[WikiEN-l] Oversight log

Wed Jun 21 08:53:16 UTC 2006

On 21/06/06, Theresa Knott <theresaknott at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 6/21/06, Mark Ryan <ultrablue at gmail.com> wrote:
> > We appear to have lose access to the Oversight logs altogether. Is
> > there any explanation for this at all? I presume without this slight
> > accountability measure in place the oversight privileges have also
> > been revoked from those who have them.
>
> Originally the log only showed who had removed an edit and where it
> was removed from. It did not show what was removed so it was not that
> good for accountability at all. It has now been changes so that it
> shows the edit that was deleted. This is much better for
> accountability because we can check up on each other. Unfortunately
> this means that the log itself has to be kept private. Those people
> with oversight can view it. No one else can.
>
> Theresa
>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Listusers/oversight?limit=500 for the
list of users with "Oversight" access, which are, at of this moment:

   1. Brion VIBBER <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Brion_VIBBER>(oversight,
   Sysop <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>)
   2. Charles Matthews<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Charles_Matthews>(oversight,
   Sysop <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>)
   3.  Dmcdevit <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dmcdevit> (oversight,
   Sysop <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>)
   4. Essjay <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Essjay>
(Bureaucrat<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bureaucrats>,
   checkuser, oversight,
Sysop<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>
   )
   5. Filiocht <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Filiocht> (oversight, Sysop
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>)
   6. Fred Bauder
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fred_Bauder>(checkuser, oversight,
   Sysop <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>)
   7. Jayjg <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jayjg> (checkuser,
   oversight, Sysop
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>)
   8. Jdforrester <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jdforrester>(oversight,
   Sysop <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>)
   9. Jimbo Wales
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jimbo_Wales>(developer, oversight,
Steward,
   Sysop <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>)
   10. Mindspillage <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mindspillage>(oversight,
   Sysop <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>)
   11. Morven <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Morven> (checkuser,
   oversight, Sysop<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>
   )
   12. Neutrality <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Neutrality>(oversight,
   Sysop <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>)
   13. Raul654 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Raul654> (
Bureaucrat<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bureaucrats>,
   checkuser, oversight,
Sysop<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>
   )
   14. Sam Korn <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sam_Korn> (checkuser,
   oversight, Sysop<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>
   )
   15. SimonP <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SimonP> (oversight,
   Sysop <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>)
   16. The Epopt
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:The_Epopt>(checkuser, oversight,
   Sysop <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>)
   17. Theresa knott
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Theresa_knott>(oversight,
   Sysop <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>)

None of these were appointed in any way by the community, they just seem to
have been privileges handed out to friends as individuals see fit...

Now... If no one knows what exactly was deleted, not even the oversight
people themselves, how is abuse of this ever going to be detected?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2006-06-05/Oversight
- "For legal reasons, revisions deleted through oversight are not visible to
anyone, including oversight members. The only way to retrieve such revisions
is by manual restoration by a developer."

Ok, so developers can see it, but developers will not check unless there's
already a claim that there may have been abuse of it - the thing is, when no
one knows what's deleted, no one ever knows, not even the supposedly trusted
users in Oversight. I think that probably needs to be changed. If there are
certain people who cannot be trusted with information from Oversight they
shouldn't have it in the first place. Either that or create a separate
usergroup for "viewOversight" maybe....?

-- 
Selina -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mistress_Selina_Kyle?oldid=55639088 /
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mistress_Selina_Kyle?oldid=41845454
http://wikipediareview.com/?showuser=1
"I *do* think criticism is good for Wikipedia [...] Good quality criticism
is valuable, and Wikipedians should listen to it, and actually make changes
based on it. Are there corrupt administrators, then we should get rid of
them." --Jimmy Wales ( http://wikipediareview.com/?showtopic=1693 )