1

On the Community Dashboard, Quality Guardian is one of three tasks/tools recommended to try out first (along with Answer Questions and Edit by Topic).

I’m concerned that putting Quality Guardian up there as one of the things to try first isn’t a very good idea.  The other two can stay there, just fine, but this one just doesn’t seem like it should be there.

Why?  Well, from my experience, new users tend to remove or disapprove perfectly fine tips and videos.  Even worse, when new users vote, they might view the others’ votes as examples, and if the votes were not correct, then the user would vote incorrectly too.

What do you guys think?  Should we remove Quality Guardian from the “Things to Try First” section and replace it with something else?  If so, what should it be replaced with?

2

I agree that Quality Guardian should be replaced. I think that Spellchecker should be up there. Since spelling changes get reviewed by patrollers, you can know that the user is making helpful edits. Definitely, something that goes through RC Patrol should be up there for new users so they can get feedback.

3

@Artemi7   Thanks for your opinion.  I was thinking about Spellchecker as one of the replacements too.

4

Spellchecker is equally finicky, though - I think we actually had it back on the Things to Try First back when I signed up (although it’s been years, so I could be mistaken about that one!). There are quite a few people who will “correct” words that aren’t actually wrong and just let their computer’s spellchecker make wild guesses… Sometimes it’s entertaining (I remember laughing at this  - spellcheckers do not like Arabic!), but more often than not it’s just another revert.

I’d say Quality Guardian is arguably much safer of a choice for new editors, since the removals from that tool are of things that aren’t necessary for the page, which wouldn’t be the same for things like an editing greenhouse that prompts to remove tags (e.g. Format). Also, video removals from QG go through RCP, and most tips that end up in Tips Patrol either get deleted or reverted after their addition, so it’s not the end of the world there:stuck_out_tongue:

5

@Galactic-Radiance   Yeah, I remember having Spellchecker up there back then.

What about categorizing articles or guarding categories?  Those seem pretty good too.

6

We do change around the tools in that first section occasionally, based on how newbie-appropriate they are (I’d also consider Quality Guardian a pretty newbie-friendly one) and what the queue for each is like. Spellchecker doesn’t tend to have that many articles in it, so that’s why it hasn’t been up there lately (as well as the reasons Alex mentioned)… QG had a big backlog, but admittedly doesn’t now (though it might again, if we move it!). Categorizing is actually a fairly tricky one so probably not a great “first tool”, but I could see Category Guardian working okay for this. I’ll make that swap now and we can see how it goes:slight_smile:

7

I agree with Anna. I see a lot of new users categorizing articles incorrectly and drop them the {{categorization}} template. Even now I still see articles that I’m not sure where to put them. Category Guardian is probably a good first task. When I first got on wikiHow, I didn’t even take notice of the Things to Try First bar, though. I just went to what looked interesting to me (which ended up being Categorizing).

8

@Anna   Thanks for taking things into consideration!

@Artemi7   Thanks for continuing to place your opinion here!

Now, we gotta see how things will go.

9

I agree with Anna as well.

10

I third that with Anna.

11

I also agree with @Anna .