After ten years of service, it just takes the actions of one admin!
Removal of rollback
Hi. Having seen the report at WP:ANI, and also examined some of your edits, I have removed your rollback flag per the policy : "Use of standard rollback for any other purposes – such as reverting good-faith changes which you happen to disagree with – is likely to be considered misuse of the tool." and "Similarly, editors who edit war may lose the privilege regardless of the means used to edit war." such as your edit-warring at Taylor Gang Entertainment. This is not a reason to roll back, nor is this (notability is a criteria for standalone articles, what you might mean here is "not verifiable" or "no source supplied" or "off-topic for this article"). The practical upshot is that you can still revert edits without requiring rollback, and it will mandate you having to add an accurate edit summary for every edit you undo. For what it's worth, I have made hundreds of thousands of edits to Wikipedia without ever needing rollback, and although it is de-facto included as part of the admin toolset, I didn't ask for it and have a script that manually disables it. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 11:26, 14 December 2021 (UTC)
- Addition - I have opened this action for review at Wikipedia:Administrative action review in case you wish to challenge or appeal. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 12:52, 14 December 2021 (UTC)
- Hello, per my close at XRV, I've returned your Rollback userrights. I will note that the use of full-rollback coupled with redwarn edit summaries remains somewhat unclear under policy interpretation, and should be considered for use (over, say, RW's pseudo-rollback) in the future, unless/until a policy text change occurs. Yours, Nosebagbear (talk) 11:50, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
- Thanks Nosebagbear. So what exactly did I do wrong that warranted this initial action by Ritchie333? Robvanvee 13:27, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
- In terms of the rollback use, I believe you were fine to act the way you did, as edit summaries were provided. There were other concerns raised, such as with regard to non-3RR edit warring (you can read some more on that in the XRV case), but Ritchie can also expand on that Nosebagbear (talk) 13:32, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
- The problem, as discussed at WP:XRV, appears to be that the rollback policy is confusing and out of date with respect to modern tools like Redwarn. I think we need to have a discussion on revisiting the policy at some point; in any case, that doesn't affect this. I'd personally rather that Redwarn just marked these edits as "undo", which is what they really are, as Rollback was only ever designed as a bulk sledgehammer for seriously disruptive vandals. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 15:13, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
- OK Nosebagbear so just for clarification, I did nothing wrong with regards to rollback (the EW issue was already dealt with by Jayron32 on the ANI report where I responded positively to his warning), yet I'm accused here, at the ANI report and at XRV of abusing the tool until Ritchie333 is corrected by pretty much everyone at XRV. On top of that, after nearly 10 years of almost disruption-free editing (the EW incident being a first) I'm not even given the courtesy of at least a note or a warning on my talk page before having my rollback right removed. Where is your assumption of good faith? This action seemingly motivated in some part by my non response to the IP in the conversation preceeding this one (Ritchie333, do you even know what unfolded there before you jumped to conclusions?). To say this is absolute bullshit and an apology is due is an understatement in my opinion. If you're not going to be held to account for your mistake (which I've no interest in seeing TBH) at least have the decency to man-up, acknowledge your fault and apologise. Robvanvee 09:08, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
- Rob, your messages appears to have a very mixed aim - is it targeted at Ritchie or myself? Ritchie can speak for himself, in regards to my actions, my involved is limited purely to assessing the consensus of XRV, which opted for returning the userrights, which I did. I would note that while return of the userrights was a very clear position, the judgement as to whether its use was flawed, at all, was not unanimous (notwithstanding others raising issue of EW). Nosebagbear (talk) 12:43, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
- Thanks Nosebagbear. I'm talking to Ritchie333 and referring to his questionable actions in this matter. Robvanvee 13:20, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
