[Foundation-l] AbuseFilter to be enabled on all Wikimedia wikis by default today

[Federico Leva (Nemo)]

Guillaume Paumier, 24/08/2011 17:39:
> Both concerns you raise are valid, and I agree with you, but globally
> enabling the extension by default is no different in that sense from
> enabling it one wiki at a time.
>
> Mischievous admins could be abusing AbuseFilter already on any small
> wiki where the extension was enabled following a request in bugzilla,
> and we wouldn't know about it if no one brought it up to the larger
> community.

The difference is that to request it on bugzilla you need community 
consensus, which means that the local community agrees, is aware of the 
existence and functioning of the extension at least at a basic level and 
can monitor it.

> Similarly, a group of POV-pushing could be blocking users, deleting
> pages or protecting POV versions on a small wiki, and we wouldn't know
> about it either unless someone reported it. Yet, this is not a reason
> for not giving all admins block, delete and protect rights by default.

Block, delete and protext are very simple actions; the AbuseFilter is 
harder to understand and often even the sysops using it don't know the 
effects of their filters. It's not a tragedy, but there must be some 
local control: compare the requirement for wikis to have at least two 
CheckUsers and not only one.

> Globally enabling the extension is merely more convenient for users
> (who don't have to wait until their shell request is processed) and
> shell users (who can spend time fulfilling other requests).

I'm not saying we should (I don't know), but we could by default 
restrict the abusefilter-modify right to an abusefilter group (as in 
en.wiki) which could be assigned only by stewards, who would then be in 
charge of actually enabling the AbuseFilter locally without shell 
requests. This wouldn't create an instruction creep, it could just 
require a local consensus to give all sysops that right, or stewards 
could just decide to assign the flag to all sysops who request it 
notifying the community.

Nemo