Wikipedia:Page Curation/Help

Welcome to the help page for Page Curation, which features frequently asked questions about this project. This new software was developed by the Wikimedia Foundation to improve the ease and quality of New Page Patrol.

To learn more about Page Curation, watch the video tour or take the tutorial. If you have questions not answered here, you can leave them on the project talkpage, or contact the Community Liaison directly :)

What is Page Curation?

Page Curation is a new way of participating in New Page Patrol (NPP). It is presented as an alternative to Special:NewPages, the old method, and provides (among other benefits) more filtering, better data and a dedicated tagging and deletion tool that is fully supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. This project includes two main features, which are described in sections below:

1. the New Pages Feed, a dynamic list of new pages for review by community patrollers; and
2. the Curation Toolbar, an optional suite of tools that enables editors to quickly review, tag or nominate articles for deletion.

The Foundation began building the Page Curation tools in response to comments from the community that NPP was an overly stressful experience, burning out our editors and leading to brusqueness when dealing with new contributors. Since improving the editing experience is a fundamental part of what we're here to work on, we decided to do something about it, in collaboration with community editors. Development for this project was accompanied by record levels of outreach on the English-language Wikipedia, following our Engagement Strategy. We are committed to keeping this going, and to looking for new and better ways to involve the community in future software developments.

Note: this project was originally code-named "Page Triage"; for more details, check the feature requirements on MediaWiki.org.

How does Page Curation work?

When a new article is created, it appears in the New Pages Feed, the first part of the Page Curation process. It can then be selected by an experienced editor for review, either to thank and help the creators of good-faith articles, or to remove bad-faith contributions such as attack pages or copyright violations. Once an article has been selected, it opens in a new tab and the second part of Page Curation is displayed; the Curation Toolbar. This gives the editor reviewing the page options to tag it for improvement or deletion, thank the creator, or mark it as "reviewed".

When will this be released?

At the moment, both elements of the tool (the New Pages Feed and the Curation Toolbar) are deployed on the English-language Wikipedia, where a full release of the software was deployed in September 2012. If you find any issues, please report them to us! We expect to make this tool available to other projects once it has been fully tested.

What is the New Pages Feed?

The New Pages Feed is an alternative to Special:NewPages, the current interface for New Page Patrol (NPP) - the practice of checking brand new pages for issues. This activity is carried out by New Page Patrollers; if you haven't patrolled articles yet but are an auto-confirmed editor, you can easily participate in this process. Once you have read through this help page, we encourage you start reviewing articles on Wikipedia.

How does the New Pages Feed work?

The New Pages Feed interface improves on Special:NewPages by presenting it in a more readable and scannable format. The top toolbar provides controls for filtering the list, as well as the ability to sort it by date, while the bottom toolbar gives data on how patrolling is going, what the current workload is like and who has been doing the work. To select an article to review, click on its title (or on the 'Review' button), which will take you to that article and open its Curation Toolbar. Read below for more tips on how to filter or sort this page -- and make the most of the New Pages Feed.

What's the difference between this and Special:NewPages?

On the face of it, they may appear to be fairly similar; both are a long, chronological list of newly created articles. In actual fact, there are a lot of differences between the two pages. Compared to Special:NewPages, the New Pages Feed has:

1. More metadata. It is be possible to see, through Special:NewPagesFeed, things like who patrolled an article, whether the article has been nominated for deletion, and data about the article itself (size, a preview of the text, whether it has been categorised, how many users have contributed to it). This makes identifying pages you may have an interest in far easier and more accurate, because you no longer have to open them individually to find out most of the information.
2. Key statistics, such as the number of unpatrolled articles remaining, the average and maximum age of these articles, and a leaderboard of the most hardworking patrollers. This will allow people to easily gauge patrollers' workload and provide encouragement and other incentives to those who work particularly hard.
3. No 30 day limit. The 30 day limit creates an artificial barrier that increases stress for no good reason. The New Pages Feed instead has an unlimited listing for unpatrolled pages, and a 60 day listing for patrolled pages to allow for review and oversight.
4. Bug fixing. In Special:NewPages, pages that are moved from one namespace to another or created on top of an already-existing redirect do not appear in the list. With the new software, both will appear properly formatted and ready for review.
5. Improved filtering; there are far more options to filter pages in the new software than in Special:NewPages. This makes it easier to accurately identify the sort of pages you want to patrol, and deal with them and them only.

How do I filter or sort articles?

