Help:Extension:FlaggedRevs

is an extension to the MediaWiki software that allows a wiki to monitor the changes that are made to pages, and to more carefully control the content that is displayed to the wiki's readers. When FlaggedRevs is enabled on a page, each subsequent version of the page can be 'flagged' by certain editors and reviewers, to indicate that it has been reviewed and found to meet whatever criteria the wiki requires. A wiki can use a scale of such flags, with only certain users allowed to set each flag.

The ability to flag revisions makes it easier to co-ordinate the process of maintaining a wiki, since it is much clearer which edits are new (and potentially undesirable) and which have been 'accepted' as constructive. In addition, however, it is possible to configure pages so that only revisions that are flagged to a certain level are visible when the page is viewed by readers; hence changes made by users who cannot flag the resulting version to a high enough level remain in a 'draft' form until the revision is flagged by another user who can set a higher flag.

FlaggedRevs is extremely flexible and can be used in a wide range of configurations; it can be discrete enough to be almost unnoticeable, or it can be used to very tightly control a wiki's activity.

Terminology
FlaggedRevs makes use of a set of terms that need to be understood in relationship to how they relate to the software and how they are utilized by users. The terms themselves are fully customizable to allow for language differences and may be accessed using clickable user links; but it is helpful if the basic functions are understood.

FlaggedRevs allows wikis to define "flags" that can be applied to revisions of a page to indicate that the edit didn't contain obvious vandalism. For articles in the flag group, patrol is disabled and talkpages are not flagged.
 * Flags and flagging

User rights
When FlaggedRevs are enabled, two new user rights are created: Reviewer and AutoReviewer. It is important to note the difference between the edit right and the reviewer right.

The edit right is the ability to edit an article. The reviewer right is the ability to mark the edit as non obvious vandalism and a flag is set as "sighted" and have access to the list of Unreviewed Pages.
 * Edit
 * Reviewer/surveyor

The autoreviewer right is the ability to automark own edits as non obvious vandalism and a flag is set as "sighted". (similar to a botflag).
 * Autoreviewer
 * 3000 Edits 365 days + E-Mail-Addres (Special:Code/MediaWiki/45636)


 * Administrators:
 * Grant or revoke reviewer/surveyor rights
 * Change the per-page settings of whether the current or stable version shows for readers.

The "Stable" version of a page is the last version that was both flagged, and was flagged to a high enough level to be the version immediately visible on the page to all users. So if a page is configured to display all edits immediately, then the most recent flagged revision of any sort will be the stable version. You can link directly to the stable or current versions of a page, by appending &stable=0 or &stable=1 to the url.
 * Stable


 * Reviewer's widget
 * Draft
 * Sighted
 * Accuracy
 * Quality page

Viewing
FlaggedRevs allows a wiki to mark each revision of a page with a flag to indicate its quality or validity, and to control which revisions are shown by default on a page. Each page where FlaggedRevs is enabled is effectively given two alternative aliases; these are the "stable" version, which is the latest version that has been flagged to a sufficiently high level, and the "current" version, which is the most recent revision, flagged or not. Readers can access either version of the page by adding &stable= to the URL in the address bar, setting &stable=0 for the current version, and &stable=1 for the stable version. On each alias, there is an explanation and a link to the other version.

Wiki developers can control which alias is displayed to users and readers by default, and which flags allow a version to be considered 'stable'. Registered users can customise which alias they see by default in their User Preferences. Editors are also made aware of which alias they are viewing by the "" tab, which instead displays.

Editing
FlaggedRevs does not affect a user's ability to edit a page; only the way the resulting version is handled by the wiki. Whenever a user edits a page, the contents of the edit window are always the wikimarkup for the current version, to prevent revision forks from accumulating. When there are unreviewed changes made since the last stable version, a diff is provided above the edit window to highlight any changes. This is important as the text being edited may not be the same as the page the user viewed before clicking the "" link (if the user was viewing the stable version); and it allows any changes to be immediately reviewed and modified or reverted if necessary. If the user will not be able to see their changes in the default alias, an additional warning message is displayed,. Other than this the editing process is unchanged by FlaggedRevs; edits are made, previewed and saved in the normal manner.

Users who are capable of reviewing edits are encouraged to do so both during and after they edit. There is an option next to the "" and "" checkboxes to immediately review the version resulting from that edit, although this option is unchecked by default. Once a reviewer has made an edit, they are returned to the article as normal, but are presented with a diff of all changes, including theirs, since the last stable version, with the option to immediately review the changes.