Motivation
We want to understand whether enabling patrollers to apply the same block to connected temporary accounts reduces friction in enforcement workflows and is adopted in practice. This feature is intended to streamline actions taken on clusters of abusive accounts while still supporting investigation before action. Instrumentation will allow us to validate both adoption and whether users meaningfully review accounts before blocking.
Background
We are introducing functionality on Special:Block that allows administrators to apply a block to all connected temporary accounts when blocking a target temporary account.
The feature includes:
- A checkbox to apply the block to all connected temporary accounts
- A list of connected temporary accounts
- Each account in the list links to Special:Contributions to allow investigation before taking action
- On submission, applying the same block to all selected connected temporary accounts
Instrumentation
Add some instrumentation to capture the following:
| Event | Information | Event action name |
|---|---|---|
| Special:Block page is visited with a temporary account target and the user has access to the feature | Denominator for feature exposure | viewed-tempaccount |
| Connected temporary accounts are detected and the bulk-block option is shown | Denominator for feature availability | found-connected-tempaccounts |
| How many connected temporary accounts were found | Scale of potential feature | found-connected-tempaccounts-count |
| How many connected temporary accounts were found (aggregate) | Scale of potential feature effect | found-connected-tempaccounts-sum |
| Block is submitted with bulk-block option enabled | Numerator for feature usage | is-bulk-blocking |
| Block is submitted without bulk-block option enabled | Baseline comparison | not-bulk-blocking |
| Number of connected temporary accounts at time of block (bucketed or averaged) | Context for usage (cluster size) | totalblocksattempted |
| Number of accounts successfully blocked via bulk action | Measures actual impact | totalblockssucceeded |
| Number of accounts successfully blocked via bulk action (aggregate) | Measures actual impact | successfully-blocked-connected-tempaccount-sum |
| Number of connected accounts already blocked | Helps understand overlap / redundancy | totalalreadyblocked |
| Number of connected accounts already blocked (aggregate) | Helps understand overlap / redundancy | already-blocked-connected-tempaccount-sum |
How we will use the information
This instrumentation will allow us to measure:
- How often administrators encounter clusters eligible for bulk blocking: TA targets / eligible targets
- How often the bulk-block option is used when available (if the feature is available, is it actually used?): bulk block submitted / (bulk block + single submits)
- How many additional accounts are blocked via bulk actions: aggregate connected accounts
- What is the typical number of accounts affected per bulk block?: blocks made / total attempted
- How often are connected accounts already blocked (indicating overlap or reduced need)?: already blocked / total attempted
- What is the typical size of connected account clusters (e.g. small vs large groups)?: count of connected accounts on TA
This will help determine whether bulk blocking becomes part of the standard enforcement workflow and whether it meaningfully increases efficiency,
We want to asses the numbers on a weekly basis until the end of Q4