 07:19, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Right, so can't we just not Assign edits to local users - when there isn't a "user" on these? Because whatever user you are making, isn't the original user anyway. — xaosflux 13:09, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- I think Graham is saying that we should prevent people from creating old usernames. Aaron Liu (talk) 13:25, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Yes, exactly. Or at least make sure they're in good hands. And we should be able to get to their contributions to see what else they've edited, just like almost any other user (weird long-standing bugs with the database excluded). Thanks to my creation of their account (based on their UseModWiki domain name) and my imports of their edits, it can readily be determined that Proxy.mgtnwv.adelphia.net created the articles West Virginia and Ada (programming language) ... which happen to be the only edits by this user under that domain name in the August 2001 database dump. If I hadn't created the account in this case, we wouldn't be able to do that. Re not being the original user: well as I said above that ship sailed a while ago. The incident that inspired me to do all this activity is a perfect example of why these re-created accounts can be useful. Inspired by this edit to what is now this Women in Red page about their 20% milestone, I discovered that the first woman to get a biography here was Rosa Parks and imported a couple of early edits, including the very first one, to that page. The user who created it, IvoryRing, was only active under that name in January 2001 and none of their edits were in the English Misplaced Pages database until I imported them (this can be verified by checking their revision ID numbers in the URL's and noting that they're not in the 200000's, as edits from the first mass-import of old edits in September 2002 are). The logs of their user page are interesting, and show that it was deleted in April 2008 because there was no account with that name, restored by me in July 2009 when I finally created the account after discovering the user page when checking deleted contributions of Conversion script , and had an edit imported in March 2010 (this user's only visible contribution until just over a week ago). And now we know that they created Misplaced Pages's first biography about a woman, which certainly wasn't apparent when I restored their user page back in 2009, before the August 2001 database dump was even discovered! Graham87 (talk) 16:11, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- I think Graham is saying that we should prevent people from creating old usernames. Aaron Liu (talk) 13:25, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Right, so can't we just not Assign edits to local users - when there isn't a "user" on these? Because whatever user you are making, isn't the original user anyway. — xaosflux 13:09, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- More ramblings that might be useful to someone, slightly adapted from my talk page: Before I lost my admin userrights, I gave myself account creator on the remote chance I'd need antispoof permissions, but I hadn't read the Misplaced Pages:Account creator page at that point and didn't realise that there's now such a division between account creators and event coordinators. when the account creator permission was taken away from me, I wasn't particularly phased because I didn't think I would use antispoof permissions very often (but after the Rosa Parks discovery, I found many more very early edits to import and ran in to antispoof problems twice, as noted above. At first I was a bit surprised by the level of opposition here compared to the support for the
- Pinging Queen of Hearts as the initiator of this RFC, for which I'm very grateful. I'm glad things are being hammered out here. Graham87 (talk) 17:29, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- @JJMC89: You removed Graham's accountcreator permissions as "not a member of the WP:ACC team". As Xaos notes above, there isn't a strict rule that accountcreators must be ACC members, and here there's a demonstrated benefit to the project in Graham being an accountcreator (at least, if you buy the argument about potential re-registration of imported accounts, which I do buy, given that it happened with e.g. Special:Contribs/Conversion script). Would you object to me regranting accountcreator? -- Tamzin (they|xe|🤷) 17:39, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- @Tamzin: Thanks very much; I'd be happy to relinquish it when I've finished analysing the August 2001 database dump for possible mismatched usernames. pedantic point though: Conversion script wasn't an account; it was just a script that happened to use an ID number of 0, which was OK then; the same was true for MediaWiki default and Template namespace initialisation script. It's way past my bedtime ... I should really sign off now. Graham87 (talk) 17:52, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- Support this (i.e. granting ACCR) as the easiest solution. HouseBlaster (talk • he/they) 02:22, 30 December 2024 (UTC); clarified 15:28, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- Also fine with Graham87 being granted account creator. * Pppery * it has begun... 16:29, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
- Per JJMC's silence (while editing elsewhere), I've regranted ACC. Fine with this being closed as moot if Graham is. charlotte 21:23, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
- I would have granted it myself without all this RfC business - except that I'm on a downer. VPT watchers may understand. --Redrose64 🦌 (talk) 02:04, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
- Yep, we can close this now. Graham87 (talk) 04:32, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
- Per JJMC's silence (while editing elsewhere), I've regranted ACC. Fine with this being closed as moot if Graham is. charlotte 21:23, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Collaboration with PubPeer
Dear all, Over the past few months, I have been in contact with the team managing PubPeer - a website that allows users to discuss and review scientific research after publication, i.e. post-publication peer review - to explore a potential collaboration with Misplaced Pages. After reviewing some data regarding citations (e.g., the DOIs cited in English (20%), Spanish, French, and Italian Misplaced Pages), they agreed, in principle, to share data about papers with PubPeer comments that are also used as sources in Misplaced Pages. From our calculations on a sample of 20% of the citations in enwiki, we estimate that there are around 5,000 unique DOIs cited in Misplaced Pages that may have PubPeer comments. This message is intended to brainstorm some possible ways to use this data in the project. Here are some of my initial ideas:
- Create a bot that periodically (weekly? monthly?) fetches data about papers cited in Misplaced Pages with PubPeer comments and leaves a note on the Talk page of articles using these sources. The note could say something like, "There are PubPeer comments related to articles X, Y, Z used as sources in this article."
