The following is a feature request for Wikipedia, the details of which may still be in development or under discussion. As a whole, this request should be discussed with the developers, who will decide whether or not to act on it.

This page in a nutshell: On a page, instead of requiring review for all edits as is done by normal flagged revisions, only suspect edits are deferred for review. Flagged revisions can still be used on pages where it is activated.

While flagged revisions is an efficient tool to deal with vandalism, which potentially affects all articles on Wikipedia, there is no consensus to enable it over all articles. However, we could use an automated system, such as the abuse filter, to identify suspect edits and defer them, and only them, to a trusted user for review. This doesn't require any type of flagged revisions, but can work with it. For example, one could use this system and a form of flag protection for certain articles. This is primarily intended to deal with obvious vandalism, but may also be used for test edits, spam and identification of certain other potentially harmful edits.

Contents 1 Description 1.1 Filtering 1.2 Monitoring and logs 2 Possible filters 3 Examples of situations 3.1 Example 1 3.2 Example 2 3.3 Example 3 3.4 Example 4 4 External links

[edit] Description

FlaggedRevs works by creating a hierarchy of flags that certain users can apply to revisions, and by allowing wiki administrators to set two 'bars' - the minimum level of flag that is required for a revision to become the "stable version", and which alias of a page (the "stable" version or the "current" version) is visible to unregistered readers. Every revision that is not explicitly flagged at a higher level is implicitly flagged with a 'zero' flag. So a page that is not reviewed is effectively a page on which the 'zero' flag is sufficient for a revision to become the stable version.

The AbuseFilter works by monitoring edits made to pages, testing them against filters to identify suspicious behavior, and then taking action based on the likely nature of the edit. The filter can disallow edits, warn the editor, or remove the editor's autoconfirmed status.

This proposal involves modifying the AbuseFilter to create a new available action: the ability to flag revision with a negative flag. Only in this instance will the edit not be visible immediately; instead it will await review in the same manner as edits in other FlaggedRevs proposals. Unlike other FlaggedRevs implementations, this means that in the majority of instances users will not even be aware that FlaggedRevs is operating on a page until the AbuseFilter identifies a potentially-unconstructive edit.

[edit] Filtering

A possibility is to use a "negative" flag, available for the abuse filter, though possibly given to a user group if needed, so that the hierarchy of flags is:

[deferred] (-1) - [unreviewed] (0) - [reviewed] (+1) - [validated] (+2)

Then the flag protection levels are unchanged except the default:

1. none (default): the latest unreviewed, reviewed or validated version is displayed by default (equivalently, the latest non-negatively reviewed version)
2. semi: the latest reviewed or validated version is displayed by default (equivalently, the latest positively reviewed revision)
3. full: the latest validated version is displayed by default

In order to filter out suspect edits:

• when a user edits a page with a latest revision that is not deferred and it matches a defer-filter, all latest edits by the user to this page are deferred.
• when a user edits a page with a latest revision that is deferred and it still matches a defer-filter (the same or another), it is deferred.

If an edit by an autoconfirmed user who is not a reviewer to a reviewed page matches the filter and thus triggers the previous action, it should not be automatically reviewed.

[edit] Monitoring and logs

This can be enabled for all non-talk pages, not only articles. To monitor deferred revisions, it would require the following special pages restricted to reviewers:

• Special:DeferredPages: all pages with a deferred latest revision
• Special:OldDeferredPages: all pages with a non-deferred latest revision and with an old deferred revision with no prior revision either reviewed, patrolled or whose deferred status has been removed manually by a reviewer (i.e. not by the action of editing)

Special:DeferredPages contains a review link for each entry, which links to the diff between the latest non-suspect revision and the latest version. If possible, Special:OldDeferredPages could skip pages when the diff between the latest non-suspect revision before the deferral and the latest revision is null (to avoid rollbacked or undid edits).

For reviewers, when the right revision in a diff is deferred, there is in this case the additional 'defer' level (before 'unreviewed'), and the revision can be brought back to unreviewed state if it is a false positive (if the page is not reviewable, there is only defer and unreviewed, if semi flag protected, there is also review).

Reviewers are normally exempted from deferral, but it may be possible to create an option for certain high risk filters such that:

• revisions matching the filter cannot be overridden by reviewers that are not administrators
• when a non-admin reviewer edits a reviewed page, the next revision is not automatically reviewed

On the history page, [deferred by the abuse filter] appears next to revisions deferred by the abuse filter.

[edit] Possible filters

Those are examples of possible filters. Each filter will require consensus before implementation.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• massive addition
• important removal
• important replace
• replace page with
• blank page
• redirect page (possibly with conditions)
• add link (including transclusion) to a namespace other than main, template, category, portal and file
• rmv from category:living people
• rmv disambiguation template
• rmv xfd template
• rmv speedy deletion template
• transclude non existent
• add a filtered image (more inclusive than the bad image list)
• add a filtered external link (more inclusive than the spam blacklist)
• include non-existent or remote image
• various test edits (example image, link title, ...)

