Wikimedia Apps/Team/Android/Anti Vandalism

Background
The Android team has received requests from various language communities to improve the quality of edits made through the app. Community members have asked for moderation tools that are fair and unbiased across language wikis. The team aims to enhance existing workflows while ensuring equity in moderation, an example can be found in the 2022 wishlist.

With recent updates to the app, such as the native watchlist, contribution history, and edit history, as well as the addition of the undo and rollback button on the diff screen, there is an opportunity to create a moderating solution within the app. The solution will build on existing mobile micro contribution workflows.

The team plans to develop an anti-vandalism tool (V1) that caters to experienced moderators across languages. Additionally, they will introduce a training task to help experienced editors learn patrolling if they haven't done it before. This will be done in close collaboration with the community. The team will also work with the research team to improve tools like ORES and collaborate with the Moderator tools team, who are addressing this issue on Mobile Web, to ensure a seamless experience for cross-platform users.

Product Requirements:

 * Editors can review diffs for a variety of edits
 * Editors have the option to 'revert' or 'skip' suggested changes
 * Recent edits made in various languages can be displayed
 * Editors can create and save warning messages to use when reverting changes
 * Experienced editors will be introduced to patrolling on the app in a later version (V2)

Technical Limitation
Currently, it's not possible to have multiple languages in a single feed, but users will have the ability to switch between languages.

Hypothesis & Assumptions
We believe that simplifying the patrolling tasks and structuring them as advanced-level tasks would be beneficial. Experienced editors without sysops or rollback rights could be assigned easier patrolling tasks or a training task, and once they reach a threshold of initial patrolling activities, they can be promoted to higher levels. To achieve this, we plan to start with a proof of concept for general patrolling of edits based on users with rollback rights.

We understand that patrolling recent edits is a priority and more suitable for mobile than tasks like NPP (New Page Patrol), AFD (Articles for Deletion), and AFC (Articles for Creation). Additionally, we expect that there will be community consensus on implementing a training task across different languages.

Validation

 * Key Indicator 1: 65% of target mature audiences using the tool find it helpful for maintaining the quality of wikis and would recommend it to other patrollers
 * Key Indicator 2: Increase in edits made by mature audiences by 5%
 * Key Indicator 3: 10% of target mature audiences engage with filter preferences
 * Key Indicator 4: 65% of target mature audiences engage with the tool at least three times in a thirty-day window
 * Guardrail: Experienced users without rollback rights, both those who have and have not used alternative patrolling tools, should equally understand the workflow
 * Guardrail: There should be no reports of the tool being used to negatively target underrepresented content or contributors based on in-app reporting mechanisms

How to Follow Along
We have created T322083 as our Phabricator Epic to track this work. We invite you to collaborate with us there or on our Talk Page.

We will provide periodic updates on this page as we make progress. If you are interested in participating in our moderated design feedback sessions, please let us know on our talk page, and we will follow up with you.

August 2023: Project Updates and Technical Considerations

 * We shared updates about this project at Wikimania. The recording can be found on Youtube starting at 1:24:30. We received a question about having a central place for Warning messages that can be used across apps. We are planning to work with the Growth team to explore the possibility of centralized warning messages.
 * We became aware of the deprecation of ORES and migration to Liftwing which will host the revertrisk model. Due to our team using the MediaWiki API to show the recent edits feed, we will continue to show the Goodfaith and Damaging Models at least in V1. Using the ReverRisk model  would require two API calls, which could slow down the feature, this also doesn’t address filtering. If you have feedback about this technical decision, feel free to comment on our discussion page.
 * We created designs for Onboarding to the feature T343242.

Usability Testing
A moderated remote usability test was conducted involving six experienced contributors who use Android devices and volunteer their time for monitoring activities on Spanish, French, English, and Chinese language wikis. We selected participants from these wikis due to their high number of editors with sysop/rollback rights, which allowed us to gather usability feedback effectively.

The patrollers provided valuable insights on early designs and the usability of the 'Edit patrol' tool.

During the test, the editors were tasked with completing short assignments using a limited prototype of the tool. They were also asked to provide real-time narration of their experience as they worked through these tasks.

For additional details about the usability test, please refer to the following link.

Results
The feedback and valuable suggestions from participants have contributed to enhancing the initial designs. The following improvements were implemented:


 * Participants expressed the desire to have tags displayed for each edit on the recent edits page, and the ability to discern if an editor made multiple edits to a single page.


