meta Research:Newcomer quality and strategy.wikimedia.org Editor Trends Study Options

[barney]

What about all these automated tools Wikipedians use like Twinkle or whatever? Seems like those would be a prime way to attack WP, for a skilled hacker.

[jsalsman]

What about all these automated tools Wikipedians use like Twinkle or whatever? Seems like those would be a prime way to attack WP, for a skilled hacker.

They don't represent substantial attack vectors unless attackers compromise an administrator account.

But I think you have it the wrong way around. Those automated tools started being used about the same time that new users stopped staying and experienced users started leaving:




(Mod note: Split from 'Wikipedia's susceptibility for a hacktivist attack' -Selina)

This post has been edited by Selina: Fri 30th March 2012, 5:32pm

[Web Fred]

They don't necessarily need new editors, they need better editors.
There's no point in having a semi-literate teenager from the public school system who knows fuck-all about fuck-all editing when they can have a professor, or at the very least an enthusiast who knows their subject well and can write well.

When are these people going to understand that quality trumps quantity big time!

The same goes for Commons, what is the point in having millions of shite-quality images (whether it's porn or otherwise) when no-one is likely to use them for anything. If they want to be known as a professional quality media library a-la Corbis etc then they need editors who are prepared to cull the also-rans.

This post has been edited by Web Fred: Fri 30th March 2012, 11:06am