User:MER-C/AdminStats2020

Admin actions for 2020 UTC. See https://github.com/MER-C/wiki-java/blob/master/src/org/wikipedia/tools/AdminStats.java for methodology.

Interpretation

 * Massive increase in proxy blocks
 * Vandalism down across the board
 * Additions of unsourced material (blocks +75.5% to 2988; protections +15.1% to 4456) and BLP violations show significant increases (blocks +49.7% to 1877; protections +11.6% to 2026)

Total locks up 6.2% from 101107 to 107416.
 * Locks
 * Spamming up 4.8% to 77068; 71.7% of all global locks.
 * Long term abuse up 9.8% to 25012; 23.3% of all global locks.

Total global blocks up 135% from 52283 to 122745.
 * Global blocks
 * Massive increase in proxy blocks - up 182% to 107812; 87.9% of all global blocks.
 * Non-proxy blocks up 5.9% to 14893.
 * Cross-wiki abuse up 399% to 6433; 5.2% of all global blocks.
 * Spam up 4.2% to 3649; 3.0% of all global blocks.
 * A couple of block reasons - "bot attacker" and "if accidentally caught please use special:contact/stewards" accounted for nearly all of the unclassified entries in 2019; these went away entirely (the second one is partial)

Total protections down 5.2% from 27275 to 25850.
 * Protections
 * Vandalism down 16.7% to 7054.
 * Disruptive editing up 3.8% to 5624.
 * Sockpuppetry down 1.3% to 2925.

Total blocks up 18.4% from 556454 to 659394.
 * Blocks
 * Massive increase in proxy blocks - up 26.7% to 493487; 74.8% of all blocks.
 * Non-proxy blocks down 0.6% from 166841 to 165907.
 * Vandalism down 3.6% to 51364.
 * Spam down 1.4% to 37587.
 * Sockpuppetry down 8.5% to 26394.

Total deletions down 10.3% from 623108 to 558416.
 * Deletions
 * G8 deletions down 17.9% to 148742.
 * MFD deletions returning to baseline after massive portal deletion spree in 2019, down 94.2% to 2218. Many of these had WikiProject tags on the talk page, this accounts for most of the missing G8 deletions.
 * There was also a TFD massacre in 2019 that wasn't repeated in 2020, down 71.5% to 7010.

Excluding these two volatile items, total deletions up 4.7% from 408441 to 427803.
 * Abandoned drafts up 12.3% to 75552.
 * Spam down 2% to 42490.
 * Use of Wikipedia as a webhost up 16.1% to 33464.

Main namespace deletions up 5.8% from 90700 to 95994.
 * AFD deletions up 38.7% to 26662.
 * Nearly all for-cause speedy deletion categories down from 2019 - copyvio -22.0%, A7/11 -18.0%, G5 -13.0%, A1/3 -12.1%, spam -4.8%, repost +0.8%, attack pages +4.0%.


 * Commentary
 * Massive increase in proxy blocks - may have had some preventative effect on every other admin stat.
 * You'd think the pandemic would lead to more bored kids vandalising WP, but the opposite has happened. Schools are shut, so less peer pressure.
 * Not convinced that the amount of spam and sockpuppetry has actually decreased. Global numbers are higher, en.wp numbers are lower.
 * Admin corps shrinkage may account for drop in non-proxy blocks and protections.
 * Tools are equally as crap as they were last year, but abuse always becomes ever more sophisticated.
 * The amount of junk being deleted is at least 10% higher (U5 +16.1%, G13 +12.3%) in 2020. Not sure how much of this is legacy crap. Mainspace speedy decreasing is probably due to moves to draft space, higher SD standards and/or increase in quality of new articles from obviously shit to polished turd. If I were to guess, the reason would be the RHaworth desysop materially increased the speedy deletion bar.

Locks
Changes in methodology since 2019:
 * Add reason "": (no reason given)
 * New reason "lock evasion", classified as "Long-term abuse"
 * New reason "impersonation", classified as "Inappropriate username"

Global blocks
New series.

Protections

 * Add reason "": (no reason given)
 * Add reason "[[wp:gs/", classified as "General sanctions enforcement"
 * Discretionary and general sanctions reasons moved up to be first checked against the reason.

Blocks
Methodology changes since 2019:
 * Added reason: copyright violations
 * Proxies now come before sockpuppetry in block reasons (block reasons now mention whether a proxy uses the SOCKS protocol)

Deletions
Methodology changes since 2019:
 * New reason: "now on wikimedia commons", classified as "File moved to Commons"
 * New reason: "history-merge", classified as "Maintenance"