- I was following a policy that turns out to be outdated and wrong. Retiring and calling me a "wanker" is not going to help your case. Can you chill out, and just remember most of us are trying to do the right thing here. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 11:48, 19 December 2021 (UTC)
- Thanks Nosebagbear. I'm talking to Ritchie333 and referring to his questionable actions in this matter. Robvanvee 13:20, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
- Rob, your messages appears to have a very mixed aim - is it targeted at Ritchie or myself? Ritchie can speak for himself, in regards to my actions, my involved is limited purely to assessing the consensus of XRV, which opted for returning the userrights, which I did. I would note that while return of the userrights was a very clear position, the judgement as to whether its use was flawed, at all, was not unanimous (notwithstanding others raising issue of EW). Nosebagbear (talk) 12:43, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
- OK Nosebagbear so just for clarification, I did nothing wrong with regards to rollback (the EW issue was already dealt with by Jayron32 on the ANI report where I responded positively to his warning), yet I'm accused here, at the ANI report and at XRV of abusing the tool until Ritchie333 is corrected by pretty much everyone at XRV. On top of that, after nearly 10 years of almost disruption-free editing (the EW incident being a first) I'm not even given the courtesy of at least a note or a warning on my talk page before having my rollback right removed. Where is your assumption of good faith? This action seemingly motivated in some part by my non response to the IP in the conversation preceeding this one (Ritchie333, do you even know what unfolded there before you jumped to conclusions?). To say this is absolute bullshit and an apology is due is an understatement in my opinion. If you're not going to be held to account for your mistake (which I've no interest in seeing TBH) at least have the decency to man-up, acknowledge your fault and apologise. Robvanvee 09:08, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
- The problem, as discussed at WP:XRV, appears to be that the rollback policy is confusing and out of date with respect to modern tools like Redwarn. I think we need to have a discussion on revisiting the policy at some point; in any case, that doesn't affect this. I'd personally rather that Redwarn just marked these edits as "undo", which is what they really are, as Rollback was only ever designed as a bulk sledgehammer for seriously disruptive vandals. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 15:13, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
- In terms of the rollback use, I believe you were fine to act the way you did, as edit summaries were provided. There were other concerns raised, such as with regard to non-3RR edit warring (you can read some more on that in the XRV case), but Ritchie can also expand on that Nosebagbear (talk) 13:32, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
- Thanks Nosebagbear. So what exactly did I do wrong that warranted this initial action by Ritchie333? Robvanvee 13:27, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
- Hello, per my close at XRV, I've returned your Rollback userrights. I will note that the use of full-rollback coupled with redwarn edit summaries remains somewhat unclear under policy interpretation, and should be considered for use (over, say, RW's pseudo-rollback) in the future, unless/until a policy text change occurs. Yours, Nosebagbear (talk) 11:50, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
Wikipedia's loss
I'm not around much these days, but I saw your retirement notice and just wanted to say thanks for all you've done for this encyclopedia. When I was actively editing we occasionally crossed paths while dealing with PR socks on music articles, and I always appreciated your constant hard work to make Wikipedia better, especially in areas where people were so persistent in trying to make Wikipedia worse. However you move on from here, I'm sorry this happened to you, and I wish you all the best. Indignant Flamingo (talk) 05:32, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
The Signpost: 28 December 2021
- From the editor: Here is the news
- News and notes: Jimbo's NFT, new arbs, fixing RfA, and financial statements
- Serendipity: Born three months before her brother?
- In the media: The past is not even past
- Arbitration report: A new crew for '22
- By the numbers: Four billion words and a few numbers
- Deletion report: We laughed, we cried, we closed as "no consensus"
- Gallery: Wikicommons presents: 2021
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- Crossword: Another Wiki crossword for one and all
- Humour: Buying Wikipedia
The Signpost: 30 January 2022
- Special report: WikiEd course leads to Twitter harassment
- News and notes: Feedback for Board of Trustees election
- Interview: CEO Maryana Iskander "four weeks in"
- Black History Month: What are you doing for Black History Month?
