Wikinews:Flagged revisions/Requests for permissions

This page is an official policy on the English Wikinews. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow. When making changes to this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

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WN:FRRFP
WN:FR/RFP

See also Wikinews:Requests for permissions

Wikinews is currently running MediaWiki with the flagged revisions extension. Article validation allows for reviewers to approve articles and set those revisions as the default revision to show upon normal page view. Readers can also give feedback. These revisions will remain the same even if included templates are changed or images are overwritten. The text with expanded transclusions is stored in the database. This allows for MediaWiki to act more as a Content Management System (CMS).

Flagged revisions is used for quality control at Wikinews. In order for an article to be published, a reviewer must approve of the article (commonly referred to as sighting the article). See template:peer reviewed for more information on the publishing process. After an article is published, any subsequent change must also be approved by a reviewer. Articles waiting for review are listed at CAT:REV.

While Flagged revisions adds a new tab and info box to pages, the wiki does not work any differently for Logged in users. Users who are logged in will continue to see the most recent version of the page (Referred to as a "Draft"). Users can opt to view the stable versions by default instead ("My Preferences" > "Stability" Tab > Check "Always show the stable version..." > Save). The major change of Flagged revisions is what Anonymous users (those who are not logged in) see by default. They will see the most recent Stable version (The revision that has been marked as "Sighted"). If there have been additional changes to the page since the last "Sighting", there will be a small infobox informing them of a new draft of the page, and if they edit the page they will be presented with the latest draft.

In addition to the above rights, "Reviewer" status also comes packaged with rollback, a tool that allows an editor to revert the last edits to a page in a single click, without even having to check the diff first. This is primarily meant to deal with blatant vandalism.

Please use the below page to request FlaggedRevs permissions, putting new requests at the top. Requests will generally stay open for at least about a week (unless fast-tracked), after which an administrator will read the comments made by other users and decide whether or not to give out the flag. Before requesting this permission, you must be familiar with key policies, particularly the style guide and neutral point of view. Prior to review of any article, and its subsequent publication, you will be required to copyedit the article for any style issues. This requires a very good understanding of English grammar to maintain the quality of the project's published works.

• When adding a request, please use {{User-rights|<username>}} as a level-three heading for the request, and note if you are putting forward a nomination for someone else who has not as-yet accepted the nomination on-wiki.

If it has been over a week and no one has gotten back to you about your request for Reviewer access, feel free to drop a note at the talk page of an administrator.

Archived requests

Requests for Reviewer Status

Seemplez (talk · contribs – Edit rights)

I feel that over the eleven months (how time flies!) since my RfP I have gained a lot more experience in Wikinews. I have written a few more articles now and feel that I could be a decent Reviewer now. If you want I can answer the questions GG asked in my first RfP, but times have changed and they may not be relevant. I have had the rollback bit on enwp for a while now, so I am familiar with how it works. Seemplez 10:37, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Comments

• Comment Wikinews needs willing contributors in these times. That said. A reviewer needs to be able to look at other people's articles and see what's wrong with them. Certainly a candidate for the key reviewer task should be able to consistently submit articles with no serious problems. I'm looking at the article you just submitted, and honestly I'm seeing a number of serious problems. This is not a submission by someone who is ready for the review bit. --Pi zero (talk) 12:44, 16 October 2020 (UTC)
  • @Pi zero: Could you elaborate on the article's talk page? Seemplez 13:25, 16 October 2020 (UTC)
    • Well, yes, that's part of review, and I'm reviewing it now. You submitted it for review, thus indicating you perceived it as ready for publication. Just to be clear, the point here isn't about the specifics of that particular article. Being ready for reviewer means being ready for whatever comes your way; it calls for deep, broad understanding of our policies and practices, more as a living coherent whole than as a collection of details (though there's that too). Frankly, after ten years and many thousands of reviews I still routinely encounter new situations in reviews; it's not possible, even in principle, to put together a set of rules to cover every situation that will come up. Whether someone has the breadth and depth of understanding of the principles involved, that's a judgement call, and in some cases a subtle one at that. --Pi zero (talk) 13:52, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Comment @Seemplez:, you should know we do appreciate the articles you write. One of the signs that you are ready for the reviewer is when your aricles pass the review without a major thing not-readying the article. You could also help other users by copyediting their work. Could you write more articles which are published without being not-ready'd -- that is crucial.
•–• 05:54, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Votes

• Oppose Candidate is not ready for the task at this time. See comment above. --Pi zero (talk) 12:44, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Removal of Reviewer status

Post requests here regarding any user who you consider has abused editor status. Provide a justification for the removal, preferably providing examples of where the privilege has been abused. Note for this section, support (or remove) indicates you believe the user should have the privilege withdrawn, oppose (or keep) indicates you believe they should retain the privilege.

---

Green Giant (talk · contribs – Edit rights)

Dear colleagues,

Sadly, over the last few months I have been finding less and less time for the wikis as a result of the combined effects of lockdown, Brexit and a recent (very much unwanted) promotion at work related to these factors. I don’t think it is fair to wait until I reach the time limit for not reviewing. This request is part of a general reduction in my activities on wikis for the foreseeable future.

However, I think I will have time for some admin work on Wikinews but if that becomes difficult I will be stepping back from that too. --Green Giant (talk) 15:07, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

Comments

@Green Giant: I understand it is hard for you to find time to review and publish articles, however, I hope you reconsider your decision. Since you have the reviewer bits, you can edit and sight the archives (to fix typos, remove unnecessary <div>, replace deleted images with {{missing image}}, or upload the deleted files as FU.) Those are the things sysop does, but without reviewer bits, you won't be able to sight those. I am guessing the admin-related edits you do, and have been doing recently (which I appreciate), requires reviewer bits. Do you still want to surrender those bits?
•–• 15:45, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

@Acagastya: I’m deeply grateful for your message above. It’s not something I genuinely want to do but I don’t want to end up with someone else making a request here and elsewhere to say “not been on for months, unlikely to return, does not need the tools". That incident where several bureaucrats were de-cratted recently is at the back of my mind. I suppose I might reconsider if there is no concern about me going missing for weeks or maybe months. My new "job" was forced on me by the resignation of my line manager. I had a meeting with very senior (and deluded) people, where it was made clear that if I didn’t voluntarily step up, it would cause them to question my level of commitment to the organisation. Ordinarily I might have told them to get lost but I have a family and a mortgage, and in this current climate it is difficult to get jobs on the same scale. Having seen the in-tray earlier this week, it is clear why my predecessor left but I cannot see myself being free for much wiki stuff at least until the UK has collapsed after Brexit. The job itself involves extended travel out of town to regional offices and I may not be able to log in for ages. What has got me equally concerned is my new line manager indicating he might go for early retirement and they might not bother advertising the post but just push it on someone temporarily. The organisation has already advertised and re-advertised my job but could not find willing takers when the full job was explained to them, hence the forced promotion on me. I’ve already informed the other stewards that I am unlikely to stand again when elections happen in February. I will also be asking for my OTRS access to be removed in the next few months. --Green Giant (talk) 16:13, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

• Comment Sorry to hear. You're a valued member of our community here, at whatever level of participation is feasible for you at a given time. --Pi zero (talk) 17:19, 30 October 2020 (UTC)
• Comment Per Pi zero, you're a great reviewer and writer and I hope we see you return in the near future. Seemplez 09:57, 25 November 2020 (UTC)