Wikipedia talk:Special:UnwatchedPages

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This is the talk page for the special page at Special:UnwatchedPages.
For general information on this and other special pages, see Help:Special page.
For recent talk about special pages, see Recentchangeslinked/Specialpages discussion

This only goes up through 1 alphabetically. There must be more. — 0918BRIAN • 2005-12-21 16:42

I think it stops at a thousand pages, I got up to 2002 in Iraq or so.--HereToHelp 01:39, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Purpose

What's the point of this page? Apparently, it was installed at Jimbo's behest... Dan100 (Talk) 16:50, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

It's a great way to make sure that every page is on someone's watchlist. Vandalism or bad edits often survive Recent Changes but are caught by someone with the article on their watchlist. There's a number of enhancements that can be made to this tool, but I think it's an excellent start. Carbonite | Talk 16:55, 21 December 2005 (UTC)
I've found 3 copyvios and 3 vandalisms so far. — 0918BRIAN • 2005-12-21 17:19
I was quite impressed by the guy who titled an article ''like this'', which made it great fun to try and link to... I've picked up at least one probable dodgy article, too.
On a more prosaic note, could this list be regenerated every few days? It might let us start making a dent in most of it - I've added maybe 150 of the pages here, but there's only a thousand up. Shimgray | talk | 00:30, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

Does anybody else think most of the top level domains (for ex: .kz) do not need their own article and instead should be in a list if at all? - Taxman Talk 17:24, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

  • No, I think they're mostly worth dealing with eventually. A few - the ones which are essentually dead - could probably be listed individually, but if nothing else each one is likely to need a couple of individual external links, and enough of them are detailed enough that we can expand them over time... Shimgray | talk | 00:28, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

About a year ago I thought a good way of dealing with vandals would be for all articles to be on someone's watchlist. But now with less than 1,000 daily users (at a guess) and over 800,000 articles, this is clearly impossible.

Central vandal patrolling, enhanced by the usage of stuff like the IRC channels and CDVF, is the only realistic way to control vandalism (imo). We just need better tools (which are coming) and more people. And maybe IP editing turned off... Dan100 (Talk) 10:35, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

  • Actually, if there are really 1,000 daily users, that would make for only 800-1000 articles on each watchlist, which is easily manageable, since only a minority of those articles are changed daily. — 0918BRIAN • 2005-12-22 13:15

Erm, well, agree to disagree on that I think... Good luck on you quest though, if it works out will undoubtedly enhance Wikipedia. Dan100 (Talk) 23:10, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Live changes

Apparently, the page will soon be changed to create a new list of unwatched pages every time the page is loaded. Try to keep the number of refreshes on the page low. — 0918BRIAN • 2005-12-22 02:44

  • Cool. That way we won't be stuck watching the same pages at the front of the alphabet while vandals create hoaxes/autobiographies with names like "Zzzack...". I suppose once, if ever, we get all the pages watched, we ought to go back to cached mode for database concerns. — FREAK OF NURxTURE (TALK) 09:16, Dec. 22, 2005
    • Nope, I don't think it's going to happen. Tim Starling was for it, but Avar is against it. So, for now, it will be refreshed twice a week, but Tim Starling can make it more frequent. — 0918BRIAN • 2005-12-22 22:41

[edit] Maybe this information should be public

This is very useful information. I know right now it's restricted so it's not a honey pot for vandals, but we might want to consider going the other direction: what if each page, at the top, included a number that stated how many admins had the page on their watchlist? It would be sort of like PageRank -- the higher the number, the more you could rely upon the information on that page, and if it had a zero, you shouldn't rely upon it at all (and maybe the page could include a warning in red.) And perhaps we might want to institute a policy where pages are purged after a year if they remain at "0". (Forgive me if this has already been proposed elsewhere.)--Arcadian 15:47, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

This it to prevent vandals from exploiting this sensitive information.--HereToHelp 01:41, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Updated hourly

Avar has set this to update hourly. The only way we are going to see items further down alphabetically is to watch all of the earlier items. So please, watch them, even if you don't know anything about them, especially if they've only had 1 edit in the last 6 months. You'll never notice them on your watchlist. — 0918BRIAN • 2005-12-23 04:29

[edit] Mass-watch tool

For those who would like to help, but don't want to click a million times, you can use this new tool to add X articles to your watchlist at once, using only 2 mouse clicks:

Add this to your monobook.js (e.g. User:ABCD/monobook.js)

/**** handy watch ****/
document.write('<script type="text/javascript"' +
  'src="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:R3m0t/' +
  'handywatch.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript&dontcountme=s"></script>');

/* This is to keep track of who is using this extension: [[User:R3m0t/handywatch.js]] */

The script will trigger automatically on Special:Unwatchedpages. It will prompt you on whether you want to active the script. r3m0t talk 04:10, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

