Wikipedia:Page Curation/Help

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Welcome to the help page for Page Curation, which features frequently asked questions about this project. This software was developed by the Wikimedia Foundation in close collaboration with a community task force to streamline the process of controlling new pages by experienced New Page Patrollers.

To learn more about Page Curation, watch the video tour or take the tutorial. If you have questions not answered here, you can leave a message at WT:NPR. Please use WT:Page Curation only for reporting bugs or discussing improvements to the software.

To learn more about patrolling new pages in general, please see the check list of recommended tasks and tutorial at WP:NPP.

Play media

Watch a quick video tour

What is Page Curation?

Since it was rolled out in 2011, Page Curation is the principal method for carrying out New Page Review (NPP). It is designed to replace Special:NewPages, the old method supported by the Twinkle tagging system, and provides (among other benefits) more filtering, better page data overview, a dedicated tagging and deletion tool, and a messaging system. This product includes two main features, which are described below:

1. the New Pages Feed, a dynamic list of new pages for review by community reviewers; and
2. the Curation Toolbar, that enables editors to quickly review, tag for maintenance, nominate articles for deletion, and leave help and advice tips for the page creator.

Originally code-named "Page Triage", the development history is at feature requirements on MediaWiki.org. New page reviewers have the option of using a user script that combines the two main Page Curation features.

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 was this released?

A full release of the software was deployed on the English language Wikipedia in September 2012. If you find any issues, please report them at Wikipedia talk:Page Curation.

New Pages Feed

New Pages Feed Screenshot

What is the New Pages Feed?

The New Pages Feed is designed to replace Special:NewPages. It's a list in real time of all incoming new page submissions. Its clean graphic interface will encourage more experienced users to take on the task of patrolling new pages. It offers several user definable preferences for filtering what kind of new pages they want to see and work on.

How does the New Pages Feed work?

On New Pages Feed 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 and what the current workload looks like. 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 the old Special:NewPages?

There are a lot of differences between the two pages. Compared to the old Special:NewPages, the New Pages Feed has:

1. More metadata. It is 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 and 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 maximum age of these articles, and the number of cases patrolled in the previous week.
3. No 30-day limit. 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 appear properly formatted and ready for review.
5. Improved filtering; provides options to filter pages in order to list the kind of pages you want to patrol.

How do I filter or sort articles?

Filters for New Pages Feed

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?

Anyone can see the New Pages Feed but only members of the New Page Reviewer Group can actually review pages. Due to the complexity of the task as described in the tutorial at WP:NPP, only users with extensive experience of Wikipedia notability and deletion policies may review new pages. In order to prevent misuse of the system, the need to limit access to the NPP tools has become necessary and the user right to review pages can be applied for at WP:PERM. Users will need to have been registered for at least 90 days, have made at least 500 non-reverted or uncontroversial edits to Article space (mainspace) and have a clean block log since 01 January 2016.

Curation Toolbar

What is the Curation Toolbar?

The Curation Toolbar is a type of page curation. It 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 provides 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 reviewers for any page (other than pages they themselves created) listed in the New Pages Feed. New page reviewers have the option of using a user script that combines the two main Page Curation features, including the Curation toolbar. 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' or 'Curate this article' in the 'Toolbox' section of the left sidebar; this option is not available though if you were the page creator.

What is Page Info and how does it work?

Page Info

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?

WikiLove

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?

Mark as Reviewed

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?

Add Tags

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?

Mark for Deletion

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. Before you tag pages for deletion you must be fully conversant with the policies and guidelines at WP:DELETION

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.

• Proposed Biography Deletion is a way of deleting biographies that do not fall within the speedy deletion criteria but that break community standards for inclusion of biographies of living persons that have no references or supporting links. 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. The curation toolbar has a bug where it will not correctly nominate articles which have had previous Articles for Deletion discussions; Twinkle may be used as an alternative and will automatically mark the nominated page as patrolled.

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 trash-can 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 :).

Troubleshooting

The Foundation developed the software in close collaboration with a team of community volunteers as planned out in the 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 was publicised on the relevant project pages and consistently been discussed in the Signpost. If you have any suggestions, please leave a message at WT:NPP which is regularly watched by some patrollers.

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

With features, the best place to go is the Wikipedia:Page Curation/Suggested improvements and list them there. This is deliberately hosted on the English-language Wikipedia so you don't have to switch projects to contribute.

With bugs, the ideal solution is to report them in Phabricator under "MediaWiki-extensions-PageCuration". However, as Phabricator can be rather challenging, you can drop the report on Wikipedia talk:Page Curation with, if possible, a screenshot and information on your browser and operating system, and someone will do it for you.