Edit check/Paste Check
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Paste check
Prompt newcomers to consider whether the text they're pasting risks a copyright violation.
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Paste Check is an Edit Check that will appear when people paste text into an article they are likely not to have written.
This Check is an effort to increase the likelihood that the new content people are adding to Wikipedia is aligned with the Movement's commitment to offering information under a free content license.
To participate in and follow this project's development, we recommend adding this page to your watchlist.
Status
[edit]Feedback needed
User experience: the team would value learning what you think the of proposed Paste Check user experience. Learn more here.
Current work
Instrumentation: the team is implementing the instrumentation needed to evaluate the impact of Paste Check through a controlled and time-bound experiment that is scheduled to start in or before September 2025.
User experience: to compliment the feedback we are seeking from experienced volunteers on-wiki, the team is conducting usability tests with newcomers.
Prevalence: to help evaluate the impact of Paste Check, the team is gathering data in order to estimate how often newcomers edits are reverted on the basis of WP:COPYVIO (and related policies).
Objectives
[edit]Paste Check is meant to simultaneously:
- Cause newer volunteers acting in good faith to contribute content to Wikipedia that complies with the Movement's free content license.
- Increase the ease with which experienced volunteers can identify and patrol edits that could violate this free license.
Challenges
[edit]Offering, "...free content that anyone cause use, edit, and distribute..." is a fundamental principle of Wikipedia.
Although, a significant portion of newcomers[1] are unaware of this content policy and, those that are aware of it, become confused about how to apply it.
In conversations with volunteers practiced with mentoring newcomers, we also learned that some new editors mistakenly assume that pasting content from – what they consider to be – a reliable source is an appropriate way to comply with WP:Verifiability.
Theory of Change
[edit]Paste Check is grounded in the following hypothesis:
If we prompt new(er) volunteers pasting text from an external site to confirm whether they wrote the content they are attempting to add, then we will see a ≥4% decrease in the percentage of new content edits new(er) volunteers publish that are reverted on the grounds of WP:COPYVIO (and related policies).
Design
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Evaluating impact
[edit]The viability of Paste Check, like the broader Edit Check project, depends on the feature being able to simultaneously:
- Reduce the moderation workload experienced volunteers carry
- Increase the rate at which newcomers publish constructive edits.
To evaluate the extent to which Paste Check is effective at the above, the team will be conducting qualitative and quantitative experiments. See below for more information about both.
Qualitative evaluation
[edit]Quantitative evaluation
[edit]To evaluate the extent to which Paste Check is effective at causing improvements for newcomers and experienced volunteers, the Editing Team will be running a controlled experiment with a specified start and end date.
Primary Metrics
This table includes the main outcome Paste Check has been designed to cause and the metrics we will use to decide whether it is effective.
| Hypothesis | Decision(s) to be made | Metrics for evaluation |
|---|---|---|
| If we prompt newcomers pasting text from an external site to confirm whether they wrote the content they are attempting to add, then we will see a ≥4% decrease in the percentage of new content edits they publish that are reverted on the grounds of WP:COPYVIO (and related policies). | Decision A: Does showing people a prompt when pasting text from an external site lower the likelihood that new content edits include copyright violations?
Decision B: Do people intuitively interact with the Paste Check experience in ways that are NOT disruptive to them or the wikis? |
1) Proportion of new content edits reverted on the grounds of WP:COPYVIO (and related policies).
2) Proportion of edits started (defined as reaching point that Paste Check was or would be shown) that are successfully published (not reverted). |
Secondary metrics
Secondary metrics are used to learn about additional impact of Paste Check, but are not primary targets of the intervention. They reveal side effects (both positive and negative) of trying to improve the Primary Metrics.
| ID | Hypothesis | Metric description |
|---|---|---|
| Curiosity #1 | A larger proportion of new content edits by newcomers will be constructive because they will be shown a prompt to confirm whether they wrote the content they are attempting to add when pasting text from an external site. | Proportion of published edits [i] by users with ≤100 cumulative edits that are constructive [ii]
--- i: We'll need to break edits out by platform as WE 1.1 is scoped to mobile-only. ii: "Constructive edits" = edits to pages in any Wikipedia main namespace that are not reverted within 48 hours of being published |
| Curiosity #2 | Newcomers will be more aware of the need to consider whether the text they're pasting from an external site into an article is at risk of copyright violations. | The proportion of newcomers and Junior Contributors that publish at least one new content edit that was reverted due to copyright violations
Note: We’ll want to observe a decrease in this metric. |
| Curiosity #3 | Newcomers will be more likely to return to publish a new content edit in the future that does not include copyright violations because Paste Check will have caused them to realize when they are at risk of this not being true. | 1) Proportion of newcomers that publish an edit Paste Check was activated within and successfully return to make an unreverted edit to an article in the main namespace during the identified retention period.
