Flagged Revisions, also known as FlaggedRevs, is a

software extension In computing, a plug-in (also spelled plugin) or add-in (also addin, add-on, or addon) is a software component that extends the functionality of an existing software system without requiring the system to be re-built. A plug-in feature is one ...

to the

MediaWiki MediaWiki is free and open-source wiki software originally developed by Magnus Manske for use on Wikipedia on January 25, 2002, and further improved by Lee Daniel Crocker,mailarchive:wikipedia-l/2001-August/000382.html, Magnus Manske's announc ...

software that allows

moderation Moderation is the process or trait of eliminating, lessening, or avoiding extremes. It is used to ensure normality throughout the medium on which it is being conducted. Common uses of moderation include: * A way of life emphasizing perfect amo ...

of edits to

wiki A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...

pages. It was developed by the

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundation. It is the host of Wikipedia, th ...

for use on

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...

and similar wikis hosted on its servers. The term is also sometimes used for the editorial policies related to operation of that extension when active.

Detail

Flagged revisions was a planned editorial policy of

English Wikipedia The English Wikipedia is the primary English-language edition of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. It was created by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger on 15 January 2001, as Wikipedia's first edition. English Wikipedia is hosted alongside o ...

aimed at "imposing a layer of editorial review on articles about living people". Wikipedia's co-founder,

Jimmy Wales Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known as Jimbo Wales, is an American List of Internet entrepreneurs, Internet entrepreneur and former Trader (finance), financial trader. He is a Founders of Wikipedia, co-founder of the non-profi ...

, originally urged Wikipedia to adopt the policy in January 2009 after the Wikipedia pages of

Robert Byrd Robert Carlyle Byrd (born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr.; November 20, 1917 – June 28, 2010) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia for over 51 years, from 1959 until his death in 2010. A Democratic Pa ...

and

Edward Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts who served as a member of the United States Senate from 1962 to his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic Party and ...

were both vandalized to state, incorrectly, that they were dead. It was announced in August 2009, after a poll found that 80% of the users were in favor of it. It provides for "experienced volunteer editors" to approve changes to some articles. It is already in use in the

German Wikipedia The German Wikipedia () is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia. Founded on 16 March 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia edition (after the English Wikipedia). It has articles, ma ...

, where all articles are subject to this policy. In the English Wikipedia, a two-month initial trial took place in 2010. It was considered a possibility that all articles would be covered by this feature in the future, just like in the German Wikipedia. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' remarked that the new policy divides Wikipedia users in two classes: "experienced, trusted editors, and everyone else—altering Wikipedia's implicit notion that everyone has an equal right to edit entries". Brennon Slattery of PCWorld reported that "some bloggers" received the announced changes as a "failure" of the philosophy behind Wikipedia. According to the chairman of the Wikimedia Foundation board at the time, with this policy there is less tolerance for "inaccurate or fudged" articles. The feature is based on a

plug-in Plug-in, plug in or plugin may refer to: * Plug-in (computing), a software component that adds a specific feature to an existing computer program ** Audio plug-in, adds audio signal processing features ** Photoshop plugin, a piece of software that ...

for the

software that prevents recent changes to

articles from being displayed to all readers until they have been ratified by editors with special permissions. On June 14, 2010, English Wikipedia began a 2-month trial of its implementation of the feature known as pending changes. After a discussion among English Wikipedia editors in May 2011, this feature was initially removed from all articles, but consensus in a 2012 discussion decided that the feature would be implemented. By 2021, the feature was not widely used on biographies of living people and was unmaintained.

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

* Extension:FlaggedRevs on MediaWiki.org MediaWiki extensions Wikipedia reliability