Wikipedia:Oversight

This page documents an official policy on the English Wikipedia. The main Wikimedia Foundation policy on Oversight has been decided on Meta (m:Hiding_revisions#Policy) and nothing here may override that policy without approval there.

Please see Wikipedia:Requests for oversight for the address to which oversight requests should be sent.

Oversight on the Wikipedia is a form of extreme deletion, intended for privacy, defamation and (at times) copyrighted information which are to be expunged from any form of usual access. Oversighted edits differ from normal deletion performed by administrators, since once removed, they cannot be seen even by administrators, nor can they easily be restored to the database.

On the English Wikipedia, oversight is entrusted to a restricted number of users, who can both oversight material if it meets the strict requirements below, and monitor each others' use of the function.

The permission is granted (exceedingly rarely and only with good cause) by the Arbitration Committee, who handle many other privacy-related functions. Users authorized for oversight must have provided personal identification to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Nomenclature

The term 'oversight' comes from the ability to review the "oversight log" containing a list of such removals. When the revision hiding feature was being designed, it was thought that permissions for revision hiding and viewing the log would be granted separately, and when they were coalesced into a single permission, the term "oversight" was used.

Policy

This feature is approved for use in three cases:

1. Removal of nonpublic personal information such as phone numbers, home addresses, workplaces or identities of pseudonymous or anonymous individuals who have not made their identity public.
2. Removal of potentially libelous information either: a) on the advice of Wikimedia Foundation counsel or b) when the subject has specifically asked for the information to be expunged from the history, the case is clear, and there is no editorial reason to keep the revision.
3. Removal of copyright infringement on the advice of Wikimedia Foundation counsel.

Hidden revisions remain accessible to Oversight users through the log, and can be restored by a developer if a mistake was made.

Oversight removal is not used on usual vandalism — even egregious and offensive vandalism — unless it is one of the above. Oversight is for material that should not be available even to an admin.

Oversight operation

Usage

An example of the Hide Revision interface.

A user with oversight privilege will get an extra "hide revision" tab when viewing an old revision, a diff, or a deleted revision. Click this tab and fill out a comment to remove the displayed revision.

Note that the most recent edit to a page cannot be hidden; revert the edit first. If a page has only one revision, blank it to make a second revision and oversight the first one, then delete the page.

Users should be aware that hiding revisions can create misleading diffs, for example if user A adds personal information which must be hidden, then user B adds vandalism, then user C removes the personal information without removing the vandalism, then user D removes the vandalism, and then A and Bs edits are hidden (the minimum required to hide the personal information) then it will appear that C made the vandalism. In this case the confusion could be avoided by also hiding the vandalism, but in situations where good content is added there may be no simple solution. It is possible that the system will be changed to replace the removed revisions with an explicitly visible marker.

If you believe that a page revision qualifies for hiding under this process, please e-mail a request per Wikipedia:Requests for oversight.

Logging

An example of the Special:Oversight log.

Revision hidings are logged privately, visible to other oversight-admins at Special:Oversight with a comment.

The log lists who made the removal, when, from which page, and a provided comment. A diff link to compare the previous live revision to the hidden one is available.

Assignment and revocation

This section, in a nutshell; The process of achieving access to the Oversight permission is currently not set in stone. Those users who think that they have need of oversight must contact the Committee first and proceed from there. However, only CheckUsers and other current/former Arbitrators are likely to be considered.

Users who require the oversight permission are typically members of the Arbitration Committee and former Arbitration Committee members. For those users who are not, in order to be granted the oversight flag, a case should be made and sent to the ArbCom mailing list; you may do this by consulting an Arbitrator, or simply by emailing the Committee directly, using the details here. If confirmed by the Arbitration Committee to have a need for oversight, an Arbitrator will post a request on Requests for permission on Meta-Wiki and a Steward will assign the permission.

Just as easily as the oversight permission can be granted, it can be revoked. If the Arbitration Committee feels that an editor has abused oversight by hiding revisions which do not qualify under one of the above criteria, they will immediately request a Steward to remove the permission from the editor. This may be done by any of the usual ways, including email or a request on requests for permission on Meta.

Emergency requests based upon clear evidence may also be made in exceptional circumstances, the same way. In an exceptional case, and for good cause, a Steward may temporarily remove the permission, pending a decision by the Committee. The steward should check the matter is well founded, and make clear immediately that it is a temporary response only, since such an action could lead to controversy.

Users with Oversight permissions

An automatic list is available at Special:Listusers/oversight. Accurate as of 7 April 2008, the Oversight team is:

• Current Arbitrators: Blnguyen, Charles Matthews, Deskana, FloNight, FT2, Jdforrester, Jpgordon, Kirill Lokshin, Morven, Paul August, Thebainer, UninvitedCompany
• Former Arbitrators: David Gerard, Dmcdevit, Flcelloguy, Fred Bauder, Jayjg, Mackensen, Neutrality, Raul654, Rebecca, SimonP, The Epopt
• Developers: Tim Starling
• Others: Alison, Cary Bass, Jimbo Wales, Nichalp, Redux, Taxman

Developers do not typically patrol the site for violations, but require occasional access for maintenance and enhancement purposes. "Others" includes non-arbitrators selected for the permission, and WMF officers; all such editors with access to Oversight are also CheckUsers.

See also

Oversight explanation

• Wikipedia:User access levels
• Original of this page on Meta-Wiki
• A proposed revision deletion system (MediaWiki)

Oversight use

• Wikipedia:Requests for oversight for requesting that a page revision be hidden. Requests should be made by email, not on that page. Please read the page policy first.

Oversight access

• m:Requests for permission (used by the arbitration committee to request usergroup addition)
• User rights log (Meta) (includes Oversight assignment.)

Technical

• mw:Hiding revisions - more detailed description of how the feature works and how to install the extension on one's own wiki.