One of the features in the New Pages Feed is improved filtering of articles. In Special:NewPages, the choices are limited to including or excluding redirects, bots or reviewed pages. In the New Pages Feed, you can include or exclude redirects, unreviewed pages, reviewed pages, pages marked for deletion, articles with no categories or inbound links, articles created by new users or articles created by specific (or blocked) users.

To use these options, click the "Set filters" button on the left of the top toolbar. Select the one(s) you want, and then click on the green "Set filters" button; the page should then refresh and only display articles that meet the criteria you have selected. These filters are saved between refreshes, even if you accidentally go away from the page. In addition, you can also sort by ascending or descending order, even within filters. To do this, select "newest" or "oldest" on the right of the top toolbar; again, this should automatically refresh the pages displayed. If you have trouble getting this to work, you can report it as a bug :).

Who can review articles?

Although anyone can see the New Pages Feed, only autoconfirmed users can actually review pages. This is because reviewing a page is more than just saying "I think this page is okay"; it means "a trusted user thinks this page is okay". Only allowing autoconfirmed editors to review pages is in keeping with community standards and the precedent set by Special:NewPages, the older page patrolling tool. There had been some talk of creating a special userright required before a user would be allowed to review new pages. However, the NPP survey revealed the community was ambivalent to the idea, and we do not feel at this time that it is our role to suggest that such a userright be created.

What is the Curation Toolbar?

The Curation Toolbar is a suite of tools that is available on new articles or user pages to help patrollers review them more effectively. This optional tool enables editors to get page info, mark a page as reviewed, tag it, mark it for deletion, send WikiLove to page creators — or jump to the next page on the list. It works a bit like Twinkle, but aims to provide an easier user interface, fully supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. The Curation Toolbar is part of the page curation project, which aims to enhance the current page patrol process by making it faster and less stressful to check new articles.

Where can I find the Curation Toolbar?

The Curation Toolbar is available to editors for any page listed in the New Pages Feed. From that feed, click on any page title (or the 'Review' button) to view that page, along with its Curation Toolbar. The toolbar appears as a gray vertical bar near the right edge of your browser window. Note that you can close that toolbar by clicking on the 'x' icon -- or minimize it by clicking on the icon next to 'x'. If you close the Curation Toolbar accidentally, you can open it again by clicking on 'Curation Toolbar' in the 'Toolbox' section of the left sidebar.

Who can use the Curation Toolbar?

To use the Curation Toolbar, you must be an autoconfirmed editor. This means that you should have made at least ten edits, and that your account is at least five days old. The reason for this restriction is to make sure that reviewers have enough editing experience to make informed decisions about the pages they review.

There had been some talk of creating a special userright required before a user would be allowed to review new pages. However, the NPP survey revealed the community was ambivalent to the idea, and we do not feel at this time that it is our role to suggest that such a userright be created.

What is Page Info and how does it work?

Page Info makes it easy for you to view important information about pages you are patrolling, so that you can review them more productively.

This feature displays a small panel when you click on the 'info' icon in the Curation Toolbar. It shows information including the page's review status, creation date, creator name, size, as well as possible problems (such as a lack of categories or references). For convenience, a simplified view of the page history is also provided on this panel.

What is WikiLove and how does it work?

The 'WikiLove' feature lets you send a personal message to creators of pages you are reviewing, so that you can show appreciation for their work.

When you click on the 'heart' icon in the Curation Toolbar, a small panel will display a list of all users who have edited the article, inviting you to select the names of editors you wish to thank. You can then click the green “Send WikiLove” button at the bottom to open the WikiLove wizard, where you can pick the WikiLove award of your choice and post it with a personal message on the creator's talk page.

What is Mark as Reviewed and how does it work?

The 'Mark as Reviewed' feature lets you mark a page as ‘reviewed’ after you have checked it, to let other patrollers know that you have passed the article. It works like the 'Mark as patrolled' function, and means that you carefully reviewed that page and did not find any serious problems.

When you click on the 'checkmark' icon in the Curation Toolbar, a small panel appears with a 'Mark as reviewed' button. It also includes an option to add a personal message on the page creator's talk page, either to welcome them, thank them, or give them advice on how to improve the article.

When you are done, click the green "Mark as Reviewed" button, which will move that page to the 'reviewed' queue. A green checkmark icon will now be displayed for that page, both in the Curation Toolbar and on the New Pages Feed, to indicate to other patrollers that they do not need to review that page.

