@@ -89,49 +89,22 @@ and actions to take when the filter is triggered.
At the end, from a technical perspective, Wikipedia's edit filters are a MediaWiki plugin that allows every edit (and some other editor's actions) to be checked against a speficied regular expression pattern before it is published.
Every time a filter is triggered, the action that triggered it as well as further data such as the user who triggered the filter, their IP address, and a diff of the edit (if it was an edit), a timestamp, the title of the page the user was looking at, etc. are logged.
The extension introduces following database tables where all data generated by it is stored: \emph{abuse\_filter}, \emph{abuse\_filter\_log}, \emph{abuse\_filter\_action} and \emph{abuse\_filter\_history}~\cite{gerrit-abusefilter}.
\emph{abuse\_filter} contains detailed information about every filter.
\emph{abuse\_filter\_action} ... %TODO: Find out what this table is for!
Every filter update is recorded in \emph{abuse\_filter\_history}.
And every time a filter is triggered, the action that triggered it as well as further data such as the user who triggered the filter, their IP address, and a diff of the edit (if it was an edit), a timestamp, the title of the page the user was looking at, etc. are logged in \emph{abuse\_filter\_log}.
Most frequently, edit filters are triggered upon new edits, there are however further editor's actions that can trip an edit filter.
As of June 30th 2019, these include: `edit', `move', `delete', `createaccount', `autocreateaccount', `upload', `stashupload'\footnote{See l. 181 in \url{https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/mediawiki/extensions/AbuseFilter/+/refs/heads/master/includes/special/SpecialAbuseLog.php}}.
As of June 30th 2019, these include: \emph{edit}, \emph{move}, \emph{delete}, \emph{createaccount}, \emph{autocreateaccount}, \emph{upload}, \emph{stashupload}\footnote{See line 181 in \url{https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/mediawiki/extensions/AbuseFilter/+/refs/heads/master/includes/special/SpecialAbuseLog.php}}.
%TODO explain what the actions are, especially the less obvious ones such as `autocreateaccount'
Historically, further editor's actions such as `feedback', `gatheredit' and `moodbar' could trigger an edit filter.
Historically, further editor's actions such as \emph{feedback}, \emph{gatheredit} and \emph{moodbar} could trigger an edit filter.
These are in the meantime deprecated. %TODO explain why? I have the guess that these are not available in the software anymore (generally, not only for the edit filters)
When a filter is triggered, beside logging this, a further filter action may be invoked as well.
When a filter is triggered, beside logging the event in the \emph{abuse\_filter\_log} table, a further filter action may be invoked as well.
The plugin defines following possible filter actions:
%TODO verify that none of the actions are deprecated; I have my doubts that for instance `revoking auto-promoted groups' may not be available anymore
%TODO explain what each action means
The documentation page of the extension is here: \url{https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:AbuseFilter}
and the code is hosted on gerrit, Wikimedia's git repository hosting service of choice: \url{https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/mediawiki/extensions/AbuseFilter/+/refs/heads/master}.
The rules format can be viewed under \url{https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:AbuseFilter/Rules_format}.
Data generated by the extension in stored in following database tables: \emph{abuse\_filter}, \emph{abuse\_filter\_log}, \emph{abuse\_filter\_action} and \emph{abuse\_filter\_history}~\cite{gerrit-abusefilter}.
Following new user permissions are introduced by the abuse filter plugin:
\item `abusefilter-private-log': View the AbuseFilter private details access log
\end{itemize}
%********************
There are several actions by editors that may trigger an edit filter.
Editing is the most common of them, but there are also filters targetting account creation, deletions, moving pages or uploading content, as elaborated in section~\ref{sec:mediawiki-ext}.
When an edit filter's regex pattern matches an editor's action, an entry is created in the \emph{abuse\_filter\_log} table and an additional filter action (or actions) may be invoked.
The documentation of the AbuseFilter extension provides us a complete list of the possible edit filter actions~\cite{Mediawiki:AbuseFilterActions}:
\begin{itemize}
\item Logging: ``All filter matches are logged in the abuse log. This cannot be turned off.''
...
...
@@ -146,7 +119,6 @@ The documentation of the AbuseFilter extension provides us a complete list of th
\item Range-blocking: ``Somewhat of a "nuclear option", the entire /16 range from which the rule was triggered will be blocked for 1 week.''
\item Tagging: ``The edit or change can be 'tagged' with a particular tag, which will be shown on Recent Changes, contributions, logs, new pages, history, and everywhere else. These tags are styleable, so you can have items with a certain tag appear in a different colour or similar.''
\end{itemize}
%TODO shouldn't this be part of the MediaWiki Extension section?
Range-blocking, blocking, removing from priviledged groups and revoking autopromoted groups haven't been used on the EN Wikipedia in recent years. %TODO: why? look for talk page archives around the last time they were used. Maybe there was a particular incident; nothing concerning autopromote in the EdiFilter talk page around 2012
To be more precise, the last time a filter action other than ``log only'', ``tag'', ``warn'' or ``disallow'' was triggered on the EN Wikipedia was in 2012. %TODO Refer to data analysis
Guidelines specifically call for careful use of ``disallow''.
Only severe cases for which ``substantially all good-faith editors would agree are undesirable'' or specific cases for which consensus has been reached should be disallowed~\cite{Wikipedia:EditFilter}.
The documentation page of the extension is here: \url{https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:AbuseFilter}\\
and the code is hosted on gerrit, Wikimedia's git repository hosting service of choice:\\
