SmashWiki talk:Probation

Getting out

Will there be a way of getting out of the probation group if you get in to it? Shanicpower Make it rain! 05:22, 13 September 2012 (EDT)

If you start being a constructive user that puts effort into helping the Wiki, then yes, you'll be taken off probation. Omega Tyrant 07:18, 13 September 2012 (EDT)

Do you know which people to be in the probation group? The Awesome 19:11, 13 September 2012 (EDT)

It wouldn't be hard to figure out, we just look at all the user pages that are currently protected and apply it to those users, then remove the now-useless protection. Toomai Glittershine The Ghostbuster 11:15, 14 September 2012 (EDT)

I saw the notice at the top and I thought a good idea might be to put a user in probation when they have less than X% mainspace edits for more than Y time, and get removed from the group after being over Z% for Y time?ScoreCounter (talk) 17:31, 15 September 2012 (EDT)

The plan is to avoid using straight numbers as a cutoff. Toomai Glittershine The Sharp 18:13, 15 September 2012 (EDT)

The major problem with giving defined percents is:

1. They can't accurately measure a user's contributions alone. It's possible for a user to only have 10% of their edits be mainspace edits while having 50% or so go to their userspace and Smash Arena, yet those few mainspace edits are all of amazing quality (as well as their other constructive edits). Such a user would be given considerably more leeway than a user whose 10% of constructive edits are all minor or inconsequential. Quality > Quantity.

2. If we gave defined percents to reach, it heavily encourages users placed under probation to make a slew of "no effort" minor edits (edits that aren't outright revert worthy, but is an edit that pretty much adds nothing to the quality of the page), and do underhand things to boost their mainspace edits, such as intentionally not getting the edit right on the first edit and making successive multiple edits to fix the same edit, and even intentionally making minor bad edits (removing a sentence is easier than adding information, yet you can't really prove the user made the edit in bad faith instead of removing information they thought was faulty). These things will boost the user's mainspace edits and give the illusion they're trying, but still no effort is going into the quality of their edits nor to improving the Wiki.

3. Whatever percent it would be is arbitrary. Just why is 30% mainspace edits with less than 50% userspace edits fine, but 25% mainspace with under 52% userspace isn't? No percent suddenly makes the user a constructive user.

4. Once the percent is reached, it encourages the user to stop making an effort and go back to their previous behavior. Hey, all they need to do is use some of the "tricks" in point 2 to inflate their mainspace edit and keep it above the threshold, and they can continue their userspace and Smash Arena focus all the way.

So as you can see, giving defined percents to enforce this under would be a terrible and counterproductive idea. Omega Tyrant 18:47, 15 September 2012 (EDT)