User story & summary:
As an English Wikipedian, I want to customize the "Add a link" task to better align with the Manual of Style (MOS) guidelines and the specific norms of my wiki.
Primary concern: The current link suggestion algorithm frequently recommends linking country names (Q6256) , which violates English Wikipedia's MOS:OL. I want the ability to prevent these suggestions to reduce patroller burden and improve compliance with community standards.
Background & research:
The English Wikipedia community has identified compliance with MOS:OL as a key blocker to expanding the "Add a link" feature to more editors. Specifically, continued non-compliant link suggestions have raised concerns, as they:
- Contravene longstanding community consensus.
- Create unnecessary maintenance work.
- Are an issue that could be addressed through software improvements.
Without addressing this issue, community pushback may limit the broader rollout of the feature.
Reference: Wikipedia talk:Growth Team features | Discussion from Wikipedia talk:Growth Team features
Implementation ideas:
Goal: Block country (Q6256) link suggestions at enwiki, as these account for the majority of MOS:OL violations in the current system.
Potential Approaches & (initial/imperfect) Effort Estimates
- Add country (Q6256) to the Link Suggestion algorithm's Hard-coded rules for not linking, and then retrain just the enwiki model.
- Effort: Medium
- Pros: Quick to implement; allows for testing impact on enwiki.
- Cons: A temporary fix that doesn’t address broader customization needs and potentially introduces issues as we retrain other language models.
- Make the Link Suggestion algorithm's Hard-coded rules for not linking wiki specific so we can modify the list on a per wiki basis.
- Effort: Large
- Pros: More flexibility for different language editions.
- Cons: Requires additional development and maintenance.
- Allow communities to configure "do not link" rules via Community Configuration.
- Effort: Very Large
- Pros: Provides maximum flexibility and long-term maintainability.
- Cons: Requires significant engineering work to build and support.
- Related task: T384405: Add a Link: allow admins to define rules for (not) linking (via Community Configuration)
Acceptance Criteria:
Investigate and pursue approach 1.
Create subtasks if needed.