- Develop a gadget that replicates the functionality of the PubPeer browser extensions.
Let me know your thoughts on these ideas and how we could move forward. --CristianCantoro (talk) 00:02, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- How would this be valuable to Misplaced Pages? Izno (talk) 00:45, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- PubPeer is a post-publication peer review forum. Most of the discussions over there report issues with papers. Knowing that a paper that is used as a source has comments on PubPeer is very valuable, IMHO, as It would be useful for editors to evaluate the quality of the source and decide if it makes sense to keep using it. Paper retractions are also reported on PubPeer (see an example), and the PubPeer extension marks retracted papers in red. Basically the idea is to replicate the functionality of the PubPeer extension for editors that don't have it. Furthermore, PubPeer IDs are registered in Wikidata. --CristianCantoro (talk) 18:14, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- But we cite information from reliable sources. I don't see why we'd want a list of people saying they don't think a publication is good, we'd want those sources addressed, surely? Lee Vilenski 18:28, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- I think the point is that an article with a lot of PubPeer commentary is quite likely not to be a reliable source. – Joe (talk) 20:55, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- @Lee Vilenski, PubPeer is exactly a forum where issues with papers are raised, and the authors also have the opportunity to address the concerns. While a source such as a well-established scientific journal is generally reliable, we do not know anything about the quality of a specific paper. To me, knowing that there are comments on PubPeer about a paper is valuable because, in general, those comments are not just about "I like/dislike this paper;" instead, they usually raise good points about the paper that I think would provide valuable context to a Misplaced Pages editor who is trying to determine whether a given paper is a good source or not. PubPeer is regularly used by the community of "scientific sleuths" looking for manipulated or fabricated image and data as you can read in this press article: "A once-ignored community of science sleuths now has the research community on its heels" (there are many other examples) --CristianCantoro (talk) 21:26, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- But we cite information from reliable sources. I don't see why we'd want a list of people saying they don't think a publication is good, we'd want those sources addressed, surely? Lee Vilenski 18:28, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- PubPeer is a post-publication peer review forum. Most of the discussions over there report issues with papers. Knowing that a paper that is used as a source has comments on PubPeer is very valuable, IMHO, as It would be useful for editors to evaluate the quality of the source and decide if it makes sense to keep using it. Paper retractions are also reported on PubPeer (see an example), and the PubPeer extension marks retracted papers in red. Basically the idea is to replicate the functionality of the PubPeer extension for editors that don't have it. Furthermore, PubPeer IDs are registered in Wikidata. --CristianCantoro (talk) 18:14, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- This does seem like it could be very useful for users interested in the quality of research. I think a gadget highlighting DOIs would be most useful, but using a bot to tag affected pages with a template that adds them to a maintenance category (like this one) would also be a great idea. Toadspike 22:35, 29 December 2024 (UTC)
- I think this is a great idea. A bot-maintained notification and maintenance category would be a great starting point. As for a gadget, there are already several tools aimed at highlighting potential reliability issues in citations (e.g. User:SuperHamster/CiteUnseen, User:Headbomb/unreliable) so I think it would be better to try and get PubPeer functionality incorporated into them than start a new one. – Joe (talk) 10:13, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- Respectfully, I don't really think that collaborating with a website and using its number of user-generated comments to decide of the reliability of our sources is the best idea. While being informed of comments that have been made on the articles could be helpful, placing every article whose source have PubPeer comments in a maintenance category amounts to saying these sources are automatically a problem to be fixed, and that shouldn't be a call left to commenters of another website. Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 11:57, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- Why not? I don't think there's any realistic prospect of doing it internally. – Joe (talk) 12:32, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- Putting an article in a maintenance category because a user-generated review website made comments on a source is clearly not the level of source assessment quality we're striving for. Plus, there's the risk of things like canvassing or paid reviews happening on that other website, as they don't have the same policies that we do, but impact the (perceived) article quality here by tagging these sources as problems to be fixed. Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 12:39, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- I believe the proposal is to add the talk page to a category (because it's attached to a talk page message), and not to do any tagging, so this would be pretty much invisible to readers. It would just be a prompt for editors to assess the reliability of the source, not a replacement for source assessments. PubPeer is also not really a "review" website but a place where people (in practice mostly other scientists) can comment on potential errors and misconduct in scientific papers, so the risk of abuse, while present, seems very slight. Who would benefit from it? – Joe (talk) 14:06, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- That does make sense, thanks. I thought there could be cases where competing research teams might try to use it to discredit their opponents' papers, especially if it leads to visible Misplaced Pages messages, but if it is only a category on the talk page that is invisible for the readers, that sounds like a quite sensible idea. Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 17:45, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- Hi @Chaotic Enby, the idea is to have the information readily available in the talk page, and that would make our editors' life easier. In the end, it is just a matter of having some links in the talk page that an editor can check, if they want. Furthermore, I second the comment above from @Joe, PubPeer is very much used to report serious flaws with studies: a study from 2021 analyzed around 40,000 posts about 25,000 publications and found that "more than two-thirds of comments are posted to report some type of misconduct, mainly about image manipulation.". Take a tour on PubPeer and see for yourself. --CristianCantoro (talk) 15:40, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- I often cite scientific studies when I'm writing Froggy of the Day. It sounds like it would be remotely possible to make a bot or tool that could flag sources that have > howevermany comments on Pub Peer.
- I often think about Misplaced Pages's mission to curate rather than create knowledge in terms of the sugar vs fat debate in nutrition. At the time Misplaced Pages was founded, the prevailing idea was that fat was more fattening in sugar with respect to human beings gaining or losing weight. In the years since, much of that was found to have been a promotional campaign by the sugar industry. It is not Misplaced Pages's place to contradict established scientific information even when individual Wikipedians know better but rather to wait until newer and better reliable sources are published. Such a tool could help us do that more quickly. Darkfrog24 (talk) 22:38, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
- I believe the proposal is to add the talk page to a category (because it's attached to a talk page message), and not to do any tagging, so this would be pretty much invisible to readers. It would just be a prompt for editors to assess the reliability of the source, not a replacement for source assessments. PubPeer is also not really a "review" website but a place where people (in practice mostly other scientists) can comment on potential errors and misconduct in scientific papers, so the risk of abuse, while present, seems very slight. Who would benefit from it? – Joe (talk) 14:06, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- Putting an article in a maintenance category because a user-generated review website made comments on a source is clearly not the level of source assessment quality we're striving for. Plus, there's the risk of things like canvassing or paid reviews happening on that other website, as they don't have the same policies that we do, but impact the (perceived) article quality here by tagging these sources as problems to be fixed. Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 12:39, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- Why not? I don't think there's any realistic prospect of doing it internally. – Joe (talk) 12:32, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- I think some sort of collaboration might be useful, but I don't want talk page notices clogging up my watchlist. Perhaps something that can complement existing userscripts that highlight source reliability would be good. voorts (talk/contributions) 00:39, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
