User:Volunteer Marek/notes

History of WP:3RR on Wikipedia

Or "Vom Editten Krieg" or "The Art of the Edit War" or "Edit War and Peace" or "The Edit War of the Worlds"

As "Current disputes over articles"

• Started as Wikipedia:Current disputes over articles in October 2002 by User:Ed Poor, though there must be some precedent as the first version of the page already has multiple complaints on it. Possibly copied from a mailing list or WP:RFI.
  • Initially essentially a board for reporting IP vandalism [1]. Occasionally used to just report on general disputes happening at the time (POV etc)
  • The page was described by Ed Poor on talk [2]

"I propose this page for discussion of "destructive" activities that rise above the level of deleting whole pages or inserting "joe is kewl" into articles at random.

For example, we might say:

Lir is calling Christopher Columbus a slavetrader and reverting (all, most?) other contributors' changes.

I think it's better to call such a dispute an edit war than to use such a provocative term as vandalism. --Ed Poor" (my emphasis)

• • Is this the first instance of the phrase "edit war" on Wikipedia?

[3] Another use of "edit war". Apparently an edit war about people vandalizing the vandalism page which was this [4] which at some point (circa 2005?) became WP:AIV. There was also this (look into it further). Also: [5]

• • Reference to some FAQ [6] but no link anywhere I can find
  • By end of 2002 has six complaints on it with two of them concerning User:Lir (early banned) and User:172 (banned 2006 then again under this account)
  • The page was even a place to "ask for reverts" [7]
  • [8] "This page is not for Edit Wars or Neutrality disputes." which contradicts other statements but could've been moved from somewhere (WP:RFI?)
  • Some of the early disputes and commentary are kind of unintentionally hilarious, obviously before WP:CIV was a thing (is "robber" a "slur" but "outlaw" is not? "established editors" calling each other "little girl" as an insult, getting really worked up about Minoa)
  • Some perennial "contentious topics" already make an appearance from the get go (R&I)

• WP:RFI was discontinued in 2007 [9].There was also a WP:PAIN page [10]
  • WP:RFI sounds like an early version of what WP:AE would become - place to go to to try and get your content opponents banned

As WP:AN3 (more or less)

• Until roughly January 2005, 3RR was just part of WP:AN "3RR at the troubled Clitoris article"]
• First "official" WP:3RR report seems to have been August 2005 [11]. Something missing in the archives (it's mess)?

Where did the three revert rule come from?

• Early (?) mention of 3RRR [12] August 2004, but appears to be already established. Says text is copied from Wikipedia:How to revert a page to an earlier version (H:RV), but history of that page goes back only to November 2006, two years later [13]
• H:RV itself was transported over from Meta [14], which goes back to 2003. July 2004 version (last version before August 2004) doesn't have anything in it about edit warring or 3RR [15] though. So sometime between Nov 2003 and August 2004 3RRR appeared on en-wiki but the history seems to have been lost?
• The Meta page Edit War [16] does mention three reverts specifically. But it suggests a software development and implementation which would automatically lock (protect) a page after 3 reverts to the same version. Obviously not very workable and easily gamable and a different definition of what constitutes a revert than currently.
  • As an aside the section title "A Modest Proposal" is unintentionally ironic since the original phrase was intentionally ironic and not meant to be serious by Swift.
  • Kind of like the IP's suggestion that the WP:RIGHTVERSION to be protected should be chosen at random [17] rather than "the version that happens to exist when admin shows up".
  • This references some epic-sounding edit war on the page for color about its proper spelling. But history of that page going back to 2001 shows no such thing. This is like one of them battles attested to in sources but with no archeological evidence, like pre-Schliemann Troy. Need more excavation. Copied from over here so could be being used as a generic example of stupidity involved in some edit wars.
    • Same comment seems to complain about WP:CANVASS that happens in edit disputes, without calling it that. Some sour grapes here or something.
• This proposal went nowhere.
• Heh. From here. Author had a couple blocks for edit warring but mostly meh. Strangely early block history appears to be missing [18]
  • Some of that is from here. Is the VFD a Lemony Snicket reference? If so, kind of spooky. Also, if so, damn, Wikipedia editors used to be far more interesting and thoughtful individuals. IP editor obviously very involved in early Wikipedia but not many edits under this IP at all.
  • [19] Also funny and insightful ("the usual "community" stupidity") even if clumsily written

Blast from the Past

The 3RR is a couple of decades old, and it probably got worked out on the mailing list. Not that I remember the details from so long ago. The idea behind it was to get people to hash it out on the talk page instead of turning it into an endurance contest. --Uncle Ed (talk) 15:28, 14 August 2023 (UTC)