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-- Wikinews Welcome (talk) 21:49, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

Unblock request

No idea why the filter blocked me. After seeing Watch SZA "Nobody Gets Me" Video Today pop up on SWViewer I wanted to mark it for deletion as it is obviously spam, so I added {{delete|1=Spam --~~~~}} to the page. I am an admin on dewiki and an editor in good standing on enwiki. Please unblock.

Sorry that this happened. I do not yet understand why the filter permitted the original post and only caught it when you tagged it for deletion. Obviously, it was the content of the original post that triggered Abuse Filter, but why it waited for your edit, I do not understand. You have been unblocked. --SVTCobra 20:00, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

Thank you! --Count Count (talk) 20:09, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

@SVTCobra the initial page creation didn't trigger the abuse filter due to the edit_delta variable (page size was larger than the filter's edit delta)

You might want to consider adding variables such as user_age or global_user_editcount to reduce potential false positives (this is the second time in one week xwiki patrollers got caught in this filter when trying to flag spam for speedy deletion [1]).

And by the way: You might want to take a look at mw:Extension:AbuseFilter/Rules format#Built-in variables and replace deprecated variables (marked in red at Special:AbuseFilter/42). Johannnes89 (talk) 06:19, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

Johannes, thank you. I will take a look. I am, however, not a coder and generally don't know to construct effective filters. The code for this one was provided to me by Leaderboard. Cheers, SVTCobra 06:26, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

@SVTCobra:, Johannes is correct. Can you add the following to the start of the script:

user_age < 86400 & global_user_editcount < 5 & (the rest of the filter code)

I didn't realise that global user editcounts can now be used in filters. Also as I've noted to you before, please do NOT make a filter block users without being absolutely sure of its effectiveness - which this clearly isn't at this time. Leaderboard (talk) 06:52, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

@Johannnes89, Leaderboard:, I have attempted to combine your suggestions into the filter. There are no redlinks in it now and I disabled auto-block; so now, it just disallows and prevents autopromotion. But eventually, it should block, no? What is the standard for this? Cheers and thanks for your help, --SVTCobra 01:27, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

@SVTCobra:, Setting an abuse filter to block is the most powerful action you can tell it to do, and it is so powerful and risky that this option is entirely disallowed in many wikis, including the English Wikipedia. The reason is that even a subtle mistake on a filter can cause innocent users to be blocked by mistake (as has happened multiple times on this wiki), which means that one must be absolutely sure before doing so (and be prepared to watch RC like a hawk to undo accidental blocks). Generally, the filter should be working for a while with no/minimal false positives before setting it to block. In many cases, even setting the filter to simply disallow can be considered too risky, since it's rather inconvenient for a new user to have to contact an admin to make an edit.

The filter I sent to you does not currently meet this standard, since it's a "quick-and-dirty" script I wrote to handle a particular LTA.

I've looked at possible improvements to reduce false positives; one of which you can see in this Wikimania proposal. Leaderboard (talk) 07:52, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

Yes, but if we disable block and disallow, what is even the point? Wikinews is a small wiki and needs automated tools. Your 'quick-and-dirty' code seemed to work for a month. Only now in the last week did it have two false positives. SVTCobra 10:07, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

@SVTCobra:, that's the problem with abuse filters. They need to be rigorously tested before setting it to block. The proverb "with great power comes great responsibility" applies quite well here. Leaderboard (talk) 15:20, 2 May 2023 (UTC)