Appearance setting to hide all inline notes from articles
While disabled by default, enabling it would hide all those , and even inline notes from all articles, which makes reading Misplaced Pages more clearer, especially when reading about controversial topics. Those citation notes can be a distraction for some, so that's why i am proposing such a feature like this. 176.223.184.242 (talk) 12:37, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- Adding
sup { display: none !important; }
to your user CSS should do the job! (see also WP:CSSHIDE) Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 12:49, 30 December 2024 (UTC)- Yep. I'd oppose making it a default setting, though. I don't want to dictate to the IP how they should use Misplaced Pages or discount their experience, but those notes are vital for information literacy. If the IP is reading about controversial topics without them, they're risking exposing themselves to misinformation. Sdkb 17:18, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- Agreed! If anything, it is far more vital to have those inline references/citations when reading controversial information. This is even more critical for tags like citation needed/OR/etc because without them the reader is likely to take the statement as generally accepted fact instead of with the grain of salt that should be applied when such a tag has been added. TiggerJay (talk) 17:31, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- Yep. I'd oppose making it a default setting, though. I don't want to dictate to the IP how they should use Misplaced Pages or discount their experience, but those notes are vital for information literacy. If the IP is reading about controversial topics without them, they're risking exposing themselves to misinformation. Sdkb 17:18, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- This reminds me of proposals made long ago to move all maintenance templates to the talk pages so that readers wouldn't be exposed to how messy and unreliable article content actually is. Donald Albury 19:57, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
- I'd personally advise against enabling this, IP. Things tagged with may be just flat-out wrong. Cremastra 🎄 u — c 🎄 19:57, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
- What about a third option to keep citation needed tags while hiding actual citations?
- Show all inline notes
- Show only inline maintenance notices
- Hide all inline notes
- 176.223.186.27 (talk) 21:58, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
- To build on what Donald Albury is saying, I think the readers should be reminded of how messy Misplaced Pages is. I just added a citation this afternoon, not only because I want the article's regulars to find an additional source but also because I want the readers to see the tag and know that the content is not sufficiently sourced at this time. (I believe in general that people should be more vigilant about assessing the reliability of what they read, and not only here on the Wiki.) If anyone does donate their time and trouble to make a way for readers to opt out of seeing ref tags and maintenance tags, I would oppose making it the default. Darkfrog24 (talk) 22:31, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
- What about a third option to keep citation needed tags while hiding actual citations?
Political bio succession boxes, need streamlining
My goodness, I went through some American politician bios (didn't check other countries) & there's a lot of trivial info added to succession boxes. So called "Honorary titles" - like "Longest living U.S. Senator", "Earliest living American governor", etc. PS - I think these should be deleted. What would be added next? "Tallest Speaker of the House"? GoodDay (talk) 00:50, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
- I delete those on sight and you should too. --Surtsicna (talk) 19:06, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Transclusion of peer reviews to article talk pages
Hello,
First time posting here.
I would like to propose that peer reviews be automatically transcluded to talk pages in the same way as GAN reviews. This would make them more visible to more editors and better preserve their contents in the article/talk history. They often take a considerable amount of time and effort to complete, and the little note near the top of the talk page is very easy to overlook.
This also might (but only might!) raise awareness of the project and lead to more editors making use of this volunteer resource.
I posted this suggestion on the project talk page yesterday, but I have since realized it has less than 30 followers and gets an average of 0 views per day.
