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Maniphest T359211

Add a "reason" field in phab-ban tool
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Description

Currently usage of phab-ban tool are logged in https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tool:Phab-ban. It is much more appearent than (for phab admin only) directly disable an account (which will leave no public log at all, see another task I will file later), but the log is not fully self-explanatory - so I propose that users can (and should) provide a reason to disable user using the phab-ban tool, and the reason will be logged in that log in wikitech page.

See: T102576: Log user account deactivation also in the feed of the acting admin account

See also T200856: Publicly log account bans made using the phab-ban tool which introduced the public log

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StatusSubtypeAssignedTask
 OpenFeatureNoneT359211 Add a "reason" field in phab-ban tool
 DeclinedNoneT359212 Phabricator admins should have access to phab-ban tool

Event Timeline

Bugreporter created this task.Mar 5 2024, 7:03 PM
Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptMar 5 2024, 7:03 PM
Bugreporter updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 5 2024, 7:04 PM
bd808 subscribed.EditedMar 5 2024, 7:09 PM

@Bugreporter There is no similar comment in the log for blocking done directly in Phabricator, so I guess I'm wondering what you think people will write as a reason other than "spamming".

Bugreporter added a comment.EditedMar 5 2024, 7:11 PM

I will say more in a following task, but see also T102576#1718402

If most disabled accounts are spammers it can be provided as the default reason.

bd808 changed the subtype of this task from "Task" to "Feature Request".Mar 5 2024, 7:13 PM
jrbs subscribed.Mar 5 2024, 7:15 PM
In T359211#9602928, @bd808 wrote:

@Bugreporter There is no similar comment in the log for blocking done directly in Phabricator, so I guess I'm wondering what you think people will write as a reason other than "spamming".

T&S does also sometimes ban people from Phab as part of WMF global bans, so that might be used as well? But I would guess that's like <1% of all bans.

Bugreporter added a comment.Mar 5 2024, 7:17 PM
In T359211#9602953, @jrbs wrote:
In T359211#9602928, @bd808 wrote:

@Bugreporter There is no similar comment in the log for blocking done directly in Phabricator, so I guess I'm wondering what you think people will write as a reason other than "spamming".

T&S does also sometimes ban people from Phab as part of WMF global bans, so that might be used as well? But I would guess that's like <1% of all bans.

For that, see T338384: CentralAuth locks should disable linked Phabricator account and (after it is fixed) we don't need to use that tool in most cases.

Bugreporter mentioned this in T359212: Phabricator admins should have access to phab-ban tool.Mar 5 2024, 7:20 PM
bd808 added a subtask: T359212: Phabricator admins should have access to phab-ban tool.Mar 5 2024, 8:16 PM
Aklapper closed subtask T359212: Phabricator admins should have access to phab-ban tool as Declined.Mar 17 2024, 6:51 PM
Aklapper closed this task as Declined.May 19 2024, 6:49 PM

I'd say this should not be implemented in the phab-ban tool unless upstream Phorge offered a field to enter a reason when disabling a user account via any means (UI, API, etc) which could be interacted with via the Conduit API.

Bugreporter added a comment.EditedMay 20 2024, 1:29 AM

I am not planning to reopen the task for now, but @bd808 may have another opinion. IMO a reason is still useful to be recorded in ban log in Wikitech.

Anyway, see my comment at T102576 - In fact, if the activity field of PhabBanBot in Phabricator displays a list of users disabled by this account, It may largely replace the phab-ban log maintained in Wikitech.

Bugreporter reopened this task as Open.Oct 15 2025, 12:05 PM

Reopen since recent issue at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User_talk:JJMC89 indicates we do need such a field (before Phabricator has a way to store it, we can record it at phab-ban log, as long as it is logged permanently).

bd808 added a comment.Oct 15 2025, 8:22 PM

Implementing the data entry and storage as text on https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tool:Phab-ban/Log is relatively straight forward. As an actual audit tool however it feels pretty weak. The folks complaining on JJMC89's talk page would still be complaining if there was a summary line that said "Faster_than_Thunder was disabled by JJMC89 for doing whatever". Blocks are trivially set and trivially reversed. This is by design.

Bugreporter added a comment.Oct 16 2025, 1:39 AM

The folks complaining on JJMC89's talk page would still be complaining

At least having a reason will make other users less confused.

Blocks are trivially set and trivially reversed.

But phab-ban does not support removing a block.

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