Talk:Global rollback

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RFC: removal of global rollback due to inactivity

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In the last discussion it was mentioned the possibility to establish an inactivity policy for global rollbackers as well. By looking at the list of users with global rollback rights I see a lot of users that at some time were active in the SWMT and helped over there, but now they do not engage in such activities. Since for granting this right the policy says that the user must be demonstrably active in activities where this permissions might be required, I think that users that hold this rights should have, at least, some minimum use of this right or it should be removed.

In the past threads where this was discussed there was agreement that an inactivity policy would be fine, but a criteria was never set. This RFC intends to seek such criteria and enact it in the policy if the community agrees with it.

I'd say that if any user with global rollback rights does not perform a number of rollbacks outside the wikis where they have rollback or admin rights in a whole year will be demoted, with the posibility of re-applying through the regular way.

Thanks. -- MarcoAurelio (talk) 14:05, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Do we have stats on how many go missing after one year and do not return within two? What is the means that we would be looking to measure when they last used the tool? Or is it just an editing presence?

In light of the proposal around advanced administrative rights, I am wondering whether you would consider a two year period. We prod after one year of inactivity, and remove no further notice after the second. I am wanting something low maintenance but effective. There is not a lot of risk of the right being held for too long, but it is needed to be removed rather than left drift forever. — billinghurst sDrewth 15:38, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

What problem is this proposal going to solve? Rollback only allows users to do an action, which any user can do with two click of mouse, with just one click. Rollback is hardly an "advanced right". Ruslik (talk) 18:31, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

It is not always technically possible to recognize whether a certain revert has been performed using rollback or not, as there are some scripts to customize the edit summary of rollbacks, so it would be impossible to consequently implement an inactivity policy for global rollbackers. I also agree with Ruslik. Regards --Iste (D) 19:57, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

I don't see any reason why rollback needs to have inactivity standards. It doesn't do much damage, it's granted to trust people and if they go rogue we can always remove it. Almost all global rollbackers have much more sensitive permissions anyway, and if they want to wreak havoc they'll use those. It is not an advanced right and there's no major harm in letting them keep it. Snowolf ^{How can I help?} 20:11, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

I do not think that users that went inactive in the activities that lead them requesting this permission —primary SWMT— should continue to have it, as with any other additional rights. We even have formally retired editors holding this global rollback permission, and it respectfully makes no sense to me. If they returned they would be great but I think that additional rights of any sort are to be used, and when the need of them ceases, they should be resigned. Yes, it makes no harm to keep inactive people populating that list; but the same could be said of practically any other permissions.

Regarding the point Iste Praetor mentions, I agree that measuring the inactivity just based on the use of rollback would be difficult in some cases. I do not think that should be the standard. I was thinking more like checking if the user has still some activity in SWMT. I think that it would be very simple and easy with tools like "luxo". I think that there are reasonable doubts of inactivity in SWMT if the user has not made a single edit outiside his/her regular wikis in a year or in two years. It is unlikely that users that have some activity in the SWMT doesn't have a number of edits outside the wikis they're regulary active on IMHO.

I tend to agree with Billinghurst above that we do not need a complicated system but something simpler and effective. The discussion is open to propose methods. I'd propose that rather than setting hard inactivity standards like X number of rollbacks on Y time, I would, for example, message the users that seem to be inactive on their talk pages asking if they are still interested in doing SWMT and keeping the permission. If they do not respond in one month or say that are no longer interested, the permissions are removed; otherwise if the user say that is still interested in helping and keeping the permission the permissions can be kept. Result: in the worst case we will have an inactive user returning from inactivity and joining the SWMT sporadically just to keep the permission (which is help after all) or, in more happy cases, we will encourage users returning to activity because they have discovered the passion of doing SWMT activies again ;-).

Best regards and thanks for your participation. -- MarcoAurelio (talk) 13:25, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Is this a vote? If so, I Support an inactivity policy for global rollbackers. No need to have them forever if people are inactive imho. Trijnstel_talk 20:17, 21 April 2013 (UTC)

I think this is a solution in search of a problem. What kind of damage or inefficiency can an inactive rollbacker cause? Besides, we can't have an inactivity policy without a defined expectation for activity. As Iste Praetor said, it can be difficult to tell what is a rollback and what is not. PiRSquared17 (talk) 20:30, 11 May 2013 (UTC)