Thanks for your consideration, Patrick (talk) 23:07, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
- I don't see any downsides here. voorts (talk/contributions) 01:55, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- Support; I agree with Voorts. Noting for transparency that I was neutrally notified of this discussion by Patrick Welsh. —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 21:04, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- This is a great idea, it's weird that it isn't done already. Toadspike 21:13, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
Remove Armenia-Azerbaijan general community sanctions
Opening this discussion is itself a violation of GS/AA, as SimpleSubCubicGraph is not extended-confirmed. Initial response from community members with standing to discuss these topics has been unanimously opposed so I see no reason to leave this open. signed, Rosguill 01:25, 4 January 2025 (UTC)The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
I believe Armenia and Azerbaijan sanction is now outdated and useless. I propose that the sanction on the two nations be removed permanently unless another diplomatic crisis happens between the two countries. My reasons are: A recent statement was made by Armenia offering condolences to Azerbaijan which has almost never happened, I believe that Armenia and Azerbaijan related pages blanket protection of Extended Confirmed should be lowered to Autoconfirmed protection, with the exception of the wars between the two sovereign nations. Additionally, relations are getting better between the two countries. For nearly 30 years, relations were rock bottom, diplomats were not found in Azerbaijan nor Armenia and tensions were at an all time high. However ever since the 2020 war the two nations have started to make amends. This first started with the peace deal ending the war between the two nations. Turkey whom is a staunch ally of Azerbaijan has started to resume direct flights from Yerevan, the capital of Armenia and Istanbul, the largest city in the Republic of Turkiye. In 2023, Armenia and Azerbaijan entered into extensive bilateral negotiations as well as a prisoner exchange between the two countries, and Armenia supported Azerbaijan for being the host of the UN climate change forum. Finally, last year the two countries solved many border issues and created a transport route between the two countries which is a symbol of peace. The two nations are much better off now than they were just 4 years ago and can be seen as having a cooperative/reconciling attitude. That is why I propose an amendment that will immediately downgrade all protections (from ECP to ACP) for all Armenia-Azerbaijan related pages. SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 00:31, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- Notified: Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard. voorts (talk/contributions) 00:53, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- Oppose. This statement does not provide an adequate or relevant reason for vacating WP:GS/AA's ECR remedy. Community sanctions are related to the conduct of editors on Misplaced Pages, not the conduct of international affairs. Since page and editor sanctions are regularly issued pursuant to GS/AA and CT/A-A, there is still a clear need for ECR. voorts (talk/contributions) 00:46, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- @Voorts Response Well I believe that the editors that cause edit conflicts and wars are mostly Armenian, Azerbaijani, or Turkish. They feel patriotic of their country and their side and have vilified the other side in their head, but with calming geopolitical tensions I believe that these editors will no longer feel the need to edit war on wikipedia. Its the same reason why you do not see British people edit warring on the page for the United States of America over the loss in the Independence War. Geopolitical relations between Great Britain and the United States of America are good. SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 00:52, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- But you do see Armenian/Azerbaijani people edit warring on pages about Armenia/Azerbaijan still. JJPMaster (she/they) 00:56, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- To add further context, you're correct that we don't have any sanctions regarding the US War of Independence. However, we do have sanctions regarding other historical topics, including anti-Semitism in Poland around World War II (WP:APL) and The Troubles (WP:CT/TT). As such, just because country leadership may communicate a lack of conflict doesn't mean editors on Misplaced Pages immediately edit within policy and treat each other with civility. Significa liberdade (she/her) (talk) 01:24, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- @Voorts Response Well I believe that the editors that cause edit conflicts and wars are mostly Armenian, Azerbaijani, or Turkish. They feel patriotic of their country and their side and have vilified the other side in their head, but with calming geopolitical tensions I believe that these editors will no longer feel the need to edit war on wikipedia. Its the same reason why you do not see British people edit warring on the page for the United States of America over the loss in the Independence War. Geopolitical relations between Great Britain and the United States of America are good. SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 00:52, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- Per Voorts, GS/AA is enacted in response to the actions of editors. Real world diplomatic activity is not directly relevant. CMD (talk) 01:01, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
ITN Nominators
I believe we should add a small section which includes all of the nominators who have made it onto In The News. I think this would be just a polite way of saying thank you for your proposal. SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 05:15, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- I will just note that we do not do that for nominators for any other elements on the main page. We don't use bylines in Misplaced Pages. Anyone who cares enough about who did what for an article can examine the page history. Donald Albury 15:16, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- Disagree, that would just incentivize many people to try to get their name on the Main Page for millions of readers to see, leading to more competition and less constructive contributions. Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 15:51, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- A small section where? Obviously not on the main page, as the previous replies have been assuming. But if someone wanted to maintain some sort of list at Misplaced Pages:In the news/Contributors and link it from WP:ITN, 🤷. We have Misplaced Pages:List of Wikipedians by number of DYKs that is something similar for DYK. Anomie⚔ 16:01, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- That would be a much better idea indeed! Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 16:20, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- I agree! SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 18:18, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- Draft:In the news/Contributors I created a page if anyone wants to edit it. SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 18:21, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- I agree! SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 18:18, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
- That would be a much better idea indeed! Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 16:20, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
The use of AI-generated content
As of late, the use of AI has caused controversy. As it currently stands, the only thing we have on AI generated content is WP:LLM which is more of an essay and not a policy/guideline.
