User:Samwalton9/LTA Tool

Background
Our Long-Term Abuse (LTA) pages are an extremely valuable repository for Wikipedians doing anti-vandalism work - they inform editors on how particular vandals edit, even when those edits may seem innocent when taken out of context, let them know what to look out for in certain areas of the encyclopedia, and contain suggestions on how to treat certain users; no editor can know about the behaviour of every regular vandal. The records are also used for tracking purposes, informing edit filters for example.

But these pages aren't without their drawbacks. Vandals are often drawn to this system, either by aiming to become an LTA as some kind of badge of honour, trying to live up to their name once listed as an LTA, or by new vandals attempting to emulate the well documented vandalism methods. We should be doing a better job of denying recognition to these vandals, but this is hard to do whilst also keeping a comprehensive open record of their actions on Wikipedia. The other issue with having these records in a public space is not being able to properly document the vandals' edit patterns or our counter measures to avoid BEANS issues, leaving out information that could be valuable to anti-vandal editors.

Proposal
We are therefore proposing a new tool for Wikipedians, called the LTA Knowledgebase, which would be an off-wiki database of LTA records, available for viewing and editing to only (probably approved) experienced editors. Samtar has been working on this for a little while now, and you can see a proof-of-concept version here. With this database vandal fighters will be able to both log information on more recurring vandals as well as covering their editing habits and what we're doing in response in more detail (documenting how relevant targeted edit filters work for example). This will be especially beneficial for those LTAs who we don't even document in order to fully deny recognition. LTAs won't know whether they have an entry, nor what that entry contains.

This tool will not be for extra personal information on these users; it will only encourage more behavioural details, and rules will need to be in place for tool admins to remove any personal information that is added. Requirements for access can be debated in another RfC, but the approach would likely be that users would require manual approval from a tool admin with the needed experience level somewhere between that of NPP and OTRS, requiring sufficient time and experience working on anti-vandalism work to be trusted. Future RfCs could also decide on criteria for the addition of an LTA to the tool and whether all users are able to add an entry or whether new entries might require approval by a tool admin, for example.

Subsequent discussions can be held to clarify the details and specifics so these needn't be debated here beyond suggestions and initial discussion. The first question is, broadly:

Should the English Wikipedia have an off-wiki LTA database that can only be viewed and edited by trusted editors?