— 0918BRIAN • 2005-12-24 04:11

Note: to split up the work, each admin needs to add at least 1500 items to their watchlist. The special page updates hourly, usually showing the latest version at around 5 minutes after the hour. — 0918BRIAN • 2005-12-24 04:16

Ok, maybe I'm just dense, but it doesn't work for me. I get the popup confirm box and I say yes, but no articles get added to my watchlist. And you make it sound like you can control how many articles get added somehow. Is it just a function of how many you have displayed, ie, 20, 100, 500? - Taxman Talk 16:50, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Divide up the workload

I've done my part and using this page and the above mentioned mass-watch tool, I have added close to 2000 previously unwatched pages to my watchlist. I'll be adding more as they become available (apparently you can only view the first 1000 on the list so if you are waiting to see whats under "S" everything before that needs to be watched first). Perhaps someone should create a page to help divide things up. Maybe a list of names of those currently watching a lot of pages, and somewhere you can put the name of pages you are watching but have no real interest in. - Trevor MacInnis (Talk | Contribs) 12:21, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Sort

It would be even more useful if we could search or atleast sort it. --Pamri • Talk 12:50, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Agreed. The best thing I can imagine would be a search via category. I'd gladly add to my watchlist all unwatched pages from the categories I am interested in (Poland, sociology, etc.).--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 00:34, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
I'd be happy if it could be selected by namesapce. — xaosflux Talk 04:02, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Only shows first 1000?

Is this supposed to stall out at 1000 pages? android79 20:44, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

  • It's a long-running bug on all such pages. — 0918BRIAN • 2005-12-31 00:16
    • If we can somehow get people to watch these first 1000 we can check out what follows. Any suggestions? - Trevor MacInnis (Talk | Contribs) 01:07, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
      • First 1000? There were thousands previous to this that others (myself included) have been watching just to get to these. Each admin needs to add at least 1500 (and more likely 3-5000) to get this list under control. — 0918BRIAN • 2005-12-31 01:26
        • Yeah, I added a couple thousand to my list (all in the Ab to Al range). I'll add a bunch more but this may soon overwhem my ability to concentrate on my original ones. - Trevor MacInnis (Talk | Contribs) 01:32, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

I only asked because I thought, since this is only updated twice weekly, we'd get a lot of redundancy... thought I'd start somewhere in the middle of the alphabet. Oh well. When is it updated? android79 03:56, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

  • It's updated hourly now. By :05 or :10 after the hour, it is usually up to date. — 0918BRIAN • 2005-12-31 04:13
    • Okay, thanks... android79 04:14, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Related Changes

What about an option to store them to a page that can be viewed using the related changes feature? That way, you can still have your personal watchlist that you care about, and also watch these millions of pages. Thoughts? -Mysekurity 07:03, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Second. Having admins add 100+ pages to their watchlist just doesn't scale. — Ambush Commander(Talk) 03:35, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
Absolutly. I would watch even more pages if I didn't have to weed through them to see my "really important" ones. On a somewhat related not, are we ever going to get to see what comes after the first 1000? I for one would like to know if Yukon is watched...or even Advertise- Trevor MacInnis (Talk | Contribs) 05:24, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Getting around 1,000 limit; alternate offset?

I know you can offset the list by offset=<x> where x is a number. But, is there a way to offset the list to tell it to return unwatched pages beginning with, say, the letter h? --Durin 16:00, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] RfA regarding Special:Unwatchedpages

There's a Request for adminship currently underway at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Genisock2 requesting a second account of admin Geni be granted admin rights so as to create a second watchlist for him of 5000 articles from Special:Unwatchedpages, allowing him to fight vandalism on a subset of these unwatched pages. Those of you following this talk page may be interested to follow the RfA and it's talk page. --Durin 16:02, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

Geni changed his mind, citing Guettarda's excellent suggestion. Er, OK, but what/where is this excellent suggestion of Guettarda's? -- Hoary 12:38, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
Since neither of the two mentioned that solution publicly, it's possible that some WP:BEANS are involved. Tizio, Caio, Sempronio 12:55, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
No, it was actually pretty simple. If you choose to use a sock for this purpose all you need to do is log in with your admin acct, and go to this page, where you will see the unwatched pages. Then open another tab (or browser window) and log out of your admin acct and log into the sock acct (but don't close the tab that's open on this page). Go back to the tab, and open each unwatched page you want in a new tab/window. Then add them to your watchlist. As long as your original page doesn't refresh, you will still see the unwatched list, but since you are now logged in with your sock, you will be adding the pages to that acct and not to your main acct.
One BEANS consideration though is if you have a dedicated sock you may not want to identify it was such to everyone (maybe just to someone with checkuser?) since any page the sock edited would probably be an unwatched (or now, slightly watched) page. Guettarda 05:18, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Duh, why didn't I think of that. Nice one. Thanks! -- Hoary 07:07, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Clearing up to A

