Wikipedia talk:Patrollers

How to patrol

Hey all, after the discussion in ST, I changed the proposal a bit based on the suggestions. I am thinking of adding a new section 'How to patrol' the page and add the following content to the page marking it as guideline. Please feel free to suggest any changes.

Patrolling new pages is an important job that helps in maintaining quality of pages in the encyclopedia. A page being marked as patrolled doesn't necessarily mean the page is perfect or complete, it just means that it meets the basic criteria to be in the encyclopedia.

The first thing to remember while patrolling is that you should only mark the pages that you are sure about as patrolled. If you are unsure whether to mark a page as patrolled or not, you can just skip the page and move to next one. This will leave the page yellow at the new pages list and give others chance to review the page.

Here are the list of things that a patroller needs to consider before marking the page as patrolled:

The title of the page should be correct (per WP:MOS).
The content of the page should be wikified to a certain extent. This includes link to other pages, bold and italics text where needed, infobox, pictures etc.
The content of the page should be simplified to certain extent.
There should not be significant grammar errors on the page. It should make sense.
There should at least be one reference for verifiability unless the subject is very common like eg. 'Apple'.
The page mentions why the subject is important or claims that the subject is notable. This means that the page should not meet quick deletion criteria for the lack of notability (WP:QD#A4).
References and other websites should be properly formatted. Appropriate sections should be added for them if there isn't one yet.
The page should be properly categorised. It is a good idea to put the page in at least one of the suitable existing categories.
The page should be properly tagged. This doesn't mean one can just bomb a page with tags. This is only for the necessary tags like merge and stub tags which generally encourage editing.

Thanks, --BRP^ever 05:21, 25 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good, although I suggest adding "The page isn't eligible for quick deletion". --Ferien (talk) 21:48, 30 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I have added this + your suggestion since it makes sense. Thanks BRP^ever 09:28, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@BRPever: I think the A4 point should contain a link to en:Wikipedia:Credible claim of significance, and slightly reworded to make it clear that an article subject does not have to even claim to meet notability guidelines to pass A4. --IWI (talk) 09:56, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@ImprovedWikiImprovment please feel free to add links and do wording changes, or expand on any point. I see no problem with these. BRP^ever 12:39, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Patroller Process

The section that explains that when a editor with patroller rights create a says that the page it is not listed at new pages. That seems to be incorrect, as it is listed at New Pages, but rather not highlighted in yellow. The Second part is the image of the patroller button seems a bit out of date, but the process rather is the same. Thoughts?... Tsugaru let's talk! :) 21:23, 30 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like BRP has fixed this. --Ferien (talk) 16:49, 19 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Requirements - experience in other projects

I think administrators should consider experience and permissions from other Wikimedia projects when deciding on patroller requests. It seems unwise to ignore the valuable experience users gain from similar or higher permissions in other projects.

For example, as MathXplore mentioned on Simple talk, patrollers on Meta-Wiki and English Wikivoyage have additional responsibilities like rollback. I think, that this gives them more experience in handling various situations, including fighting vandalism. Additionally, on Polish Wikipedia, we have the editor (redaktor) permission, which involves checking all edits due to the flagged revisions (wersje przejrzane) system. This experience in review changes and the ability to rollback vandalism should be valuable here too.

If a user is experienced in other language versions of Wikipedia, has similar permissions there, and creates their own articles here following the Simple Wiki rules, this is an important argument for granting patroller permissions. Many rules, such as Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not and Wikipedia:Verifiability, are similar across major language versions of Wikipedia (e.g. on plwiki). Understanding these rules demonstrates that a user can quickly adapt their skills and knowledge to Simple Wiki specific guidelines.

In my opinion, considering such experience will benefit our project by bringing in skilled users who can help maintain the quality of our content. Thank you, BZPN (talk) 10:20, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't support this idea, though I'm not fully opposed to it either. Simple English Wikipedia has its own rules when making an article, namely, that articles should be written in good and understandable Simple English. Patrollers are expected to have a good grasp Simple English and the simplification process. Having a patroller/autopatrolled user right in another Wiki is not enough to show that a user can write in Simple English properly. — *Fehufangą ♮ ✉ Talk page 11:30, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You're right, that's why I wrote: If a user is experienced in other language versions of Wikipedia, has similar permissions there, and creates their own articles here following the Simple Wiki rules, this is an important argument for granting patroller permissions. I didn't write that if a user has similar permissions in another project, he should be granted a patroller here. I meant that such a user is already trusted and we have some basis for granting permissions, but he must demonstrate the ability to write in basic English and knowledge of Simple Wiki rules. BZPN (talk) 11:36, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]