Forum:Changes to rules on userpage editing

Last year, we adopted a set of policies regarding editing userpages, especially regarding the editing of userpages by non-administrators. However, soon after the adoption of that policy, an increase in userpage vandalism led to the creation of an abuse filter which prevents all non-administrators from editing other userpages. A couple months later, I removed the block on user edits to other userpages, but later added it back once the amount of userpage vandalism spiked again.

At the present time, the editing of other users' pages by our rules remains allowed (under certain circumstances) but is in reality prohibited by the existence of the abuse filter. I'd like to propose that we resolve this in some way. For instance, we can remove the Userpage policies, or change them in such a way to explain that editing of other userpages is not allowed. On the other hand, we can remove or change the abuse filter to allow users to edit those pages again.

In looking at the logs for the abuse filter, most of the hits seem to come from IP users. The remaining hits seem to come from experienced non-administrator editors who are more than likely acting in good faith. The amount of actual vandalism that seems to be flagged is relatively low, and my guess is that most of those accounts are relatively new. So, I personally would suggest that we change the abuse filter to allow edits by autoconfirmed users, while continuing to prohibit edits made by unregistered and new users. Thoughts? --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 17:51, January 9, 2014 (UTC)