This lack of AI-generated content guideline is baffling considering the increasing prominence of AI in our daily lives. We don't have any form of guideline for such.
As such I wanted to bring up that there should be a guideline and recommend a few things:
1. As someone who uses a second language, I heavily rely on AI assistance, however, I do not believe all the content on Misplaced Pages should be AI-generated as such, I recommend the limitation of AI generated content which is as follows:
- a. While Misplaced Pages does not prohibit Wikieditors from using large language models to plan their contributions, the Wikieditor must personally check and take responsibility for every word and every fact.
- b. It cannot be used in talk pages or any form of communication. This is because AI-generated content with headlines are a mess already, and we don't need clutter on the talk pages. Plus existing guidelines require competence and communication is a social skill that is important anyways.
- c. If it is AI-generated or any form of it is, in the edit summaries, it must be disclosed. This should not be used against the editor in any form unless somehow it becomes an issue.
2. You are responsible for making sure the content generated by AI follows the guidelines and policies. You cannot make the old "oh but AI generated it, not me, so I'm not responsible." excuse. This clause is being added to avoid that excuse from causing headaches that could already be avoided in the beginning.
Many of the ideas that already exist at WP:LLM I can see also being part of the guideline. What are your thoughts on making an official policy on this. This means that the policy would rely on other policies and if the policies change, it must keep in mind about the AI policy.
As it currently stands, essays and information pages are not POLICIES & GUIDELINES so we desperately need one for the sanity of everyone here working on Misplaced Pages.
Pinging @Giant Snowman as I find he would be interested in adding some stuff regarding the creation of this policy.
Sincerely,
Reader of Information (talk) 01:06, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- By byte count, 71.38% of WP:VPP is currently taken up by discussions about AI. Why don't you join one of those discussions? Anomie⚔ 02:20, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- In this case, that wouldn’t be possible as what I’m requesting is a formal policy and guideline that actually explains what AI use is allowed and what isn’t.
- From what I understand, the other threads are asking for clarification on if AI is allowed in a certain circumstance NOT a guideline.
Cheers,
Reader of Information (talk) 11:17, 6 January 2025 (UTC)what I’m requesting is a formal policy and guideline
That's two separate things and...where is the proposal? Selfstudier (talk) 11:22, 6 January 2025 (UTC)- Whoops! I thought that it was obvious that was what I meant when I said “I recommend a few things… as follows:”. That is my fault and I’m glad I was able to clarify!
- Cheers,
Reader of Information (talk) 11:31, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- A guideline won't happen without those threads being solved. I would recommend not using AI for second-language writing, translate in small chunks if needed, and it's likely closer to what you want to say. CMD (talk) 11:30, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- I disagree. I can write in English easily when it’s what I’m expressing in terms of what I’m thinking that’s easy.
- However, whenever I write something with a lot of guidelines, I end up tensing up and my brain cannot create it completely from scratch without having random words in front of it. If random words are written already and all I need to do is revise it so it makes sense, that’s where I am able to be successful. I do this to avoid WP:MADEUP as that’s not what the Misplaced Pages project is for. That’s how I’m able to make constructive edits that contribute to Misplaced Pages as a whole. That’s also how I avoid the misuse of AI as it’s a godsend for me as someone who always tenses up when I’m writing something within guidelines and restrictions.
Of course I believe I need to clarify, I completely revise the text to the point none of the words from the AI is in the final version. - Cheers,
Reader of Information (talk) 11:41, 6 January 2025 (UTC)- That doesn't address my suggestion, which was using translation software that isn't designed to generate extra content. The idea that "none of the words from the AI is in the final version" is not believable, English is varied but generally there are some standard common words. CMD (talk) 11:44, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- Oh! I COMPLETELY misunderstood. I don’t translate it whatsoever. The only way I translate anything is through DeepL or Google Translate. If it’s worth anything my first language is sign language so you can’t really translate that language with the use of AI.
