Wikimedia Fellowships/Proposals/Study on Flagged revisions or pending changes

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Proposal for a Wikimedia Fellowship, where the fellow would conduct research on the effectiveness of flagged revisions and pending changes

Background[edit]

Wikimedia is a project that is open to all to edit and as a result experiences quite a bit of vandalism. There are various solutions to this including ways to systematically screen all edits by users who have not become "trusted users". Different Wikimedia Projects have taken different measures to combat this vandalsim including flagged revisions such as in use on DE wiki and pending changes which has been trialled on EN wiki.

There is some uncertainty amongst Wikimedians as to how effective these measures are at protecting our projects from vandalism and as to how these measures are perceived by new and intermittent editors.

Product, goals, and metrics[edit]

The fellow is expected to assess the various options trialled on different projects and collect statistically valid evidence to compare their effectiveness both at keeping our projects free of vandalism and at keeping our projects open for new editors to edit with minimal accidental reversion of good edits.


The Fellow would need to be able to communicate with the community as to what options they are comparing and under which criteria.

Bonus features[edit]

Recommendations as to how existing systems could be modified both to screen out more vandalism and also to be less offputting to new editors.

Logistics[edit]

This would be a Community Fellowship, as it would benefit many WMF projects.

The fellow could be located anywhere, but would need to be available to present findings at Wikimania and possibly other events.


Fellow(s) responsible for this proposal[edit]

If the proposal has community support, then it would be nice if appropriately qualified people would bid for such a fellowship. Statistical knowledge and understanding of Wikimedia would be prime qualifications, but a working knowledge of both German and English would be desirable.

Applicants[edit]

This section is for Wikimedians who would like to undertake this project: (Please state whether you need a grant or would do this as a volunteer)

Endorsements[edit]

This section is for endorsements by Wikimedia volunteers. Please note that this is not a debate, vote, or poll, but is rather a space for volunteers to describe in detail why they think a fellowship project is or is not of value. If you have concerns or questions rather than an endorsement to make, please do so here. Endorsements by volunteers willing to work in collaboration with a fellowship recipient on a project are highly encouraged.

  1. As proposal initial author, I would be happy to liaise with and advise the Fellow who took this on. WereSpielChequers 14:21, 19 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]