The paper takes about the counter-vandalism process in Wikipedia focussing on both the human efforts as well as the silent non-human efforts put in. Fully-automated anti-vandalism bots are a key part of this process and play a critical role in managing the content on Wikipedia. The actors involved range from being fully autonomous software to semi-automated programs to user interfaces used by humans. A case study is presented which is an account of detecting and banning a vandal. This aims to highlight the importance and impact of bots and assisted editing programs. Vandalism-reverting software use queuing algorithms teamed with a ranking mechanism based on vandalism-identification algorithms. The queuing algorithm takes into account multiple factors like the kind of user who made the edit, revert history of the user as well as the type of edit made. The software proves to be extremely effective in presenting prospective vandals to the reviewers. User talk pages are forums utilized to take action after an offense has been reverted. This largely invisible infrastructure has been extremely critical in insulating Wikipedia from vandals, spammers, and other malevolent editors.
I feel that the case study presented helps understand the internal working of vandalism-reverting software and it is a great example of handling a problem by leveraging the complementary strengths of AI and humans via technology. It is interesting to note that the cognitive work of identifying a vandal is distributed across a heterogeneous network and is unified using technology! This lends speed and efficiency and makes the entire system robust. I found it particularly interesting that ClueBot, after identifying a vandal, immediately reverted the edit within seconds. This edit did not have a wait in a queue for a human or a non-human bot to review but was resolved immediately using a bot.
A pivotal feature of this ecosystem that I found very fascinating was the fact that domain expertise or skill is not required to handle such vandal cases. The only expertise required of vandal fighters is in the use of the assisted editing tools themselves, and the kinds of commonsensical judgment those tools enable. This widens the eligibility criteria for prospective workers since specialized domain experts are not required.
- The queuing algorithm takes into account multiple factors like the kind of user who made the edit, revert history of the user as well as the type of edit made. Apart from the factors mentioned in the paper, what other factors can be incorporated into the queuing algorithm to improve its efficiency?
- What are some innovative ideas that can be used to further minimize the turnaround reaction time to a vandal in this ecosystem?
- What other tools can be used to leverage the complementary strengths of humans and AI using technology to detect and handle vandals in an efficient manner?
