Wikipedia:German page approval solution

A recent article in BBC News discusses a change being made to the policy in the german language site as stated in the article:

There's been quite a lot of discussion about this article over on the Wikipedia mailing lists, and as a result the details of what the German group are proposing to do are a lot clearer.

Rather than hold any pending edits until they are approved, edits will still be allowed to any unlocked page on the site.

Unregistered users will not automatically see these pages when they visit, so that the chances that someone will inadvertently come across a vandalised page should be reduced, but the pages will still be available if someone wants to see them.

There's no decision yet as to who will be able to "approve" a page, and of course the English-language Wikipedia is simply watching what happens in Germany and seeing how it works, so there will be no change for those of us who use the English version.

I would like to suggest a system for approval, which would reduce the amount of vandalism, and keep approval time extremely short. Registered users could have a link in the navigation page or toolbox similar to the Random article link that is labeled "Approve Random Edit". This link would take them to the compare selected versions page of an edit that has not been approved and is not their own, showing the difference between the current approved revision and the new revision pending approval. The registered user would then be presented with links containing several options such as these:

• "Approve this edit" - makes this edit visible on the current version of the page, adds to a positive feedback rating that the editor has, and brings the user to a new random edit
• "Cannot decide" - does not approve the edit, records that the edit has not had a decision, does not affect a feedback rating, and brings the user to a new random edit
• "Improper edit" - stops the edit from appearing, and does not change a positive feedback rating because the edit appeared wrong due to mistakes in the writing or other flaws without malicious intent
• "Vandalism" - Stops the edit from appearing, and places a mark against the user's positive feedback rating. Users can be banned temporarily or permanently if their feedback rating drops below certian levels.

The purpose of such a system would not be to verify the accuracy of the content or to necessarily have the registered user read it in detail, but to prevent clear acts vandalism and other policy violations. It would also allow an extremely quick turnaround for edits while still having a verification process that prevents vandalim. People who do check edits could also have their approvals recorded in the history with the edits, so that individuals that maliciously approve vandalism, or disapprove legitimate edits can be blocked from using that feature or face other account related consequences similar to those of straight vandals as necessary. This system could also be restricted to protect pages subject to vandalism or protected for other reasons, to prevent backlogging and/or distraction from wikipedia's basic principles. Further refinement or suggestions to this idea would be greatly appreciated.

An additional, lower throughoput saftey measure could be determined necessary requiring more than one approval or disapproval of an edit before edits are applied or marks are made on a user's records. The number of approvals or disapprovals can be weighted in a manner that favors approval or disfavors marks of vandalism (e.g. 2 vandalism marks required to degrade user ratings and prevent edits with only one approval mark to put the edit on the current page or visa versa).

Doomdayx 20:06, 31 August 2006 (UTC)