Wikipédia:Patrouille RC/Projet LiveRC 2.0/en

Projet (Project)

Cahier des charges (Specifications)

Développement (French only)

Discussion (French only)

Talk page (English and other languages)

English version of Wikipédia:Patrouille RC/Projet LiveRC 2.0.

Project page to develop a brand new version of LiveRC. Feel free to subscribe to the project there and to help!

What?

A new software to patrol recent changes, in order to take over the original LiveRC, which is becoming obsolete.

(The tool should obviously also be usable on other language version of Wikipedia.)

Why?

The software LiveRC, traditionally used on Wikipedia in French (and other versions of Wikipedia) to patrol recent changes, is not updated since about 2014 (when Dr Brains stopped editing). A few other wikipedians (thanks to them) maintain a bit the software from time to time, so it can keep running, but there is no further development or improvement. Moreover, its code is obsolete: for example, there are nowadays more efficient ways to get the recent changes. At last, LiveRC has an interface that lacks ergonomics, an old-fashioned look, and lacks some functionalities.

How and when?

The following schedule is indicative and subject to changes. The dates provide a time horizon but are not rigid.

Check that fr-wp patrollers welcome new patrol software development in order to replace LiveRC.
Make an overview of the patrol tools used in Wikimedia projects (see below).
Ask to Wikimedia France (already informed of the project) to provide funding for the development of the software.
Make a list of the LiveRC features to keep, of new features wished, of ergonomic points to improve, etc.
- 1st iteration of the specifications (drafted by 0x010C and Jules*)
- 2^d iteration of the specifications (by fr-wp community)
  - [until April 3 2022] Feedback regarding 1st iteration, suggestions and discussions.
  - [April 8 to April 13] Summary and integration of consensus points in the specifications.
- Translation in English of the project pages and then presentation of the project internationally (primarily to communities already using LiveRC).
- 3rd iteration of the specifications.
  - Feedback, comments and suggestions from other Wikimedia communities/LiveRC users
  - Summary and integration of consensus points in the specifications.
Batch splitting (with Wikimedia France) of the specifications, to obtain intermediate (testable) deliveries
Determination with Wikimedia France of the requested budget and development time.
Search (on the WMFr side) for a contractor for the development.
Development with iterations and intermediate testing by communities.

Existing patrolling tools comparison


Tool	Required role	Current usage	Pros	Cons	Other comments
Tools for live monitoring of recent changes
Spécial:Modifications récentes (web)	none, accessible even for IP	Various contributors	very easy to use (RG067) updated (filters, colors...) (RG067) allows filtering according to many criteria (RG067)	does not allow direct actions (RG067)
LiveRC (web)	autopatrolled on frwiki	Regular patrollers and administrators on frwiki	many functions (RG067) made for frwiki, so meets local needs (RG067) adds banners to articles (Jules) allows non-admins to submit requests (Jules) adds a message to the PoD (LucienB) configurable via LiveRCparam.js (LucienB) enables actions, including admins: delete, rename, etc. (Jules) pause" button (Jules) display changes on LDS items (Jules) preview: history, previous diffs, item modifications... (LucienB) display already revoked items: Salebot, Test1, 2, 3 (LucienB) display number of contribs by color + hover (LucienB) ability to hide the display of a contributor (LucienB) has an extension (DiffExtension) that displays part of its interface in normal diffs (Mathis B)	not updated since 2015 (RG067) dated interface (RG067) small « diff » link to be clicked: not ergonomic (Jules) does not allow displaying only non autoconfirmed accounts, only allows non autopatrolled ones (Jules) slowness and failures for diff display (LucienB) and other bugs due to the absence of update (Jules) no revision deletion request (LucienB) no keyboard shortcuts (LucienB) does not allow creating requests with custom motives (Jean-Mahmood) does not add the banner Modèle:Suppression Immédiate when requesting quick deletion (Jean-Mahmood) updates every X seconds instead of real-time update using EventStreams (Thibaut) when a diff is selected, does not allow to undo/revoke changes from an anterior diff, even after clicking on "Previous change" (JackJackpot)
meta:SWViewer (web)	rollbacker on at least one wiki	crosswiki patrollers and some local patrollers	Modern interface compatible with mobiles (RG067) Easy to use (RG067) Allows fine-tuning (number of days of existence and number of contributions) which users to display (Jules) Keyboard shortcuts, but not configurable (Jules)	Requires the rollback role (RG067) Does not allow adding banners on articles (Jules) Does not allow adding a message on discussion page except when reverting (Jules) Does not allow reviewing a change (RG067) Does not allow displaying reverts and blankings, unlike LiveRC (Jules)
Huggle (desktop software)	500 contributions on frwiki		Allows reporting vandalism (Golmote) Displays the history and the contributions along with the diff (Golmote) Configurable keyboard shortcuts (Golmote) Allows reverting + adding a message on user discussion page in one click (Golmote) Interesting system of user score (Golmote) Uses rollback for rollbackers (Jean-Mahmood) Good performance because it's developped in C++ and not JavaScript, uses a queue system that loads diffs in the background, keyboard shortcuts, etc. (Thibaut)	Does not allow precise selection of user discussion banners (test1-4) (Golmote) Very rough page rendering (Golmote) No quick deletion requests (only banner and message on user discussion page) (Golmote) Limited features outside of english Wikipedia, which the fork WP:CUDDLE tries to solve (Thibaut)
Vandal Fighter (desktop software)	anyone (to be checked)				Couldn't download it. Last version (beta) in 2009. (Jules) There is an archived version from 2007 ([1]) which installs successfully, but couldn't figure out how it works. (Golmote)
RTRC (web)	anyone (to be checked)		Design more modern than LiveRC (RG067)	Does not allow anything but reviewing pages and displaying diff (RG067) Small « diff » link to be clicked : not ergonomic (Jules)	Seems to work (was listed of the "tools" page for the patrol) (RG067) Not a patrolling software, rather an alternative to the Recent changes. (Jules)
Patrol gadgets
xpatrol (web)	anyone, except for blanking which is only for autoconfirmed		Easy to use, actions for banners and blanking are displayed under the page title, revision deletion is displayed above the history. (Mathis B)	A misclick can happen quickly. The script asks for confirmation, but that doesn't always prevent mistakes. (Mathis B)	Only allows patrolling on new pages and revision deletion requests. (Mathis B)
PV (javascript)	registered account		Easy to use: adds two external links that allow IP check, looking for open proxies (LD)	Requires to compare with the WHOIS (in Spécial:Contributions) to avoid false-positives with shared IPs.	Does not allow serial checks on supported special pages (LD)
C-Helper			Easy to use: adds a tab in the upper-right corner of the page with four options: Banners, Quick delete, Revision deletion et Purge (cache) (LucienB) Easy and quick (Hyméros)	Revision deletion only for copyvio (LucienB) Frequent display bugs (Jean-Mahmood) Banners are not up to date (some are obsolete) and their order isn't really ergonomic (Hyméros)
RevertDiff			Easy to use: adds links at the top of diff pages (LucienB)	Careful: one click, one action! (LucienB)
DiffExtension	autopatrolled		Very useful: displays on the diff pages the toolbar from LiveRC with its customization (LucienB)	Bug regarding the user for vandalism reporting. Did not test the rest (LucienB)

Participants / supporters

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