- WikiProject report: The Forgotten Featured
- Arbitration report: New arbitrators look at new case and antediluvian sanctions
- Traffic report: The most viewed articles of 2021
- Obituary: Twofingered Typist
- Essay: The prime directive
- In the media: Fuzzy-headed government editing
- Recent research: Articles with higher quality ratings have fewer "knowledge gaps"
- Crossword: Cross swords with a crossword
The Signpost: 27 February 2022
- From the team: Selection of a new Signpost Editor-in-Chief
- News and notes: Impacts of Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Special report: A presidential candidate's team takes on Wikipedia
- In the media: Wiki-drama in the UK House of Commons
- Technology report: Community Wishlist Survey results
- WikiProject report: 10 years of tea
- Featured content: Featured Content returns
- Deletion report: The 10 most SHOCKING deletion discussions of February
- Recent research: How editors and readers may be emotionally affected by disasters and terrorist attacks
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- Crossword: A Crossword, featuring Featured Articles
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The Signpost: 27 March 2022
- From the Signpost team: How The Signpost is documenting the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
- News and notes: Of safety and anonymity
- Eyewitness Wikimedian – Kharkiv, Ukraine: Countering Russian aggression with a camera
- Eyewitness Wikimedian – Vinnytsia, Ukraine: War diary
- Eyewitness Wikimedian – Western Ukraine: Working with Wikipedia helps
- Disinformation report: The oligarchs' socks
- In the media: Ukraine, Russia, and even some other stuff
- Wikimedian perspective: My heroes from Russia, Ukraine & beyond
- Discussion report: Athletes are less notable now
- Technology report: 2022 Wikimedia Hackathon
- Arbitration report: Skeptics given heavenly judgement, whirlwind of Discord drama begins to spin for tropical cyclone editors
- Traffic report: War, what is it good for?
- Deletion report: Ukraine, werewolves, Ukraine, YouTube pundits, and Ukraine
- From the archives: Burn, baby burn
- Essay: Yes, the sky is blue
- Tips and tricks: Become a keyboard ninja
- On the bright side: The bright side of news
The Signpost: 24 April 2022
- News and notes: Double trouble
- In the media: The battlegrounds outside and inside Wikipedia
- Special report: Ukrainian Wikimedians during the war
- Eyewitness Wikimedian – Vinnytsia, Ukraine: War diary (Part 2)
- Technology report: 8-year-old attribution issues in Media Viewer
- Featured content: Wikipedia's best content from March
- Interview: On a war and a map
- Serendipity: Wikipedia loves photographs, but hates photographers
- Traffic report: Justice Jackson, the Smiths, and an invasion
- News from the WMF: How Smart is the SMART Copyright Act?
- Humour: Really huge message boxes
- From the archives: Wales resigned WMF board chair in 2006 reorganization
New Page Patrol newsletter May 2022
Hello Robvanvee,
At the time of the last newsletter (No.26, September 2021), the backlog was 'only' just over 6,000 articles. In the past six months, the backlog has reached nearly 16,000, a staggering level not seen in several years. A very small number of users had been doing the vast majority of the reviews. Due to "burn-out", we have recently lost most of this effort. Furthermore, several reviewers have been stripped of the user right for abuse of privilege and the articles they patrolled were put back in the queue.
Several discussions on the state of the process have taken place on the talk page, but there has been no action to make any changes. The project also lacks coordination since the "position" is vacant.
In the last 30 days, only 100 reviewers have made more than 8 patrols and only 50 have averaged one review a day. There are currently 736 New Page Reviewers, but about a third have not had any activity in the past month. All 1032 administrators have this permission, but only about a dozen significantly contribute to NPP.
This means we have an active pool of about 450 to address the backlog. We cannot rely on a few to do most of the work as that inevitably leads to burnout. A fairly experienced reviewer can usually do a review in a few minutes. If every active reviewer would patrol just one article per day, the backlog would very quickly disappear.
If you have noticed a user with a good understanding of Wikipedia notability and deletion, do suggest they help the effort by placing {{subst:NPR invite}}
on their talk page.
If you are no longer very active on Wikipedia or you no longer wish to be part of the New Page Reviewer user group, please consider asking any admin to remove you from the list. This will enable NPP to have a better overview of its performance and what improvements need to be made to the process and its software.
To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here.
