Wikipedia talk:Special:UnwatchedPages

Counting entries

See Wikipedia:VPT#Number of unwatched pages – Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 23:31, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

Late update: Zero in mainspace. Now let's keep it at that. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 05:02, 22 March 2020 (UTC)

How does this work?

What's the metric for counting a page as "unwatched"? Zero total watchers? Zero active-editor watchers? Or some threshold low number of watchers?

And why can I see only the first 5000 of these articles? I am sure there are more, because #5000 has a title starting with the character "1" just like the 4999 before it. ~Anachronist (talk) 23:45, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

Anachronist - Yes, pages listed here have 0 watchers - no user accounts have the pages listed here added to their watchlist. I know that this is an old discussion, but I wanted to answer the question nonetheless :-). ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 17:18, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Why only admins?

Comments at Wikipedia:Help_desk#UnwatchedPages by User:Teratix and User:PrimeHunter reminded me that this page is only open to admins, and from User:Supernerd11's message #Yet another opening proposal above I gather that there have been many proposals to open it wider. Why is that threshold so high? Why don't we - just as an experiment - open it to other editors of good standing, such as rollbackers? That wouldn't require any effort by the developers. To be safe, I would recommend a little effort, though: Before changing the permission, back up the current list. Then, after about two weeks, save the list as it will be current then. Then just compare them and provide a list of all that vanished in the meantime for all to double check. ◄ Sebastian 12:36, 19 February 2020 (UTC)

I mean it's kind of a hobson's choice. I don't recall exactly what you have to do to be a rollbacker, but it's not that hard I think -- just ask IIRC. And the potential, and temptation, for people to do unseen vandalism is there. I don't see how any small test would prove anything about potential long-term mischief. It's not a great situation, because it'd be nice to get more eyes on these pages, and admins aren't actually better at or more eager to watch pages than other people. I bet there's some solution out there, I just can't think of it. Herostratus (talk) 16:50, 19 February 2020 (UTC)

What do you mean by “I don't see how any small test would prove anything about potential long-term mischief”. Of course, nobody claims to have any proof, but who needs proof here? There are many ways in which people without admin privileges can damage Wikipedia, but, as I pointed out, this is one that is particularly easy to keep in check. If it turns out after a couple weeks that fears did not materialize and the community decides to make the experiment more permanent, but you still have fears, then nothing prevents you from (even secretly, if you wish!) extending the experiment until you're satisfied. ◄ Sebastian 19:48, 20 February 2020 (UTC)

I wouldn't mind opening the list to rollbackers. The list entries need watchers who know how to deal with vandalism, and where to report the few rollbackers (or sockpuppets) who misuse their access. The cost of misusing the list is much higher than the cost of watching it. As long as there is a strong inequality between the amount of work needed to harm, and the amount of work needed to protect the encyclopedia, the project will resist attacks. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:53, 21 February 2020 (UTC)

What's with all the talk pages?

From # 731 till the end of the list at # 5000 (which is nowhere near “Z”), I see only talk pages. How can this be? How can a page be watched, but not its talk page? ◅ Sebastian 20:04, 1 December 2020 (UTC)