[WikiEN-l] Quasi-protection policy proposal

[Erik Moeller]

On 5/28/06, Andrew Gray <shimgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> On the talk page, Jtdirl has quite a good idea - modify
> semi-protection to be "accounts where first edit was more than four
> days ago" rather than "accounts where creation was more than four days
> ago". Less logistics, but certainly a benefit to the sleeper problem.

Unfortunately, that will only lead to bots adding spurious interwiki
links, null edits, switching commas, and so on. The vandals we're
talking about are highly determined, so they're probably not going to
be deterred by algorithmic measures alone.

Having a layer between semi-protection and full protection is likely
to lead to a lot of added complexity and does have the "jump through
hurdles" problem Anthony described. The "positive" way to implement
such systems is through clearly indicated "levels" which users can
advance in. Everything2 does that, as do most RPGs.

I don't think we want to go that way. If we create a trust-based
model, then I think it should replace the current semi-protection
model, rather than being layered above it. The question is, how to
best implement it?

I think it could be combined with the culture of welcoming users. A
"welcome" tab on the talk page might lead to a new screen, which
offers two options:

    [x] Trust this user to edit semi-protected pages
    [x] Send welcome message

    Hello, Foo, and welcome to Wikipedia!_________
    ___________________________________________
    ___________________________________________

This wouldn't be too hard to implement. I'm not sure a model where
only admins can set the "trust this user" flag would scale, though.

Erik