Sent 05:18, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
The Signpost: 29 May 2022
- From the team: A changing of the guard
- News and notes: 2022 Wikimedia Board elections
- Community view: Have your say in the 2022 Wikimedia Foundation Board elections
- In the media: Putin, Jimbo, Musk and more
- Special report: Three stories of Ukrainian Wikimedians during the war
- Discussion report: Portals, April Fools, admin activity requirements and more
- WikiProject report: WikiProject COVID-19 revisited
- Technology report: A new video player for Wikimedia wikis
- Featured content: Featured Content of April
- Interview: Wikipedia's pride
- Serendipity: Those thieving image farms
- Recent research: 35 million Twitter links analysed
- Tips and tricks: The reference desks of Wikipedia
- Traffic report: Strange highs and strange lows
- News from Diff: Winners of the Human rights and Environment special nomination by Wiki Loves Earth announced
- News from the WMF: The EU Digital Services Act: What’s the Deal with the Deal?
- From the archives: The Onion and Wikipedia
- Humour: A new crossword
New Page Patrol newsletter June 2022
Hello Robvanvee,
- Backlog status
At the time of the last newsletter (No.27, May 2022), the backlog was approaching 16,000, having shot up rapidly from 6,000 over the prior two months. The attention the newsletter brought to the backlog sparked a flurry of activity. There was new discussion on process improvements, efforts to invite new editors to participate in NPP increased and more editors requested the NPP user right so they could help, and most importantly, the number of reviews picked up and the backlog decreased, dipping below 14,000[a] at the end of May.
Since then, the news has not been so good. The backlog is basically flat, hovering around 14,200. I wish I could report the number of reviews done and the number of new articles added to the queue. But the available statistics we have are woefully inadequate. The only real number we have is the net queue size.[b]
In the last 30 days, the top 100 reviewers have all made more than 16 patrols (up from 8 last month), and about 70 have averaged one review a day (up from 50 last month).
While there are more people doing more reviews, many of the ~730 with the NPP right are doing little. Most of the reviews are being done by the top 50 or 100 reviewers. They need your help. We appreciate every review done, but please aim to do one a day (on average, or 30 a month).
- Backlog drive
A backlog reduction drive, coordinated by buidhe and Zippybonzo, will be held from July 1 to July 31. Sign up here. Barnstars will be awarded.
- TIP – New school articles
Many new articles on schools are being created by new users in developing and/or non-English-speaking countries. The authors are probably not even aware of Wikipedia's projects and policy pages. WP:WPSCH/AG has some excellent advice and resources specifically written for these users. Reviewers could consider providing such first-time article creators with a link to it while also mentioning that not all schools pass the GNG and that elementary schools are almost certainly not notable.
- Misc
There is a new template available, {{NPP backlog}}
, to show the current backlog. You can place it on your user or talk page as a reminder:
>NPP backlog: 8689 as of 16:00, 19 July 2022 (UTC)
There has been significant discussion at WP:VPP recently on NPP-related matters (Draftification, Deletion, Notability, Verifiability, Burden). Proposals that would somewhat ease the burden on NPP aren't gaining much traction, although there are suggestions that the role of NPP be fundamentally changed to focus only on major CSD-type issues.
- Reminders
- Consider staying informed on project issues by putting the project discussion page on your watchlist.
- If you have noticed a user with a good understanding of Wikipedia notability and deletion, suggest they help the effort by placing
{{subst:NPR invite}}
on their talk page. - If you are no longer very active on Wikipedia or you no longer wish to be part of the New Page Reviewer user group, please consider asking any admin to remove you from the list. This will enable NPP to have a better overview of its performance and what improvements need to be made to the process and its software.
- To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here.
- Notes
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:02, 24 June 2022 (UTC)
The Signpost: 26 June 2022
- News and notes: WMF inks new rules on government-ordered takedowns, blasts Russian feds' censor demands, spends big bucks
- In the media: Editor given three-year sentence, big RfA makes news, Guy Standing takes it sitting down
- Special report: "Wikipedia's independence" or "Wikimedia's pile of dosh"?
- Discussion report: MoS rules on CCP name mulled, XRV axe plea nulled, mass drafting bid pulled
- Featured content: Articles on Scots' clash, Yank's tux, Austrian's action flick deemed brilliant prose
- Recent research: Wikipedia versus academia (again), tables' "immortality" probed
- Serendipity: Was she really a Swiss lesbian automobile racer?
- News from the WMF: Wikimedia Enterprise signs first deals
- Gallery: Celebration of summer, winter
NPP July 2022 backlog drive is on!
New Page Patrol | July 2022 Backlog Drive | |
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