Wikipedia:Abuse response/2009 Revamp

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Superseding Proposal

Pursuant to WP:IGNORE and WP:BOLD, we are completely rebuilding Abuse Reports as "Abuse Response" for the same rationale listed below. We are moving all useful pages to Abuse Response, and leaving behind all of the arcane and stale components, including old cases and reports, in an attempt to rebuild and keep Abuse Response relevant to today's Wikipedia.

The Proposal

Rationale

We propose the following changes to the Abuse Response project because:

• The number of volunteers involved with Abuse Response has dwindled
• The system, process, and cases are unclear and/or disorganized
• We believe that Abuse Response is a vital part of Wikipedia
• Professionalism must be shown when representing Wikipedia

Archived Cases

In order to cleanup all existing cases which are in complete disarray, largely because various templating and bot systems have been changed in the past, we propose:

• All existing cases (anything in Wikipedia:Abuse reports/(ip address)) will be moved to Wikipedia:Abuse reports/Archived/(ip address) with no redirect.
• Any open cases will be manually moved back from archived.
• All future archiving of cases should likewise be moved to /Archive/ subpagination.
• Y Done. All archived cases should be in the Category:Abuse response - Archived.
• N Not done. New reports with an existing IP address should be marked as a subsequent case (in the same manner as cfd nomination pages).
  • Note: Still need a mechanism or at least a note to filers about doing this when a duplicate case is filed.
• Y Done. Archived cases should have their page encapsulated in a box showing that it is archived and asking for it to not be modified (in the same manner as other WP projects).

Standards for Investigators

In recognition of the fact that investigating Abuse Reports can be a sensitive activity and requires investigators to be fair and upright, we propose that prior to investigating, volunteers meet the following criteria:

1. All user accounts for the user across all Wikimedia foundation sites must be in good standing and must not have been blocked in the past three months.
2. User must have a clear understanding of IP ranges, IP allocation, WHOIS records, ISP contact information, and DNS records.
3. User must demonstrate a history of polite contact and assuming good faith, as you representing Wikipedia when contacting organizations.

• • Note: Still need a mechanism to verify volunteers meet criteria -- although it will still come down to the honor system.
    • Doing... Current plan is to place requisites on the volunteer and ask volunteers that they consider themselves as meeting them before placing their name on the volunteer list.

Standards for Contact

Y Done. In recognition of the fact that as investigators contacting external parties, we represent the face of Wikipedia and that it is imperative that we use the utmost of professionalism, we propose that

• Contact with responsible organizations must be based on approved templates.
  • Note: implenented as part of guide to abuse response.

Processing of Cases

Case process.

To simplify and streamline the processing of cases, we propose that cases follow this process:

1. Y Done Case filed by user.

• Case goes to status "New" category "Waiting for Investigator" (by virtue of ARStatus template)
• Case listed on main abuse page in section "New" (preferably by a bot)

Case listing instead via Category:Abuse response - Waiting for Investigation

Note: implemented via {{ARStatus}}

2. Y Done Case opened by investigator.

• Case goes to status "Open" category "Open" (by virtue of ARStatus template)
• Case listed on main abuse page in section "Open" (preferably by a bot)

Case listing instead via Category:Abuse response - Open

Note: implemented via {{ARStatus}}

3. Y Done Investigation is completed.

• Case remains in status "Open".

Note: implemented via {{ARStatus}}

4. Y Done Contact is made and completed.

• Case goes to status "Closed" category "Closed" (by virtue of ARStatus template)
• Case listed on main abuse page in section "Closed" (preferably by a bot)

Case listing instead via Category:Abuse response - Closed

Note: implemented via {{ARStatus}}

5. Y Done Case is archived (after seven days) immediately on close

• Case page is moved to the subpage /Archived/ by a bot.

Striking this because it is non-standard for WP, instead case moved to Category:Abuse response - Archived by virtue of the ARA_bottom template.

Note: implemented via {{ARStatus}}

Filing Criteria

Y Done

• The IP address has been blocked at least five times
• The IP has made contributions within the past six months

Proposed rewrites

Several pages in abuse reports have to be rewritten to reflect the new procedures. The following is a list of pages that have completed the rewrite process. Make changes as deemed necessary. (currently 3 users have access, please request on talk page)

Volunteer page

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The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page, such as the current discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Things to do

• Y Done. WP:ABUSE needs to be rewritten.
• Y Done. Create a new subpage with filing instructions so that it can be transcluded.
• Y Done. Discuss if AR should contact the ISPs of long term vandals.
• Y Done. Cleanup Wikipedia:Abuse_response/Header.
• Y Done. Rewrite Wikipedia:Abuse response/Filing instructions. It's not clear/concise or easy to read.
• Y Done. Create talkback template.
• Y Done. Create templates for contact letters (pending discussion).
• Y Done. Add a switch to AR Talk template to indicate that a case has been closed, RO contacted, and add a switch that will link to a new report with (2nd report).
• Y Done. Revise and expand Template:AbRep1 with additional notes.
• Y Done. Move pages over to Abuse Response.
• Y Done. Create Template:AbRep-multi for multiple IP addresses then add this as a second filing button.
• Y Done. Revise Wikipedia:Abuse_response/Volunteers, add volunteer requisites.
• Y Done. Wikipedia:GTAR needs to be made more readable and verified for content.
• Y Done. Finalize the report template for single IP addresses.
• Y Done. Document all project-related templates per WP standard using {{Documentation}}.
• Y Done. Find and eliminate all orphaned reports by categorizing them into Archived and either Rejected or Closed.
• Y Done. Condense all AR-related action templates (including all on Wikipedia:Abuse_rsponse/Indicators) into a single template OR naming convention with switches (e.g. ARA, ARprelim, ARdone, ARDisp etc etc)
• Y Done. Add a case toolbox to the case templates.
• Ongoing Keep processing open cases!