20190509.md

Meeting 09.05.2019 - Presentation at the HCC Research Meeting

Feedback

• beware of wording: "vandalism" is quite a harsh term (see also naming discussion edit filters), try to avoid it especially in contexts where it's not clear whether we are indeed dealing with vandalism (potential harmful edits); maybe replace with "quality assurance/control" wherever suitable

• of the 152 edit filter managers on EN wikipedia:

  • how many are admins?
  • how many run their own bots?

• if an editor is both an edit filter manager and a bot developer: in which cases would they decide to implement a bot and in which a filter?

• stick to research questions from Confluence, they are already carefully crafted and narrowed down as appropriate

• aggregation: clarify for myself what is the argument/the story/the big picture; make sure I still see the forrest and not only a bunch of single trees

  • start with headers from the thesis's outline

• methodology: what are the sources of knowledge

  • literature: what insights have we won from it?
  • documentation (Wikipedia, MediaWiki pages): what have we learnt here
  • data (filters stats, REGEX patterns): what do the filters actually do?

• people didn't like the "1st line of defense" (concerning bots) wording^^; but as a matter of fact, if we stick with it, it's factually incorrect, since the "1st line of defense" are actually the edit filters

• how stable is the edit filter managers group? how often are new editors accepted? (who/how nominates them? maybe there aren't very many accepted, but then again if only 2 apply and both are granted the right, can you then claim it's exclusive?)

• Question: why are the filters still used, when there are all these fancy ML mechanisms?

  • hypothesis: because it's simple! REGEXes are generally easier to understand than ML algorithms; it lowers the participation barriers

• add to Long List of Interesting Questions: is there a qualitative difference between complaints of bots and complaints of filters?

• where is the thesis going?

  • should there be some recommended guidelines based on the insights?
  • or some design recommendations?
  • or maybe just a framework for future research: what are questions we just opened?; we still don't know the answer to and should be addressed by future research?

• an idea for the presi/written text: begin and end every part (section/paragraph) with a question: what question do I want to answer here? what question is still open?

• make a comparison table for the mechanisms

                 | Filters                          | Bots                          |  Semi-Automated tools   |  ORES

---

                 |                                  |                               |                         |
                 | - based on REGEXes               | - rule/ML based               | - rule/ML based         | - ML framework

properties | - part of the "software"/ | - "bespoke code": run on | - heuristics obfusca- | - can be used by other tools | platform (MediaWiki ext) | user's infrastructure | ted by the interface | | - public filters are directly | - no requirement for the code | (but often configura- | | visible for everyone | to be made public | ble) | | interested | - you can relatively easily | | | | get all the filters; you | | | | easily get all the bots | | | | | | ---------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | - edit filter managers | - no special persmissions/ | - rollback perm | - mostly Scoring platform | group (EN Wiki) | rights needed | | team (?) Who does this? | (abusefilter-modify perm) | - a bot gets a bot flag | | | | | | ---------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | - become an edit filter manager | - get an approval to run the | - learn the tool | - understand ML What are the hurdles | - you have to only understand | bot from the BAG | - install Windows^^ | - formal requirements to to participate | REGEXes (relatively simple? | - programming knowledge | (some don't support | develop ORES? | although relatively fast quite | - understand APIs, .. | other OS) | | confusing) | - (but there is a lot to | - get the rollback perm | | | understand with all the | | | | mechanisms) | | | | | |

                 |                                  |                               |                         |
                 | - censorship infrastructure?     | - "botophobia"                | - gamification          |

Concerns | - powerful, can in theory block | | | | editors based on hidden | | | | filters | | | | | | |

Form Remarks presi

• make an outline/structure slide for people to be able to follow more easily

• insert page numbers!

• keep the literature/documentation part as short as possible; for example for presenting the literature the diagram is sufficient

TODO

• present again, this time with a storyline