Paste Check: Clarify resolution path/experience
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	ppelberg
	Jul 16 2025, 4:31 AM

Description

Background goal

This task involves the work of clarifying the experience for people who choose to remove the pasted content Paste Check is drawing their attention to.

@bmartinezcalvo discovered the need for this work as part of T394735: Paste Check: Conduct MVP UX audit.

The need for this task emerged in response to Bárbara noticing a couple of issues with the current experience:

The CTA within the Paste Check card reads Rewrite, although tapping it removes the text someone added
Tapping the – currently named – Rewrite button abruptly removes the text you pasted which can feel discouraging/unhelpful

User story

As someone learning they are at risk of committing a copyright violation, I want to know what I can do to contribute the information I arrived on-wiki intent to share while at the same time remedying/avoiding this potential issue, so that I can be confident people can access this knowledge across time.

Experience

Per what @bmartinezcalvo and I discussed offline, we're trying to make an experience that causes people to feel supported and understand/apply Wikipedia policy while at the same time recognizing the result of the resolution may well need to be the complete removal of the text someone pasted into the article they are editing.

Proposed solution

When the user pastes content, they are asked: "Do you have the rights to use this text?"

Yes, keep it → They are asked to share the decision to keep in the declined survey before moving forward. Once they complete the survey, a confirmation message will appear.
No, remove it → The pasted content is removed and a confirmation message is displayed.

Acceptance criteria

Explore designs and decide on preferable approach
Implement the decided solution
T400622: Usability test for Paste Check new flow

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:

Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
Edit check: add prompt to copyvio	mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor	master	+8 -1
Edit check: add a way to set a prompt for an action widget's choices	mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor	master	+42 -3
Edit check: update paste check flow	mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor	master	+52 -10

Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects
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Status	Assigned	Task
Open	None	T265163 Create a system to encode best practices into editing experiences
In Progress	nayoub	T359107 Paste Check: Prompt people pasting text to consider risk of copyright violation
Open	None	T405127 [MILESTONE] Deploy Paste Check to all Wikipedias
Open	ppelberg	T392954 [FY25-26] WE 1.1: Increase constructive edits
Open	MNeisler	T399669 [WE 1.1.1] Run an A/B test to evaluate impact of Paste Check
Resolved	bmartinezcalvo	T399557 Paste Check: Improve experience in the Mid-edit
Resolved	DLynch	T399675 Paste Check: Clarify resolution path/experience
Resolved	bmartinezcalvo	T400622 Usability test for Paste Check new flow

Event Timeline

ppelberg created this task.Jul 16 2025, 4:31 AM

ppelberg updated the task description. (Show Details)Jul 17 2025, 3:54 PM

ppelberg moved this task from Inbox to Q3 2025-2026 on the Editing-team (Planning) board.

ppelberg mentioned this in T399557: Paste Check: Improve experience in the Mid-edit.Jul 17 2025, 4:01 PM

ppelberg assigned this task to bmartinezcalvo.Jul 21 2025, 5:54 PM

ppelberg edited projects, added Editing-team (Kanban Board); removed Editing-team (Planning).

It might be difficult to provide people with sufficient context to understand a concept as complicated as copyvio and plagiarism. And educating users about policies is the end goal of Checks, which created a need to have more information being provided.

We should have two buttons/options after Keep:

Option: “It is my text, I have to right to reuse it”, that would explain that most texts you have the right to use aren’t a fit for Wikipedia, which would lead to Rewrite
- Explanation text: > Experience has shown that most content removed from Wikipedia for copyright infringement is also incompatible with encyclopedia writing. It is therefore best to write a new text for Wikipedia yourself, ensuring that it complies with Wikipedia's rules and is not published anywhere else.
Option: “It is not my text” that would explain that pasting is plagiarism and shouldn’t be done, which would lead to Delete when users acknowledge (exit option would be to rewrite, but it would need to be tracked).
- Explanation text: > Reusing someone else's work without their consent constitutes plagiarism under copyright law. This practice engages your legal responsibility and that of Wikipedia's host, the Wikimedia Foundation. It is prohibited on Wikipedia.

Sdkb subscribed.Jul 22 2025, 3:59 PM

ppelberg moved this task from Inbox to Doing on the Editing-team (Kanban Board) board.Jul 25 2025, 10:28 PM

ppelberg added a project: Goal.

After exploring different options, we've converged on updating the Paste Check flow with the following in order to improve the user experience as well as avoid legal risks when pasting content from other sources:

When the user pastes content, they are asked: "Do you have the rights to use this text?"

Yes, keep it → They are asked to share the decision to keep in the declined survey before moving forward. Once they complete the survey, a confirmation message will appear.
No, remove it → The pasted content is removed and a confirmation message is displayed.

bmartinezcalvo updated the task description. (Show Details)Jul 28 2025, 2:45 PM

bmartinezcalvo updated the task description. (Show Details)

bmartinezcalvo mentioned this in T400622: Usability test for Paste Check new flow.Jul 28 2025, 2:48 PM

bmartinezcalvo updated the task description. (Show Details)

As a small grammar thing, "your reason for keeping" would sound better to me than "your reason to keep".

Per offline discussion, we're going to:

Add a link within the initial Paste Check card to where someone who is curious can learn more about the policy (WP:COPYVIO) this Check is an effort to help people comply with
Attempt another draft of the initial Paste Check card copy that doesn't assume people are familiar with/understanding of technical terms like "copyright violation" and "plagiarism."

Regarding the declining survey, I would remove the third option (free licence/public domain), as most users have no idea what it is. Look at how anyone picks a photo or a piece of text to make their own creation on their personal website, on social media, or on their food truck: "it is on the Internet, so anyone can use it".

"I have permission" should have its own tag, as this case will be well scrutinized by reviewers/patrollers. A further improvement that will be asked is to have a following step with more detailed options that can lead to a new "remove" button.

Attempt another draft of the initial Paste Check card copy that doesn't assume people are familiar with/understanding of technical terms like "copyright violation" and "plagiarism."

It can be very simple: "As a general rule, copying content to Wikipedia is not legal, as others' works are protected by copyright by default." The goal is to trigger a "ah, good to know" reaction and a click on "remove".