Hi, I have stumbled across the Featured Articles promoted on the first page of wikiHow completely blanked or at times, starting with an introduction similar to <blockquotes>“BEFORE YOU READ THIS SHIT, IT’S THE MOST STUPIDEST FUCKING THING I EVER HEARD IN MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE…”</blockquotes>wikiHow is currently ranked 621 in the world with 25 million+ traffic and its quite weird to see such edits lasting long enough in FA. I have reverted those edits whenever I came across them. On an average, a featured article gets vandalized about 2-4 times within few hours after it is added to the feed. And they last for about 1-5 minutes, so a portion of the visitors get to see the vandalized version of articles. For instance, here
. Similar messages could be seen on discussion pages of Featured Articles. I had a thought. The edits made by anonymous users on FA(only those which are featured on the home page) shouldn’t be published until an editor patrols it. And this usually doesn’t take more than 5 minutes, therefore the useful edits don’t get lost in the process. I have seen the tendency for protecting pages, but this would restrict editing completely (for anonymous users in most cases), so what do you guys think? Please share your thoughts
Regards, Livorde
Also, is this implementable? Or do we have any other plans to take care of this in future?
Harri
3
Mm, there is a tool in the editor’s toolbar
which should theoretically mean that featured articles get patrolled first, but I guess not so many people use it anymore, as is detailed in this thread http://forums.wikihow.com/discussion/492/are-there-any-people-who-still-check-out-the-fas
As to page protection, personally I’m not for it, as these articles get a lot more views than others and thus are more likely to be seen by someone with useful information to add. But definitely agree that FA vandalism is an issue that needs to be looked into.
I know on Wikipedia they do something where they have to have some one approve edits for certain articles before they go live to the site. I would like to see the results of this practice before any decidsion is made about whether we should do this on wikiHow. I’d also like to say that this is not a new issue. It was a problem back in '06 and that’s why the wH toolbar was created. We’ve also talked about it a few weeks ago in the forums. So many people are aware of the issue and have been for a while. I think one of the things we should look into is how to get more people using the toolbar. I know that sometimes I need to turn it off because the flashing monkey face can be distracting. Problem is I forget to turn it back on.
system
5
Another POV that kind of seems to be left on the side most of the time is that even if a person does have the toolbar installed, they have their own reasons upon why they’re not patrolling/watching over the FAs: - They have it (the toolbar) hidden - They are not active on the computer - They are not in the “wiki” mind/mood I’ll take myself as an example. I have the toolbar showing at all times, but for the most part of the day, I decide on doing the third option. Yes, I’m online, should my online relaxation be interrupted when the monkey goes off after I put my child to sleep? And on similar lines from what Elocina has said, the toolbar (in general) in the past recent years have been really helpful. When I came in March 2007, the daily averageamount of total unpatrolled edits were somewhere between 1000 and 1300.
system
6
Agreed. The toolbar is something I have but don’t use. We can make a point to use it more to watch after those sacred FA’s. Good point.
Jordan
7
I have the toolbar installed, but like Maluniu said, there are a number of times I’m not active at the computer to notice an unpatrolled FA, or I’m working on something important elsewhere online and can’t immediately direct my attention away from it. I do agree, though, that this does have to be watched more carefully if possible, as I’ve seen several passing readers who report a vandalized FA on the ANB, or the FA itself is left changed for hours until readers start posting about the inappropriate content of a vandalized article showing up in their iGoogle feed.
Ttrimm
8
I am guilty of not ‘seeing’ the flashing monkey very often. when I do, I click on it, but that is not where I concentrate on.
Yes, this is a huge problem for us. As Nicole points out we had this problem even worse a few years ago, and we were able to solve it with the toolbar. But the toolbar doesn’t seem to work in 100% of cases anymore since many people have stopped using it or stopped giving it as much attention as they used to. So we are going to have to solve this problem in another way. I’m going to chat with our engineers to see what sort of solutions could be built here. All ideas for what you think might solve the problem would be appreciated! Till we can build something here…it would be great if people installed the toolbar and kept an occasional eye on the monkey: http://www.wikihow.com/Use-the-wikiHow-Editor’s-Toolbar
Is there a way to move unpatrolled FAs to the top of the Recent Changes list or make it so they are the first things that pop up when you start using the Recent Changes app?
Ttrimm
11
maybe change up the monkey icon periodically. Changes catch a lot of people’s eyes.
system
12
Perhaps we could prevail upon Illy or one of the engineers to write a wH toolbar for Chrome and/or IE? That would expand the number of people who could use it… I really like Elocina and Teresa’s ideas as well… FA’s get patrolled immediately… or at the top of the list… and the Monkey changes color or species from time to time… BOTH seem likely to be helpful IMHO.
system
13
On the old school RC page, it could be a possibility to make a section at the top of any unpatrolled FAs, so they don’t get buried in the regular list.
Another toolbar point: It’s not compatible with the latest Firefox 4.0. I have actually uninstalled Firefox 4 on every computer I use and gone back to 3.6.16 primarily because the toolbar doesn’t work. My browser feels naked without it! Any chance we can get an upgrade soon? I’m not available all the time, but FA patrol is the one thing I do every chance I get.
Harri
15
There is already a wH tool thing for Chrome - that’s what I use. It’s not the same as the toolbar but it does show unpatrolled FA edits, speedies, etc. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/anidieghjbnghobpjjahnibfgiopohce
system
16
http://wikihow.illyism.com/toolbar/
I’ve had version 2.1 installed on Firefox 4 for almost a week & it’s been working as if I had Firefox 3.*. Try uninstalling and reinstalling? My preferences got wiped out, that’s all I remember…
Does the Chrome extension still interfere with the thumbs-up RC patrol thing? I used to have that, but it kept breaking the thumb button so I uninstalled it.
Harri
18
Not sure… I’ve never had any problems with the thumbs up thingy using it
hmm, I have never liked toolbars. They consume a lot of space and slow down my browser. I also find it less effective when active editors are not online.
system
20
@Ladanea
Are you referring to Illyism’s toolbar, or the toolbar referred to here? http://www.wikihow.com/Use-the-wikiHow-Editor’s-Toolbar