 * Participants provided further feedback regarding patrolling, which we aim to convey within the tool via onboarding, tooltips, or reminders. The points include:The significance of communicating with empathy to fellow contributors, and the emphasis on prioritising the quality of patrolled edits over their quantity.

The 'Edit patrol' tool is currently in the development phase, and you can track its progress through Phabricator T343224.

February 2023: Initial Design Concepts
The team developed initial design concepts by incorporating insights from existing tools and feedback we gathered on their limitations. We shared these concepts with the Moderator Tools Team and Research Team for their input and feedback. We will use the feedback received to improve the design concepts and establish a protocol for both moderated and asynchronous feedback from app users. Currently, we are initiating direct outreach to schedule moderated feedback sessions and ensure translation mechanisms are in place for those sessions. Once the protocol is available on MediaWiki, we will send out a broader communication to start gathering asynchronous feedback on our talk page.

The design concepts provided are meant to offer examples of how we aim to address the issues faced by other tools. However, please note that we are in the early stages of this process, and the designs will evolve and expand based on the feedback we receive in the coming weeks.

January 2023: Comparative Review and Existing User Research
The team conducted a comparative review to analyze the existing patrolling tools. During the review, we assessed the similarities and differences between the tools and identified which ones were effective on mobile devices.

The complete list of tools we reviewed include:


 * Huggle
 * Twinkle


 * TwinkleMobile
 * STiki
 * SWViewer
 * WikiLoop Double Check
 * CheckWiki
 * ReWarn
 * CheckWiki

Through our evaluation, we found that the majority of tools were optimised for Desktop use, with only three exceptions. Additionally, only two of the above solutions performed well across various language wikis.

Common elements found in these tools were:
 * Icons to represent the main action (e.g. revert, speedy deletion, welcome user, etc.)
 * Access to templates
 * Filters
 * List of contributions
 * Diffs
 * Information about the editor

In addition to the comparative review of existing tools, we also collected recurring requests from patrollers regarding those tools. The common requests include:

By taking these requests into account, we aim to develop a comprehensive patrolling solution that addresses the needs and preferences of patrollers across various languages and user experience levels.
 * Filter contributions by topics of interest and specific time period
 * An easy way to exclude contributions that have already been patrolled
 * No requirement for special privileges like rollback rights to access the tools
 * An option between "skip" and "revert" for more nuanced actions
 * Tools that promote collaboration among patrollers

December 2022: Proof of Concept Prototype
The team developed a proof of concept prototype to explore the capabilities and possibilities using existing APIs. The prototype allowed us to test and experiment with different functionalities and assess the feasibility of our ideas. This early exploration helps us understand the potential of the tools and refine our approach before moving forward with further development.

During our development process, we successfully exposed the ORES score, which provides users with an indication of the likelihood that something may be vandalism. This feature allows users to get insights into the quality of edits and helps them make informed decisions during the patrolling process. We would ideally send feedback to the research team's API for improvements, which will be valuable in improving the accuracy and effectiveness of the ORES score.

November 2022: Defining Initial Audiences
The team conducted research (T322065) to assess the number of Wikipedia app users with sysops and rollback rights. The findings revealed that 372 Android app users and 176 iOS users had these rights. Based on this data, we decided to prioritise the rollout of the feature in the Android app, allowing the iOS development team to focus on building the Watchlist feature.

Additionally, we sought to understand the distribution of users with sysops and rollback rights across different languages. This information played a crucial role in determining the initial target language communities for our direct outreach during the initial research phase. By focusing on these specific language communities, we aimed to gain valuable insights and feedback from users who have experience in moderation and patrolling, which will be instrumental in shaping the development of the feature for wider use:
 * enwiki
 * frwiki
 * zhwiki
 * eswiki

While we are focusing on direct outreach to specific language wiki communities and OS users, we want to emphasise that we welcome and highly encourage feedback and ideas from any app user with patrolling experience. We value the input of Web users as well, but our priority will be to gather feedback from app users.

It is essential to create a unified experience across platforms, and to achieve this, we are in close communication with the Moderator Tools team, who will be building experiences for Web users. By learning from their findings and collaborating closely, we aim to ensure continuity and consistency across both the app and Web platforms. Your feedback and ideas will play a crucial role in shaping the development and improvement of the patrolling feature for all users.