[edit] Examples of situations

[edit] Example 1

History

• 00:07, 01 January 2009 Example (talk) (12540 bytes) (reverted edits by 127.0.0.1 (talk) to last version by 127.0.0.0) (undo)
• 00:00, 01 January 2009 127.0.0.1 (talk) (650 bytes) (undo) [deferred by the abuse filter]
• 16:50, 28 December 2008 127.0.0.0 (talk) (12540 bytes) (undo)

Review log

• 00:00, 01 January 2009 Abuse filter deferred 1 edit by 127.0.0.1 (talk) (matches filter x)

Special:DeferredPages at 00:04, 01 January 2009

• Page (-11890) (review) (4 minutes)

Comments

127.0.0.1 removed mass content or mass replaced, this has been detected by the abuse filter and deferred until User:Example reverted the edit.

This page will appear in Special:OldDeferredPages because it has not been manually unreviewed, until the page is patrolled (except if OldDeferredPages can handle null edits).

[edit] Example 2

History

• 00:07, 01 January 2009 127.0.0.2 (talk) (12560 bytes) (Undid revision ... by 127.0.0.1 (talk)) (undo)
• 00:07, 01 January 2009 127.0.0.2 (talk) (10526 bytes) (Undid revision ... by 127.0.0.1 (talk) rvv) (undo)
• 00:05, 01 January 2009 127.0.0.2 (talk) (8870 bytes) (add link) (undo) [deferred by the abuse filter]
• 00:02, 01 January 2009 127.0.0.1 (talk) (8850 bytes) (undo) [deferred by the abuse filter]
• 00:00, 01 January 2009 127.0.0.1 (talk) (10506 bytes) (undo) [deferred by the abuse filter]
• 16:50, 28 December 2008 127.0.0.0 (talk) (12540 bytes) (undo)

Review log

• 00:05, 01 January 2009 Abuse filter deferred 1 edit by 127.0.0.2 (talk) (matches filter x)
• 00:02, 01 January 2009 Abuse filter deferred 2 edits by 127.0.0.1 (talk) (matches filter x)

Special:DeferredPages at 00:04, 01 January 2009

• Page (-3690) (review) (4 minutes)

Special:DeferredPages at 00:06, 01 January 2009

• Page (-3670) (review) (6 minutes)

Comments

Assume 127.0.0.1 has removed content on the two occasions. In this case, the abuse filter hasn't deferred the first edit by 127.0.0.1, because the bytes removed were insufficient to trigger the filter, but it did on the second occasion, by comparing with the latest revision before 127.0.0.1 edited: the latest revision by 127.0.0.0. When 127.0.0.2 added the link, the filter was still triggered, so 127.0.0.2 got a message explaining the situation, then checked the history and undid the revisions by 127.0.0.1. The first undo has been enough to no longer trigger the filter.

This page will appear in Special:OldDeferredPages because it has not been manually unreviewed, until the page is patrolled.

[edit] Example 3

History at 00:04, 01 January 2009

• 00:00, 01 January 2009 127.0.0.1 (talk) (9506 bytes) (undo) [deferred by the abuse filter]
• 16:50, 28 December 2008 127.0.0.0 (talk) (12540 bytes) (undo)

History at 00:08, 01 January 2009

• 00:00, 01 January 2009 127.0.0.1 (talk) (9506 bytes) (undo)
• 16:50, 28 December 2008 127.0.0.0 (talk) (12540 bytes) (undo)

Review log

• 00:06, 01 January 2009 Example (talk) unreviewed revision ... by 127.0.0.1 (legitimate removal)
• 00:02, 01 January 2009 Abuse filter deferred 1 edit by 127.0.0.1 (talk) (matches filter x)

Comments

The edit by 127.0.0.1 appeared to be a legitimate removal of content, even though it triggered a filter, so the deferral has been cleared by Reviewer:Example. This page will not appear in Special:OldDeferredPages as the deferral has been manually removed.

[edit] Example 4

History

• 00:12, 01 January 2009 Example (talk) (8455 bytes) (remove vandalism) (undo)
• 00:02, 01 January 2009 127.0.0.1 (talk) (8850 bytes) (undo) [deferred by the abuse filter]
• 00:00, 01 January 2009 127.0.0.1 (talk) (10506 bytes) (undo) [deferred by the abuse filter]
• 16:50, 28 December 2008 127.0.0.0 (talk) (12540 bytes) (undo)

Review log

• 00:02, 01 January 2009 Abuse filter deferred 1 edit by 127.0.0.1 (talk) (matches filter x)
• 00:00, 01 January 2009 Abuse filter deferred 1 edit by 127.0.0.1 (talk) (matches filter x)

Comments

Assume 127.0.0.1 has removed content and replaced with bad material, which the abuse filter deferred on both occasions. Example, an inexperienced user, noticed the vandalism when viewing the page and removed it. Unfortunately, s/he didn't notice that content had been removed. This page will appear in Special:OldDeferredPages, thus signaling the situation to a reviewer.

[edit] External links

• Related bug: bug 1189http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1189