Cheers,
Reader of Information (talk) 11:51, 6 January 2025 (UTC)- Thank you, that's very helpful clarification. I'd like to know more, I'll take to the user talk. CMD (talk) 11:58, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- Oh! I COMPLETELY misunderstood. I don’t translate it whatsoever. The only way I translate anything is through DeepL or Google Translate. If it’s worth anything my first language is sign language so you can’t really translate that language with the use of AI.
- That doesn't address my suggestion, which was using translation software that isn't designed to generate extra content. The idea that "none of the words from the AI is in the final version" is not believable, English is varied but generally there are some standard common words. CMD (talk) 11:44, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- I disagree. I can write in English easily when it’s what I’m expressing in terms of what I’m thinking that’s easy.
- I'd broadly support a proposal like this. If I'm being (very) nitpicky, I'd say we shouldn't include
must contain no words that were initially created by the AI
, as this implies literally every word needs to be re-written, which might not be feasible (nor would it significantly impact AI-generated detector tools in the case of simpler phrases). — Czello 11:46, 6 January 2025 (UTC)- What would an alternative be? I’m more than open to a different way of applying it. Reader of Information (talk) 11:51, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- Whoops, I need to reclarify what I meant. I meant to say:
- Do you have any suggestions on an alternative for that part of the policy? I’m open to any ideas.
Cheers,
Reader of Information (talk) 11:52, 6 January 2025 (UTC) - "While Misplaced Pages does not prohibit Wikieditors from using large language models to plan their contributions, the Wikieditor must personally check and take responsibility for every word and every fact." How's that? If someone's little brother etc. gets into their account and violates policy, the person who holds the account is held responsible. Of course, that always involved the assumption that the user was lying about a little brother... Darkfrog24 (talk) 13:11, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- That seems reasonable to me. I’ll edit it to include that. Reader of Information (talk) 13:15, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- Isn't that already the case? LLMs do not exempt anyone from the responsibility of their edits. Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 23:51, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- What would an alternative be? I’m more than open to a different way of applying it. Reader of Information (talk) 11:51, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- Can someone here move this to idea lab, it’s clear this needs more improvement and is not ready to be implemented as I previously thought. Reader of Information (talk) 13:17, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- As I've previously discussed, I think any guidance should not refer to specific technology, which changes rapidly and has many uses. isaacl (talk) 15:53, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- I'm sympathetic to this argument but in reality we do this all the time. This isn't a perfect analogy (i.e., if you nitpick it, then I am probably already aware of what you are nitpicking) but WP:RSN and by extension WP:RSP are both extremely useful resources about any given media outlet, and also something that lags behind how reliable they are now, as opposed to when someone brought them up.
- (that is, if it wasn't just wrong from the outset; there are one or two cases where I literally know the guy employed as a fact-checker at publications people claimed were unreliable for not fact-checking) Gnomingstuff (talk) 18:36, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Emptying Category:Wikipedians
Hello, I am bringing a proposal here as I have received conflicting advice at the original discussion (perhaps due to an incorrect usage of {{edit request}}
by me?). I propose the category is either unmarked as a container, or the existing top-level user pages are sorted/removed (with possible exception of historical users?). Tule-hog (talk) 20:28, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- This comes up periodically when someone notices the container cat filling up with new users.
- Just follow the normal process of removing the users. Leave them a note to add themselves to some more appropriate subcat, if you wish. - jc37 20:43, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- Perhaps important context is that the categorization of Wikipedians is a minefield that has led to a lot of spilled ink and anger. If you dig in the archives you can find the discussions. Spending a lot of times to make those categories look nice does not help us achieve our goal of writing an encyclopedia, and therefore it may be considered a waste of time by some. See also Category:Wikipedians who retain deleted categories on their userpages.
{{edit request}}
is for when you can't make the edit so someone else has to do it for you (e.g. if you need an admin to edit a page you can't edit because it has been protected). Polygnotus (talk) 20:48, 6 January 2025 (UTC)- Did we finish the encyclopaedia? If nit surely there's some reader-facing makework we could do? HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 20:51, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- How are we ever supposed to finish when you keep writing new articles? You are part of the problem! I propose we get rid of all articles, except horse, and then we replace the content with a single sentence. Polygnotus (talk) 20:57, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
- Did we finish the encyclopaedia? If nit surely there's some reader-facing makework we could do? HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 20:51, 6 January 2025 (UTC)