Page MenuHomePhabricator

Display size of changes every line in Special:Recentchanges
Closed, ResolvedPublic

Description

Author: andrej73

Description:
Problem: lot of vandal changes delete content.
Solution: The RC-Patrol will easy, if every line include the size of
changes(character).
Example:
(diff) (hist) . . (-4540) Nude beach; 23:51:48 . . 68.42.251.192 (Talk)
(diff) (hist) . . (+128) February 27; 23:51:48 . . 70.240.226.24 (Talk)
(1950s-1999 - stupid mistake (sorry))


Version: unspecified
Severity: enhancement

Details

Reference
bz1085

Related Objects

Event Timeline

bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Low.Nov 21 2014, 8:01 PM
bzimport set Reference to bz1085.
bzimport added a subscriber: Unknown Object (MLST).

Wiki.Melancholie wrote:

*** Bug 5078 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

gangleri wrote:

*note*
Sooner or later after this feature will be implemented similar requests can rise
for 'Special:Recentchangeslinked/foo', 'Special:Contributions/bar',
'Special:Watchlist'.

leevanjackson wrote:

*** Bug 3074 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

leevanjackson wrote:

3074 Is very similar , but asked for a percentage change in the article

wiki.bugzilla wrote:

*** Bug 7345 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

leon wrote:

Patch to add the number of changed characters in recent changes

My comment from bug #7345:

This patch adds a +/- value to all recent changes lines. It shows how many
character were changed by the editor.

That patch works for me, but I can't say if it's nice/safe/whatever, since I
don't really understand the object orientaded PHP.
I also have no idea if it can work on the live site since it has to load the

old

and the new revision texts for every line in rc.

Leon

Attached:

leon wrote:

Screenshot of recent changes with this path

Attached:

screenshot.png (800×1 px, 129 KB)

The RC bot already does this. Maybe if it gets incorporated somehow. OTOH,
making a new database row and whatnot would make it easier, if my logics is correct.

leon wrote:

Yeah, that would be great:
a column in the recentchanges for that or
save the revision length in the revision table.
Is that reasonable?

leon wrote:

Fixed in SVN trunk, r18237.

ui2t5v002 wrote:

This is a pretty pointless addition. It clutters up all the diff lists with
numbers that don't provide any real information. There are much better ways to
indicate the reliability of an edit. How can we get this removed from the software?

At the very least, it needs to be a preference that each user can turn off.
Telling people to change their user CSS to hide the numbers is an unacceptable
solution.

ui2t5v002 wrote:

And why is the number surrounded by dots and whitespace?

. . (+249) . .

What's the point of making all those watchlist lines longer?

leon wrote:

(In reply to comment #11)

This is a pretty pointless addition. It clutters up all the diff lists with
numbers that don't provide any real information.

Aha. So this is what Brion always means when he mentions that people "bitch and
whine about minor cosmetic changes". You know, many people like it, some don't.
Which of them should we listen?

Secondly, probably 80% of the bitching and whining party just needs to get used
to it.

There are much better ways to
indicate the reliability of an edit.

Tell some.

How can we get this removed from the software?

By reverting r18237, but as you can imagine, we're not going to.

At the very least, it needs to be a preference that each user can turn off.
Telling people to change their user CSS to hide the numbers is an unacceptable
solution.

As mentioned, most people like it. Get used to it.

I hope this was not too rude.

  • Leon

yash078 wrote:

(In reply to comment #11)

At the very least, it needs to be a preference that each user can turn off.
Telling people to change their user CSS to hide the numbers is an unacceptable
solution.

I think having it as an option is a good idea. --Jak

robchur wrote:

Leon, face it - whatever you do, however useful you try to be, there are some
users out there who just don't like it. This is also Titoxd's first law of
Wikipedia.

It's actually a little tricky to add it as a user preference, and it would be a
messy solution. You can, I believe, hide the numbers altogether, which is an
excellent workaround for those who don't like it, using CSS.

If we *wanted* to add it as a user preference, then we would probably need to go
down the route of introducing a new ChangesList derivative, which deliberately
excluded these digits.

ui2t5v002 wrote:

(In reply to comment #13)

Aha. So this is what Brion always means when he mentions that people "bitch and
whine about minor cosmetic changes".

YOU SHOULD TRY RESPONDING AT THEM IN ALL CAPS I'VE HEARD THAT HELPS POUND IDEAS
INTO LUSER'S LITTLE HEADS

You know, many people like it, some don't.
Which of them should we listen?

Secondly, probably 80% of the bitching and whining party just needs to get used
to it.

Maybe features could be finished and brought to the community before going live.
Like, say, a preference to turn something off:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Added_or_removed_characters#To_remove_these_numbers_completely

Tell some.

The only thing these numbers are useful for is when someone leaves a false edit
summary like "small change" while actually changing thousands of bytes. But
most vandalism slips right past it. Changing the word "year" to "poop" goes
completely unnoticed. Small numbers give a false sense of security, making
diffs less likely to be looked at than if these numbers weren't present. And it
takes up a lot of space and has been given bold distracting colors for something
minimally useful that only a small number of users like.

Better ideas have been around, and ignored, for years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Automatic_edit_summaries#How_to_really_implement_this_feature

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28perennial_proposals%29#A_better_description

By reverting r18237, but as you can imagine, we're not going to.

Awesome.

I hope this was not too rude.

It was, as usual when dealing with developers. I wish WP:CIV and WP:LOVE
applied to the development process, too.

(In reply to comment #15)

It's actually a little tricky to add it as a user preference, and it would be a
messy solution. You can, I believe, hide the numbers altogether, which is an
excellent workaround for those who don't like it, using CSS.

Editing CSS is not a user interface.

If we *wanted* to add it as a user preference, then we would probably need to go
down the route of introducing a new ChangesList derivative, which deliberately
excluded these digits.

Please do.

robchur wrote:

(An extensive response to the above, and all the other unpleasantness, can be
found at http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2006-December/040657.html)

leevanjackson wrote:

I find it very useful, thank you! Have a great 2007 :)

titoxd.wikimedia wrote:

I find it very useful as well, as it is a critical part of the anti-vandalism
feeds that the IRC channels used. It's nice that everyone has access to that
data now. Thanks, Leon!

gschriss wrote:

Bug 8571 is an enhancement request to this enhancement. -GChriss

This functionality should be extended to Special:Contributions.