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Commons: Restricted ability to override files to prevent vandalism
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Description

Author: wiki.bugzilla

Description:
Wikimedia Commons:
Because of increasing image vandalism which affects many other projects I would like to propose
a restriction of some abilities of new users on Commons. In particular overriding of files and restoring
of old versions should be disabled until a new user has at least 10 accepted file uploads.


Version: unspecified
Severity: enhancement
URL: -

Details

Reference
bz3214

Event Timeline

bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Medium.Nov 21 2014, 8:45 PM
bzimport set Reference to bz3214.
bzimport added a subscriber: Unknown Object (MLST).

paddyez wrote:

The vandalism on commons is starting. Now people will say that it is nothing new
and that they have vandals and trolls everywhere on their Wikimedia-Projects.
But commons is first of all a baby and one of the youngest projects. Commons
goal is to provide pictures and other media for many Wikimedia projects. If one
central media file is vandalised it means that it inevitably will strike several
other more or less prominent projects. Commons has too few administrators to do
solve problems within seconds. Media is cached so long, that you get a porn
picture even though it originally was not (see the puss/ass user that constantly
uploads disgusting images). Only solution is editing the page with no
contribution to get rid of the cache problem.

I therefore agree with Bdk.

wiki.bugzilla wrote:

(In reply to comment #0)
Related reference: Compare the restriction of the right to move pages for new users on at least de.wikipedia (for the
latest 1 % of new users) - also to prevent vandalism by multiple movement of pages.

dbenbenn wrote:

Sounds like a good idea. I guess "at least 10 accepted file uploads" could mean
something like "the user's tenth upload occurred at least a week ago". That
would mean the AP vandal would have to invest non-trivial effort to create an
account that could be used for vandalism.

wiki.bugzilla wrote:

(In reply to comment #3)
Yes, of course. The formulation "at least 10 ..." was meant just as an example to give an approximate value.

ew_wiki wrote:

Pro - sounds reasonable, especially because many prestigious projects are concerned by only one vandal attac over
here. I would approve an even more restrictive rule than "only" 10 edits.

dangrey101 wrote:

This would be a godsend. Please any devs out there, take this challenge on! We'd
love you forever.

Strong support, I really hate this crazy AP guy ...

ian.woollard wrote:

I think this bug is too vague. Exactly what rights should new users have and not
have?

wiki.bugzilla wrote:

(In reply to comment #8)
changed summary to clarify

This bug only is about one specific right:
Users should not be able to override files and to restore old versions until
they have at least x file uploads in their contributions (perhaps in addition:
and the last upload occurred at least x days ago). If many/all files of a user
were deleted and the number was reduced to under x again, the user also
loses this right again.

Leave the specification of "x" or further decisions to our developers ;-)

Currently all wikimedia wikis are set to restrict overwrite-uploads to accounts meeting the automatic confirmation criteria (currently set to 4 days delay since registration).

The x good image uploads at least y days ago would be very useful for dealing
with vandals at commons, as registering a sleeper account and waiting 4 days is
comapatively trivial.

I would also suggest suggest limiting the number of overwrite uploads to 1 per
24 hours for non-administrators. If flexible permissions are invovled this right
could be awarded to users short of adminship if desired - but that can come later.

Chris: I'm against implementing more than one hard security mechanism at the
same time. There are legitimate reasons to make multiple overwrites in a short
period. We should also consider soft security mechanisms. They tend to be more
complex to implement, especially those involving time delays, but better
monitoring would help already. For starters, Special:Newimages could provide a
filter to view only overwrites, and also highlight them in the general list.

As of now, new users (new than four days, i think), are not allowed to overwrite
existing files. Maybe that's close enough to what is requested here, and this
bug can be closed.

Anyway, I'd suggest to allow "restricted" users to overwrite their own uploads.

(In reply to comment #13)

As of now, new users (new than four days, i think), are not allowed to overwrite
existing files. Maybe that's close enough to what is requested here, and this
bug can be closed.

Anyway, I'd suggest to allow "restricted" users to overwrite their own uploads.

OK, closing this.