2) Proportion of newcomers that publish an edit Paste Check was activated within and return to make a new content edit where Paste Check was not shown during the identified retention period. |
Guardrails
Guardrail metrics are used to make sure Paste Check is not negatively impacting editors' experiences.
| Guardrail Name | Metric description |
|---|---|
| Edit quality decrease | Proportion of published edits that add new content and are reverted within 48 hours |
| Edit completion rate drastically decreases | Proportion of edits started (defined as reaching point that Paste Check was or would be shown) that are published. |
| People shown Paste Check are blocked at higher rates | Proportion of contributors blocked after publishing an edit where Paste Check was shown, compared to contributors not shown Paste Check. |
| High false positive rate | Proportion of published edits where a user declined a Paste Check prompt by indicating that it was irrelevant. |
Decision matrix
| ID | Scenario | Indicator(s) | Plan of Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paste Check is disrupting, discouraging, or otherwise getting in the way of volunteers. | ≥20% drop in edit completion rate in edit sessions where Paste Check is activated relative to edits that would have been shown Paste Check but were not. | Pause scaling plans; If results indicate that significant decreases are only associated with a high number of Paste Checks shown, set a threshold for the maximum number checks that can be shown within a single session. If we observe significant decreases for both single and multiple checks presented in a single session, investigate changes to the UX. |
| 2 | Paste Check is increasing the likelihood that people will publish destructive edits. | Increase in the proportion of published edits where Paste Check was activated that are reverted within 48 hours relative to edits that would have been shown Paste Check but were not. Increase in the proportion of contributors blocked after publishing an edit where Paste Check was shown, compared to contributors who were not shown Paste Check. | Pause scaling plans, Review edits to try to identify any patterns in abuse and propose changes to UX to mitigate them. |
| 3 | Paste Check is causing people to publish edits that align with project policies | Decrease in the proportion of edits Paste Check was activated within that are reverted within 48 hours on the grounds of WP:COPYVIO relative to edits that would have been shown Paste Check but were not. | Move forward with scaling plans |
| 4 | Paste Check is effective at causing people to publish new content edits without pasted text from external sites, but those edits are still reverted. | Increase in the proportion of edits where Paste Check was activated that were published without unmodified pasted text AND increase or no change in the proportion of these edits that are reverted within 48 hours on the grounds of WP:COPYVIO relative to edits that would have been shown Paste Check but were not. | Pause scaling plans; Further investigation into methodology used to identify pasted text from an external site (e.g. might the false negative rate be too high); Analysis and manual review of reverted edits to understand why those edits were still reverted. |
| 5 | Paste Check is not effective at causing people to publish new content edits without pasted text from external sites but the check is not disrupting to volunteers. | No change or decrease in the proportion of new content edits Paste Check was activated within that were published without unmodified pasted text from a non-Wikipedia HTML source AND A) no significant drop in edit completion rate or B) no significant spike in block or revert rates. | Move forward with scaling plans |
Configurability
[edit]Strategy
[edit]This work aligns with the longer-term Contributor Strategy and fits within the WMF 2025-2026 Annual Plan's Contributor Experience Objective, specifically the Wiki Experiences 1.1 Key Result:
Wiki Experiences 1.1: Increase the rate at which editors with ≤100 cumulative edits publish constructive edits on mobile web [i] by 4% [ii], as measured by controlled experiments (by the end of Q2).
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i. "Constructive edits" = edits to pages in any Wikipedia main namespace that are not reverted within 48 hours of being published.
ii. T389403#10960480
Edit Check
[edit]Paste Check sits within the larger Edit Check project – an effort to meet people while they are editing with actionable feedback about Wikipedia policies.
Edit Check is intended to simultaneously deliver impact for two key groups of people.
Experienced volunteers who need:
- Relief from repairing preventable damage
- Capacity to confront complexity
New(er) volunteers who need:
- Actionable feedback
- Compelling opportunities to contribute
- Clarity about what is expected of them
References
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