If you believe that a page was reviewed in error or should be checked further, you can mark that page as "unreviewed". This will move it back to the unreviewed queue and remove the green checkmark.

What is Add Tags and how does it work?

The "Add Tags" feature lets you quickly add a variety of maintenance tags to the page you are reviewing, to help its editors fix any issues you found. When you click on the 'tag' icon in the Curation Toolbar, a small panel displays a list of common tags, inviting you to check any tag you think applies to this page (such as "Copy edit" or "dead links").

Over 70 different tags are provided, organized into categories such as 'Cleanup' or 'Sources', and a special section called "All tags" lists every available tag alphabetically. You can select as many tags as needed, and add them to the page all at once. You also have the option to add details for some of these tags to describe the specific issues.

You can also add a personal message on the creator's talk page, to provide more feedback. Please write a helpful note that can help them improve that page.

When you are done selecting tags, click the green "Add selected tags" button at the bottom of the panel. This will add the corresponding tags to the page in a single action. If you wrote a personal note or checked the 'Mark as reviewed' box, these actions will also take place at the same time. You can learn more about maintenance tags here.

What is Mark for Deletion and how does it work?

The 'Mark for Deletion' feature lets you nominate pages for deletion based on Wikipedia's standards. When you click on the 'trash' icon in the Curation Toolbar, a small panel displays a list of deletion options, inviting you to check the one you think applies to this page.

You can mark an article for deletion in one of three ways:

• Speedy Deletion is a quick way of deleting pages that can only be used if the page falls within one of the speedy deletion criteria (such as "Attack page" or "No context"). You can select as many tags as needed, and add them to the page all at once. If a page does not fit any of these criteria, Proposed Deletion or Articles for Deletion may be better options.

• Proposed Deletion is a way of deleting pages that do not fall within the speedy deletion criteria but that break community standards for article inclusion. The page remains on Wikipedia for seven days until it is reviewed by an administrator. If the deletion is likely to be controversial, Articles for Deletion may be a better option.

• Articles for Deletion is for deletions that seem controversial or don't fit the speedy deletion criteria. This process takes the form of a full discussion between community members, unlike speedy deletion or proposed deletion. After seven days, the discussion is closed by an administrator, who makes a decision based on what has been said.

You have the option to add details for some of these options to describe why you think this page should be deleted. Any notes you write will be included with the deletion template that is added on that page, to provide a rationale for administrators and other editors.

When you are done with your selection, click the green "Mark for Deletion" button at the bottom of the tool. This will post the selected deletion tags to the page, along with any notes, in a single action. It will also move that page to the 'marked for deletion' queue. A black icon will then be displayed for that page, both in the Curation Toolbar and on the New Pages Feed, to indicate to other patrollers that this page has been nominated for deletion.

What is Next and how does it work?

The "Next" feature lets you jump to the next page in the New Pages Feed, so that you can quickly flip through pages on your list to determine which ones to review.

When you click on the "Next" icon in the Curation Toolbar, you will go from the current page to the next page in your New Pages Feed. For example, if you have filtered New Paged Feed to only show 'unreviewed' pages (as described above), this Next button will only go to 'unreviewed' pages on that filtered list. You can skip through as many pages as you want before finding one you want to patrol :).

Why wasn't I consulted about the design and deployment?

The Foundation has done its best to reach out to editors and involve them in the development and design process, as planned out in our Engagement Strategy. The project has so far spawned over 120kb of discussion from 30 people, with over 100 receiving regular updates via newsletter. In addition it has been publicised on the relevant project pages and consistently been discussed in the Signpost. In addition, this beta release is intended to promote further engagement - for the first time ever, testing will be conducted by users on a major Wikipedia project, allowing for efficient bug reporting and an opportunity to suggest even more changes and features than have already been incorporated. Nevertheless, we want to improve even on this. If you have any suggestions for us, please contact our Community Liaison directly, either via his talkpage or email at okeyeswikimedia.org.

I have suggestions for new features, or have found a bug

With features, the best place to go is the project talkpage. This is deliberately hosted on the English-language Wikipedia so you don't have to switch projects to contribute, and our Community Liaison regularly monitors the page. With bugs, the ideal solution is to report them at [bugzilla.wikimedia.org/] under "MediaWiki extensions" and "PageTriage". However, we appreciate that this isn't exactly the easiest system to use; alternately, you can drop the report on the project talkpage, or email it to our Community Liaison at okeyeswikimedia.org with, if possible, a screenshot and information on your browser and operating system :).