I've taken all the unwatched up to A (7 more just been created). I'm now going through them to check for possible deletions (AfD), moves etc. One thing that I have also been doing is checking the history. If the article was created after January 1 2006 and it looks like the creator is still active I am leaving this on their talk page. With a bit of luck they will turn the feature on and the list will not populate so quickly. I'm going to amend the text asking that they reply if they turn it on. That way I can perhaps drop some from my watchlist. The main problem is that the editing function of the watchlist opens all as one page (6000+). CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 00:59, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New refresh?

Special:Unwatchedpages appears to have been static since the server problems earlier in the week. Is there any chance someone could start it refreshing again, or are there technical issues? Shimgray | talk | 20:40, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Yeh I've noticed the same thing... enochlau (talk) 14:13, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] why is this feature available for administrators only?

I don't see any reason why this feature should be available to administrators only. I'm sure that there are many users who would be willing to "adopt" some pages. --Ixfd64 00:59, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

That's answered above, and if you think about it it makes a lot of sense. Of course there are non admins that could be trusted to help out with this, but the issue is there hasn't been a technical way to restrict access to trusted users besides restricting it to admins. You could try asking at the technical village pump, but if non admins want to help out with vandalism, it's probably better to use one of the automated tools like Vandalfighter, AWB, etc. - Taxman Talk 16:25, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
Well, you could set it so it is only visible to editors who have x number of edits or have had an account for x number of days. This would prevent most drive-by vandals simply looking for something to mess with. Though really, I'm perfectly fine without seeing the page. Koweja 20:05, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Updates infrequent

Seems to only update a couple of times a week. Given the enormous number of pages, is there anyway we could make this special page update at will? Is anyone working on this? Cool Hand Luke 01:50, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

We'll its been a few years, is there any progress on making this page actually usefull? - Trevor MacInnis (Contribs) 20:42, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Suggestion

Would it be possible to have 37 of these Unwatchedpages? Twenty-six alphabetic (one each for A, B, C....Z), then one each for the numbers 0-9, and one for special characters? That way the 1000 article limit would be slightly less odious. Thanks, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 02:07, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

That would be better. We could even have an admin claim each letter and try to reduce the list each time it's updated. However, I get the impression that no one cares about this list. Cool Hand Luke 02:15, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
I am a brand new admin (just got the bit yesterday) - where could we ask about getting this split up / fixed? I don't want to spill the beans at the village pump technical or would WP:AN work? Ruhrfisch ><>°° 04:09, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
Maybe some community input at Village Pump technical and then mediazilla. Snowolf How can I help? 09:12, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Another suggestion, unwatched BLPs. If the article is unwatched and has Category:Living people attached, it makes another protected list.↔NMajdan•talk 18:32, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Another suggestion: Special:Recentchangeslinked/Special:Unwatchedpages - at this point, to actually _watch_ them, you'd have to either add all the pages to your watchlist, or make a page with links to all of them (which would disclose the list). —Random832 18:54, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Good idea - my thought was there are certain things I would add to my watch list (counties and places in Pennsylvania and Ohio), but I like the active version too. I will try to make a suggestion at WP:AN in the next day or two. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 19:20, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
That would be wonderful! It would be especially important to scrutinize unwatched pages for vandalism, and the recent changes list would revolve constantly so that you'll always be able to pick up new pages in areas of interest. Cool Hand Luke 19:22, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
I finally listed this at Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard#Suggestion_for_Special:Unwatchedpages Ruhrfisch ><>°° 04:15, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
OK, the requests are in at bugzilla:13062, bugzilla:13063 and bugzilla:13064 - I have never done this before, so hopefully these are OK. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 04:58, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] A new project...

Before I was syssoped (sp?) a few days ago, another admin gave me the links to a handful of articles here, and I watchlisted them and then sent them scurrying to their appropriate wikiprojects, where there were people happy to be able to watchlist them for me. Now that I can see this page myself, I plan to continue doing this in a slightly more organised way. I will create some pages, probably in my userspace, each referring to a different wikiproject.

I'll watchlist the pages as I pull them off here (copy and paste into a raw watchlist) and then list them according to which project they belong to. Then I'll go and notify each project in turn when there are new articles to be searched. At leats, that's the plan, though currently, there aren't any pages showing up in the list... Anyone got any thoughts? Fritzpoll (talk) 23:16, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

I like the plan. FYI, the page is up again - was run June 1st. It is curently just a list of asteroids whose names start with the number 1 (the list is only 1000 entries long). Ruhrfisch ><>°° 19:32, 2 June 2008 (UTC)