Last modified: 2009-12-31 18:54:52 UTC
Since there is no shortage of attempts to maliciously put false information online, the following feature could help reduce the number of such instances, at least with reference to famous things (people, locations, etceteras). When a page is changed, delay displaying the changes for XYZ (variable, say 2) days for anyone not logged in to Wikipedia or to those logged in who explicitly chose to not be shown tentative changes. Optionally, if and when ABC (variable, say 5) people from different geographical areas confirm the authenticity of the changes, then tentative changes can go live sooner. The criteria can be different (e.g. super-users with extra secure log-ins with approval authorities). This should help minimize the number of times silly news reports like "Wikipedia erroneously states UVW died" will occur. This should also help improve the general quality of information available through MediaWiki products. It would be a good idea to highlight the tentative changes, so the screeners (logged in users who did not opt out of viewing tentative changes) can scan for potential errors more easily as part of their regular browsing. Note: I chose the bug report component as General/Unknown as it spans page rendering, protection, editing, history, etc.
This can be done with FlaggedRevs. FR is currently only deployed on the German Wikipedia, but it's supposed to be deployed on the English one soonish.
