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[SPIKE] How might we lower the likelihood that Suggestions cause/escalate edit wars
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Description

During a January 2026 Discord call, experienced volunteers at en.wiki raised the potential fo Edit Suggestions to cause/escalate edit wars.

The imagined scenario that gave rise to the above was something like this:

  1. Newcomer A implements Suggestion Type 1
  2. Experienced volunteer A reverts the edit wherein Newcomer A implemented Suggestion Type 1
  3. Newcomer A (or a new newcomer Newcomer B) opens the article where they first received Suggestion Type 1 and sees Suggestion Type 1 again
  4. Newcomer A (or a new newcomer Newcomer B) implements Suggestion Type 1 for a second time
  5. Experienced volunteer A reverts the edit wherein Newcomer A implemented Suggestion Type 1
  6. ...

Decision(s) to be made

  • How (if at all) will the fact that an edit in which someone acted on a Suggestion is reverted impact how/if said Suggestion is surfaced again in subsequent edit sessions?

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Event Timeline

ppelberg created this task.Jan 30 2026, 11:29 PM
Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptJan 30 2026, 11:29 PM
ppelberg added a comment.Jan 30 2026, 11:31 PM

@AntiCompositeNumber, @Guerillero, and @Soda: could you all please review the task description and boldly edit it so that it more accurately reflects the risk you all helpfully raised during the 26 Jan 2026 Discord Call we were a part of.

ppelberg moved this task from Inbox to Q3 2025-2026 on the Editing-team (Scheduled) board.Jan 30 2026, 11:31 PM
ppelberg added a parent task: T404600: [MILESTONE] Run controlled experiment of Suggestion Mode MVP.
Soda updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 31 2026, 1:19 AM
Soda added a comment.Jan 31 2026, 1:26 AM

cause/escalate edit wars.

More than this, there is a propensity to cause (to borrow a terminology used in the call, "a newbie biting machine") -- where multiple newbies get served the same erroneous suggestions, act on it, and then get reverted by increasingly irate experienced volunteers

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