Wikipedia talk:Don't protect Main Page featured articles/December 2008 Main Page FA analysis

The previous study examining IP/new editor vandalism of the MPFA was two years ago: Wikipedia talk:Don't protect Main Page featured articles/December Main Page FA analysis. I've looked at the first three days of this month to compare. DrKiernan (talk) 13:51, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

The tables below show:
 * Two diffs - one 'before and after' the day, and one showing change between 'immediate after' and 48 hours after the article is removed from the front page
 * The number and % of IP or new editor edits that are vandalising
 * The number and % of IP or new editor edits that are beneficial to the article by reverting vandalism
 * The number and % of IP or new editor edits that are beneficial to the article by improving quality or adding relevant information
 * The number and % of IP or new editor non-reverting edits that, beneficial or not, are in good faith
 * Total time vandalised by IPs or new editors
 * The amount of time spent protected or semi/protected
 * The new user accounts that edited the page

Note

 * Each edit is counted separately, regardless of the previous behaviour of the account or IP.

1 December

 * Before and after diff, 24 hours on Main Page
 * Before and after diff, 48 hours after leaving Main Page


 * There were 103 edits today.
 * The changes in the 48 hours after the article left the Main Page were not related to any of the edits from that day that were in place as of the end of that day.
 * The new accounts created were, , and.

2 December

 * Before and after diff, 24 hours on Main Page
 * Before and after diff, 48 hours after leaving Main Page
 * There were 114 edits today.
 * The changes in the 48 hours after the article left the Main Page were not related to any of the edits from that day that were in place as of the end of that day, excepting the first two minutes of the following day.
 * New accounts were, , , and.

3 December

 * Before and after diff, 24 hours on Main Page
 * Before and after diff, 48 hours after leaving Main Page
 * There were 112 edits today.
 * The changes in the 48 hours after the article left the Main Page were not related to any of the edits from that day that were in place as of the end of that day.
 * New accounts were, , , , , , and.

Conclusions

 * The percentage of edits from IPs or new editors that are vandalism is about 80%, roughly comparable to the rates found in December 2006.
 * The average percentage of edits from IPs or new edits that are beneficial (either as reversions or addition of content) is also roughly the same (range: 7–15% in December 2006, 8.5–14.6% now). As is the percentage of edits from IPs and new editors that are good content (1.7–7.3%).
 * The time the page is visibly vandalised is probably much the same (range: 01:33 – 02:20 now; 00:18 – 02:15 two years ago. average: 01:52 now; 02:10 two years ago).
 * Two years ago, the TFA was protected for an average of 13% of the time while on the Main Page. In this study, the articles were not protected for any length of time. This presumably indicates that administrators are now less willing to protect than they were two years ago.
 * The new accounts created on these three days were not beneficial.