I disagree. There is an increased need for oversight (it's marginal, though). Before, when one of the 3 situations you quote came up we had a choice between oversight and simple deletion. Simple deletion was find in the less sensitive cases. Now, for large pages, that option is gone, so oversight will need to be used in every case, that results in a greater need for oversight. I doubt the increased need to enough to warrant a major drive to get more oversighters, though, it's probably just a handful of extra instances a month across all the projects, tops, probably much less.

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/25567 Hi, After reading these postings I have the following to say about that item of EN Wikizine 91 and this; I acknowledge that the level of English used in that item is weak. Regarding that I refer to the disclaimer that can be found at the end of every edition of Wikizine; "Wikizine.org makes no guarantee of accuracy, validity and especially but not limited to, correct grammar and spelling." Nevertheless the missing word here and the incorrect plural form there the text presents correctly the intended message. The (corrected) message is; "Also a result of this is that the need for users who have "oversight" status becomes higher on the projects who have not yet those. This because you can not longer delete and restore selected editions if that page has more then that 5000 versions." I establish that pages who have a history of more then 5000 revisions can not be deleted anymore. That makes it impossible for users who have sysop status to remove a version of the history of such an page. The only way that remains to remove a version out of the history of pages that have more then 5000 versions is by use of the usersight function. Because of this the need to have users who have oversight rights has increased. //// That is the long version of what I have written in Wikizine 91. I do not give any advice about how to use the oversight function. I only make the technical observation that the only way to do certain actions is by means of the oversight function as a result of a technical change in the configuration of the wiki. And that is all I needed to say about it. It is outside the scope of the item to go in detail by explaining the differences between sysops and oversight and the rules that apply in using the oversight function. === Background === Until now was there no real need to have users who have oversight status. This because the need to remove versions out of the history are rare and it is already possible to do it by any sysop even if it is an impractical way of doing it. And if you would use oversight then that action can practically speaking not be undone. It is safer to "oversight" as sysop then as oversight user. Also if you use oversight then you need to organize again one more type of election/selection process; basically it is not worth the trouble. At least not on most projects. It is best to stay away as long as possible from oversight on your project. But because it is now not longer possible in certain situations (5000 revisions) to do it without oversight that has changed. That is why projects who have not yet users with oversight status best consider appointing them. This so that the can take action (according oversight policy) when necessary on pages where the otherwise can not intervene. At least not without requesting assistance from a steward. Stewards are there to help out also for wikis who need oversight help if the have not a local oversight user but it is a lot more easier for everyone if there is local user who can do it. Doing such a sensitive action in a language wiki you do not understand is a far from ideal situation. To conclude; I disagree with you that incorrect or misleading information is given in EN Wikizine 91 about this topic. I find that there is no need to come back on this topic in the next edition of EN Wikizine. Regarding ES Wikizine 91; I do not take nor accept the daily responsibility for language editions I do not understand. Dennis Tobar (Superzerocool) is in charge of the contents of the Spanish version of Wikizine. He can do what he wishes to do regarding this. The German and Indonesian editions have not come out due to lack of people interested in making them (at present). I have no problem in publishing corrections, but only when I find that there is something to correct. Greetings, Walter -- Contact: walter AT wikizine DOT org Wikizine.org - news for and about the Wikimedia community