I've experimented with anonymous issue reporting in a list I maintain and found out there is some good information to be had from "popular wisdom" but also a lot of garbage. Do you plan to add some way to help communities handle that garbage? Otherwise, smaller wikis might soon be overwhelmed by the quantity of feedback and people sending useful information would become disappointed by the lack of follow-up. Also, a way to say "thank you" or "you change has been acted upon" seems appropriate.
Topic on Talk:Reading/Readers contributions via Android
@Strainu For most of these approaches, the moderation and validation approaches we are considering try to make up for the weakness of readers (lack of context/expertise) by leveraging their strength (scale):
- multiple readers saying the same thing - for instance, we might only validate an issue if more than one reader highlights it.
- readers moderate readers as a first step - for instance, we might show an upload or a reported issue to another reader and ask them to confirm. Only if X users confirm do we show it to an editor... something like that.
Do you think that would/could address the concern? As to thank yous, I totally agree that this would be an important element of the user experience. We're trying to sort out a way that we can provide people with satisfaction/accomplishment without promoting the unhelpful or harmful contributions that incentives can sometimes generate.
The steps you describe seem to address the concern I have. I'd love to see some AI solution that identify what "the same thing" means, but I guess on Wikipedia's scale, just plain text comparison would work.
> readers moderate readers as a first step - for instance, we might show an upload or a reported issue to another reader and ask them to confirm. Only if X users confirm do we show it to an editor... something like that.
Great idea. I'd say that this is the most important concept. I'd just be wary of bias on the tool, for example, people from arabic countries are negatively biased towards topics / content related to nudity, porn, and people from some african countries are negatively biased towards topics on homesexuality, and North americans may be negatively biased towards certain concepts related to certain asian cultures.
It is quite important to use proper sampling to prevent this sort of systematic bias.
I don't have any particular thoughts regarding volume or quality of reports, not having been around for the original Article Feedback tool. However I see the current mockup says that reports are posted to the talk page. This is excellent because it means that established moderation tools, i.e. reverting and suppression (or Flow equivalents) could be used without having to build a new system.
P.S. the current mockup involves an optional "include a screenshot". This is very problematic because the file, which I guess would have to be automatically uploaded, has licensing questions. Text is fine, but if any images are included, their licenses and authorship would have to be determined and automatically included in the screenshot description page. Also if there is a fair use image, it would be unlikely to be allowable according to a wiki's non-free content rules, when used in a screenshot of a page at large.
@BethNaught Argh! Once again, we've forgotten the need to attribute Wikipedia content. Thank you for the reminder. There is also the potential that someone would take a screenshot of something non-wiki or inappropriate...Given the complexities, a link will probably have to suffice.
Surely this faces the same problems as doomed the AFT, in particular how could this be done without diverting potential editors from improving articles to critiquing them for others to edit, how do you avoid this being a swamp of fan comments and hates re particular pop stars, and how do you maintain neutrality when various political candidates have their bios liked on Wikipedia?
@WereSpielChequers All valid points here.
Regarding junk or popularity, per the thread on user model elsewhere on this page, raising the bar for feedback (have to sign in, have to complete a tutorial) might be needed for anything beyond a simple thank.
As for diverting potential editors, if anything proved to be succesful (in terms of adoption or impact) I think we would immediately explore the next step for bringing these users into the fold both with regard to cultural expectations and more meaningful contributions.
Rather than "Report an issue", I would prefer a more neutral message, like "How can we improve the article?"